How do you make packed lunches easy and nutritious?

[KittenCamile]

Hi, my DS is 3.5 and goes to forest school 2 days a week. He has to take a packed lunch and as it’s winter I always pack something hot as well. I make most of his lunch from scratch.

Problem is I spend 3 nights a week cooking and baking for the 2 days he’s there and I have little time left to do a work out or just chill for 30mins before bed. This week was half term so no cooking (apart from normal meals) and it’s been sooooooo much easier!

Do you have any cooking hacks (I do bulk make things like muffins and pinwheels) or anything you use that’s still nutritional and would cut some of the cooking?

Example of a lunch is
Home made
Pizza pinwheel
Sweet fruity muffin
Warm soup
Oat and seed bar

Plus chopped
Carrot
Olives
Small mozzarella balls
Broccoli
Fruit salad

Might add a packet of crisps as well.

He eats most of it and will snack on anything left at pick up.

How do I make my life a little bit easier but still give him food to fuel him on very cold active days?

Not making hot food or cooking everything from scratch would make it easier. It’s only 2 days a week, I’d just so easy lunches those days and cook something from scratch the other 5 days.

My 4 year old (3rd/middle child) had a tuna sweetcorn wrap, some popcorn, cucumber and cheese and a banana in her lunchbox today.

I think you could make this a lot easier and quicker, DD has hot lunch in winter in her thermos and it takes about 5 minutes actual doing stuff to sort out.

The 'formula' we use is:

Something veg - cherry tomatoes/mini cucumber
Something fruit - handful of berries/bought prepped mango/banana
Something dairy - cubes of cheese/pot of yoghurt
Something carb - cheese flavoured ricecake/mini wrap with butter on/ bread and butter (DD will not eat sandwiches or wraps with filling, no idea why but just refuses them 🤷‍♀️)
Something protein - this is usually where the hot comes in, fish fingers, chicken nuggets, sausages. Just bung in the oven for 15-20 minutes while Dad is getting dressed, then into the thermos. Or leftovers from last nights dinner depending on what it was and whether theres any left. During the summer this would be chunks of cold chicken or satay sticks usually.

You spend 3 evenings a week making 2 lunches?

We basically do the same as @HalfShrunkMoreToGo

I don’t spend the whole evening but it takes a good 1 or so hours each day and I don’t have a dishwasher. Tuesday I will bake muffins and oat bars, Wednesday pinwheels and soup plus maybe some protein balls. Thursday whatever hot meal for his Friday lunch so maybe pasta and lentil meatballs.

I don’t have a big oven so can’t always cook multiple things at the same time. Plus I make my work lunches too.

I have to send hot food as he’s outside all day, there is no inside to warm up. His food is what warms him (plus I send warm milk)

I like the idea of breaking it down into food types so it’s all balanced though.

Agree with a 'pattern' of contents.

I was more worried about things staying cold and fresh, and my children were older.

We had boxes/drawers in the fridge/freezer and put several items in each.The frozen bits would defrost, meaning everything was cool and fresh.

We'd have frozen frubes (yogurts), juice boxes, sandwiches.
Flapjacks
Fruit

Make little packages of finger sandwiches. Make a ham one, cheese one, peanut butter one (if nuts are allowed). Cut each into three fingers. Wrap one of each in a little brick. They'll freeze and then defrost nicely and DC has a nice variety each day.

Buy frozen fruit and portion into little tubs. Cherries and pineapple are both great.

Crustless quiche also freezes well. Make muffin size ones.

Cherry tomatoes.
Baby bel.

Defo will start on the frozen/pre chopped fruit. Saves on any waste as well.

Could maybe switch up pinwheels for a wrap as well. Thank you all

Basically matching, stacking pots are the bees knees. Or a bento box. Just put a few bits in each section, and the thermos separately.

You could write with permanent ink on the base of the pot sections- veg, fruit, treat, carb, protein.
Maybe have a schedule according to which days are busiest.

On a busy day, have Cherry Toms, grapes, baby bel, sliced ham- all grab and go.
A less busy day, have a wrap, celery sticks with peanut butter on, sweetcorn, omelette spread with cream cheese and rolled up.

Surely you’d made a tray of muffins and then freeze/defrost and warm as you need them? Same for anything else like that- pin wheel, some sort of stew/chilli?

What about a frittata/quiche tile thing?

Surely you freeze what you make? So 1 baking session doesn't equal 1 packed lunch...?

Plus dinner leftovers as packed lunch

Chuck a couple of jacket potatoes in the oven when cooking dinner. In the morning heat in microwave, then chop or mash add beans put in flask. Whilst in microwave peel and chop a carrot, put some cream cheese in a pot to dip. Get banana, put in lunch bag. Less than 5 mins.

Batch cook a large about of tomato sauce. Freeze in individual portions. Add to pasta, with tin of tuna, sweetcorn and a finely chopped pepper (if you chop finely you can get away with not cooking, it will soften slightly with heat from sauce.) Add a pot of yoghurt with a few raspberries, a satsuma and a few bread sticks.

How long is the session?

You need to freeze things you've cooked in bulk so you're not constantly cooking. Dedicate one night a week to baking something new but make sure you have multiple portions of that item you can bung in the freezer. Once you've been going a few weeks you'll have a big stash of bits you can easily grab. We've got a freezer full of savoury flapjacks, cheese scones and baked pancakes right now and I'll add to that once I've cleared a bit more space. If you want a warm element then try to utilise leftovers you can warm up in the morning and pop in a thermos. Don't have two packed lunches rule your life :)

This is easy. Leftovers for packed lunch. Freeze things you have cooked last night and wrap in foil etc. Or you can buy ready meals from a supermarket. I bought some tasty Chinese fried rice from a Chinese food takeout place last night and now it is in the fridge. It will do as a lunch since I'm not cooking today at all.