School lunch ideas

[Strawbee]

I’m looking for some more ideas for school lunches for fussy DS(8) please. We’ve tried with school dinners up until now but we’re sick of the whinging that he either doesn’t like them or the portions are small.

He will not eat any vegetables and fruit is a 50:50 as to whether he will eat it.

So far in his lunches he will eat combinations of:
Marmite sandwiches or bagel (refuses any other fillings, I include an extra half sandwich with cheese, ham etc but it’s always left)
Yoghurt
Baked beans in a food flask
Small sweet item like 2 biscuits or small bag of crisps, or small homemade fruit muffin
Fruit - only eats strawberries, pear, grapes & apple

I’ve just batch made Mac n cheese for the flask.

I have included things like houmous with breadsticks/vege sticks but he won’t touch the latter.

I’m desperate to get him to eat more healthily but it’s like banging your head against a brick wall! I’m acutely aware that he is not eating enough protein and fruit/vege.

There was a thread re lunchboxes recently - one idea I loved was to take the child shopping, tell them the budget and any rules such as no sweets, and get them to choose food for 5 x lunches.

tbh his current lunches aren’t bad apart from a bit low on protein which perhaps you can be mindful of at other meals.

nothing wrong with marmite bagel/sandwich, yogurt, couple of fruits.

perhaps set him a target to choose 2 other sandwich fillings or protein items. Some suggestions: mini portion of cheese or dairylea, milk drink, mini peperami type snack…

My son's even fussier than yours. A couple of things he will accept in his lunch box are brioche (the ones with chocolate chips or chocolate paste in the middle - Pitch), crackers and cheese, those yoyo snacks (which apparently count as 1 of your 5 a day), little packets of seaweed (!).

Yoghurt is protein

would he eat tuna mayo with the bread/veg sticks?

Or put some small chopped bacon/chicken in the mac n cheese? Bacon and courgette/leek is delicious in mac n cheese if you can get away with the green bits!

Could you try a traffic light ‘mix’ (don’t call it salad/veg!) - red pepper and cucumber chopped small with sweetcorn

yes yes to yoyo type snacks - have a look in the dried fruit/snacks aisle, there’s fruit stars/strings too, or would he go for novelty stuff like little pots of fruit/jelly, or things like dried banana chips etc (ramp up the ‘sweet treat’ label and don’t call it fruit!)

Does he eat pizza? Could you get away with cold pita pizza?
For the food flask pasta mixed with baked beans and cheese.
Have you puréeing butternut squash and adding it to the cheese sauce of the mac and cheese?
Would he drink a milkshake or smoothie?
What does he eat for main meals at home?
I'm guessing hard boiled eggs or chicken skewers are out?

Perhaps try savoury carrot flapjacks or hidden vegetable sausage rolls?

Hard boiled egg?

Or egg muffin with cheese

This isnt the question you asked, but I dont think a school packed lunch is the time to ensure a health balanced diet. You have breakfast, tea, weekends and holidays. Most children in school just want to shove some food down, get out and play.
Im not suggesting you fill it with junk but dont worry if its repetitive. You mentioned quite a few food there. Alternating beans or marmite bagel, yoghurt, two types of fruit and a muffin or crisps each day is fine.

I agree with @spend. It's not necessary for school lunches to meet all his nutritional needs. If he eats plenty of protein at other times, that's fine. As long as its not 3 kit kats and a packet of crisps, great.

One tip that we do and a few friends have adopted - I fry chicken breast pieces (cut horizontally so not thick) and put into small rolls to make "chicken burgers" for lunch boxes. Go down surprisingly well. Adding avocado/cucumber/pickles/tomato or whatever you child will eat adds extra nutrition.

Mine also always like a babybel or ds loves those lunchable boxes.

I also agree with @Spendonsend . Many children like routine, which includes repetitive food etc. School lunch is not necessarily the best time to introduce new food choices.

Mine HD marmite and quickly fell in love with cheese and marmite👍

These are my favourite sort of threads!

Would he eat banana vread or courgette bread? The former is sweet and the latter with lots of cheese makes a lovely bread (but could put in muffin tins for a muffiny look).

My DS has sensory issues around food so he has a chicken ham sandwich with butter, apple sliced and dairy lea dippers prettty much exclusively. They cannot take any chocolate or the like to school sadly.

Tuna pesto pasta
Chicken Fajitas
sausage and tomato pasta

on the tomato sauce you can purée carrots and onions in. Will never know!

cheese sliced up
raisins

For lunch what you are giving sounds great. Just a few more options that are quick to make the night before.

Does he like boiled eggs ? Babybel?

Pasta with a blended tomato and lentil sauce? Can put celery and carrot in too for extra veg
I batch cook freeze meals I know DS likes to go in his flask. Often he has leftovers too.

DS12 has had the same lunch since he was 7. Ham sandwich, banana chips, raisins, a sausage roll and a biscuit. I could do that shop with my eyes closed. We review it every school holiday but he likes the consistency. He gets a good breakfast and a good evening meal. I don't worry about his lunches

Please be careful with chocolate products- the pitch brioche mentioned upthread contains nuts and most schools are nut free.

I sometimes get my children to make pastry pin wheels with cheese fillings, you could do marmite?

My kids won't eat sandwiches. So I send them with a food flask with some rice pouches in - the golden vegetable one is a favourite. I'll put some chicken in a pot on the side.

Also cook some garlic bread in the morning and that is an option sometimes too. Then a pot of salad sticks on the side.

My ds was super fussy when he was younger. He would eat anything now (15) and some days does not seem to stop eating.

He used to like
Tortilla chips with a pot of guacamole, pot of salad and pot of cheese.
Breadsticks and yup guacamole.
Crackers, cheese and cold meat.
Cold pizza.
Cold pasta with pesto. Or plain with cheese 🤢

Never liked bread, wraps, bagels etc.

We make a savoury pastry which my kids love for lunch times - ready made puff pastry rolled sheet, cut in half and cover one half with your chosen filling (we usually use ham, cheese, sweetcorn and spring onions, mixed together with one egg; but you could do anything - pesto, leeks, grated carrot, cold chicken…). Cover with the top half of pastry and crimp the edges (I just press it with a fork). Cut lines in the pastry top to let the steam escape and bake for 20 mins or so (180°c). Cut into fingers to serve - can be eaten hot or cold.