Lunchbox virgin.......inspiration required please!!

[McDreamy]

DD has to take in a snack from this term. It needs to be quite substantial as they only have 2 snacks during the whole tme at school. Her box will be stored outside on her peg so yoghurts etc not a good idea as they will warm up.

Any ideas to help tempt her away from ham and cheese sandwiches?

what's wrong with ham and cheese sandwiches?

homemade flapjack

mahoosive banana

Nothing but I would like to vary it instead of the same thing every day. Also as the weather warms up the cheese might get sweaty!!

I freeze DS1's yoghurts, by the time lunch comes round it is defrosted and still cold.

We do plain old sarnies, pita with cold meats/salad, rice with chicken and veggies.

If you get one of the insulated lunch box things, make the lunch up the night before and leave the lunch bag with everything in it overnight, don't open it till break time, most things will be fine.

we are talking snacks are we though not lunch?

two snacks and lunch in a day seems fine to me

Tut, meant to read, 'leave the lunch bag, with everything already in the fridge overnight...'

She has 2 snacks a day and then lunch when she gets home. Our day is different to the UK, 0730 -1230

Suppose her first snack is an extended breakfast and then another snack later in the morning. She is surprisingly really hungry when she gets home!!

Homemade muffin, such as banana or blueberry, cheese straws, box of raisins, malt loaf.

My dd is only allowed to take fruit in as a snack, everything else is banned at her school! Not a bad rule if you ask me..

Mine are only allowed fruit as snacks too, but it caused problems for us, as dd2 eats tons of fruit already and would end up constantly on the loo. I had to speak to the head and ask if she could take something else in. It was especially tricky when she was in the infants as the government were also handing out a free piece of fruit a day to them (which dd would also have, and then any left-overs were offered as 'seconds', so dd2 was overdosing on the stuff!)

So, although a good idea in theory, you have to look at the bigger picture regarding each individual and the schools shouldn't really generalise that fruit is the only acceptable healthy snack. A well-balanced all round diet is preferable to one which is predominantly fruit, particularly in the case of young children who also need a proportionately higher amount of fats and carbohydrates than adults, and of course the school does not know what else each child is eating on a daily basis.

Fruit salad, oaty flapjack/muffin, smoothies with yoghurt and fresh/frozen fruit, string cheese, pretzels with a carton of milk, flavoured rice cakes - savoury or sweet, low fat milkshakes, Fruit tortillas - spread with plain or flavoured yoghurt and add a few different fruits - strawberries, berries, apple, and then wrap up and slice in half.

I'll stop now, i'm sure you get the jist

Vary it each day, don't stick to one food group, as long as there's a balance that you feel is healthy for your child then stick with that