Batch-cook ideas for homemade packed lunch snacks

[WH40smama]

My son is starting packed lunches this year and I would like to batch cook some things to go in it. Can anyone recommend any recipes that have gone down well in packed lunches? Happy to try sweet or savoury. I’m trying to avoid relying on upf packaged snacks every day.

Samosas.

Cheese scones, fruit bread, veg muffins, cheese and pesto puff pastry pin wheels, oat and raisin cookies.

These savoury flapjacks freeze well https://moorlandseater.com/savoury-flapjacks-with-vegetables-nuts-seeds-cheese/ Just remember to leave out the nuts.
Savoury muffins - I use this recipe https://www.tamingtwins.com/savoury-muffins-recipe/

Frittata or crustless quiches cooked in muffin tins.
home made cheese biscuits (bbc good food recipe)
cheese straws
oat cakes
olive oil crackers
roasted chickpeas

Charlotte Stirling-Reed’s cheddar and spinach muffins are super simple, freeze really well and are yummy

my dc have flasks so they can take hot lunches sometimes. That way we can batch cook something like curry or chilli and warm it up in the morning for them to take. They often take left overs from our evening meal if it is something suitable.

Thank you for all these ideas. Has anyone got any tried and tested sweet treat recipes too?

You could do a sponge cut into fingers. Brownie freezes well. Also apple cake cut and frozen or berry muffins.

With my MIL’s Bramley apples, I usually make a few batches of mini apples pies, a bit like a copy-cat Kipling pie! I use the same pastry recipe, cooking temperature and cooking time as my mince pie recipe. They freeze well.
These freeze really well too https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/banana-muffins

I did apple turnovers the other week, finely chopped apple, butter brown sugar cinnamon, nutmeg, amd shop bought puff pastry. Very nice.

Have a look at little lou cooks on Instagram or Facebook. Think she also has a website and book. Lots of kid friendly batch cooking and freezing lunchbox ideas. Many with sneaky fruit/veg/fibre in them.
Ive cooked the muffins and some flapjack before and they were lovely

Popcorn.
I recently made these which were quite good: https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/premium/sweet-potato-muffins

These ones also are ok for a healthy sweet snack. Slightly dense but my DD ate them happily enough!
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/banana-oat-muffins-with-mix-match-toppings

Crunchy Scottish Oat Biscuits - Hamlyns Of Scotland https://share.google/5RGHJS7I5SvAgl9IK
These are like hob nobs. But better ( and less.sweet)

Welshcakes would be great. https://www.visitwales.com/things-do/food-and-drink/welsh-food-and-recipes/traditional-welsh-cakes-recipe

We make a lot of tiffin or fridge cake, really easy. Just don’t include nuts obviously.

Nigella’s cheese stars

https://www.nigella.com/recipes/cheese-stars

ANZAC biscuits

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/anzac-biscuits

I batch make and freeze the main elements of DDs' packed lunches as it makes things so much easier. I just make the packed lunch up the night before, take what I need out of the freezer and put the entire lunchbox in the fridge so it's ready to go in the morning.

Savoury muffins go down really well as do mini quiches. I just whisk eggs with cottage cheese and whatever fillings I have to hand and bake them in a muffin tray.

Pitta bread pizzas are super easy and freeze well as do basic sandwiches and wraps like cheese, beef, ham or chicken.

Occasionally I make healthy sausage rolls which are chicken or turkey mince blended with carrot and courgette. I make and bake a couple of trays at a time and then just wrap them up and freeze in individual portions.

In terms of sweet stuff I don't make as much as I try to limit added sugar for DDs due to health issues they both have. I do occasionally make ABC muffins (apple, banana and carrot) which are sweetened with mashed banana and stewed apple or you can make pancakes out of mashed banana, egg and flour. I add cinnamon to the batter and they also freeze well.