Packed lunch ideas please! DS starting reception next week.

[TheSweetLittleBunny]

He is a very fussy eater and does not like cold food. But they are not allowed hot food in their lunchbags. So he might not take too kindly to cold pasta, or cold sandwiches - which rather limits things.

He eats fish and chicken - (but not cold). He eats eggs but won't like cold eggs.

Are there things that can be eaten cold that will be appetising (apart from fruit, and salad - which thankfully he is OK with).

I could leave the ice block out of the lunchbag, so it will be at room temperature, but I worry about the food not being right to eat.

Help!

Don't they have school dinners on offer, if he doesn't like cold stuff? I never put ice packs in DCs lunch and it's always ok at lunchtime - they have survived so far, for the last two years! Have you had a look at the MN recipe ideas - there are lots of tips on what to include, was having a look today as I am stuck in a rut with boring sandwiches, yoghurt etc.

They don't serve school dinners either.

If all the food must be at room temp, perhaps try to keep it as veggie as possible? cheese/marmite/tomato type fillings. I find rainbow bags with little stickers to pack food in helps enormously with my fussy eater. You buy them with the sandwich bags in most stores and they come in packs of 50, all different colours. Included in there is a sticker sheet and DD loves helping make the sandwiches and choosing the sticker. In fact, getting her to help make the lunchbox is a good way to encourage her to eat it: effort = vested interest in it. We do little pots of houmous with carrot and cucumber sticks, teeny bags of raisins and dried apricots etc etc

What does he normally eat at lunch time? If they are not allowed hot food, then it has to be cold! Just keep it interesting, ring the changes with bread, wraps, pittas, pizza slices, dips, hummous, Babybel cheeses, smoked mackerel pate, lentil pates etc, with salad stuff as filler, not too much for dessert. I'm sure it won't take him long to realise that if he doesn't eat his lunch he'll be hungry for the rest of the day!

I've never used ice blocks for dd's lunchbag and after 3 years we've not had a case of food poisoning!

Dd generally has any of hte following

Ham/cheese/Vegemite sandwich (avoid tuna, egg, tomato, peanut butter)
Pork pie
Chicken leg
Cheese and crackers
Pitta bread pocket stuffed with salad
Pasta salad

The rest of hte lunch could be anything from
carrot, red pepper or cucumber sticks, yoghurt, muesli bar, rice crackers, biscuits, a few grapes, a banana, occasionaly a muffin or piece of cake, Humzinger, dried fruit, jelly pot, alpro dessert etc etc

What he normally eats is irrelevant really since he won't eat those things cold in his lunch bag. I guess rather than leaving him to starve I would prefer to be more accomodating - hence my post. I will Google some ideas but if anyone comes up with some helpful suggestions these would be appreciated.

Lemontart - I like your idea - thank you.

Oh and mablemurple I like the pate ideas too.

Did you read all my post? I don't recall saying that you should leave him to starve! In fact, I came up with a number of suggestions which my dd, whose school also does not provide hot lunches so I have had over five years experience of making packed lunches for her, has enjoyed. I asked what he normally had for lunch as I was curious what you were making him every day that was hot, that was all.
And if he is not allowed hot food, then he will have to get used to eating cold!

Looks like we wasted our time posting mablemurple.

how odd.