HELP, dc are going back onto packed lunches and I am slightly panicked

[IllegallyBrunette]

I know we have had thousands of lunch box threads before, but i'll admitt i didn't really pay attention as mine were on dinners lol.

So, 3 dc all will be taking packed lunches and I have just ordered half of Sainsburys for them .

Here is what I am thinking of giving them on any given day. Feel free to criticise.

Bread roll with either cheese, tuna or ham with cucumber OR Pasta salad ie tuna, chicken etc.

Yoghurt OR Cheese thing like babybel (could do with more suggestions here as dd1 doesn't want either).

1 of any of the following apple, satsuma, banana or pot of strawberries/kiwi/grapes.

Small amount of crisps possibly ?? Ds wants Pom bears and have picked up mini cheddars too so not exactly crisps. Also is a little pot of them better than a whole bag ?

Also on the list is mini sausages, scotch eggs and crackers at some point but obviously not with all of above else they will still be there at home time.

Oh drinks are 1 carton of fresh orange juice each or water.

So, any good ?? Any ideas ??

Oh and, they all have a lunch bag, but i am going to need pots and things aren't I ? Some multi sectioned thing sounds good. Any ideas on those ??

Pretty please

With cherries on top

oooh I am so fed up of making packed lunches. Mine have a sandwich, a yoghurt or choc mousse, fruit or veg and a small treat (cake, biscuit etc) drink is always juice of some kind.

I do use a couple of small pots for fruit but put the sadwich in a sandwich bag which is then used for all the debris ( eg messy yoghurt pots)

and cream, with a bit of grated green and blacks sprinkled over it.

I know it is a boring subject, but if you don't help then i will cry

this is what ds1 has, every day

• sandwich, either ham or cheese spread
• yoghurt
• piece of fruit, which he usually ignores
• drink, which as he also ignores is now water (used to be apple juice)
• cake or biscuit some days, depends whether ds2 and my mum have been baking.
• crisps maybe 2/3 times a week, he usually opens then but doesn't finish. Either he or ds2 will finish at hometime.

Yay Iota to the rescue

And CS

Thanks

Can i ask why you swapped from juice to water cs ???

he has a tesco icecream tub (rounded oblong type) that his sandwiches and some of the other bits go in, this goes in his lunch box with instructions to put the rubbish in the icecream tub and put the lid on.
As he has to empty his lunch box out when he gets home (into bin and compost) he has gotten pretty good at ensuring the rubbish is sealed.

he never drank the juice and I was fed up of tipping it away every day. I just use an empty fruit shoot bottle, don't mind pouring water away

Didn't think of adding instructions, but that is a top idea, especially for ds.

sorry, just re-read that, there aren't instructions in the box - I just keep telling him.

Ahh i see. Mine will all drink the juice so thats no problem.

I'm buying squuzy yoghurts so no need for spoons, but then having said that they might need a spoon for fruit pot, possibly.

God dinners was so much easier.

DS1 uses the canteen now as he is at Secondary school and DS2 has gone on to school dinners, but typically this is what I would have put in their lunch packs.

One ham/cheese/pork/chicken sandwich
A couple of plain biscuits eg digestives
Fruit - either grapes, satsuma, peeled orange, apple
Carrot sticks/cucumber sticks
Packet of crisps
Capri Sun

LOL, hmm instructions still might be good for ds. Am fully expecting him to forget he is even on sandwiches nevermind where to put the rubbish.

I cant trust mine to empty lunchboxes into the bin I've lost too many teaspoons that way

Ahh carrot sticks, hadn't thoght of those.

Dinners are so much easier, but they cost the earth! But DS2 prefers them to sandwiches (even though I do a hot meal every night) and for DS1 it is just not cool enough to take a pack.

Ours aren't allowed to empty the rubbish at school, they have to bring it home so we can see what they have eaten.

What if one of them wants to take a dip of some sort, what do i put that in ?? I can't give them the whole tub.

It would cost me £25.50 a week for them all to have dinners.

We don't have the option of school dinners (sigh) but fussy ds1 wouldn't eat them if we did

DS2's dinners are £9 per week and DS1 takes £2 per day (it was £2.50 but we found he was saving 50p every day for sweets even though he gets pocket money, so we knocked it down).

It costs a fortune doesn't it.

I have found it difficult meal planning for an evening now that DS1 who will not be 12 until June has man sized portions at every meal time, so the food I cook does not go as far as it used to.

I have absolulty no idea what I will do in Sept when dd1 starts secondary school. There is no way she will take a packed lunch then but I am not sure she can be trusted to spend her lunch money on lunch.

ours don't empty at school - he has to do it (cos I say so) when he gets home.
also carrot sticks, though he prefers them if he gets a tuna mayo dip.
He used to drink the juice, and does at home, think he just wants to get out to play really - and they have their water bottles at school throughout the day anyway. Cartons no good here as he would have a bit then leave mostly full carton to seep out.
Little pots for dips - baby weaning food type are good.
also raisins - in similar pot.

That's why we had to adjust DS1's canteen money! We know that for £2 he can get a sandwich (he takes with him a packet of crisps for break and a capri sun for lunch) as the cost of the drinks is quite a lot out of his £2 and he can also get a hot meal if it is something he likes.

He forgot his pencil case once so I took it to the bus stop (had pulled jeans and top over nightshirt, sandals on, no underwear!), thought I was doing him a big favour as I knew he would panic at school when he realised he had forgotten it, when he saw me pull up, he hid behind the post box as he realised he had been caught out. He was drinking from a bottle of fizzy something - if you had seen his face - utter shock. He will not do that again, because he realises that I can pull up at the stop at any time!

can we not discuss packed lunches half way through the holidays, I can't bear to think about the hell that is making packed lunches ! >