Packed Lunch advice please

[crystaltips]

I am trying to find alternatives for DD's packed lunch.
She wants filled pittas .... not a problem - but what can I fill them with?
She says that some of her mates have chicken.
My question is - is this safe for lunch boxes ??

I thought that if the chicken is not stored correctly then you are running the risk of salmonella ??
Advice please ?
Thanks

I always had the same worry with my dd's so have gone back to paying for dinners. Sorry no help at all was I

can you get a little ice pack thingy???

Message withdrawn

my dd is the same, she gets bored of sandwiches..re:chicken, I have given dd and ds chicken drumsticks on a number of ocassions and it has NEVER made them ill..

Suggestions for pitta bread:

chopped sliced ham and tomato, add chopped red leicester cheese, chopped aplle (a little) and mix all in a bowl with yoghurt,
egg mayonnaise with cress,
cheese cubes with a bit of yoghurt and mayo and mild onion/apple,
left over roast meats cut into either thin slices or strips, any salad she likes,
sweetcorn, mayo and tuna/ any fish and tomatoes,
chocolate spread and banana..yummy but would add healthy things to packed lunch, like carrots/nuts/ raisins...finally tortilla wraps are a good variation with whatever she likes..I tried to vary it each day but changing one thing so it wasn't the same thing every day...cold pizza/ cold sausages/ sausage rolls/ containers with tinned fruit put in them for desert, cake, pork pies...so a bit ott but ideas are flowing...hope of some use

Thanks ladies .... are cold sausages safe then ??
God I feel thick !
Terrified of poisoning my DD !

Lavender1, will you come and make my DD's packed lunch please?! You have much more imagination than me. I use frozen bread, which is fine by lunchtime, and helps keep things cold.

How about hummous and salad in the pitta?

Lavendar, please come and live at my house and be my cook!!!

Think salmonella is only a risk before the chicken is cooked - if its thoroughly cooked and cooled before you use it in her lunch, I doubt there is a problem

Unless I cooked it of course...

ds1 likes cooked chicken in his sandwiches - I buy a breast from Sainsbos and slice it - it makes 2-3 sandwiches depending on how big it is (ie one sandwich a day for 2-3 days) and he hasn't gone down with anything awful yet. He likes lettuce in it too but I wouldn't put mayo in (that's notorious for food poisoning). Frozen-ish bread will keep it cool for longer and if you put a chilled drink in with it that will help as well. Cold sausages should be fine.

My kids have always liked the same things day-in-day-out though. Boring but simple. ds2 is the worst - peanut-butter-on-white or jam-on-wholemeal, one Frube, one apple (peeled and quartered) and a flask of very dilute hi-juice squash. Yawn!

Oh no - I didn't know that about mayo - I use it to stick the tuna together so it stays on the bread!

I always stick one of those cool blocks in ds1's lunchbox - you know - one of those blue things that you freeze and use in cool bags.
Dds hasn't eaten it yet - mind you he doesn't eat much of his lunch either

done

Actually the mayo thing probably only applies to commercial foods - where you don't know how long they've been made or how they've been kept. (Doesn't stop me eating egg salad or tuna salad at dos either - I think I just have a mental block when it comes to putting it into packed lunch sandwiches for some reason...?) If it's bottle mayo straight out of the fridge I'm sure it's fine!

Iota, what do you do re not eating lunch? DD won't eat her sandwich or fruit but I worry that if I don't put any crap in she'll eat nothing at all. She's always starving after school, too.

One of my kids' favourite packed lunches is tuna pasta - they love it - I add sweetcorn or peas or chopped tomatoes or mushrooms - they also like chicken or salami instead of tuna. It is usually a Monday packed lunch - when we have been away or out most of the weekend and I haven't bought any bread.

Dd takes saussages and chicken nuggetts, when dp goes to Mcdonalds he brings home little sauce pots and I pack them too so that dd can dip, also I do pack an ice pack thing to keep all the food cool as dd won't eat it if it's warm!

Grapes in a tub, apples and even tinned pinapple when it's out of season. Cubes of cheese and yoghurts are essential.

Dd doesn't like bread much so I have to put in a couple of crackers or ryvita things with raisins in and some (stolen) butter portions and a plastic knife so that she feels grown up making her own lunch in the school hall - all her friends are envious of this.... tehe. I have been know to add cut up meat to put on the crackers but dd just leaves it.

Most of us would take chicken sandwiches to work for ourselves and not give a second thought to refrigeration etc....unless its a really hot sticky day I don't believe there is a substantial risk - we are only talking circa 4 hours at room temp?

I freeze the squeezy yogs and that way they are nice and cold at lunch time and I always include an ice pack in summer to keep sandwich/roll from warming up. Also freeze a small bottles of water (buy one then refill it) in summer so drink is still cold at lunch time. You can get very small ones in sainsburys with sports tops that fit in a standard lunch box.

Great suggestions already - also how about

apple flapjacks
home-made mini muffins - you cna also make savory ones
bits of cheese (edam is v popular with Lootie) and bits of cucumber and cherry tomatoes
cous cous
eccles cakes
banana loaf
malt loaf
scotch eggs
cocktail sausages
little slices of pizza
breadsticks and a little pot of red pepper homous

re pitta filling:
cream cheese and grated carrot
tuna mayo and cheddar cheese
chicken chopped or pureed with a bit of mayo and ham and cheese
tuna mayo with chopped up bits of peppers
egg mayo and ham

ooh ThomCat, you've just reminded me of a filling I used to love - grated cheese and grated carrot mixed with a tiny bit of salad cream to make it sticky. Delicious !!!!

Ohh yeah - salad cream in sandwiches - I used to love that - in fact that's all my sister used to eat - salad cream (on it's own) sandwiches! She still has it with everything now!

I had a friend who used to eat salad cream with scrambled eggs. Thought it was really wierd at the time, but can see the attraction now I have a more mature palate

Well DD's packed lunches are legendary for their weirdness so I on't know if my suggestions will help!

DD doesn't like bread so we use cold pasta/cous-cous/rice for a base and then add in something like smoked salmon, prawns, left over meat (e.g. lamb or duck if we've roasted the night before), whatever cheese we've got, salami, chorizo and so on. In the same tub we put veg, always carrots and peppers as DD adores those, peas, sweetcorn, celery, cucumber, tomatoes anything goes really.

She then has a yoghurt, individual jelly, cake (if i've baked) for pudding. School provides fruit at morning and afternoon break so don't feel the need to put that in. They also provide water for lunch so no need for a drink.

DD also has a snack for after care, say a tub of pistachios, sesame snaps or raisins. Again they provide water so need for a drink.

All these weird and wonderful things just get put in tubs in DD's lunchbox (actually a small nylon rucksack) we've never had any illness.