Packed lunch ideas

[SpinningFloppa]

What do you send for your kids if they have packed lunch? Looking for some ideas or inspiration as mine have just started packed lunches and I feel like their lunch might be a bit boring, sandwiches etc... some of the stuff they tell me kids come in with has surprised me (Chinese take away?! Left over dinner hamburgers etc) what do others send their kids with?

Pasta salad
Pizza
Gyoza
Rice and veg with soy sauce
Dried fruit
Hard boiled egg and rice
Veggie sushi
Cold pie
Cucumber and carrot sticks
Humus and pitta fingers
Smoothie in a thermos
Cheese cubes and mini crackers
Milk in a thermos
Pretzels
Cold churros and choc dip
Mini wraps
Cold quesadilla
Cold Spanish omelette, sliced with salami cubes
Cherry tomatoes
Seasoned sweetcorn

I use one of those bento snack boxes and when I have the energy I 'theme' it. But then I am a sad sack :-)

great ideas definitely going to try them,
thank you!

Wow, that's an incredible list!

I find swapping the bread of a sandwich for croissant, wrap, French stick, etc makes it feel different without too much effort.

Fortunately my son likes predictable food!

For a bit of variety I have just bought dd a food thermos. So far she has had soup and a hot sausage roll that stayed warm!!
I am going to try some pasta and sauce in it next.

Today he had a DIY fake lunchable (crackers cheese & ham without the £3 price tag!) With a banana, grapes and I make up tiny jellies in pots with lids of Sundays.

Tomorrow is ham on wholemeal, fake wotsits, banana, jelly

Wednesday probably similar but cheese instead.

I've stopped stressing as long as he's fed. He eats really well at home and eats plenty vegetables too.

Sometimes if I'm feeling wild, I swap the grapes for carrots.

Someone will be along to shout at me about salt soon enough. And prepare for the "ooh my DS wouldn't possibly manage all that food" crowd 🤷🏻‍♀️

Today was beef cheese & pickle sandwich with a banana an apple and a mini pack of chocolate digestives.
Tomorrow will be ham salad sandwich, tangerines & a pack of jerky.
Sometimes I give him heated up leftovers (pasta or stew) in a flask with a side of fruit.

We also do bento boxes. We do two veggies (either steamed veggies like broccoli and cauliflower or raw vegetables), one or two bits of fruit, and protein & carb like lentil salad, pasta salad, whole fat greek plain yogurt with seeds and a nut butter, sandwich or salami and cheese. A bottle of water and occasionally a biscuit if we've made some. We try really hard to avoid UPF and so don't do packaged foods and luckily we have an adventures eater.

I make pizzas using an English muffin cut in half, tomato purée, grated cheese / ham / sweetcorn etc. grilled whilst I’m making the breakfast - very quick and easy.

I bake little cakes on a Sunday with loads of fruit / veg in - I most recently made grated beetroot / grated carrot cakes with raisins and blueberries in. Just a normal sponge recipe (though I use less sugar) and I put cocoa powder in which goes some way to hiding taste of beetroot! I freeze them and put one in lunch box frozen and it keeps everything cool. She loves them.

I used to do bento boxes, elaborate pin wheels, fruit shaped like animals, sandwiches cut in star or heart shapes, homemade muffins etc.

Now I'm bog standard boring as sick to death of making them. So it's always something like:
Sandwich / roll or wrap
Mini packet of some strange snack form such as cheese string, chicken bites
Piece of fruit / veg
If I've made something like macaroni cheese / spaghetti bolognaise / curry or chilli then I put some in her flask with some fruit or a yogurt.