Healthy nut free packed lunch ideas for a three year old

[Newstart3]

Ok so probably a boring thread (or maybe not) but what do you put into school packed lunches for a young child?. My ds has just turned 3 is starting school nursery and needs a packed lunch. I am specifically looking for healthy, nutritional items preferably homemade but not totally against store bought. also needs to be nut free due to rules at school. He likes most foods. Any ideas from other parents would be really welcome! Please share your ideas 💡

What does he have for lunch at home?
At that age my daughter would have eaten a sandwich, fruit/veggie sticks and cheese.
Yogurt too but unless he can open it by himself then that's no good.

He currently goes to a private nursery and they arrange all lunches in house and it's varied and healthy so I am hoping to keep that going. Hr always seems.to eat it all. At the weekends he usually has alot at breakfast time and then very little for lunch as he just doesn't seem hungry and then dinner he has the same as us. Although he generally will eat most things at the moment he doesn't seem to be eating a whole lot when at home!

Tortilla

Crudites with hummus or yoghurt dip

’ rainbow wraps’ (tortilla spread thinly with hummus then scatter raw spinach, thinly sliced peppers, carrots, spring onions, red cabbage and roll tightly and cut into wheels)

Pasta salad (tuna or chicken, raw veg and yoghurt dressing)

couscous with roasted veg mixed in

leftover homemade pizza

For puddings I tended to put a layer of frozen fruit in a sistema pot and layer with Greek yoghurt. Doubles up as a cool block and the fruit defrosts by lunchtime

homemade cake or biscuit sometimes

As DD got older her packed lunches did attract comment from peers so that’s something to be aware of if your DC isn’t thick skinned. I did occasionally offer to DD to send her with sandwich, crisps, chocolate bar to fit in more but she chose to stick with the varied lunches.

Pasta salad, sandwich, quesadillas, cheese & crackers, omelette/frittata strips, homemade sausage rolls or other pastries like pizza twists.
Pot of chopped fruit, berries travel best.
Pot of veg like quartered cherry tomatoes, baby cucumber, sweetcorn.
Greek yoghurt, cheese strings, babybels, malt loaf, rice cakes, mini breadsticks, pot of hummus or cream cheese if they like a dip.

@FindAMeetingPlace thanks so much for this! Just the ideas I was looking for!

DDs are at primary school and I go for five items as it's an easy formula for me to stick to. They have a bottle of water for their drink.

1 main - could be a sandwich, or pasta salad or some cooked chicken, or homemade sausage rolls, or pizza pinwheels, or cheese and crackers, or cut up sausages or falafel and hummus.

1 vegetable - carrots, cucumber, tomatoes, olives, sugar snaps, edamame etc

1 fruit - loads of options here, I just try to vary it a bit throughout the week

1 dairy - yoghurt or cheese

1 treat - flapjack or homemade pancakes or crisps or popcorn etc

I batch make lots when I have time and freeze. My "sausage rolls" are turkey mince blended with carrot and courgette and I just make a couple of trays worth at a time and store in the freezer. I always make packed lunches the evening before when I'm prepping dinner so I can just take items out of the freezer and put their lunchbox in the fridge ready for the morning. It makes life a whole lot easier! As does having two lunch boxes per DD so I always have one to pack if the other one is in the dishwasher.