Packed lunches...how do you cope?

[sereka]

Hi guys,

My DD is due to start reception in september. I work full time and her school does not have the facilities to provide lunches, so will have to get a packed lunch everyday. whilst I dont have a problem making lunches..we eat healthy, but its just the time.

Give some suggestion of how you cope if anyone is in a similar situation. I might be worrying about nothing but its so easy now she is in nursery to just pay and know she is getting healthy food as i have seen the menus.

Regards

Really doesn't take long doing it the night before, although for some reason it is one of my least favourite household chores.

It dorsnt take long to make a sandwich
do you make one for you to take to work? You can make it at the same time?

i make packed lunches while the boys eat their breakfasts, doesn't take very long at all.

I'm with Noah on this one. Do it the night before. Still a complete pain but at least its out the way. I do mine while I'm finishingo ff the kitchen chores after dinner and put it in the fridge. But still the most tedious of household jobs.

I get the kids dressed , breakfast, school stuff ready - DH's job is to make the lunches.

Personally, I wouldn't do it the night before as the salad would make the bread all soggy,

I do it whilst the kids eat breakfast and it takes 10min tops. You'll be fine once you get into a routine.

I do ds1's sandwich while he has breakfast too. It really doesn't take long. Throw in a small box of veggies and a small box of fruit (eg cherry tomatoes, strawberries, blueberries - nothing that needs preparing) or a banana, or a carton of smoothie and sometimes a muffin (I make a batch in advance and freeze them and then just bung one in frozen - it's thawed by lunchtime). Really takes no more than 5 mins.

i have it down to under a minute for 2dc

Speed lunchmaking. It's in the 2012 Olympics you know.

You'll just get in the swing of it. It takes minutes to throw it all together. I can get up at 8, have her at school for 8.45 and still have time to make it.

I used to do it the night before, do it in the morning now. It depends what you put in the sandwich or whether you have something different in terms of when you can prepare it. A friend of mine with 4 DC makes a massive pasta salad with loads of stuff in and each child gets a tupperware tub of that, a piece of fruit and a bottle of water. Job done.

Its as complicated and longwinded as you make it.

saturday morning - go to Sainsburys. Buy ham, cheese, chicken, rolls, cakey things, fruit. Buy pack of prewashed salad. Cherry tomatoes.

Saturday afternoon - spend half hour making rolls. Pack individually, put in freezer.

Monday morning: Grab rolls. Grab cakey bar, Grab fruit, grab small handful of salad and tomatoes and throw into sandwich bag. place in lunchbox - bish bash bosh job done.

I have 3 kids and this is so easy - also ensures that you never run out of sandwich fillings and end up sending them in with a motley collection of questionable fillings.

Make sure at the weekend that you have enough stuff for a weeks's worth of lunches. Have specific plastic box in the fridge with all the stuff in. It takes 5 minutes make to make a packed lunch.

Buy a set of tiny plastic boxes for carrot and celery and raisins or grapes or whatever. Label them so they never get used for anything except lunches.

Oh, and keep juice cartons in the freezer. Then you have a cold pac for the lunch box and a cold drink by lunchtime in one.

Thanks guys... had a bit of chuckle just now at your responses. LOL.

Me and speed are not friends. i think i am cursed when it comes to doin g things in a routine and on time.. though i have ben improving lately.

at the parents meeting i went to the head teacher could not make it more clear about being late: "if you 1min after 8.50 you will be marked late." thats a bit harsh...

We will see... is it only sandwiches that you prepare or can you put in a container like your dinner from the night before. Surely they must have the facility to warm food?

If they don't, you can get those wide-necked flasks that keep stuff warm. Could be used for soup etc.
.

I do it the night before. 1 sandwich, 1 snack box for break with crackers, cheese and fruit or veg, one fruit box either chopped up or small like strawberries /grapes. 1 tube of fromage frais & 1 carton fruit juice. Takes 10 mins max.

Shortcuts
I use cheesestrings or babybel as you just grab one and stick it in the snack box.

I buy the 3 pack of small tins of tuna - one tin will make enough tuna mayo for two days

I often use pitta pockets (half of a big one or 1 mini) as the fillings don't fall out as easily as an ordinary sandwich. see tuna mayo above!

If you buy interesting crispbreads or cheese crackers or breadsticks then you don't need to put anything on the crackers. Some crackers come in portion packs so you can just grab some.

If I am chopping an apple / pear for the fruit box and there is some left over then the rest goes in the snack box.

Dd really enjoyed having proper food in her lunchbox, not just sandwiches all the time. So she might have a jacket potato with baked beans, peas and sweetcorn, or leftovers, eg pasta and sauce or fish pie or sausages. The school did not refrigerate the lunchboxes, and dd liked the food at room temperature.

Otherwise, our standard packed lunch is a sandwich with protein (cheese/fish/meat/houmous etc), 'salad' ie chunks of veg in a tub, a yogurt-type pot, and something sweet to finish - cake/fruit/biscuit etc.

I make it the night before, after the kitchen has bee.n cleared of the day's debris.

I would very much doubt they'll have facilities to warm food. I've never known this in a state primary.

Tesco do those lunchbox sized packet of salad or fruit and these could help make it easier. Get a multipack of boxes of raisins and some cereal bars. Apples and bananas are good as you can just bung these in. Cheesestrings good also (though make sure they are cheesestrings as 100% cheese unlike a few others such as the dairylee strings which are full of crap).

My DCs mostly have sandwiches but sometimes cold pasta and sometimes cold pizza too which they love.
Occasionally a mini roll or something sweet like that as a treat.

If I make vegetable pasties or quiches (or soup in the winter)I do it the previous evening, anything else (sandwiches, pasta salad,tabouleh...) done in the morning while the dcs are getting ready. Do not worry too much it will become second nature very fast!

Our school does not have facility to warm upfppd, we use wide neck flasks for soup or leftover. Dcs tell me it is not boiling hot anymore by lunchtime but still warm enough to be enjoyed. (my flasks are Aldi ones, you can probably find much better ones that keep the heat better)

Prettycandles - your routine sounds very similar to mine, I have 3 packed lunches each day and make sure that I have everything I need (bread plus filings/fruit/yoghurt/crisps/sweet thing/drink) times 15 at the start of each week and pick it like a production line each day. If I'm not too busy in the evening I do it the night before otherwise its while the DCs eat their breakfast.
sereka - I'd cehck with the school but I'd be surprised if they have any warming up facilities.
Hopefully you'll soon get into a routine.

I also use pitta as its less messy than sandwiches.
I am rubbish in the mornings so try and do it the night before (is also my least favourite houusehold job).

Can I just ask what plastic containers you all use for fruit/veg? I use a motley collection of old yoghurt pots etc but would like to have something a bit better which can go in the dishwasher...

Hur hur hur...... try doing it for 3 of them and yourself.

Be organised. Do as much as you can the night before. And btw be prepared to compromise on the 'healthy' food. DS#1 started reception on granary sandwiches and punnets of home grown raspberries. He's in Yr 8 now. Hmm....

I wouldn't let DS move onto packed lunches until he was old enough to make his own. Luckily our school does cooked lunches too or he might be very hungry by now.....

Mmmmm vegetable pasties - sounds nice! I've never sent DD in with soup either - might look into a decent flask!

I use the little tiny click and close ones, pannacotta.