Packed lunch challenge

[tallulah]

7 yo DD's medication restricts her appetite and she hasn't been eating her school dinners, so we are trying packed lunch from this week.

She has lost weight so the paed suggested nutella and peanut butter as high calorie but healthy foods, but of course school is nut-free so this won't be allowed. She used to eat tahini and hummus as a toddler but won't touch either now. We are vegetarian but she has (full fat) dairy, eggs and fish.

What can I give her that isn't too time consuming to eat, is high calorie and will be allowed by school?

Avocado.

Tuna mayonnaise sandwich - or better still, wrap - with grated carrot and sliced cucumber.

Soreen malt loaf, buttered.

Cheese cubes.

Banana.

Avocado is a good energy source if she'll eat it. The flapjack recipe on here made with condensed milk and golden syrup is very calorie dense and yummy.

Would she eat pasta salad? You could make it with full fat mayo and add cheese cubes.

Also, you could add calories to her day by making peanut butter or nutella cookies (very easy to make) and giving her some to eat on the way home from school. And instead of plain milk to drink, do a milk shake with clotted cream icecream and fruit blended in (you can make up bags of fruit and the right amount of icecream to keep in the freezer so its superfast to do)

Cheese & mayonnaise are the highest calorie things left if you can't have nuts. You can buy lots of different salad cream/mayo flavours, so maybe find one she really likes? A yoghurt smoothie type drink would be yummy, calorific and healthy too.

Thank you, these are all great ideas.

Chocolate spread ( a no nuts one if school have a nut ban)
mock salami and cream cheese.
Cheese and chutney
Malt loaf
flapjack

I would also say dairy is great so agree yoghurt drinks/smoothies, mayonnaise with egg or avocado, cheese slices, chunks of cheese, cream cheese. pasta as suggested is also good,

would she eat little mini pizza like tarts cold? just make them on a sort of scone sized bit of pastry, make sure cheese is on there for calories (but pastry is also quite good calorie wise I think) and then they make something different and more fun too. what about olives? my 2 won't touch them but some of their friends really like them. they could add to a more interesting topping.

malt loaf is great but save yourself some stress and buy it ready sliced, I end up with a squished sticky mess when I try to cut it myself.

full fat butter obviously rather than margerine is higher in calories (and tastes nicer IMO).

Would you countenance giving her meat? If she's on a limited diet due to medication and is underweight I think being vegetarian too is probably too restrictive. I'm sure this isn't what you want to hear but I would give it serious thought at least until her medication allows for a more wide ranging diet.

Sunflower seed butter might work for her too - its surprisingly nice

Mine has quorn scotch eggs in hers.plus Cheese cubes. Baby bel, yogurt smoothie drinks, Philadelphia wraps, cold veggie sausages and veggie sausage rolls, cheese pasty bananas

Ghoul, she's not on a limited diet - just that school won't allow nuts which is obviously a good source of high calorie protein. I haven't eaten meat myself for over 34 years so it isn't something I want to give her.

I've been sending in a milk-shake (homemade from full fat milk, clotted cream ice cream and fruit) every day this week and so far so good. The raspberry one had seeds in so I thought she'd leave it but every drop gone.

I think I overdid the cheese the first day but she's eating everything I send in. nonickname thanks for the tip re the malt loaf

CMOT I hadn't heard of sunflower seed spread. I'll look out for that.

bucket where do you get quorn scotch eggs?

Home made pies - like samosas, cheese and onion sausage rolls, puff pastry pizza wheels, curry made with paneer cheese and coconut milk. Falafel.

tallulah you can get the quorn scotch eggs in any supermarket www.mysupermarket.co.uk/tesco-price-comparison/Fresh_Vegetarian_Food/Quorn_Mini_Savoury_Eggs_12_per_pack_240g.html

yes I was about to say we normally use Tesco but I am sure Asda and Sainsburys do them. Look for veggie pasties too

I want a clotted cream milkshake!

Full fat Philadelphia, and/or the chocolate Philadelphia?

Cheese and onion pasties?

BillnTed made a banana one this morning. It was divine

I make a big tub of cous cous at the weekend. I don't cook it: just cover it with tepid water and then squeeze in the juice of several lemons, a really good glug (several, sometimes) of olive oil and add a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Pretty quickly it absorbs the liquid and oil and then I fluff it up with a fork and put it in the fridge. If I have some I add finely chopped coriander and mint. If it's wild garlic season I add some finely chopped flower stems and/or finely shredded leaves/chopped buds.

Then on a daily basis I put some in a bowl and add things. For me they're chunks of cucumber (I remove the soggy seeds), chunks of red onion, broccoli florets sliced small (I don't cook it), chunks of green bean if I have some (again, I don't cook it) and maybe some shredded raw carrot. I also like to halve an avocado and scoop in chunks dug out with a teaspoon.

Then I add some protein. That might be cheese and/or cooked meat and/or quorn and/or cooked sausage: whatever I've got that I like.

Your daughter might enjoy this, though of course tastes differ. But you can increase the calories by adding more olive oil and maybe more cheese.

Now I'm hungry... :)

Is it worth you trying to clarify why there is a ban on all nuts? Peanuts are not nuts at all, so if you could find out what the basis of the ban is, that may allow her to have a small bag of mixed nuts - even if it's sitting in the classroom at break time.

PS I'm a big fan of the quorn scotch eggs!

You could make your own veggie scotch eggs. I'm not a great cook but I have made them in the past.

I used to make them using the sausmix packets from Asda. Wrapped the sausmix around a boiled egg, dip in breadcrumbs and fry. Delicious.

You can also get the smaller party quorn ones but the bigger homemade ones are tastier.

Holland and Barrett also do the larger ones.