Lunch box ideas and recipes needed - post 'em here please

[carriemumsnet]

Hi all

With the summer term (allegedly) approaching ( would someone please tell the weather?) , we're pulling together a definitive Mumsnet guide to what to put in your child's lunchbox - so if you've any inspirational ideas to help children eat healthily (or in some cases eat at all) or tips on making the process of preparing said lunchboxes less taxing in any way, please post them here.

Big thanks

Tuna Pasta in a little tupperware

bumpety bump

I make fruit salad for mine in little tupperware pots and I also always put carrot sticks and cucumber sticks in too

I think it can be hard to find a alternative to sandwiches for quick eating properties though mine love pitta bread too

DD hates sandwiches with a passion so we do a combo of;
Pitta breads/tortillas/mini crackers with slices of cheese/ham/cucumber/cherry toms/carrot.
Rice cakes
Pasta cooked with passata and some herbs(cold)
Bread sticks with cottage cheese.
Then she has either a cereal bar or some strawberry bite thingies from tesco, a yoghurt and a pack of raisins/chopped strawberries/small bit of a bunch of grapes.

Not sure about salt levels but I used to love getting a Babybel in mine. They now do cheddar as well the original.

DD1 sometimes likes a little pot of hoummus and some carrot sticks etc instead of a sandwich.

DD1 likes a tortilla wrap, spread with cream cheese then filled with chicken and grated carrot, rolled up and sliced into chunks.

Natural yoghurt with a handful of frozen raspberries, which defrost during the morning, has gone down well too.

Not all at once:
Ham sandwiches, or rice cakes with peanut butter.
A choice of apple, carrot, cucumber or pepper sliced up.
A Babybel sometimes.
A small pot with a mix of almonds, raisins, hazelnuts etc.
Plain popcorn (no salt or butter) is always a hit.
Cold pasta pesto with peas.
Cold roast veg (from our tea the night before) and cous cous.
Sometimes a yogurt (she tend to forget them in the nursery fridge though!)

BTW, The torillas/cracker/pitta bread combos are left to DD to put together herself, who needs lunchables eh?

Wraps with ham/cheese/tuna/chorizo
Pots of grapes/banana/apple/orange in segments
yoghurt
apple juice
sometimes a homemade/shop flapjack or cereal bar

occasionally a babybel (also done in goats cheese now, quite yum!!)

We can't have hummous at our school due to sesame seed allergies much to DS chagrin as he loves it!!!

I got a fab silicone muffin tin thingy that makes tiny cocktail sized muffins. DD loves them so tomorrow she is getting tiny apple muffins in her lunch box along with pasta shapes with sun-dried tomato pesto.

bump

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rye bread with mung bean paste
organic fairy breath
jus de ponce

[awakens from dream]

ham sandwich
apple juice
apple

oh yes leftovers

cold saus
cold fishfingers
chicken drumsticks
frittata

I personally think that the best thing I can put in DD lunch box is....

3.00 so she can buy her lunch at school.. (pound sign not working on my keyboard)

Actually no pack lunches allowed at DD school until y6 or so, so no problem for me.

DD1 has the following, not all at the same time I hasten to add

• home made chicken nuggets made with a bit of crushed garlic and grated cheddar - cold the next day.

• left over pasta - fusilli is best I find as it doesn't go to hard and claggy. MAde with plain tom sauce and some grated cheese or mixed with a bit of tuna

bits of cheese, hovis thin crackers, carrs water biscuits, cucumber, red pepper strips, carrot sticks and maybe some raw mange tout and baby sweetcorn

cold left over pizza

cheese sandwiches cut into shapes with cookie cutter with either a bit of grated carrot in there or a tiny spread of marmite

twigglets

dried prunes and dried apricots

yoghurt covered raisin or yoghurt coated apricots

breadsticks and cream cheese dip

those yoghurts in a pouch or frubes, frozen overnight and shoved in box in norning

fruit salad - raspberries, strawberries, blackberries and blueberries and grapes work best in my house

plums also good round hre and nice and small enought for box

home made nigella lawson cereal bars, can omit nuts and it's just porridge oats, cranberries, coconut & condensed milk (will post full recipe if oyu want me to)

boxes of raisins

home made potato salad with bits of veggie sausage sliced up in there

Cold pasta with pesto sauce
Tub grated cheese, carrot sticks and cucumber (separate tub)
Few chocolate coated rice cakes
onion bhajis
Tub cottage cheese
homemade oat/raisin/choc chip biscuits
breadsticks and cream cheese
cucumber sandwiches
Obv they also have:
chocolate spread on wholemeal (compromise)
cheesestrings
yoghurt tubes
animal chocolate biscuits
crisps (not often)

oh year, chicken drumsticks, skin removed

cold frittata

pieces of chicken breast, buy it in packs from sainsburys

bits of cooked salmon, honey roasted, again bought in pasks from sainsvurys

a strip or 2 of smoked mackeral (dd1 won't eat this but dd2 loves it)

olives (again not for dd1 but dd2 loves em)

cold rice or cous cous with bits of veffies in there

oh and with fruit salad you could pour over bit of yoghurt in a small tupperware pot and sprinkle over a few sesame, pumpkin, sunflower seeds

Mine hated sarnies, always left em. Then I made them into shapes and since then she's never ever left one!

Today we had stars but I also like to theme the boxes a bit, fun for me and her. We have a teeny rabbit that we used last week for Easter and I bought ginger bread chicks from sainsburys, over valentines I used the heart shape for sarnies and bought these heart shaped gingerbread biscuits, Repeat throughout year for halloween - scary faces or pumpkin shapes, xmas - tree shapes, reindeer etc etc, etc, guyfawkes - stars and so on

M&S do mini pittas
freeze Frubes if it's v hot

crackers tend to go soggy, but you can slice up ham (nice ham) and cheese etc, and they can build their own cracker sandwich, if you can be arsed have time

I think one of the great pleasures of picnicky lunches is being able to hold your lunch in one hand, whilst shaking your sibling out of a tree with the other. To encourage this, I only ever provide one handed food.

I use some of the above ideas and make sure (even when only half awake)I count to 5 for each child:

1. Sandwich/wrap/pasta
2. Piece/tub of fruit
3. Drink (usually a carton of juice)
4. Something else healthy - yoghurt/cheese/pack of healthy crackers/cereal or one of the many ideas above which I shall try out.
5. A treat - this is usually a penguin bar or a couple of biscuits or little pack of animal biscuits.

today dd has falafal, houmous, pitta and carrot cucumber pepper sticks

she also likes mini samosa, mini sausage rolls

sometimes she has a mini portion of greek salad feta olives ect

pasta pesto with chopped up spinach

wraps with grated veg (carrot, cucumber) and cheese or chicken

those liitle jellies are quite good muller stars i think ,
also plain popcorn or if you buy those little rainbow snack bags you can put in a handfull of crisps insead of a whole bag if your school allows crisps

dd likes it if i make kebabs you can do savoury or sweet
chunks of fruit drizzle with chocolate to be a real popular mum!!
cheese chicken cucumber olives tomato ect

COD--- one of dd's favorite sandwiches is mature cheese chorizo and spinach!!