NOW CLOSED Tell Chedds, the new kids’ snacking cheese brand from Cathedral City, your top tips for lunchboxes and you could win a Chedds hamper worth £100

[NewGirlHelenMumsnet]

We've been asked by Chedds, the new kids' snacking cheese brand from Cathedral City (previously reviewed by MNers), to find out your best tips for packing a healthy lunchbox for your children.

What do you like to include and what do your children enjoy finding in their lunchbox? How do you keep the food cool till lunchtime and not get everything squashed? Do you manage to strike a balance between fun and nutritious? If so, how?

Please let us know your thoughts on this thread.

Your tips will be used on the Chedds pages on Mumsnet and everyone who adds a comment will be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a Chedds hamper, worth £100 (UK winners only).

Thanks and good luck with the prize draw
MNHQ

Don't buy lunch bags - go for a plastic box that can be properly washed! All the bags we've had have gone horrid after a short time with the food caught in the seams. A frozen drink acts as a really good cool block.

I've thought of another. Nothing puts small children off eating things that have been tightly wrapped up in foil. When my dh used to make the packed lunches he would wrap everything individually up in foil, it looked very unappetising. Just by presenting food nicely in little pots made a huge difference and the girls actually ate their lunch.

I find that a little pot of chopped up fruit ie melon, strawberries, orange segments, grapes, berries, kiwi, peach etc etc, goes down much better than slinging in a whole apple/orange/peach etc with the skin, pips and bruised bits for them to contend with!

cherry toms and nuts easy pop in the gob type food

forgot - leftover quiche!
actually most kinds of leftovers!

Mum and dinner lady here I love the parents who put a bit of kitchen roll to use as napkin (especially when lunch box includes exploding yogurts (In whatever form).

If you like egg sandwiches boil the eggs in the morning and take them out of their shell straight away it prevents them from smelling really strong.

My children get bored of sandwiches so I try to not give them sandwiches more than once or twice a week. Pasta/couscous/rice salads are easy to make and can contain a number of vegetables.

I also make my own vegetable pasties or mini-quiches, mini-pizzas it does not take long and they can be frozen if made in bulk.

If you like being adventurous and give food that seem to "repel" your childrens friend, do NOT give up! drill in them that they are the once eating it and not their friends. Have a word with school if needed. There is no reason your child should have food they enjoy less just to please their friends who ultimatly are not affected in any way by what your children eat.

I also make my own sausage rolls for lunchboxes and birthday parties. [smug]
Chicken usually but sometimes use lamb.

Take 1kg minced chicken: mixture of thigh, leg and breast meat. Just breast is not nice as no flavour!

In a food processor (or grate), blitz 1-2 slices of bread to breadcrumbs, then add an onion with 2 tsp ground coriander, 1 tsp ground cumin, 1/2 tsp red chilli powder (can adjust to suit your taste) and salt to taste. I also add a couple of green chillis and handful of fresh coriander
Mix resulting paste with minced chicken and half a beaten egg.
I roughly divide mixture into six sections.
Take block of puff pastry and cut in half lengthways.
Roll out half block with some flour to prevent sticking until approx size of traybake tin - sorry don't have measurement to hand!
Cut lengthways into 3 equal sized sections using sharp knife
Use remaining beaten egg to paint edges of strips
Using spoon, spoon 1 section of mince mixture onto strips onto edge of each strip, roll pastry over to form long sausage roll. Repeat for all mixture.
Brush each roll with remaining egg mixture and cut each roll into approx 6, stabbing top of each twice with knife to get the sausage roll look.
Place on baking sheet on preheated oven 160 deg C for approx 20 mins or until golden brown.
I serve some hot for tea with veg/baked beans/mash and remainder go in lunch boxes. Unfortunately my family are all rather partial to these and grab one each time they pass so I have to hide them.

Enjoy!

too early for

I make sandwiches the night before with sliced frozen bread, then leave them in the fridge to defrost overnight, which avoids the bread getting 'fridge stale'.

Cream cheese & jam (separately and mixed together) both freeze very well, so you can make batches in advance, ready to grab & go.

Hoummous and cheddar (together) make good sandwich fillings.

Dried apple rings are a big favourite in our house :)

There does seem to be a problem with schools having adequeate cool storage facilities for packed lunches. Many friends children have to put lunchbags on a trolley near to or next to radiators.

Freeze yoghurts the night before putting them into lunchboxes. They defrost nicely before the children need to eat them, and act as an extra 'cool pack'.

I don't really bother with "fun" lunch items. I just put in resolutely healthy items, plus one small "treat", and if they are hungry they will eat it, if they don't eat it I assume they weren't that hungry.

My tips tend towards the time-saving for busy mornings rather than the extra-loving maternal effort. Have a stash of tinned fruit and dried fruit for those days when the fresh fruit and veg has run out. Tinned pineapple chunks in tupperware pots are a favourite here. Also dried mango and dried pineapple pieces, pumpkin seeds, dried apple rings.

Also have a huge stash of small tupperwares to bung it all in.

Also train dc to think that making their own packed lunch is a treat, from the age of about 5.

good quality tupperware or similar plus proper ice box/pack inside the lunch bag/box.
Choose things you know your children like as fillings for the wraps, sandwich, rolls etc and add brightly coloured veg/salad on the side. Always use easy to open bags or containers.
Variety - not the same tomatoes, cucumber and apple every day. Be creative with grapes, mange tout, sugar snap peas, plums, small bananas.
Don't always put crisps in - just sometimes. Ditto chocolate biscuits etc.
make the food look as presentable as possible / dividers in the lunchbox help make the food look attractive and therefore desirable.

Make some ham and cheese muffins, veg pasties and cheese swirls and freeze in individual bags for a change from sandwiches.

Question please: when you make scones/muffins type stuff and freeze, do you just pop in lunchboxes straight from freezer in morning? Thankyou ta

lots of chopped carrots, peppars, cucumber wh houmous& dip. DS age 5 loves it
(On school trips they hate his lunch box- so many little tubs!)
mini sausages, sausage rolls.
I often use rolls, not bread!

My children will eat absolutely anything if it is served to them cubed on a kebab stick. an excellent way of using up the catfood the cat has declined

I make them cheese and pesto muffins too.

I also place a smiley sticker in the bottom now and then. They seem to like the surprise. God knows why, I've been doing it for three years now

Small tubs of mixed nuts from M&S Simply Food. Brilliant, tasty, healthy, popular and good for sharing!

My very best tip for a packed lunch (say for a school trip) is to make everything so it can all be thrown away after lunch is eaten - don't send them with a lunch bag, just put everything in a plastic carrier bag, wrap sandwiches in foil or cling film, send a carton juice, an apple etc. Nothing then needs to be carted around for the rest of the day!

I sometimes make up a pint of jelly, pour into small tuppaware tubs and add chopped fruit, then leave to set. They are handy deserts for lunch. I also put the fabric/plastic coated lunch bags in the washing machine every weekend.

Everything that goes into the lunchbag, including storecupboard items like cereal bars (DS2 likes fruitus bars, which is great, since there's not much he will eat in the way of fruit and veg). I avoid putting anything frozen into a lunch bag, since it makes everything soggy and ruins salad, but when the weather is particularly warm (or the school radiators particularly fierce!) I put a drink in the freezer for half an hour before packing the lunch bag.

I do find it helpful to make sandwiches etc the night before and keep them in the fridge. Not only does it ensure that they're chilled right through, it saves a lot of angst and hassle in the morning, when I am most definitely not at my best.

DS1 loves little baggies of salad or fruit in his lunch bag, but he also likes his cake! I make things like carrot cake or banana bread on a traybake scale and cut it into small squares. I wrap each square individually in clingfilm then drop them all in a bag and freeze them. That way, I can take one out as needed and offer more of a variety from day to day.

@plusonemore - frozen muffins should defrost by lunchtime, but may not if you have other frozen stuff in there too!

Ive just discovered Pinwheel sandwiches and I have learnt to make cheese straws. Both seem like interesting lunch box items. Obviously try to make lunches as healthy as possible but I don't mind adding bakes and cakes if they are home made.

Oh avoid tomatoes in sandwiches as they go soggy and swishy. If you have to have tomatoes put cherry toms in.