Share your top tips for packed lunches with Flora and you could win a £200 John Lewis voucher NOW CLOSED

[AngelieMumsnet]

The team at Flora have asked us to find out about Mumsnetters' top tips for packed lunches.

Here's what Flora have to say, "We know a fair bit about sarnies at Flora but we understand that making them perfect for healthy lunches can be a challenge. We're keen to help you keep the peace at lunchtime, so whether youre tussling with fussy eaters or just trying to broaden their taste buds we would love to hear your thoughts!"

So what are your top tips for making packed lunches for your DCs? Do you try to get some variety with different types of sandwiches and wraps? Or maybe you keep it simple? What about snacks? Do you try to keep them healthy with a portion of fruit? Or perhaps you add a chocolate bar as a treat?

Whatever your top tips for packed lunches are, Flora would love to hear them.

If you're looking for ways to make packed lunches a bit more fun, why not enter Flora's Facebook competition for a chance to win a sandwich cutter in the shape of your DC's best piece of art!

Everyone who posts on this thread will be entered into a prize draw where one winner will receive a £200 John Lewis voucher.

Please note your comments may be included on Flora's social media channels, and possibly elsewhere, so please only post if you're comfortable with this.

Thanks and good luck,

MNHQ

I freeze a huge batch of cheese rolls for one daughter and the other one likes wraps so soft cheese and marmite wrap for her done that morning. Yoghurt, fruit, half a pain au chocolat. Same everyday as can't do inventive in the morning, sometimes cold sausage if we have some or cake if we've made some.

Ds has a sandwich (because that's what he ikes) and then a smoothie and a yogurt, some raw veg and grapes/bananas etc. I freeze the smoothie and then take it out of the freezer first thing and it keeps his packed lunch cool until lunchtime without having to use (and invariably lose) a cool block. If we have pasta for dinner I'll cook an extra portion and then once I have drained it mix it with his veg and ham or cheese from the sandwich and he has that instead.

I've seen some amazing packed lunches on pintrest, full on themed scenes like this but there's no way we'd have time for that in our house!!!

We don't bother with an ice-pack: just one more un-necessary thing to weigh the dc down or for them to lose.

(Not lost anyone to food-poisoning yet.)

Another one who makes the lunches the night before. Both my DDs get a sandwich (two slices of bread, with cream cheese plus ham, chicken or smoked salmon, dd2 has the crusts removed but dd1 doesn't), a small tub of salad bits (carrot sticks, peppers, cherry toms, cucumber), a small tub of fruit (grapes or cut up apple or berries if they are in season), a yogurt tube and a biscuit. Sometimes I put a cheese snack in too, or extra fruit for dd1. Dd1 has a bottle of water (not allowed anything else at school), dd2 has a smoothie or juice carton. No ice pack, but I do use frozen yogurt tubes in summer to the same effect.

Keep it easy is my motto, so fruit is cut up etc.

Dd has started to have packed lunches this term. Generally it's a sandwich, a piece of fruit, a container with yoghurt in, sometimes a piece of cake and occasionally a bag of crisps. If I have left over bolognese, I send her in with that and pasta instead of a sandwich. I put it in a bag instead of container as her box is not leak proof! and make sure she knows how to put it into the box compartment.
I have found that cutting off the crusts of the bread before packing the lunch means that she actually eats more bread/sandwich than if she leaves the crusts (which she always does).
I explain how to open pots/containers etc so that she feels able.
I also tell her in which order to eat things so that she doesn't eat the cake or crisps but leaves the fruit...she's 6 btw.
I make sure that if there is any messy stuff, she knows to put it all into the plastic bag in the lunch bag so that I'm not dealing with a sticky mess when it all gets home!

DS is 4 and goes to preschool 3x a week. I try to put a few bits in so he has a choice - I'm lucky that generally he's unfussy and will try anything but I think it's always best to send them to school with something you know they'll eat and save experimenting for home.

He'll either have a sandwich (egg mayo, cheese with pesto or marmite, peanut butter or houmous and shredded carrot) or cold pasta leftover (when he's had pasta pesto or basic Tom sauce - something that tastes ok cold)

Then he'll have a piece of fruit (normally apple or banana) and a pot of something veggie (cooked broccoli spears, raw carrot sticks, cold peas etc) and something like raisins or pretzels or popcorn

We bake together on Tuesday's so the rest of the week he gets to also take in whatever we've baked

DH just gets leftovers, which he microwaves at work

My DC have hot lunches at school, as do 100% of the school, with no choices or canteen option (until Y5 when they sometimes get choice of 2 main dishes). Eaten "family style" (tables of 12, teacher/TA at the head of each table, DC help clear etc, everyone has to the least try everything). I works well and they are well fed. Packed lunches, for us, mean holiday clubs and by the end of the holidays I am fed up with doing them.

That said, both DC like wraps, but neither like variety. I can make beetroot, cucumber, ham and salad (DS) or cheese and cucumber (DD) wraps in my sleep. They get fruit, crisps (half a pack for DD who never finishes whole packs), homemade cake, and a water bottle. Occasionally yoghurt or a babybel too. I would be bored senseless but they always ask for the same.

We try to vary the packed lunches on a daily basis and always make them the night before so there's one less thing to do in the morning. We vary with wraps, filled pitta breads, sliced bread, bread roll or cold pizza on occasion. The fillings depend on individual preferences, usually cheese/hummous/Marmite/ egg mayo. I always add a selection of veg such as tomatoes, cucumber, carrot, celery plus a piece of fruit or two. I sometimes make up pots of jelly and pop fruit in. I usually put a treat in too such as yogurt, biscuit or homemade bun/flapjack.
I do vary the contents as I personally wouldn't want the same food day in day out.As my dcs reached year 5 they started making their own lunches which was handy for me and independence for them.

I don't bother with an ice pack but freeze a carton of drink and include that instead so they get a nice cold drink and the rest of their lunch kept cool also.

Both if mine usually have a whole meal sandwich, crudités, squeezy yogurt (far less mess than a pot and spoon) and the aforementioned drink.

Cakes, crisps etc are kept as after school snack so the risk of them eating those before their proper lunch is taken out of the equation.

If we have left over pasta they will take that in a wide necked thermos or occasionally if we have no bread they will get the treat of their life and get a sausage roll instead if a sandwich.

I find my kids want something quick
To eat so they can get back to their friends and playing rather than an extravaganza when they open their lunch boxes.

Dd1 will eat almost anything and dd2 next to nothing.
Both have a packed lunch.

Favourites are filled croissant (cream cheese/ celery)
Cheese and carrot wrap (grated)
Tuna mix
Cold pizza slices
Pesto pasta
Piece of fruit
Dried fruit
Veg sticks
Yoghurts
Juices.

Freeze small bottles of water and add to lunch bag to keep it all cool.

I try and put in one carby thing, a protein something or other, fruit and portion of veg.

My DS is now 12 and all he takes is a ham sandwich and a bottle of water, every single day, I put an apple or banana out but it usually gets left behind .

I love the idea of all the little extras that go into packed lunches, but glad my DS now just knows what he wants and it is a all a lot less faff .

Definitely in the keep it simple camp. DS has a cheese sandwich every day - that's what he likes. We have a fab retro 1980s lunch box which my SIL rooted out during a clear out (grown up kids). It's very easy to keep clean, unlike the modern lunch bags.

Hadn't thought of freezing things, but at DS's school the lunches are kept on a rack in a corridor near an external door. We're in Scotland. Could still be frozen by lunchtime.

DD eats at nursery so no packed lunch for her just yet. But when she does start having them, I will apply the same principles as I do for DH:

• make them the night before - too much going on in the morning.

• lots of different things to keep interest, so sandwiches, pieces of fruit, yoghurt, quiche, vegetable sticks, cheese...

• sometimes leftovers if there is anything

I think variety is key and we always include a surprise treat on Fridays. They like to have DIY wraps, so they have plain wraps then a little pots of shredded lettuce, carrot, tomato, grated cheese then they can fill and roll them or eat the filling separately. Much more likely to actually eat it that way!
For dessert they like the frozen yoghurt tubes, fresh fruit or fruit pots. Their favourite is a mix of grapes, blueberries and strawberries.
The Friday treat doesn't have to be sweet, just something they don't regularly have, so could be anything from olives to popcorn or coated raisins.

Love the home-made leftovers pasties tip. We customise muffin recipes to make them healthier, sometimes savoury.

Dd responds better if everything is easy to eat, so I do a small tub of cut up veg, fruit and nuts.

I sometimes put a little note in the box to make her smile.

DC is too young for school though we do go on days out and take packed lunches accordingly. Best tips are fun shapes (cookie cutters to shape sandwiches) and interesting and varied fillings. Those now little Oreos in a little packet go down well, just perfect for a toddler-sized mouth. But mainly we stick with fruit, and are lucky that DS loves eating fruit.

I only have to do packed lunches for days out and holiday club. At the beginning of the week, I write down what we have available for packed lunches in columns of carb/protein/veg/fruit/yogurt/treat, and ds chooses things for each day and it goes on the fridge.

I keep wraps and pittas in the freezer, so theres always something around if running short.

In the winter, I give him a wide necked flask with pasta or soup in too

I used to do all sorts of fancy healthy things for dd when she was little. I think I went a bit OTT . Now she's a teen when I do make her lunch, I tend to think maximum (healthy) calories in minimum eating time as she is so rushed at lunch. Fortunately peanut butter is considered fine at her school so it features quite a bit.

My daughter is only one but I still often find myself having to pack a lunch for her.

I nearly always go for a small sandwich (cut into mini triangles or squares) with a filling like tuna or cream cheese, a handful of baby friendly crisps (like the organix ones) and then some fruit. Something like blueberries or strawberries. Plus water in her normal beaker. I pack them all into little tupperware pots that stack neatly in a mini cool bag I've got.

If I've had the time I will make things like cheese scones or frittata instead of sandwiches. I tend to avoid messy things like yoghurt when we are out and about but she will have them at home.

When DD has packed lunch she has a combination of:

Cheese or jam sandwich
Banana
Small pot of strawberries or grapes or both
Cheese cubes or Babybel or cheese string
Cereal bar
Mini cheddars
Raisins/fruit flakes

She has school dinners mainly now in order to get her eating a variety of food.

The secret to pack lunches I've found is to give them what they like (within reason) - they then eat it and you can balance their diet by what they have for breakfast and their evening meal. Sandwiches (changing the filling if they are willing), a piece of fruit which is easy to peel and eat or berries and cherries, a drink and a small treat of a piece of fruitcake is enough to keep them going.

I am a bit of a bento mum with packed lunches. I like to cut their sandwiches into shapes or ensure their wraps look like rainbows. I have no packaging inside the box, everything is ready to eat. I put in mostly healthy things but occasionally add a treat.

My advice is to get their input into what goes in. I ask DD what she would like when we go shopping and have her help make hummus or guacamole etc to ensure it is then eaten.

If there is resistance to a certain food being eaten we try to offer it in a different format, either chopped smaller or grated so as it's texture changes. If it is still avoided then I remove it. There is no point in fighting a losing battle.

I don't bother with an ice pack. I used to freeze the yogurts to keep other items cold but the yoghurt made a mess inside the bag with their wrappers so I stopped and it didn't seem to make a huge difference with the temperature of the other items.

I try to vary what's inside. Our rota contains: Spanish omelette, falafel, wraps, sandwiches, muffins, sushi, bagels and pasta salads.

I forgot to say from age fraud, either pouches or tubes

I use flora instead of butter in packed lunches as it's less rank if they're not kept cold

My 4 yr old MUST have a ham sandwich every day (yawn!). I use a teddy shaped cutter on it both to make it more appealing but also to ensure he eats it all - a regular sandwich comes back nibbled from the middle with huge waste as he has decided he doesn't like crusts, and just cutting crusts off doesn't cut the mustard! I add little coloured pots with mystery items, like popcorn, cucumber, cherry toms etc. and a mini ice pack to attempt to keep it nice until lunchtime.