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

We dont do packed lunches often, but when I do, I keep bread in the freezer, make sandwiches with the frozen bread the night before, pop in the fridge, by lunchtime will be defrosted and have stayed cool.

We started this as we're not a big bread eating household so often a loaf will go mouldy long before all used, freezing and just taking out a couple of slices when needed works for us. (you can toast from frozen too)

Thank you for the "banana bread" not "banana cake" tip, shall work on ds for that.

My top tip really is not to put too much in the lunch-box. We all know our own children and what one child will voraciously eat, another will scarcely touch. Our DD is a very, very slow eater and a combination of foods encompassing all the different food groups will never be entirely eaten (unless it's presented as a one-pot rice/pasta salad with cheese and veggies) as its simply too much for her to eat in the increasingly short lunch time-slot!

We always used to find that peanut and raisin pot was a good high protein, high calorie snack for the lunch-box but now that's outlawed .

I bought 9yr old DD one of those lunchboxes with the different compartments and she loves to open them and see what I've put inside:

Large bottom compartment: sandwiches (ham, cheese and pickle, tuna, salmon paste or jam - different each day), a frube yoghurt and chocolate bar or sometimes a homemade cake.

In the two medium compartments I put in one a savoury choice: cocktail sausages, mini scotch eggs together with carrot sticks and pepper or cucumber or a bit of each and in the other a sweet option: grapes or strawberries.

On special days I put in a little note wishing her luck for a test or a reminder that it's choir or she's going to a friends or simply that I love her. At Christmas time she gets a mini cracker and a joke in the lead up to the last day of term and on her birthday some birthday confetti

Ds1 can't eat gluten and only likes gf bread as toast, so I do buttered gf oatcakes, slices of cheese, tomatoes, sometimes a bit of hummus and carrot sticks, and a one more thing- crisps, 9 bar, macaroon. Plus a drink!

I make packed lunches for myself, DH and 3yo DS. DH has ham salad sandwiches, I have beef, Stilton and red onion chutney sandwiches and DS won't eat sandwiches so he has either pasta or couscous for carbohydrates and a variety of other bits: yoghurt, fruit, cucumber/carrot/cherry tomatoes, seeds, breadsticks, popcorn, cubes of Cheddar... I do try to mix it up but DS is quite fussy so it ends up as a rather limited selection. I've deliberately kept DS' lunchbox junk-free, even though it would be much easier to Ho down that route, as sitting with his peers and no fridge to escape to he is more likely to eat everything.

My 11 yo takes a packed lunch once a week to make a change from school meals.

I make carrot soup quite a lot (as everyone likes it) and so she often takes some of that in (food flask) with some left over rosemary foccaccia and some cheese. Usually water bottle and carton of juice. Or a bagel with pastrami or ham in it. Or a wrap with hoummus and grated carrot. Or cheese and oatcakes. A few grapes or an apple and a fromage frais or a yoghurt. Sometimes some popcorn, sometimes a bit of homemade flapjack. Carrot sticks and/or cucumber wedges. Or a few olives and cubes of cheese.

I never send in chocolate, sweets or crisps although apparently "everyone else does"

I put in a little note.

I think the best tip is to send in small amounts of a few different things and ring the changes as much as possible.

I was dreading my DD starting school and making a packed lunch everyday, but it's been a lot less hassle than I thought. She has a lunchbox with compartments, to stop her sandwich getting squashed, and I make it up the night before. She gets bored of sandwiches every day so my top tip is to vary sandwiches, rolls, crackerbreads and rice cakes. Also if I include a cheese string it keeps her very happy!

I always freeze the frubes - they keep the cool box nice and cool and are defrosted by lunch

Wraps with (depending on the child) tuna and pesto or carrot, cheese and mayonnaise or ham and soft cheese - they seem more popular than sandwiches and don't go soggy.

Carrots and cucumber sticks are popular.

There's always fruit of some sort - apples, grapes, dried apricots. If there isn't any cheese in the wraps I will put a few cubes of cheese in.

Sometimes leftovers - cold pizza, chicken drumsticks, Spanish tortilla etc. In the winter, sometimes soup in a wide necked thermos. My mum used to do that for me and I loved it.

Then something else - wasabi peas, a flapjack, those big chocolate ricecakes, a cereal bar, some unsalted crisps. It depends on the child and what's in the cupboard.

I try and put everything into clingfilm - I got fed up of lunchboxes coming home with only half the plastic box lids. I should try a bento box - they'd love it.

I'll often freeze a bottle of water in the summer to keep things cool, or one of those fruit tubes.

My daughter gets bored if she has too much of the same thing so has lots of different things in her packed lunch. Strips of red pepper, carrot & cucumber batons, cherry tomatoes, peeled quails eggs (special treat) alongside something more filling, maybe some chicken sliced up in pitta bread or in a wrap. A leftover tortilla filled with mince, grated cheese, sour cream, peppers & cooked onion goes down well. If she has swimming then she likes to have a flask of pasta with pesto & a little pot of Parmesan to stir in.

Not what Flora want to hear, but we rarely have sandwiches in our packed lunches. Usually we cook up some pasta and pesto, then mix it with some cheese and tomato pieces/peas/sweetcorn to make a pasta salad.

We're creatures of habit here - Wraps with Ham & Cheese for DS with a yoghurt and mini cheddars Apple, banana, & mini cheddars for DD (she is 17 she sorts herself out !)

My top tip is in the summer I freeze frubes so they have an iced treat. I also sometime freeze fruit juice so it is cold and slushy by the time lunch arrives.

Ds stopped eating his little tub of fruit or veg so I stuck a drawing of his favourite Cbeebies character on the lid with a speech bubble saying 'eat this, yum!'
It worked a couple of times!

Mine have same-ish e everyday:
Sandwich / pitta / wrap with cream cheese, cucumber, ham, chicken or hummus
Pot of veg - cucumber, carrot, toms
Fruit - usually grapes or strawberries or sliced apple
Cereal bar / jam tart / slice malt loaf
Frozen frube which will thaw by lunch
Water

Contents vary slightly depending on what each dc prefers but usually the above covers it.

When dd first went to school I tried to vary it - mini quiche, sausage roll, pasta salad etc - but soon ran out of ideas (plus she left most of it) until a wise friend told me children like familiarity and repetition so I went with that.

I try to limit the amount of bread DD consumes to one portion a day, so either given as toast at breakfast or to make a sandwich for lunch. If it's used to make a sandwich, I try to include a piece of fruit/veg within eg: Cheese and cucumber, ham and tom, egg and cress etc. If I'm not giving sandwiches for lunch it's usually a salad of some variety, DD's favourite being a Greek salad or some dips (carrots, cucumber, peppers) with home made humous or sweetcorn. Always a piece of fruit and if that's all eaten a little treat like a biscuit!

Dd1 is still only 2, so we tend to stick to what we know she'll eat for now, nothing worse than trying and failing to get her to eat something new whilst out and about with a packed lunch!! So we stick with cheese sandwich, yogurt, fruit and breadsticks.

I always make sure I pack lots of bitesize fruit and veg as my two won't eat anything other than plain ham or cheese sandwiches but will wolf it down if it's in a separate little pot. I put little treats in but that doesn't always mean sugary things- treats can be blueberries, crisps, extra cheese cubes as well as biscuits or cakes.

We are creatures of habit in our house.

It's either a ham sandwich or crackers and cheese ( with Flora of course!)
A bottle of diluting juice.
Some fruit- either grapes, oranges, apples or nectarines.
Either some cheese or a handful of cocktail sausages.
Chocolate biscuit/sweet treat/cake

It's not particularly inventive but it keeps Dd fed until tea time and she never complains!

Variety is the spice of life so don't get stuck in a packed lunch rut

My boys 14,13, 10 & DD 8 - each have Crisps, a chocolate biscuit, water, fruit and a sandwich - either ham or cheese! Boring... but they love it and hate it when I change it!

We've had to re-think our packed lunches lately as our son went off his sandwiches and stopped eating them for a while at school!

We introduced new fillings that he likes like tuna mayo and egg mayo and let him have a bit more of a say about what went into his packed lunches.

We now vary crackers, baps, bagels, pittas, wraps too - as it all adds variety.

He also loves cheesestrings (or similar) and whilst I don't like too many pre-packaged foods like that, it does seem to help him enjoy his packed lunch.

We removed his crisps for a while too to make sure he wouldn't be too full to eat his sandwiches.