Share your best lunchbox recipes for children with Lidl - chance to win one of five Lidl £50 vouchers NOW CLOSED

[AnnMumsnet]

As part of their #LidlSurprises campaign, Lidl would like to find out about your best lunchbox recipes or tips to make the humble packed lunch more of a surprise for your children.

So what recipes/ combinations do you use for your children's packed lunches that mean they always come back empty? What's your most successful lunchtime creation?
Do you ever add a little surprise for your child which makes them (or just you) smile?
Do you have a tried and tested sandwich or wrap filling?
How - if at all - do your children get involved with lunchbox creations? Does everyone make their own or do you juggle numerous boxes in a production line fashion?

Everyone who shares their lunchbox ideas, inspiration and recipes on this thread will be entered into a prize draw to where 5 MNers will each win £50 of Lidl vouchers.

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

Thanks and good luck,
MNHQ

Squeezey yoghurt. Way less mess than a pot of yoghurt and no risk of the teaspoon ending up in the bin!

Veg sticks:cucumber/carrot.

Fruit. Raspberries ar probably the favourite.

Finally this ACE vitamin drinks! Ds cannot get enough of them! We need the voucher, just to buy enough of those for the new term!

When my DD had her braces fitted she struggled eating for the first week so she took tomato soup in a flask.

My dcs love sushi. I have recently been buying the frozen stuff (from Lidl) it is the defrosted by lunchtime. They also like seafood sticks (do the same freezer trick).Pop corn is a good alternative to crisps and same as the others veggie sticks/cherry toms.

My son eats vegetable crisps - if I have time we make them the day before in the oven. He likes to sit and watch them shrivel up through the glass door.

Some great ideas on this thread! Going to add cheese straws, mini sausages, pinwheel pizzas and pistachios to DSs lunchbox list!

Cheers

Pasta salad is a good one for a change. Any little sausages or pepperoni sausages go down very well. Leftover pizza (if there is any!). Pistachios, especially when I'm trying to get some protein in Tinned fruit, because they don't much like that warm, been-in-a-tub-all-day effect on fresh fruit. I tend to do rolls because they feel less fiddly to make than other variations.

Will have to look at the frozen sushi!

A wrap with brightly coloured filling like red cheese whic is rolled up and cut into slices look like spirals my DS loves.

Spring rolls (or summer rolls - same idea, but not fried) seem like a surefire way to get raw carrot, cucumber and avocado eaten, especially if sent with a small pot of plum sauce!

My daughter doesn't like sandwiches but will happily eat bread and butter with salami on the side.

We like small wraps with fillings separate so we can mix and match. Always has to have cheese but try and include some vegetables too.

I do the "pick one" boxes to help break the monotony of packed lunches. Have 1 box with sandwich/wraps, 1 with dairy (yoghurt tubes, baby bels etc), 1 with bags of fruit, 1 with bags veg (cucumber, cherry toms etc) and 1 with "treats" (yoghurt fruit flakes, fruit bars, chewy bars etc). Each morning, they pick one from each box and pack their lunch boxes. Hey presto, no moaning I packed stuff they don't like :)

We usually have a sandwich or wrap - favourites include tuna mayo with some salad or chicken. We include some sticks of carrot and pepper, some fruit - our current favourites are blueberries, raspberries, strawberries and grapes. A pot of natural yoghurt and some Babybel go down well.

Occasionally I will add a treat - Pombears, mini cheddars or some chocolate. I also include sugar-free biscuits or sugar-free jelly as a treat.

My DD always asks to inspect what I've made her and I usually ask for her input into what I am putting in. That way she is more likely to eat it!

My son loves curried mince lamb rolled up in a chappati with fresh tomatoes and cucumber. I make my own yogurt and I give him a small bowl with fresh fruit ( whatever is in season) and he just loves crisps, it has to be salt and vinegar.

always come back empty with: sandwich, cheese and pickle, tuna and sweetcorn, salmon and cucumber, tuna and cucumber

box of salad.... fitted to childrens likes and dislikes.

box of fruit. (strawberries, melon, blueberries, grapes, in comnbination, whatever is on aldi's supersix. )

they used to like loads of other stuff but they have been nobbled by the other kids/changed tastes. they used to like pasta salads, rice, potato salads

cookie cutter shaped sandwiches and cubes of ham, cheese, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, always happy. Alternate with 'curly sandwiches', rolled up without the crusts on! yoghurt and fruit too.

We do a good line in picnic and lunchbox goodies
My kids like lots of little pots of goodies - carrot sticks and hummus, little pot of berries, boiled egg, a few cherry toms, mini mozerellas. We love lidls mini pitas with fillings - mozerella tomato and pesto, salmon and cream cheese or egg mayo and often make little frittatas in muffin cases. The kids love shredding ham, snipping spring onions and mixing up the eggs to pour into the muffin tin holes. I make a nice parma ham version for grown ups too by lining the muffin cups with half a slice. The best thing out according to my 2 kids are the little pots of crayfish - superhealthy abd yum!

At this time of year my ds loves to find a little bag of peas in the pod in his lunchbox.

Sandwich roulade using wraps with fillings
Sandwiches cut out with cookie cutters
Frozen yoghurts
And a little note with a joke or something

Bit naughty but if we have a teddy bears picnic we make teddy shaped sandwiches with either honey or chocolate spread. We take lots of fruit too :)

Dinosaur sandwiches made with cookie cutter.

Sometimes I make them green with food colouring as well... Not sure I'd enjoy that personally but small children think they're AMAZING.

My daughters love homemade tortillas with egg mayo and cucumber mixed through- their absolute favourite food on the go!

Grated carrot with sultanas and raspberry vinegar,
sunflower seeds with a touch of lo-salt,
homemade smoothie- we're making ones from all the blackberries that have just ripened with banana, greek yoghurt amd apple juice added
last night's meat in the sandwich is good- meatballs, kebab, roast, whatever we've had or a leave some extra of the carb we've had like rice or pasta and make salad with that.
their favourite treat is dried mango

My dcs favourite sandwich is a cheese and pesto toasted sandwich.
They also like hot food in a hot food container in winter. I put leftovers in there usually.
I always put a joke in their lunchbox on Fridays. I printed a sheet and just cut one out. They love it.

this sounds slightly strange but my children love it and honestly, everybody I've made it for has been pleasantly surprised.

I make a mixture of marmite, green pesto and philadelphia. spread it on to pieces of buttered wholemeal bread, add cooked chicken breast and pop in to the sandwich toaster.

its also fabulous on a panini with a side salad and creamy coleslaw.

Freeze yoghurts. They will melt over the day but still be nice and cool by lunchtime.