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

My daughter loves having the prima cheese rolled up in a piece of ham she can eat loads and its a nice healthy snack instead of chocolates

Chicken Pasta Salad, Homemade soup, Yoghurt, Tortilla Wraps

Write on a banana using a biro. A different joke everyday? Lots of love from Mummy xxx may not go down too well!

DD1 is very fussy, she does like jam sandwiches though, so this week for holiday club she has had a jam sandwich every day with a different flavour of jam. Today it was blueberry. Then I'll just pile some random other things in the lunchbox, nothing especially surprising as that tends to bother her! Today there was an apple, a banana, pot of fromage frais, small packet raisins, mini cheese portion, packet of mini savoury biscuits and a drink.

Lettuce, tomato and cucumber with hummus in a wrap is our children's favourite.

My 10 year old loves a chunk of my banana bread I use bananas and honey in it with minimal sugar.

My 3 year old loves cucumber and carrot sticks with a little pot of low fat mayo to dunk in.

My ds's absolute favourite packed lunch is a flask of soup with a buttered bagel. I put in a clip top Tupperware box that he can pour the soup into and he can close completely after to avoid spills.

I also taught him to put anything he has finished with (fruit peelings/sandwich crusts/soupy spoons/empty yoghurt pots) into the sandwich bag I send the bagel/sandwich in. That way there is much much less leaking or mess inside his lunch bag which means the lunch bag lasts much longer without the funky 'crap seeped into the liner through the seems' smell

My son's fav pack lunch combination is ham sandwiches. He insists on just ham, nothing else in the filling, a pear or an apple, and a chocolate muffin.

Quick, easy & economical. Get a slice of bread and flatten it with a rolling pin. Spread it with peanut butter and roll a banana up in it. Slice on the diagonal. It holds together really well and gives boring old sandwiches a new dimension. Also works well with other fillings like cold sausages or cheese spread.

Turkey wraps are always popular with my boys, so easy to make too

Ham or cheese or ham & cheese butties or wraps with an apple and an easy peeler and a yogurt and a chocolate chip brioche.
No hassle, no surprises, no waste, no time to piss about.

A firm favourite is cold pasta with whatever we have to hand- left-over chicken, chopped sausages, pepperoni, cubed cheese, beans, (Not baked in tomato sauce, but why not if you LO likes them?!) cherry tomatoes, cucumber - the possibilities are endless!

anything bitty that means shd can pick and choose what shes eating goes down well- also really handy for clearing out the fridge! carrot sticks snd sweet chilli sauce are her fsvourite

Tuna and cucumber sushi.

While the kids are at dance class/footie on a saturday morning i usually cook a few thing ready the the week a head. My kids favourite packlunch consist of homemade marmite and cheese twirls, a small pot of homemade corn and rice salad and homemade granola bar. you can get some really good recipes nowdays which use natrual ingredients. it doesnt take long at all to make some healthy but tasty snacks for kids.

Its hardly a recipe, but I substitute dairylea for butter in ham sandwiches. Makes it tastier.
My two are fussy about crusts, so I use sandwich thins, or I use cookie cutters to make the sarnies interesting shapes.
Sometimes I'll include a tiny bag of popcorn for an occasional treat.

My daughter loves carrot, celery and cucumber sticks with a little tub of houmous in her lunch!

cocao why would you give a 3 yo low fat mayo?? In fact why would anyone want low fat mayo? Bleurgh

DS1 and DS2 (who are nearly 13 and 11) like pasta with quorn pieces, peas and pesto, falafel with couscous and salad or Spanish tortilla with crusty bread and salad.

DD (9) likes anything she can dip, her favourites are apple wedges with peanut butter or carrot sticks with hummus. I use an apple cutter to cut the apple into wedges, but wrap it back up again including the core with clingfilm so that it doesn't go brown.

Pitta filled with lettuce and felafel. Mini Cheese muffins. Carrot Sticks. Grapes. A yoghurt. A small pack of raisins.

My DD loves me save some pasta from her dinner and make a pasta salad with cooked chicken, cucumber, cheese and grapes. It's nice to give her a change from sandwiches

I need to get my boys eating more if these.

My son loves fruit wraps. I spread peanut butter over a wrap, then place fruit on top and roll. Its like a healthy pancake.

I make mini savoury cheese muffins, using wholemeal flour, grated cheddar cheese and a little spring onion mixed in, they travel well and are healthier if you use a low-fat cheddar.

My dd loves mini frittata. I throw in whatever veg i have in the fridge with the egg and cheese and bake in muffin tins.