Mumsnet users share their healthy lunch ideas with Lidl

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It’s lunchtime! So how do you make sure your children are opening their lunchboxes to something healthy? We all want to encourage our family to eat well, but with the endless packed lunches the summer holidays call for, plus the reappearance of the lunchbox police come September, now might be the time to step up your lunchbox game. Soggy sandwiches just won’t cut the mustard, so Lidl would love to know your go-to lunchbox ideas that will keep little ones happy and healthy.

Perhaps you like to keep it simple with some vegetable sticks, pitta and hummus. Or maybe you’re children just can’t get enough of your homemade falafel or energy balls. Whatever your healthy lunchbox ideas are please share them below and you’ll be entered into a prize draw to win £100 Lidl voucher.

Thanks and good luck!

MNHQ

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Fruit kebabs, frozen yogurts,mini wraps with banana and peanut butter.

My DC like wraps in preference to sandwiches for packed lunches because they don't go soggy. So 2 mini wraps or 1 large one, usually filled with old-fashioned chicken salad and soft lettuce. They'll usually have some twiglets, an apple and either a piece of cheese or a yoghurt.

No peanut butter allowed in our lunchboxes regardless. Which is a shame because it's one of the two fillings mine will eat...Sandwiches are not favourites with mine and so I have to try and think of alternatives. As a non food person who gets zero enjoyment from cooking and preparing food I struggle somewhat! Pasta with veg and a tomato sauce sometimes is eaten. I've tried making quinoa bites or mini chickpea burgers but they don't always travel well. As with wraps or pitta with humous - it often ends up a bit of a mess come lunchtime. Homemade veggie sausage rolls are good too. I'll sometimes use quorn slices but not everyday. I make up the rest with pepper/cucumber slices, baby corn/peas in pods, carrots etc. Raisins or apricots or piece of hardy fruit like apple or pear and then something like a biscuit or little sponge cake/pack of cheddars etc. Water too. I've never had anyone say anything about the content so have yet to square up to lunchbox police!

Savoury muffin/ scone type things in little cake cases seem to be good. Throw in veg and same cheese or ham. A change from sandwiches.

Smashed avocado and sliced tomato on rye bread with grapes on the side and a good dose of black pepper.

Our favourite sandwich filling is curried chickpeas (just cook with some curry paste for a few minutes) chop some red pepper, spring onions and spinach and put between some wholemeal bread with mango chutney...all ingredients come from
Lidl

Wraps - preference is smoked salmon and cream cheese, but we don't have that very often!
Veg sticks and a dip.
Tub of strawberries, or grapes.
Carton of juice, and a bottle of water frozen overnight so that it is both ice cold to drink, and also keeps the lunch cool.

My dc love having leftovers for their packed lunch! A wedge of cold homemade quiche, for example, or a portion of stew or soup heated up in a flask.

They rarely have sandwiches.

Mn cookbook broccoli balls have been a huge hit here, along with pasta salads- cold pasta, chicken, sweetcorn and carrots .

They also both enjoy a new potato salad- green beans, garlic, ochopped olives, and new potatoes- dressed in oil and lemon . I would never have thought that they would eat this, but it is my no1 picnic food.

A typical week (including Saturday music school) would be

Salads -

pasta, chopped cucumber,tinned pineapple, chopped tomato and a tin of tuna mixed up with mayo.

shredded left over cooked chicken, grated carrot, shredded white cabbage and noodles dressed with soy sauce and sprinkled with sesame seeds.

Wraps-

filled with a paste of cooked spinach and mashed feta with cooked mushrooms and red onion.

Spread with hummus or home made smoked mackerel pate and put in lunch box with with thin sticks of carrot, cucumber and celery to assemble themselves

Bites-

Mini frittatas - beaten eggs mixed with grated cheese and sweetcorn and chopped tomato and cooked bacon - pour into muffin cases and bake in oven for 15 minutes. Add some carrot and cucumber sticks to eat with them. They freeze well so I usually make a couple of trays at a time.

Mini pasties - use a small bowl to cut out circles from ready made pastry - fill with a bit of left over mince from a bolognaise sauce or left over chicken curry. Serve with chopped salad veg.

Plain or pesto pasta with a small tub of Parmesan to sprinkle over. Lidl tube yoghurts, small tub dried mango and a bun.

Ham salad wraps. Fruit salad. Fruity homemade flapjack. All cheap and cheerful and fairly healthy.

I am reading all these with envy as my 9 year old daughter is incredibly fussy & packed lunches are a nightmare! She does like Soreen malt loaf but I just slice a whole one rather than pay out for the lunchbox ones. Another big fan of wraps. She likes cold sausage or roast chicken. I have been “ told off” for not providing enough in school packed lunches 😞

My dc will always eat cucumber, so I pop a couple of mini cucumbers in pretty much every pack lunch! Chopped strawberries (if the lunchbox is staying in one place, else it becomes a smoothie!) or whole fruit like bananas usually get eaten too.

Savoury muffins or sweet corn fritters travel well and make a nice change from sandwiches if we're doing a week of lunches. I also vary the bread. I must try the broccoli balls mentioned upthread.

We usually have a batch or two of banana bread muffins in the freezer, because they're made with less sugar than most cakes they feel a bit less unhealthy and so I'll take one from the freezer in the morning and it's defrosted by lunch. I also load flapjacks with dried fruit and seeds to pack but even I can't convince myself they are healthy, just maybe less bad than a choc bar!

Celery sticks, Piccolo tomatoes, pistachios, baked salmon or tuna and a few noodles with soy sauce. A piece of fruit. I have the same at work.

I have a pathological fruit and veg avoider who devours fruit muffins quite happily. Nowhere near his 5 a day but they need relatively little fat and added sugar and get a token amount of bkueberry, raspberry or banana into his diet.

I get a bit irritated by other children tbh who complain when DD takes stuff
Now vetoed by bittchy gobby girls are
Pepperoni
Lunch size tins of tuna
Meat smelling crisps
FFS
Her favourite thing to take is last nights leftovers in food flask
She complains that it's too hot sometimes! So leftover chilli, roast dinners, pasta bakes etc. I put in hot chicken fajita wraps as leftover and still v hot so thoroughly recommend the Stanley thermos food flask!

This has ended up being a placemark as everyone else's tips are better than mine and I want to use them as inspo 😂
We do the muffin case quiches, cheese and chive or ham snipped up with scissors (anything DD is involved in preparing, she will be more inclined to eat). Will add cous cous to the list: pour on boiling water, cover and it's done. Absolutely anything can be added to it for flavour.

My eldest likes her vegetables plain, not in anything so she'll have a bowl of cauliflower or green beans on the side of whatever she's eating.

my kids have school dinners but for packed lunches for sporting torments i do pots of chopped cucumbers/ peppers, fruit, wraps they make themselves so they will eat them and a protein bar.

the no nuts thing is the reason i won't do packed lunches - nightmare

my youngest has school dinners but we always have packed lunches when going out for the day. Ham / cheese salad wraps go down really well. I also packed lots of fruit and cut up veggies! They are allowed the odd treat if they polish this lot off first.
I also only take water out with ud

I wish my DC 11 and 10 would eat more healthy lunch box/picnic items. They always have wholemeal bread or wraps (according to them everyone else has white though I think they exaggerate ). So that's a start. Always have a handful of cherry tomatoes which they love. Often a small cheese. I sometimes (not as often as I'd like) make flapjacks or banana bread. Always a fruit snack for mid-morning. Apart from that the items are ok but not as great as say falafels or hummus. They just refuse to eat certain things.
I'm happy that overall they eat well - my DD went 4 years without a day of sick, and DS only sick once in that time. They miss the bugs that go round so I'm hoping their immunity is strong. They definitely get their 5 a day with dinner added.

Carrot and cucumber sticks.
Assorted coloured wee tomatoes
Cheese of some description with a few crackers / cheesy biscuits.
Mini frittatas or savoury muffins or savoury flapjacks.
Various types of fruit
Water.

Homemade houmous and/or mild guacamole with dipping vegs or pitta strips

My daughter used to take a food flask to school with leftovers such as pasta and tomato sauce or pasta and pesto lr veg noodles. She then had fruit and yoghurt for pudding.

I often give them them a mix of berries together with some low fat yoghurt.