Mumsnet users share their healthy lunch ideas with Lidl

[JustineBMumsnet]

This activity is now closed

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

Standard Insight T&Cs Apply

Home-grown mini (organic) cucumbers go down well, ham and cheese wraps, piece of fruit, yogurt and a bun.

Tuna pasta salad

Chicken / ham / turkey in lettuce wraps

Leftovers or soup in a flask

Salad boxes

Overnight oats

Carrot,pepper or cucumber sticks.
Cherry tomatoes cut up.
Grapes cut up.
Rice cakes with cream cheese on.
Wholemeal wraps with cheese,cucumber and tomatoes one.

My kids love wraps usually ham and cucumber. They e got lunch boxes with little compartments so I put cherry tomatoes or carrot sticks in those. I also bake savory muffins, they don't often last until.monday morning though. Great for sneaky veg inside.
I buy big bags of crisps ( family sized) and decant these into smaller portions.
They have a treat on a Friday :)

Frozen banana with thin layer of dark chock and hazelnuts. Keeps lunch box cool too. Home made soup packed with veggies in a small colourful flask and a wholemeal roll. Great way to get fruit and veg in the little people they love the soups and do not realise theyre packed with goodness. Its also a great way to use up veg thats past its best.

DD likes veg sticks, so carrot, cucumber and bell pepper sticks with hummus
Fruit pot , usually grapes and berries, she eats this at snack time.
String cheese
Whole meal wrap, chicken or sausage

My kids like tuna mayo or chicken mayo wraps
Sugar snap peas and peppers
Piece of fruit
Cheese cubes
Pure apple juice
And a treat like a Bourbon biscuit!

DS is very fussy so he will have for lunch every single day, cold tuna and mayo pasta cucumber sticks or Apple slices and a yoghurt.

I would love for him to eat any sort of bread, potato and other fruit options to have something different so he often is given a smaller portion of something new/ what I'm having for lunch which goes untouched.

DS is allergic to dairy, and we tend to use almond milk instead, so lunches can be tricky, as it’s a nut-free school. But quiche/frittata made with rice milk, pizza swirls with a small amount of dairy free cheese, home made veg-packed sausage rolls, are all favourites.

My daughter is so fussy! I find it quite hard and she tends to have the same things:

A ham and mustard sandwich (50/50 bread just one slice, a humous wrap or a slice of frittata (usually cheese and ham)
Strawberries
Cherry tomatoes and olives
Plain popcorn or mini breadsticks.

She doesn't eat loads and sometimes on a Friday we put a few crisps or a cereal bar in too.

Ham/chicken slices with light soft cheese spread in the middle and rolled up served with baby tomatoes and sliced cucumber

I am really pushed for time so it is usually sandwich, yogurt or cereal bar, fruit and a few bits of salad. If I can find time then we sometimes make flapjacks or muffins with extra fruit in that are seen as a real treat. The best response I had from the kids was when I popped in some blackberries from the garden!

Not for children, but for me, I have a bento lunch box, 5 compartments to be filled with a carb, a protein, a fruit a veg and a spare for a treat or a second fruit or vegetable.

My DC are quite happy with a sandwich, yoghurt, apple and banana :)

They get bored with sandwiches so I often mix things up with things like -
Cold Pasta - Bolognese sauce / pesto with tomatoes and cucumber pieces / tuna and sweetcorn
Pastry pinwheels - cheese and pizza sauce / cheese and pesto / cheese and ham
Cheese Quesadillas - with pizza sauce / black beans / baked beans / onion / sweetcorn / peppers
Pitta bread strips with hummus and veg sticks

There is always a main, a veg portion, a fruit portion (or 2) and a dairy element (cheese or yoghurt)

My daughter hates sandwiches so I always do a selection of little bits instead. Normally either hoummous with carrots, breadsticks etc; or cheese with crackers and veg sticks or fruit.

Mine two both really like either soreen banana cake or flapjack for a pudding that will give them energy (they don’t usually have packed lunches, only for sports camps or similar in the holidays).

The other thing I sometimes do is left over pizza slices if we have had pizza the night before.

DS is starting full time nursery in September. He is really fussy so will be taking a cheese sandwich, a homemade banana muffin and a yo bear fruit roll. I'm afraid that's as healthy as it gets and that will probably be every day!

Avocado and marmite sandwiches

Babybel cheeses

Precook stuffed fresh pasta (literally pour boiling water on it for 5mins night before) and kids eat cold. Add frozen veg and tuna for extra bulk

Frozen broccoli - precook it and kids eat cold

Cold hard boiled egg

Homemade pizza with loads of hidden veg in the sauce

I usually try to use left overs from the night before in a wrap or as a cold pasta/rice salad

We have wholemeal bread with a healthy filling. One of their favourites is grated carrot, grated chees, spring onion, a dash of mayo.
We always roast some extra chicken on Sundays to shred for sandwiches and they’ll have that with lettuce or baby spinach leaves.
In winter, we have flasks which I’ll put home made soup or stew in.
There’s always fruit in their lunch box and a ‘treat’. Sometimes it’s a biscuit but we try to do something home made like carrot cake or flapjacks with seeds in it.
Eldest dc is 13 now so they can take charge of the baking themselves now

My ds loves nothing more than veggie sticks and lidls red pepper hummus! Then a bottle of water or occasionally a juice box.
I make muffins or flapjacks for added energy to get him through the afternoon and he always has a piece of fruit - mango is his current fave!

For sandwiches mine prefer the thins or bread rolls to sliced bread, with cheese/quorn ham, a little salad and maybe some relish. The thins are quite "sturdy" so can take plenty of filling yet seem to be quicker to eat for dc who want to run about at lunchtime. Plus they don't go soggy the way wraps and pittas can.

Our other options for school lunches are:

• Leftover pasta or couscous with plenty of salad veggies and cheddar/feta/mozzarella mixed through.
• Quiche/quesadilla, veg sticks and cherry tomatoes, maybe a couple of quorn cocktail sausages.
• A "picnic" lunch of falafels, hummus, veggies, cheese, toasted pitta strips/breadsticks.

We always add fruit and every lunch will have two or more of cherry tomatoes/cucumber/pepper sticks/carrot batons. I'm a bit obsessive about getting veg into them but thankfully they like veg!

Our school doesn't allow crisps, biscuits, sweets, chocolate etc so "treats" tend to be maybe a frube, flapjack, piece of fruit bread, cereal bar, a small muffin etc. I know some people wouldn't be happy about the healthy eating policy but tbh I find it makes life easier as it avoids everyone else is allowed, it's not fair arguments plus there doesn't seem to be as much commenting negatively among children about the smell/appearance of others lunch!

Savoury muffins. Broccoli and cheese are my and DD’s favourite although DS won’t touch them yet. But you can put all sorts in a muffin and it’s suddenly fun and yummy