Mumsnet users share their healthy lunch ideas with Lidl

[JustineBMumsnet]

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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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We love the Oaklands range of vegetables, peeled and made into sticks and with a carton Naturis, a tuna sandwich and an Oaklands Fun Size Apple, I rarely have anything left in the lunchbox.

A whole meal pitta stuffed with cooked chicken, rice, grated cheese and a low fat garlic dressing always is a winner in our house, easy to eat, quick to make and tasty, with some fruit, or home made no sugar carrot cake ticks all the boxes.

Tuna sandwiches (no sweetcorn allowed !), sliced mini pepper (they are so sweet) carrot sticks, cherry tomatoes and a fromage frais.

My eldest loves an apple, and a frozen tube yogurt. If eaten early enough in the day, it's a healthy frozen treat. Eaten later on it defrosts but is still delicious and it stays cold.

The kids like to have dips with their sliced veg & salad, anything from minty cucumber in summer to something a bit more warming in the colder months such as korma or spicy tomato.

Watching with interest.

For a quick and healthy and very tasty lunch:
Reduced fat hummus
Ryvita thins
Chopped red onion and tomatoes
Caramelized red onion chutney
Spread the hummus on the ryvita, sprinkle the onion and tomatoes, put a little helping of chutney on top and enjoy
I'm a teacher so in the end pretty much all of us had the same lunch-its delicious!

Homemade hummus and fresh baked bread with cucumber and baby tomatoes grown in the garden. Follow with strawberries and just a dash of cream for a healthy but yummy pud!

Falafels are good. Hard-boiled eggs or egg sandwiches are best avoided because of the smell.

I try to hide extra veg in sandwiches or wraps - like very well-cooked broccoli mashed into soft cheese or hummous.

DD loves hummus and grated carrot sandwiches. It makes me giggle awkwardly when people comment on it like I'm desperately healthy. I'm not. But DD knows she has to have healthy stuff before she can have treats.

A typical packed lunch for her would be sandwiches (hummus and carrot current favourite) a couple of bits of fruit like a banana and some strawberries, a little piece of malt loaf maybe and a slice of cheese. Sometimes she'll ask me to put a couple of party ring biscuits in or something.

My eldest will be starting school after the holidays so we have been thinking about pack lunches recently. A winner in this household is egg muffins with whatever they fancy chucked in. Normally ham and tomato. The kids also like pizza pin wheels- puff pastry with tomato puree and some cheese rolled up, cut and cooked in the oven. Wraps can be filled with whatever you want. A small muffin, a yogurt drink or pot, some veg fingers with a dip is always a winner too.

I keep at least 3 varieties of fruit always available, often more, and like to change them often to keep them interesting.
Fruit kebabs always go down well, as my son likes to be involved making them.

Seeded rolls sandwich thins, are a favourite for us, with ham or ready cooked bbq chicken,or the ultimate- cold quorn sausages and salad. Lots of snack vedge and fruit. Raisins, and then something sweet like multi pack chocolate animals. I have Cous cous, ready cooked chicken, and salad and take some low fat dressing along in a small container, makes a very cheap but nutritious packed lunch. Lidl please consider selling some squash without aspartame- maybe sucralose or stevia for a bit of variety? Lots of people can’t eat aspartame it brings on migraines for me. Also more quorn products, and maybe even hams or sliced chicken without nitrite as a preservative. I get sliced wafer thin chicken, quorn, and squash in a different store and would really love to just get it all in Lidl. Ooh and a sulphate free too to toe wash wouldn’t go a miss!

My daughter is coeliac so lunches are tricky. GF bread is not very appealing so sandwiches are out. So, we go more down the route of rice salads, crackers and veg dips etc. She enjoyed hummus with her dips in primary, but sadly someone said “Eurgh - what’s that?” And that was the end of hummus! 😔

I like the YumBox bento-style lunches, with spaces for little bits and bobs of fruit and veg, meat and carbs. It has pictures in the bottom of the tray to give ideas.

tandoori chicken salad is a fave in our house alongside grilled chicken and salad wraps

We get the children to help grow the veg - unfortunately the only thing that's survived this hot summer is tomatoes and we are all fed up of them now!!!

My youngest doesn't like sandwiches so has pasta in a tomato and vegetable sauce along with fruit and yogurt. My son enjoys chicken wraps and also fruit and yogurt. It's hard to find an alternative to sandwiches apart from pasta for our fussy eater.

We normally just have pack lunches when out as a family, as the DC eat school dinners at school.

They normally refuse to eat sandwiches, so our standard pack lunch includes a variety of crackers, cheese - usually babybel or similar - and fruit. Blueberries and raspberries are enjoyed by all DC, bananas and apples are a bit more hit and miss.
Little yoghurts also go down well with all our DC.

We take water, and juice for the DC who’s currently refusing to drink water.

My children prefer wraps with vegetables, chees or egg. Always put carrot sticks, cucumber and different fruits. Add yoghurt or cheese strings. Sometimes crackers or oaties biscuit.

My kids aren't into sandwiches. Their fave pack lunch which is healthy would be chicken risotto, coconut and quinoa traybake slice and a piece of fruit.
Sounds more posh than it looks though!

Fruit kebabs always go down well and they tend to eat way more fruit when its in kebab form!!

Mmmm bagel with light cream cheese in with tomatoes and cucumber!

I make courgette, cheese and ham muffins for mine and then freeze them for ease. Quick and easy, just take out to defrost the night before.

Mine also love any kind of dried fruit - apricots, figs, dates. So always keep stocked up on those 👍🏼

Salad leaves with spinach, cold sliced hard boiled egg, small tin of tuna flakes, cold sliced boiled potato. Caesar salad dressing, mix it all up. Very filling and delicious, my 3 year old loves it.