Let’s talk school packed lunches with Twinings Kids Cold In‘fuse

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From wacky lunchboxes to inventive snacks designed to get your kids to eat well, school packed lunches are a key part of the back to school preparation. It can take a lot of trial and error to make nutritious packed lunches that are also fun and appealing, and anything that makes life easier in this department is often welcomed.

Here’s what Twining’s have to say:
“We all know how difficult it can be to get children to eat well without compromising on fun or filling their lunch boxes with boring meals! That’s why we’ve produced our new Kids Cold In’fuse range, made by using natural ingredients only. Developed in partnership with children, the product offers a fun way to encourage kids to consume more water and is a sugar free alternative to fruit juices and cordials, which can have a high sugar content. By simply adding the infusion bags to their water bottles and giving it a quick shake, children can enhance their water with delicious flavours including; Strawberry Lemonade, Mango & Orange and Blackcurrant & Apple. Not only that, but all the products in the range have been specially developed to ensure that the acidity level is safe for children’s tooth enamel.

As part of the launch, we are supporting Public Health England’s Change4Life campaign, which encourages families to cut back on sugar by making a few simple swaps to everyday food and drink. With children heading back to school this September, we encourage everyone to make the simple swap in their packed lunches and let us know what you think!”

What is your child’s favourite part of their packed lunch? Have you created a fun twist on an otherwise boring snack? Maybe you put a fun note into their lunchbox every so often as a surprise?

Share the fun ways you make your children’s packed lunches appealing on the post below and all who do so will be entered into a prize draw where 1 MNer will win a £300 voucher of their choice (from a list).

Thanks and good luck!
MNHQ

Standard Insight T&Cs Apply

I tend to use leftovers that I've frozen from previous meals. It's exciting for the kids and is a money saver for me e.g. this week they've had leftover chicken curry & rice in a wrap (burrito style), chicken & vegetable tray-bake, chunks of roast lamb (from Sunday dinner) in pita bread with salad and greek yogurt, and today was mini vegetable balls that i'd made from leftover sunday veg (and fried) with pasta and a tomato sauce.

I have a carrot ‘sharpener’ which makes giant carrot shavings like orange petticoats which are more fun to eat than batons or slices - children eat with their eyes.

As silly as it sounds I found cutting thing up into silly shapes has helped. I used shaped cookie cutters for sandwich ‘bites’ and cut carrots and cucumber into zig zap shapes. It can just make that boring school lunch a bit more appealing. I’ve event been known to draw a smoky face on their bananas on occasion.

At least once a week I add a little joke, picture or nice note inside their lunch box

Cut the sandwiches into funny shapes

Food cut into teeny pieces is amazingly exciting to children. No idea why. My dad used to give me "fairy sandwiches" with each quarter of sandwich cut into four more pieces. I loved them! My daughter (aged nearly 19 and off to uni in a couple of days) still asks for fairy sandwiches if she's had a tough day. Whether it is sandwiches, fruit, vegetables, anything "cuttable"- chop it into little pieces and kids are sorted!

Home cooking, we are gluten free so it proves difficult. Lots of pasta, home made bakery goodies sometimes we get rice cakes.

I give them a selection of lunches and let them pick, I cut their sandwiches into animal shapes and always include a sweet treat like grapes or melon

no fun things, but they are old enough to make their own lunch up and can pick what bread, meats, fruits etc they want in it.

My daughter's favorite part of her packed lunch is fruit. I change it up by doing pots of cut fresh fruit, sometimes using tinned fruit cocktail. sometimes making fresh fruit skewers, sometime by giving dried fruit like boxes of raisins and sometimes i she has a fruit bear yoyo.

Mostly little healthy treats and swap sandwiches with pitta bread or wraps

I make sure it’s different every day so they don’t get bored. Home made mini tub desserts with fresh berries and yogurt always go down well

I love to cut their sandwiches into cute little characters. My daughters fave atm is dinosaurs!

For us, getting DS involved really helped in ensuring we were packing things he'd actually eat. Though he's just started school and is exploring school dinners at the moment (the novelty of choosing whether to be on the 'cold team' or 'hot team' each day hasn't worn off yet. Oh, to be 4 again!) he took packed lunches to nursery.
He got quite set in his routine and would generally have the same things everyday- fortunately it was all pretty healthy and balanced. Sometimes we'd surprise him by putting strawberries or cut up grapes in his lunchbox- stuff he enjoys but doesn't have all the time.

Oh, and letting him choose his own 'big boy' lunchbox that had lots of compartments got him quite interested... bless him, it was bright purple and pink but he loved it!

My older DC likes to have left overs for school in a food flask - her favourite is leftover chilli - we put it in the flask upside down (cheese at the bottom, then sauce and rice on the top) because rice holds the heat brilliantly the cheese goes gooey and melted at the bottom 😋😋

My younger DC has just started KS1 but had a packed lunch at nursery. He loved mini pizzas for lunch - take a tortilla wrap and cut small circles with a biscuit cutter (or playdoh cutter for different shapes to keep it interesting!) add some passata, ham, sweet corn and mozzarella and stick under the grill until it’s all melted. Leave to cool and then pack away! Delicious 🤤

For DD, post-it notes do the trick! Started as a joke to cheer her up one day and has stuck for a while now. Nothing elaborate, often notes with the silliest things!!

I just try and mix up the choices on a regular basis, with themed days, so sometimes Italian, sometimes American ingredients. I also do fruity skewers and pinwheel pizzas, as well as my very own 'secret salsa' dip with veggie sticks.

It’s really hard with my son as he’s such a picky eater but I try and mix things up so he doesn’t end up with the same items every day, that’s it really 😂

Ours like a wide range of foods so on a Saturday they decide what they'd quite like for eating on the week ahead and sometimes it's things I hd never even considered but they've maybe seen someone else have it at school.
They tend to go for pasta or Couscous with different vegetables through them with grapes or strawberries, a yoghurt and a snack sized sweet or biscuit. So lots of colour and food varieties.

I ask them what they want and give them healthy choices! I always give fruit and vegetables and a treat like malt loaf too! They rarely leave anything!

I take the kids with me to shop for their lunches where possible, because if they choose then they eat - or at least that's my rule of thumb.

I'm also trying to teach them to shop and budget. I used to get them school lunches, but now I get the same money and let them spend as they deem fit on suitable things for packed lunches. That way they learn the cost of things and if there's anything left over at the end of the school year - they split it and get themselves a treat.

During the summer months, I put their drinks bottles in the freezer, that way the drink would melt during the day but stay cold.

Lastly, if my children were being fruit shy - they often opt for big chunks of cucumber or carrots instead.

A thermos food flask in winter for some warm, home cooked meals. Even a chopped up jacket potato mixed with baked beans will be welcome when everyone else is eating a cold, dreary sandwich

Try and give variety each day

We use fun sandwich cutters

I do a bento style lunchbox. Small portions of lots of things. My boys love it as they know there will be surprises and world foods in their lunchboxes! They have one small treat food in their lunchbox each day and they always get excited to find out what it is. Today I made a little pick 'n' mix for them with some American candy we were sent from a friend.