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

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Mine get fed up of sandwiches so I try to carry it by putting in things like crackers, wraps, rice salads etc for the carbs instead.

We buy loads of little snack foods and make our own graze boxes. So I have made a big batch of flapjacks with peanut butter clusters in as well as the oats. We have mini breadsticks and something to dip them in and some dried fruit and seeds with chocolate chips.

She'll probably have some ham, cucumber and cheese as well and maybe a mini pitta to put it in.

My DD1 likes a simple lunch - filled bagel, apple, raisisns, oatcake. She can't eat cheese or yogurt, which is a bit limiting. The thing she gets really excited about is if I give her salami! So I guess that's the fun surprise.

I make wraps, normally with chicken and sweetcorn, (the chicken us usually Monday and Tuesday from our Sunday roast chicken), Wednesday, its Tuna and sweetcorn, deli roast ham and tomato, and a pasta meal on Friday (made with roasted yellow and red pepper, and sweetcorn).
I add a small bunch of grapes, and a frozen fromage frais tube (which is defrosted by the time lunch time arrives - but it keeps the sandwich box cool.
Finally a bottle of water.

We are just starting with daily packed lunches, I always put a note in with the occasional ones I sent for school trips. I’ve seen a shot glass being put to good use to make own version of lunchables, think I will be doing that!

As much variety as possible to keep it interesting.
And I get DD to help make things to put in her lunch such as frittata, cheese bread etc

Sometimes put in a separate (tiny) tupperware pot with either chopped fruit or plain nuts ie not salted. Makes it more appetising to have small amounts.

Mini sandwiches are a hit - I make a cheese one, a cucumber one and an egg one, cut each into nine and give each of them three of each. Also small salads, cold pizza, cold lentil rissoles, cold sausages (the favourite) with little tubs of mayo or ketchup for dipping.

DS1 likes variation.
DS2 likes exactly the same thing every day.
I dont have time in the mornings to write notes- we leave at 6.45.

Sorry, Twinings, but its water only in our water bottles - school rules.

My three are a bit predictable with their lunch preferences, but I mix it up by giving different types of dried fruit - mango, apple slices and banana crisps always go down well.
I use large cookie or sandwich cutters to create dinosaurs, hearts, four leaf clovers out of their choice of sandwiches. Spiralised veg has been a hit, ‘cooler’ than batons.

What is your child’s favourite part of their packed lunch?

My chicken salad mini wraps

Have you created a fun twist on an otherwise boring snack?

an apple, cored, them cut up and reassembled into an apple again, tied up with a ribbon. (stops it going brown too)

Maybe you put a fun note into their lunchbox every so often as a surprise?

Only on birthdays - to let them know I am thinking of them, and hoping they have a fun filled day

My DS loved small brown bread rolls filled with grated cheese, small scrubbed chantenay carrots, with a hummus dip, and a drink with frozen blueberries or raspberries in. I will put a tub of natural yoghurt, with a little honey, then they will mix the fruit in when the drink is gone.
Generally the whole lot is gone. I have just bought a minecraft insulated lunchbox ready for the new term.

I have used cookie cutters to make the sandwiches more interesting shapes, but also look for different ways of eating the healthy options for example DD1 loved hummus so had vegetables instead of sandwiches.

Mine like wraps with chicken and we do a random poem on a note +

My son hasn't had a packed lunch for a while as we'd got to the point where it had to be exactly the same every single day. A cheese sarnie is not overly exciting and most of the fruit/veg I packed would come back home. He's actually more likely to eat a varied diet by having a school lunch!

My DC likes having the same things every day. Either a ham or chicken sandwich, a small bag of crisps and either grapes, a banana or an apple. I get complaints if I try to give them something else!

Generally get the kids involved with making their packed lunch as that makes the more likely to eat it! Pita bread & dip, pasta salad, wraps, all on the menu!

My daughter usually has school dinners so when she does have packed lunch she is always so excited she isn't really bothered what's in it! I think her favourite part is anything in a packet or in a little pot she is happy with sandwiches and then maybe a yogurt , fruit and one other small snack whatever I have.

In my children’s Secondary School there are very few places where they can sit down to eat so food needs to be very portable. This is a challenge because they don’t like sandwiches.

I tend to make wraps and filled pitta bread. In good weather when they can sit on the floor pasta or rice salad.

However, the crudités and dips and fruit skewers they enjoyed in Primary are no longer practical.

If I make a quiche for dinner, I'll use leftover pastry to make mini ones in the Yorkshire pudding tins. All my kids love this!

I put cheesy jokes in on special occasions... school trips or birthday, maybe. Not lovey notes as they'd be embarrassed for them to be read by peers.

Sometimes I do a tiny tub with fruit pieces in jelly... usually if we're out of yogurt.

Plain water only at our (3) schools, and every local school that I know of. I'd like the infusions for me, though!

DS is another one who wants the same thing every day. He's quite fussy and really not that interested in food so something quick and easy is what works for him.

He has cream cheese rolls, peppers/tomatoes and fruit. I don't put in treats as I don't think he needs them so no crisps/biscuits etc. which I sometime get complaints about. The only fun thing we ever do is vary the fruit so usually its grapes but sometimes its mango or melon and hes always excited about that.

Whenever he has school dinners he comes home hungry so despite the faff I don't mind that he chooses packed lunch.

He has school dinners but if he is going on a school trip and takes a packed lunch I will make sure he has an apple which he loves and will sometimes add a treat like a mini chocolate bar and a note saying that I hope he is having a good day and enjoying the outing.

DS likes chopped fruit and veg in his packed lunch. He especially likes things like carrots cut into star shapes and dinosaur shaped sandwiches

I try to have a variety of school packed lunches, in the winter my home made vegetable soup in a flask with a buttered bread roll - this is most favoured, in summer it's a variety of mini wraps (chicken, grated cheese, sliced mini peppers and lettuce), cheese and crackers with cherry tomatoes, fruity sundae with greek yoghurt and what ever fruit is in season. I put a no added sugar fruit drink in an water infuser.