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

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

My banana bread for his dessert. (it's a non sugar recipe with oats and ripe bananas)

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

My rainbow wraps, red cherry tomatoes halved, red, orange and yellow peppers, a dressing, and cooked sliced chicken breast.

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

If they have a test, or it's book day, or a birthday - yes I love to leave a message.

I like to make sure they have good, balanced food that looks appetising. They have some favourites, but also love little surprises on new things to try.
Favourites are mozzarella, spinach, tomato and pesto wraps, Spanish omelette and tuna pasta salad. Then I add in some fruit and extras to give more, diary, protein or carbs. It can be anything from cranberries to crackers. For a treat I might put in sushi or something we would consider more a luxury.
To be honest, they are equally happy eating a cheese roll, a yoghurt and a piece of fruit.
I am in absolute awe of the pictures I see online of Japanese Bento box food 'art'- amazing but I just don't have the time!

Little pizzas on muffin bases go down well as do savoury muffins.

My daughter loves a lunch box that she has helped prepare. She will pick out what will be in it and helps make it the night before. She loves to pick her fruit and her 'treat'. We always leave a little reminder to only have her treat when shes had her fruit and veggie snacks :)

My dd's are at an age where they don't really ask for much except what box it is in!!

My DD used to have ham sandwiches every single day. Occasionally chicken, or beef, but ham was the norm. She also had something else savoury, such as a sausage roll, or cocktail sausages, or chicken drumstick. Always fruit, which was different every day, and a yogurt.

Only allowed plain water as a drink.

I try to keep the lunches balanced and fairly healthy, with things like cucumber and carrot sticks with hummus, homemade bake or flapjack, pasta with pesto, etc. rather than just sticking with sandwiches.
We've already been using the infusions with reusable water bottles to help reduce plastic/packaging waste.

My son never liked the "traditional" soggy sandwich. He usually had school lunches but with a packed lunch on trips. Box of salad and raw veg with a little protein usually meat based. Pitta bread or wrap separately. Little box with fresh fruit in it. I have occasionally put some popcorn or a pack of fun sized biscuits in (no food police at his school) but they usually come back untouched. I was even told by one of the teachers how envious she was of his lunch!! Smug emoticon!!

We do lots of interesting veg in their lunch.. black olives, or sliced red peppers.. or even beetroot.. we try not to use disposable plastic.. so we cube cheese and have mini tomatoes..

My little ones love it when I do pasta but unfortunately I don't always have time to sort this out so they do tend to have the same things. I try to add extra bits of fruit / veg to add a bit of variety

I avoid giving sandwiches because neither of mine like them. I send pasta and pesto or cheese or crackers or something like that. I also give a few little snacks so that they can select what they eat: eg, cucumber, strawberries, babybel, and carrot sticks one day and then other similar options the next.

they do like a wrap instead of a sandwich. I love the idea of writing / drawing on a banana, never thought of that! I send ds2 off to camp with his banana wrapped in a piece of paper covered in banana jokes. DS1 was well jel!

My kids’ lunch boxes are pretty predictable (eg sandwich, carrot sticks, piece of cheese/Frube etc). My dad, aged 9, however, has decided that a few days a week she’d like soup or pasta in a thermos to take to school. I did the same when I was about her age; I had a ‘Paddington’ flask and used to have tomato soup and bread to dip in!

In summer, a salad bowl, tuna with sweetcorn, mini wraps with salad and chicken tikka, grapes and a bottle of water in a diffuser. In winter a soup in a flask with a buttered roll and flapjack, and fruit. I will add a bag of crackers with some cheese.
Having an insulated lunchbox is a must to keep food cool and safe in summer.

I bought DS1 and 2 lunchboxes with several compartments which they love, I find a little variety means they will eat more, I will put a small brown bread roll with tuna fish and sweetcorn, some cheese and mini crackers, a few grapes, and greek yoghurt with blueberries in summer, and tinned satsumas in winter. I am going to try a flask of soup in the winter months, as I think it's a great idea, and as home made soup can hide a multitude of hidden vegetables, and I love to use up my weekend vegetables, it will be a new soup every week !. I will leave little good luck notes when a maths test is due, or a happy birthday note.

DD has just gone into juniors so is now on packed lunches. And for her this is excitement enough. I haven't got time to be mucking around making them fun to eat (after a school run and a lunch bag being thrown god knows where when she gets to school god knows what state it will be in come lunchtime). But she has helped write some meals beyond 'sandwiches' that she'd like and she also picked out a lunch bag and sandwich box.

Both my dc are dairy intolerant so packed lunches usually go something like this

Crackers and goats cheese
Tuna pasta
Tomato pasta
Veg sticks
Fruit
Soya choc pots or soya vanilla custard
Piece of home baking like banana muffin
Turkey sandwiches
Occasional jam sandwich!

Not all at once obviously....

I sometimes wrap up a giant marshmallow to make them smile or pop heart shaped sandwiches in the littlest ones box. Anything to brighten their day!

I am definitely a food as love type person, so I try to add a little love to my daughters lunch, an easy way to make them fun is the sandwich cutters we have dinosaurs and a frog with a crown which is fab! I wish I could make the fun bento lunches I see but I don't have the time for things like that and she's a pretty lucky eater. I write a message on her banana to make her smile some days or a face on her orange always makes her laugh :).

I'm always looking for new ideas to make my son's packed lunch more exciting.. I am rather unimaginative left to my own devices so am always apprecative of some lunchtime inspiration!
We've found wraps go down a lot better than sandwiches & they are so quick to make! He loves veg so cucumber & carrot sticks are always a winner. A recent favourite is dried cranberries which is a great, healthy way of offering something sweet but not packed with refined sugar.
He's a growing lad & is very active - so I don't begrudge him a bag of crisps in his packed lunch!! :)

I am just about to embark on packed lunches as my daughter will not eat school lunches. So far, my ideas are wraps, pasta salads. A note is expected! Quite nervous about how much time this is going to take up!

What a brilliant idea! I'll be looking out for these, because if I put a fruit juice carton in my sons lunchbox, I don't want him to have any more juice, which means no juice at breakfast. So this would be ideal for lunches.

My sons favourite thing is when I do a DIY wrap. All of the components separate and he can make his own wrap concoction.

We try to find alternatives to sandwiches made with bread so mix things up by using bagels, wraps, pitta bread, rolls, etc.
Keeping the fillings varies too so ham, cheese, tuna, chicken, marmite...
Fruit & veg is cut up into small pieces in their own little pots which seems to go down well.

I try to mix it up so it has lots of colours different fruit and vegetables and looks colourful and appealing

Lots of small portions. Rather than one big cheese sandwich, a one-slice-of-bread cheese sandwich, a little blob of hummous, a couple of carrot sticks, couple of pepper slices, a slice of melon, a few strawberries, one biscuit etc etc.
Not sure juicy teabags would even be accepted in schools. It's water only I thought. I'm lucky all mine do prefer water so no arguments there.

My kids like egg and tomato sandwiches made with homegrown 'tiger' striped tomatoes. Fun to grow too!