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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We get them involved in choosing what goes in their lunch boxes when we do the food shop and if they eat everything all week then they get a little surprise in their lunchbox on Friday

They get to decide what they would like in their lunch boxes with the one rule that everything must be healthy. They seem to like the idea of choosing things themselves.

my daughter loves it when i make her a mini make your own lunch. i buy little wraps or mini pittas and grate cheese and add pink wiggly worms as she calls it (ham cut into thin strips) and some cucumber sticks and cherry tomatos in a little tub. i put her box with everything in into her bag and she makes them at school using the box lid as a plate.

i use stickers on all the packaging too so that makes her laugh.

i usually let her try what she wants for school lunch as i ant her to actually want to eat it. she wouldnt if it was a plain boring sandwich.

By making the packed lunch colourful with fun shapes. Tasty cheese portions, carrot sticks, a little treat and sandwiches cut into soldiers

We write out little 'menus' on the weekend for each day. I make little faces on fruit, rolls and sandwiches - I always bake a Gingerbread Man for each day with different expressions - on Fridays a huge smile!

I involved my son in the choices when we were at the supermarket so that he could choose some of the things he'd like to try. It was nice to add lots of little bits and pieces for variety but I learned to never buy too much of any one thing as a favourite one week would soon lose favour and never be eaten again!

I make omelette sandwiches with spinach and tomato to give a bit of variety in the childrens packed lunches. I pop in a few chocolate rice cakes as well as theyre healthier than just putting in a chocolate bar!

At the start of the week give them a set of (healthy) options and they choose what they want. When they feel like they have chosen their lunch and they are in control they are more inclined to eat it all.

My little girl wont eat normal sandwiches if they are in a packed lunch , however if i make pinwheels with a wrap and ham she will eat every bit. She likes things to look a little different in her lunch . She usually picks which fruit and yoghurt too which helps

I'm a real foodie so it was a shock when my dd started to show signs that she was not! Our best discovery was the compartmentalised lunchbox. She loves being able to pick at different little parts of her lunch 'buffet'

I try and give them food they like and new things to try

I involve my children in making their pack lunches and vary things every day so they do not get bored

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.

Not just sandwiches which can get boring. Try wraps, salads, etc

My son loves his lunch when I put squirts cheese inside his ham and roll it up. He often has a dip with cut vegetables to dip in it.

I let my daughter help me make her lunch and we cut her sandwiches into shapes using cookie cutters.

We have Yumboxes for the children, which are basically like bento-style boxes. They have 5 different little compartments and one smaller round one, so we can fill them with a variety of things. Our children can be quite restrictive with eating and won’t reliably eat things like sandwiches, so this works for us. We put different things in and vary them weekly or every few days, so they get a variety and choice of food and it always looks a bit different (different fruits, crackers, meats/dairy and so on). We show them what is available for lunch and sometimes they’ll choose what they want, often they’re happy just to be surprised! The boxes are also bright colours and we’ve let them put stickers on them to personalise them, so they like having their ‘special’ lunchbox.

i get the kids to help out makign the lunches, we chop and slice foods into funny shaps and i leave little notes in thier boxs tto

Cuting the kids sandwich with funny faces cutters. I also put little notes into her lunch box with funny little pictures. She loves a little surprise of what I have written her.

I feel like I have been making packed lunches most of my life! I find my children can be influenced by what other children are eating. When at home they are happy to eat a home made, healthy wholemeal pizza leftovers but not at school. I cut pieces of cheddar in shapes, little tomatoes, wholemeal bread in sandwiches (if necessary in shapes). I try to involve them in ideas without giving in to over packaged or processed stuff.

My kids love lunches they can build themselves. I make a few different ones through the week for variation. They have packed lunch boxes that have compartments so no extra pots required.

Cheese triangle, crackers, pepperoni slices
Wraps, ham, grated cheese, cucumber sticks
Cold cooked pasta, small tub of tomato and herb sauce, sweetcorn, diced chicken

We are lucky that the schools they attend aren't strict about the length of time they take in the dinner hall.

In the winter they take flasks of soup/pasta/chilli/curry which keeps make a nice change to have something hot.

I put little notes in them.

Varying things up so not always sandwiches - wraps, pitta bread, thin bagels etc. Also different types of fruit and various cheeses

Its best to find many, many small variations of things they like and then continually rotate them over a few weeks - sandwiches are boring so cut them up and put different things on them. I also found some teeny tiny food pots and made mini pasta pots, salad pots, crunchy pots (carrot and pepper etc) and sometimes had a mysterious item (like a new variety of cheese he hadnt tried before to see if he liked it) - the pots can be made in advance and just grabbed out of the fridge before school. I once found a pad of face stickers in the pounshop years ago and it had mini faces and i used to put a new one on his lunchbox every day. Also in summer if you use a flask with ice cubes then the water will still be nice and cold to drink.

Presentation and what the food is in is key we find. Something wrapped in cling film or foil and it's just the same old same old, so we do things which can be put in little jars or need the use of some trendy, fold-able cutlery so it makes things a little more exciting. Also, make things as colourful as possible to add more interest!