teenage lunch boxes - seriously you dont expect carrotts sticks at this age?

[slartybartfast]

mine have lotes of bad foods and distinctly lack satsumas, etc.,
sometimes i might do grapes/cherry toms
should i be whipped? thrown fruit at.

well other lunchbox threads, and there have been loads a few, talk about things that to me are inappropriate for teenagers. for isntance the 5 a day fruit/veg scenario.

I have been known, when DS1 in danger of scurvy, to cut up an apple and put it in his hand. . He will eat it happily but would no more raid the fruit bowl than fly.
I remember once he had friends over for pizza. One girl very politely asked whether there was any salad?
Where did I go wrong? Are there 16 year old boys out there who choose healthy food?

DS age 14 has the same ;packed lunch every day. (made by me usually)

At least four slices of bread - or two large bread rolls (wholemeal, my concession to healthy eating...). Filing of cheese, potted beef, quorn 'chicken' or 'beef' or if stocks are really low - marmite or pb and jam.
A pack of plain crisps
Cereal bar
bottle of water.

I too used to pack an apple, but it came home - bruised, sweaty - and uneaten. He says that there is nowhere to put the apple core ? so I gave up. To be fair he did have an apple with his breakfast - and one just now on return from school -along with about 6 custard creams..

We eat a lot of vegetables in main meals - so I don't think I am too bad.

ds is 14 and has wraps every day alwasy with ham grated cheese and ketchup (that counts a vegetable right??), two chocolate biscuits and a pack of crisp. he buys a drink at school.

I usually find the carrier bags (he wont take a lunch box as thats not cool) stuffed under is bed with half eaten wraps, chocolate wrapper and juice cartons in, so do a regualr check.

He will eat fruit and veg as part of his main meal in the evening, but unlike the younger ones will never reach to the fruit bowl for a snack or go to the fridge for a carrot or chunk of cucumber, sliced peppers etc.

ds2 is 10 and in yr 5 and such a good eater, im hoping this remains the same at senior school too, but i'm fooling myself aren;t i?

Me and my dad make lunches for ourselves and each other on alternate nights. To make it more healthy we have wraps or salads instead of a boring old sarnie. A way to make a different type of lunch is to use something you wouldnt normally eat (tinned sardines go down a treat).
I only eat a sandwich now, but when i was younger i had at least 3 pieces of fruit, a yoghurt, a biscuit and some low cal crisps if i was still hungry when i got home, then i'd snack on fruit or nuts

When the dd's were at school, I would pack them a snack lunch. They never ever ate sandwiches, or whole fruits, so I gave them chopped up apple/orange/peach/nectarine and grapes in one small box, (like a fruit salad) and then some nuts and crackers with some kind of dip in the other. This mostly got eaten, but if I'd been at work early and just have them whole fruits, they didn't touch it! Older dd will happily take one of the freezer meals (I work off hours, so one say a week I cook three meals and freeze them in individual serves so that there's always a meal) or savoury muffins to uni these days, and dd2 takes a breakfast drink (lazy eater!) and a cupcake and some chips. They both eat decent dinners if they come home. Ds (11) mostly makes his own lunches, and takes heaps of food! Mostly fruit and sandwiches cause I only buy one bag of crisps, all the rest of the snacks are baked by me, cause I love cooking.

My two still have carrot sticks by choice!

I'm all done with making their lunches though - they come to the supermarket with me on a Sunday and have a basket each to get what they want for their lunches They go through phases but they quite like making up a big bowl of salad which will then last a few lunches. They are both quite happy to have the same thing for several days on the trot.

Once this big bowl of salad runs out they then just make a quick cheese or ham or peanut butter sandwich.

As well as the usual stuff - muesli bars/ kit kats/ crisps etc they buy
Innocent smoothie pouches
Strawberries/ blueberries or grapes or cherry tomatoes to put in a Tupperware
Carrot or cucumber for sticks (yes really - they really like them) and little hummus pots
Yoghurts

They are 18 and 16 years old girls, very figure- and health-conscious these days but one of mine used to be quite fussy when she was younger - probably until until she was mid-teens, I just used to make her the same wrap every day with chicken, sweet corn, mayo and cucumber and send her with some strawbs and a satsuma (favourite fruits) as well as some rubbish.

I make ds1 sandwiches. He does the rest.

But he eats it on the train on the way to and home from school

It is not cool for a 13 year old to eat lunch at school. Apparently.

He also takes a carrier bag. On Fridays I find 5 carrier bags in his room full of wrappers and bits of food.