At wits end with packed lunches

[eenymeenyminyme]

DD16 refuses to eat sandwiches at school. We've tried pitta, wraps, etc but they just come home coz she 'didn't fancy them'.
She likes the idea of school dinners like her friends have but I can't afford the £50+ a month that it would cost.
I do put some money in her lunch payment account and she spends it on muffins which she'd happily eat for lunch every day but that's just not nutritionally sensible.
She's got me over a barrel as I either give her food and she'll bring it home or I'll give her money and she'll eat muffins or I give her nothing and she'll not eat anything.
What can I put in her lunch box to tempt her to eat sensibly, which isn't bready?!

She’s 16, get her to make her own lunch. You can help her plan what she would like, shop together, but a 16 year old can make their own lunch.

If I leave her to make her own lunch she wont take anything and will use her own money to buy muffins

Dd often takes a sausage roll or scotch pie and eats them cold.

Then she’ll be hungry and that’s her own fault. She might be living away at uni in two years, she needs to learn some responsibility for feeding herself properly. Provide a healthy breakfast and dinner with fruit and veg at home, if she just ends up eating muffins for lunch it won’t kill her

My DD is also 16. She makes pasta the night before with cheese, peppers and whatever else she wants to chuck in.

She also takes breadsticks, peppers and humus when she's feeling lazy.

My children (although they are a lot younger at 11 and 6) like to take cold leftover pizza when we have it or crackers and cheese.

Yep we’ve resorted to the pie and sausage roll.

Although a new bento box a few weeks ago worked - she will take wraps, chicken, salad, cherry tomatoes, carrot sticks, ranch dressing and some mini biscuits quite happily in it and it comes back empty. Could a box work?

She is 16. Don't give her money to waste on muffins. Make sure there is food available in the house and leave her to make her own lunch or go hungry.

If she chooses to use her own money to buy muffins that's her waste not yours.

Sorry but I wouldn't pander to a 16 year old like this. Maybe if she was 6

Am I the only one that thinks missing lunch isn’t the end off the world?

Different types of salads? Eg pasta salad, lentil salad, pumpkin and spinach.

Soup in a thermos?

Hummus with Vegas to dip into it

Hot pasta in a thermos

Homemade pizza scrolls

Homemade sushi

Those are some things my teens like

She’s 16. Unless she has a weight issue (either under or over) I would let her organise her own lunch. Buy whatever lunch materials she asks for and leave her to it.

I like the idea of a bento type box. I can get lots of things in and she can help herself from the fridge each morning. Sausage rolls / cocktail sausages could work well in this, thank you!

I don't need advice on whether she should do it herself thank you, just ideas of what might tempt her to eat.

I assume those who are suggesting she can just go hungry haven't had to deal with anorexia.

Well mine would go hungry then. No way would I give her money to waste on muffins. She'd have to spend her own or grow up a bit and make her own suitable damn lunches.

16 year olds can get away with really crappy diets for a while. She'll realise soon enough that eating shit or being hungry aren't clever options.

What about something hot? Soup/chilli/pasta/stew in a thermos?

sisyema Benton box

Ds has this one

Sistema Bento box is what that should say!

assume those who are suggesting she can just go hungry haven't had to deal with anorexia.

Correct OP, I haven't. However I don't need to have dealt with anorexia to be able to offer better advice then I did, I simply needed to know it was a factor. A pretty huge factor at that.

No point getting snippy at people for not having dealt with anorexia when it wasn't mentioned. People are not stupid and are capable of having different view points beads on different circumstances, even if we don't have personal experience.

I hope you find some good suggestions.

That’s the one we have too

Is she anorexic? If so that's a really important part of your question and you could do with answers from other parents going through similar. Maybe worth a repost in mental health or children's health with that in the title?

At that age I liked cold home
Made pizza or pre cooked cold Mexican bean burger patties if I wasn’t having cold pasta all of which are pretty budget friendly too!

Could you make savoury muffins? I make them for lunch when I went have time to stop to eat. You can put almost anything in them, cheese, tomatoes, peas, ham etc, there are lots of recipes online. Or make sweet but healthy muffins, again lots of recipes online. If muffins is all she will eat, I'd try to work with it

Thank you dementedpixie and RJnomore1

For the less helpful replies - no she's not anorexic but has all the usual teenage body issues, GCSE stress, boyfriend traumas and I'd just like to do what I can to stop her going down that path, having seen friends suffer and knowing she's in a vulnerable place from their experiences.

Is she anorexic?

Not eating sandwiches because you don't like them/they are boring/want to eat muffins and not eating because of anorexia are wildly different.

If she's anorexic your unlikely to just tempt her to eat.

Reachedsohigh I like the savoury muffins idea, thanks!

YorkshireGoldFanClub she doesn't like cold pasta but cold pizza could be worth a try, thanks!

I did this to my poor mum.
Could you make some muffins together that are a bit more healthy?