Packed Lunches for School

Ticklemouse

My two (4 and 7) take in a packed lunch every day. It usually consists of sandwich on HM bread (cheese, ham or very occasionally jam - they won't eat anything else) carton af apple juice, humzinger, piece or fruit/veg (sometimes 2) and sometimes a slice of malt loaf or a HM cake. This costs me less than £1 per child on average.

My 4yo is the worlds fussiest eater and has gone off sandwiches atm so he often take in some plain crackers or multi seed ryvitas and some cheese. They wouldn't eat pasta or rice salad unfortunately. They don't seem to get bored - vary the fruit and sandwiches, occasional treat in the form of a HM cake etc and they are fine.

angie_baby

weetabix brownies

how do i make these, i have loads in the cupbaord as they were on bogof!

mikeywills

If you like making homemade soups these are great in a small flask aswell. I batch make leek and potato, carrot and sweet potato, pea and ham, the list is endless. Freeze up in individual portions, defrost and cook in the microwave in the morning and add to the flask. Some bread and butter for dunking, goes down a storm on a cold day, and you know exactly whats in it.

soba

livinginhope wrote: »

I also make some oaty apple bars

Hi would you have the recipe for these please?


And Ticklemouse what's a humzinger? Googled it, but it says it's a bird feeder

Pink.

Hi angie_baby,

There are lots of great ideas on these older threads:

back to school packed lunch os ideas?

Childrens Packed Lunch Ideas...

Cheap healthy playground snacks

advice about kids lunch boxes

OS packed lunch and 7 y old dd..


Pink

thriftlady_2

Humzingers are a dried fruit bar -soft and chewy made just with fruit and fruit juice. They're about 5 inches by half an inch. You can buy them at Waitrose.

A typical packed lunch for my kids consists of a sandwich made with hm bread (2.5p) and ham or cheese (10-20p?), a hm muffin(8p) or flapjack (4p) an apple/banana (10p) and some carrot sticks (5p?). That comes to between 31.5p and 45.5p per lunch.

This is the main reason I pack lunches -I don't care how good the quality of school dinners become in the wake of Jamie Oliver I can always produce something of excellent quality for pennies

morganb

thriftlady wrote: »

This is the main reason I pack lunches -I don't care how good the quality of school dinners become in the wake of Jamie Oliver I can always produce something of excellent quality for pennies

I know what you're saying ... but to get my son to be a bit more adventurous with his food, I let him choose one school dinner a week. This means I get to control what he does/doesn't have i.e. I don't give him the choice on the day it's pizza and chips.
It's been good in that I save money and send him in with a packed lunch most days but one day a week he might have something like chicken curry or lasagne ... and he has started to ask if he can have different fruits and vegetables. This is the boy who would only eat weetabix for about 4 months when he went through his extremely fussy stage ... this week he has asked for green beans and melon. Can't be bad, and it is increasing his 'range' of fruits and veg, which always makes life easier!!

louise_1981

angie_baby wrote: »

weetabix brownies

how do i make these, i have loads in the cupbaord as they were on bogof!

this is on old style, even martin has found them

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=310346&highlight=weetabix+brownies

Copied and pasted too as there are other variations on here e.g.branflakes, oatiebix

thanks must go to jaxxy00


"Im not sure how they are normally made but my recipe comes from a lady who was doing the refreshments at a community centre jumble sale me and my sister went to one year. We had a cuppa and one of the brownies and they were really yummy so we asked were they got them from and the lady said shed made them and gave us the recipe. I wrote it on a scrappy bit of paper that i still have and use now.

In a bowl put
4 crushed weetabix
4oz caster sugar
4oz self raising flour
2 tbsp cocoa powder
pkt chocolate drops (i use a 25p 100g tescos own milk chocolate chopped up)

mix this altogether

then take 4oz of melted marg and stir this into the mixture along with an egg

mix well and put in a baking tray and bake for 15 minutes at electric 180.

I put this mix into a square tin which measures 8 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches. I suppose you could use anything a similar size it would just turn out a bit more or less deeper. I also line the tray with greaseproof paper to save any sticking. Once out the oven let it stand for about 5 minutes then turn out the tray and cut into squares.

Enjoy!!! if you get chance before everyone else takes them."

Uniscots97

livinginhope wrote: »

I always make up a big pasta salad on a Sunday eve for my kids and DH,I use wholemeal pasta,can of tuna,red onion,orange pepper,grated carrot and anything else that's around to bung in,I then add either mayonnaise or low fat dressing and mix it all up,I put this in a pot and put some cherry tomatoes in another,they take this with a yoghurt and apple or banana,much cheaper than school dinners and healthier
I also make some oaty apple bars or weetabix brownies to pop in aswell.

how long does this keep for?

Ticklemouse

soba - as Thriftlady has said - Humzingers are dried fruit bars. Not cheap - £1.75 per 10 but they do count as 1 portion of fruit a day, contain no added sugar or artificial anythings and it's like giving the kids a little treat - except it's not one of those additive/sugar/choccy filled bars a lot of their friends have.