Packed Lunches for School

CRANKY40

Or make the cakes with banana? Banana muffins are easy to make.

thriftmonster

Hi. You don't say how old your ds is but my ds1 is 13/14 and eats like a horse.

We very rarely pack sandwiches as he doesn't find them filling. I aim to pack a "main course"of things such as pasta salad (incl veg), casseroles, wraps, soups, rice salad, pizza. I often use leftovers from the night before.

Then I review the veg content of that and add cucumber or tomatoes if needed and bread to go with soups etc

Then I add one pudding item such as yoghurt or cake or fruit in jelly.

Then I add a piece of fruit and a pure fruit juice.

I have costed this up and it comes to a lot less than the equivalent from the canteen.

the_cat

If he is still getting hungry then fruit is not the answer. I would up the sandwich ration

helyg

DS2 (who is 5) currently has a packed lunch, although I am hoping to switch him back to school dinners this week as the weather is getting colder and I'd rather he had a hot meal. He stopped having school dinners as he was messing around at lunchtime and not eating his food, but he seems to have settled down a bit now.

Currently he takes:

Ham sandwich (proper sliced ham rather than pre-packed)
Carton of fruit juice
2 x Twinks Hobnobs
Banana
Raisins

mambury

the_cat wrote: »

If he is still getting hungry then fruit is not the answer. I would up the sandwich ration

apples are low gi so keep the sugar levels even for longer,

My DS lunch consists of

sandwich/soup/leftovers such as hm pizza etc
apple
banana and or kiwi, pear etc
frozen frube (I only buy them on offer!!)
Cherry toms and cucumber and or pepper
hm cake such as banana bread (low in sugar), hm flapjacks with fruit in, hm rock cakes with fried fruit. etc

If he doesn't eat his fruit and salad then he doesn;t get a cake the following day. He grumbles but it works!

He only has water to drink. THe hardest part is getting him to drink anything during the day !

dora37

I make extra pasta and give ours pasta pots or give them a pot of salad (cherry toms, cucumber, carrot sticks) alongside their wraps. In the wraps I put in leftover cooked chicken or beef (slow cooked brisket) or cheese.

I also make pizza dough in the breadmaker, which I then make into pizza and give them a couple of slices, I freeze the extra for another time.

Last week I bought some ready made pastry and some good quality sausages and made about 10 large sausage rolls - of which I have frozen some for the next time required.....not that healthy, but gives them an interesting alternative.

I don't put crisps in for their packed lunch, however I do put in a homemade traybake/cake/hob nob.

knithryn

That's similar to the packed lunch I do for Other Half.
I make sure there is as much salad in the sandwich as I can cram in (Iceberg lettuce leaves are great for that). Then I throw in a few cherry tomatoes (he just scoffs them like sweets). Maybe a banana. And then sometimes it's a pot of rice (alternative to the yoghurt).
I've even managed to get nearly 5 portions of fruit and veg into one lunchbox (eg raw carrot, cherry toms, fruit juice, pear and loads of salad in sandwiches).
I wouldn't worry too much about adding lots of fruit if DS is hungry, but maybe go for banana, rice pudding, maybe even a portion of cheese (buy a big block, portion it up and freeze it - cheaper). A milk based drink will fill him up more, so maybe a milk shake occasionally? Or even just some milk? Perhaps change to thick cut wholemeal bread too as thicker bread will give more carbs.

HariboJunkie

As he's not currently eating any fruit at lunch time any is going to be a bonus. I'd definitely swap the salami stick for a banana and either give him an apple on top of the cake or replace the cake with the apple.

My DDs typical lunch box is

Full round of sandwiches, cheese, peanut butter or tuna OR cheese and crackers OR soup and a roll OR stew in a food flask.

HM yoghurt

HM muffin (bran, carrot or apple) OR flapjack

2 pieces of fruit or chopped fruit salad.

Water.

Snacks are 2 pieces of fruit 2 days a week and 1 piece of fruit and HM biscuit 3 days a week.

HTH. x


(obviously all this doesn't have to be homemade. I'm lucky enough not to work full time. )

moon1970

Thanks for all these tips I am going to try them

gingin_2

My dd likes anything she can dip, so she often takes a little pot of hummous (I buy little dishwasher-proof pots called "snackpots" from the supermarket). Instead of the sausage maybe he could have some pitta to fill him up and some carrot and cucumber to dip and up his 5-a-day, dd also likes any sort of cream cheese based dip as well, if he's not so keen on hummous.