Best School lunches on a budget

beyond_skint

Great ideas keep them coming :beer:

My little boy loves olives so he has tube of them and some carrot sticks usually sandwiches either bread or pittas. Rolls are a good idea.
I'm not a total health freak. I like to even it out so a couple of healthy snacks and then a choccy bar and crisps.

Great with the flask. he loves the baxters minestrone soup, so that's his lunch sorted for tomorrow. Thanks.

Also sometimes we boil an egg and put in.

upsadaisy

At our school we encourage healthy lunchboxes but we've always been told that we don't have the right to ban junk food etc. We are only allowed to ban allergy foods (and only if there is a child or adult with that allergen). I don't know how a school gets away with saying no yoghurt. To be honest I'd query this.

Oh cold sausages are another good idea esp if you had them the night before just cook up a few extra.

DIY cheese and crackers.

flumpster67

Some good ideas here.
I make up jellies and put in individual tubs, sometimes with a tin of fruit. Cheaper than yoghurts, even using sugar free jelly, now that Supermarkets have cottoned on to basics canned fruit in juice instead of syrup. That way they get some fruit as well as a pud! saves time cos they always have more interesting things to do then eat!
Kids love homemade sausage rolls, and I ALWAYS make far too much, they love them the next day, agree with upsadaisy, always make a few extra sandwiches - magic cold on a sarnie with some ketchup
Homemade flapjacks, cheap and tasty and not full of the rubbish in the shop bought ones
My kids very rarely have cartons of juice, with 3 I just couldnt afford that extra every week, they are happy with squash in a bottle or with oj or apple juice fro a bigger carton on their bottles.
Rarely buy 'dunkers' things, only if they are on special and only very rarely, just as happy with some crackers and sliced cheddar or a triangle really, and so much cheaper

fletty

my dd loves it when i put notes in with her packed lunch and if I remember to do it she genrally eats all her lunch that day! I also score bananas on their skins with smiley faces or 'love you' by the time she opens her lunch box the writing turns black (but not the banana). I've aslo found wrapping wet wipes / kitchen roll in a bag for her to wipe her hands makes her feel more grown up.
She likes cheese and crackers and ham cut into squares to make her own dunkers, veggie sticks with hummous and pasta with pesto and chopped ham. If I make sandwiches I try to use diffrent types of bread wraps, mini pittas, buns and mini bagels. If you roll a slice of crustless bread with a rolling pin untill its very flat and spread with cheese spread and ham and then roll it up sausage roll style and slice she thinks this is great party food style. I freeze frubes or yoghurt pouches as theres no refridgerate to keep them cool and don't fancy her eating yoghurt thats been sitting in a hot classroom for 3 hours.
She goes to a healthy eating school and refuses to eat bisc or choc even if i sneak these in, it worrys me how at 5 she worrys about what she eats and asks if things are heathly surely if they are taught things in moderation are ok it would be better, we may have kids now who are obese but I think if they keep teaching kids the way they do know they'll be a lot with eating disorders in years to come. Sorry to go off topic I do ramble sometimes.

PiratePete

beyond_skint wrote: »

Are primary age children allowed soup in a flask? Does anyone know.

My daughter takes a food flask with pasta/rice and chilli in
They are on sale in Wilkos at £4.99
they have a divider dish to keep rice and meat separate, and without the dish for say meatballs and pasta

dobs

I think it must depend on the policy as at my sons primary school they are not allowed flasks/hot soup etc due to health and safety, but he doesn't like soup anyway. It is a healthy eating school and is quite strict on it.

I do wholemeal pittas, with ham and cheese or tuna and sweetcorn, cheese salad. Sometimes a wholemeal roll as a change, or if i'm running out of stuff cheese and crackers.

I bought a pack of baby weaning tubs from Lakeland for my baby and now find them useful to put food in for ds 1. Today he had a cheese and tom pitta bread, a little tub of chopped melon and a little tub of mini wholemeal pasta shells with tuna, sweetcorn, tomato and cucmber mixed in, plus a little tub of carrot sticks.

beyond_skint

fletty wrote: »

my dd loves it when i put notes in with her packed lunch and if I remember to do it she genrally eats all her lunch that day! I also score bananas on their skins with smiley faces or 'love you' by the time she opens her lunch box the writing turns black (but not the banana). I've aslo found wrapping wet wipes / kitchen roll in a bag for her to wipe her hands makes her feel more grown up.
She likes cheese and crackers and ham cut into squares to make her own dunkers, veggie sticks with hummous and pasta with pesto and chopped ham. If I make sandwiches I try to use diffrent types of bread wraps, mini pittas, buns and mini bagels. If you roll a slice of crustless bread with a rolling pin untill its very flat and spread with cheese spread and ham and then roll it up sausage roll style and slice she thinks this is great party food style. I freeze frubes or yoghurt pouches as theres no refridgerate to keep them cool and don't fancy her eating yoghurt thats been sitting in a hot classroom for 3 hours.
She goes to a healthy eating school and refuses to eat bisc or choc even if i sneak these in, it worrys me how at 5 she worrys about what she eats and asks if things are heathly surely if they are taught things in moderation are ok it would be better, we may have kids now who are obese but I think if they keep teaching kids the way they do know they'll be a lot with eating disorders in years to come. Sorry to go off topic I do ramble sometimes.

Well some great tips thank you. :T

Lillys_mum

beyond_skint wrote: »

Are primary age children allowed soup in a flask? Does anyone know.

I give my girls (1 in Yr 3 1 in Yr5) beans/spaghetti/hot dogs/soup all in a thermos container. They have had things like that for the last year and nothing has ever been said.

I find it great in this cold weather as they like something warm to eat.

I never asked if I could give it to them - I just did.

offerto

we have 2 boys still at school,
a few of the things we do have already been mentioned, here are a few others
i put these in small plastic tubs
1 tin of rice pudding split between 6 tubs with teaspoon of either cheap apple sauce or jam
tinned peaches will split into 4 tubs
cheap swiss roll with a drizzle of custard
cut large orange into 6 segments + give 1 or 2 pieces each day
1 strawberry whip mix will split in 4 tubs

few shreds of lettuce, cherry tomatoes, sliced cucumber grated carrot with either slice of ham, cold pasta, slice of cheese or spoonful of cream cheese

beyond_skint

Lillys_mum wrote: »

I give my girls (1 in Yr 3 1 in Yr5) beans/spaghetti/hot dogs/soup all in a thermos container. They have had things like that for the last year and nothing has ever been said.

I find it great in this cold weather as they like something warm to eat.

I never asked if I could give it to them - I just did.

Bought a great flask today from Matalan for £8. Warm lunches from now on :T

Thanks