Packed lunches and the "food police"

HOLsale

thriftmonster wrote:

Any suggestions welcome on this one......

Ds1 and 2 are off to school with their OS packed lunches today including HM lamb pies with potato pastry (result of shepherds pie on Mon)

i don't suppose you could share the potato pastry recipe could you, please?

as for the food police, damned shame!

i got bullied a bit as a kid for bringing pickled beetroot to school, i loved it and we had a neighbour that gave us loads of it so it was often in my lunchbox. i also got bullied because i was on free lunch for a few years and my school made it painfully obvious to everyone, that wasn't very nice so i can understand your concerns

the reusing the fruitshoot things is clever

i wish i could think up some ideas to give you but most homemade stuff is so divorced from the frightening reality of junk food that i can't think of a way to disguise it...

have your sons tried sharing their tasty food with others around them? i actually managed to convert a few people into eating beetroot this way. you'd have to supply a bit more in their lunch boxes but i've heard of many a OS kid becoming very popular at lunchtime with others wanting to trade their junk food for the kids homemade goodies...

Becles

Mine get the same, especially when they take "weird food" like pasta salad or tortilla wraps.

I just keep telling them how much better for them their food is, and it's better for their bodies to take wholesome food rather than chemicals and additives. One son wants to be a footballer and one wants to be a gymnast, and I tell them the foods they take will give them nice strong legs etc., which will help them later in life.

However, one son got into trouble for telling a child who only takes crisps and chocolate for lunch that when they were 40, he'd be the one laughing at the other ones gravestone - ooops

The youngest always tells people that his HM food is special because it's full of Mammy's love - awww

HOLsale

dd starts school this august, after reading a typical weeks menu i've decided she will rarely ever be getting their lunches (yuck!)

she's got very mature tastes and has happily eaten roast garlic and onions in her homemade baby food since she was 7 months old so i'm not changing anything now!

she'll be the weird one with beetroot, pate sandwiches, hummus and pita slices, homemade tapenade, salami/cheese/apple with biscuits etc

pasta salads, tabbouleh etc etc

i'm quite fortunate that she has this charming way of getting people to do whatever she's doing...we're hoping she'll start trends in healthy food eating at school (and use her powers for good :rotfl: )

she's very confident so we're also hoping that she will have the courage to stand up for her food choices and explain that she's doing the best thing overall, she can be so persuasive i think she may just do ok in this regards

thriftmonster

Potato pastry recipe - nicked from "We'll eat again"

4 oz SR flour
1.5 oz butter or marg

Whizz to crumbs in processor or rub in by hand

Process in 4 oz cold mashed potato till it forms a lump. (If you do it by hand it sometimes needs a drop of water). Use fairly quickly because of the SR flour. This makes quite a soft pastry but it hold up well for pasties and uses less fat than normal pastry.

I made the pies with some extra potato from the shepherds pie (taken out at the beginning when I mashed it) and some extra filling and baked at 190C for about 20-25 mins

Thanks everyone for all the replies - I will talk to ds1 again about peer pressure and healthy eating - ds2 is less of a problem - he's more of the "get stuffed" persuasion

Icemaiden

DS suffered the same a few years ago, it seems to be a very common thing. He went onto school lunches for a while but has now returned to packed lunches.

I bought a plastic container with a screw lid from Asda and fill it with fresh orange as his drink, he always takes a HM cake/bun of some sort, a piece of fruit and a sarnie made either in pitta bread of HM bread. This doesn't look too much out of place but he still sometimes gets comments made about the contents. Pasta salad is a real no no as he gets the " gay " comments too.

floridadreamin

my DD(12) makes her own packed lunch. Her question to anyone who makes fun of her lunch is "don't you get fed up with boring sandwiches?" The only time she takes sandwiches is usually towards the end of the month but normally because she couldn't be bothered to make anything else. I'm very proud of the way she makes herself pasta/ rice salads, or cooks up drumsticks etc to make her lunch more interesting. She's not much into fruit but I can generally get round this with dried fruit or incorporating pureed fruit into desserts. The one thing she really does love (and so do her mates!!!) is cheese and biscuits or fajitas. Here's hoping that some of her healthy eating rubs off on those with lunches packed with processed foods.

samnmalc

Had a quick look for info on reusing plastic bottles , and it seems that the idea that this can cause toxic chemicals to be released is not true.

Just as well because I refill fruit shoot bottles all the time!

sarahlouise210

My DD also had a similar experience - she likes pasta with a stir in sauce and chick peas....mmmmm... unusual to most children. She also has a very visual disability so is a prime target. When the teasing started re her unusual lunch choice she just said to them what she says when they tease her re her disability " you laugh at me because I am different...but I laugh at you because you are all the same!" good for her !! She has even converted a few of them and recently asked me to do a few more tubs for her friends to try!

thriftlady_2

sarahlouise210 wrote:

" you laugh at me because I am different...but I laugh at you because you are all the same!" good for her !!

Excellent retort,you must be proud of her :T

sarahlouise210

thriftlady wrote:

Excellent retort,you must be proud of her :T

Indeed I am !!!!