Inspire me to start sending my daughter to school with a pack up

Spendless

I'm in Yorkshire and have def heard of pack up. Not realised it was such a local saying. Be careful with food flasks, as some schools and LAs won't allow children to take hot food in, check it out first. Has she said exactly why it is the wrong ham? Maybe you can work out what types it is she doesn't like.

Kazipoo

Yep, Leeds here and its deffo a Yorkshire saying... my girls have a pack-up every day. My eldest loves to make her own pasta concoctions. Basically she boils pasta the night before she wants it, pinches any peas, sweetcorn or any other veg she fancies and bungs it in, adds a little mayo or some tomato based sauce like passata, herbs and spices, maybe some tuna, cheese, ham, cooked bacon, basically anything she can put her hand to, usually finishes it off with a bit of reggae-reggae sauce (she's addicted) and bungs it in the fridge overnight.

She has also been known to pinch left overs like chilli, chicken, spag bol, fajita mix etc, again mixes with rice or pasta to make a stodgy mess, but she loves it and all her mates apparently end up begging her for some. Occasionally she takes wraps with chicken and salad, maybe a little salsa and some salad dressing, she's even taken cold home-made pizza before now (she will eat anything).

You could always bung in her fave fruit, or get her to make a fruit cocktail for her afters and perhaps a nice treat for herself too. Mine usually take sandwich, crisps, yogurt, biscuit, fruit, perhaps a cheesestring if we have some. I'm not particularly overfussy about what they eat, as long as I know their diet is balanced, and I can see to it that it is at tea-time. And before anyone slates me, I would rather they ate than threw it away and lied.

Abbafan1972

Lol, sorry to go off topic. If I said to my OH, "what would you like for pack up tomorrow", he would look at me like I was mad.

Spendless

Abbafan1972 wrote: »

Lol, sorry to go off topic. If I said to my OH, "what would you like for pack up tomorrow", he would look at me like I was mad.

Bit like I did, when I was asked if I'd like a cheese batch.:p

beautiful_ravens

Kids have these hang ups about whats cool and whats not - when I was at school, it was not cool to eat your sandwiches unless they were cut in small triangles, and the coolest wrapping was foil

My kids are a bit younger, but I bought all these small pots [they were for baby food I think] and put various things in them - similar to the bento idea - so they have little pots of raisens/carrot sticks/baby tomatoes & other small stuff which they can pick at, I dont know why it works but it does. My eldest DD wont eat her sandwiches, but will eat a pot of tuna pasta sweetcorn.
BUT it takes a good half an hour to do three of these!

RE the 'pack up' thing, my mum always called it packing up, I call it packed lunch.

poppy-glos

i agree good idea to ask her to make a list of her preferences and also getting involved with making it, plus ask what mates are having in case she is conscious about looking different.

one issue with my dd's school lunches is the speed at which they can be eaten! it seems the time to eat is short and she is hurried. therefore snack size portions seem to work well and she can eat half..

her lunch is a peice of fruit (whole banana or satsuma, or peeled, cubed and potted kiwi or mango), or a pot with dried apricot and sultanas,
plus something with carbs, either pasta salad (tuna, mayo, pasta, sweetcorn), quinoa (cooked up with peas, onion, sweetcorn, stock), a sandwich (marmite is favourite), fruit bread, hot cross bun or sausage roll.
also either a yogurt from the fridge or a frube or two from the freezer,
plus a bottle of water.

sometimes i batch bake some smoked haddock,coriander, parmesan and lentil quiche filling in the reusable cake cases, she really likes these - they disappear from the fridge fast but some in the freezer and can pop one in the lunchbox.

any leftovers from the night before she begs for, so usually on tuesdays she takes chicken rissoto in a tub. also pizza when left over she asks for.

i had to laugh at the lunchbox survey this week, my daughters failed because it didn't have a vegetable in it. Also get a note from school occasionally from the dinner lady telling me what my daughter doesn't like :rotfl:, and advice at school not to put any choc or crisps in lunchbox except on fridays...... ..... then they come out of class with mitts full of chocolate cos someone brought it back from hols, it was their classmates birthday, or the teacher decided to treat them :mad: - the hipocracy,,,..

good luck, i'll be reading this thread for inspiration.

Yategirl

I have to echo the comment that whatever you pack has to be able to be eaten quickly! A whole apple is no good - takes too long apparently but a cut up apple in a pot is fine

Leftovers are very popular with ds1 - cold pizza, cold biyrani or small pot of cold curry and rice or egg and bacon pie or veg packed frittata go down very well. Pitta bread/wraps are good and cheese and crackers are popular as well. Sandwiches tend not to be eaten if they have them too often (not that I blame them as I am not keen on sandwiches that much!). Chopped veg and a dip can be good.

I always put in a piece of "ready to eat" fruit i.e chopped apple/peeled satsuma or maybe a fruit salad, rasins and other dried fruit is popular.

They then get a "treat" item of a small fairycake sized cake, occasionally a penguin style biscuit or more popular if we have had a pudding the night before... cold crumble!

They also get a small drink (imagine a child sized cup) of juice (might be hi-juice might be pure juice depends on what I have, they have a bottle of water for the rest of the day and drink mainly water at home)

We don't get comments from school about what should/shouldn't be in a lunchbox (thankfully) but I aim to pack up a fairly healthy lunch with a small treat. As I keep saying to my ds's "in moderation"!

bettybeaver

My 10 and 9 year old DD's have made their own lunches for the last few years when they take 'pack up's' to school, and by doing this they (usually!) eat everything they put in their box. I am always in the kitchen whilst they get ready and help them at times to make 'good' choices but they are fully aware of the house rules. They have a sandwich (filling their choice but only wholemeal bread available in our house!) 2 pieces of fruit (their choice again and often a mixture of fresh and dried) and something unhealthy (choc biccy, cake etc). Along with a drink they rarely leave anything because it was their decision what to have that day.

So I am sure you could come to some sort of arrangement with your 11 year old so that they are more independent and more importantly not hungry at lunch time!!!!!!!!!!

Pink.

Hi salt and pepper,

At this time of year I find food flasks invaluable. Mine take soups and stews, sandwiches, bagels, wraps, fruit, scones, muffins etc.

For pasta salad recipes this thread should help:

pasta salad

This threads has lots of good ideas for packed lunches that might give you some inspiration:

back to school packed lunch os ideas?

I'll add your thread to that one later to keep the suggestions together.

Pink