Great 'cheap but nutritious packed lunches' hunt

natterer_2

I am fighting my youngest over whether jam sandwiches and crisps, which her best friend has every day, are a suitable lunch. Luckily she is not so fussy and will eat most things. She loves olives so I often give her a tub with 10 pitted olives in. She also likes humous so she might have a tub of humous with veg sticks. They used to like taramasalata due to its pinkness, but have gone off that recently.

Both of my kids are keen on wraps and pittas which somehow seem a bit healthier than the white sliced they insist on if it's an ordinary loaf (wish I had the energy to home bake all our bread but i just don't!). They do love ham but I have a rule that they have to have something different every day for variety so over a week it might be ham, egg, tuna, pate, cheese etc. Sometimes I put in broccoli quiche or pasta salad for the younger one, the elder has special needs and is very fussy about food.

I always make sure there is a veg in there - cucumber or carrot sticks, radishes, those little orange peppers etc., and a fruit - apple, orange, mango cubed and put in a tub, kiwi, strawberries in season etc. Ideally I'd put 2 veg and 1 fruit but I'm on a losing battle there and can't bear the waste of chucking it when it comes home!

Sadly I have succumbed to peer pressure and occasionally put those horrid concentrated fruit juice strings/bars/stars in. They're no better than sweets really but I used them as a lever to insist more veg is eaten at dinner time if they've had those at lunch.

fluffytrollop

mortgagemiffed wrote: »

was that a secondary school?

hideously enough, no, it was a primary school....not that the school dinners are that much better...mine say they get laughed at for their lunch - there's ACTUAL fruit in there...and cucumber etc. I'm amazed at what some people consider to be food, tbh.

nits67

When my eldest started primary, I put 1 small chocolate in her lunchbox on the friday of her first week at school - as a special treat for doing so well. She came home absolutely mortified because the dinner lady had spotted it (they police them!!!) and told her off! I was furious!!!:mad:

Have not made the same mistake again!

I normally watch what is on offer when shopping and stock up on things like pre-packed cheeses, tubes of yoghut (which go straight in the freezer and put in their lunchboxes frozen) when they are on offer. :T
Also stuff like sausage rolls and the big packs of pre cooked cocktail sausages can be frozen and taken out a few at a time. Then I can mix it up and make sure they have a balanced lunch with different things each day whilst benefiting from the lower prices & bulk buying.

ilovecushions

Not totally relevant but I write jokes on my OH's bananas, sometimes reminders, love notes, etc. Use a biro, have fun, and I'm sure plenty of you will come up with more to write/draw on them!

harrysmith123

Muffins can be made in bulk in a few mins and frozen. You can take one out at a time and they will thaw in the lunch box.

You can put chocolate bits in them, but also you can hide things like grated carrots, berries and oats. Even if you make them with organic flour and sugar, making them in bulk they work out quite reasonable for each muffin. And of course, there won't be any additives.

Dips are good too for a change. Some cream cheese for example in a samll container with some rice cakes/crackers/mini bread sticks & carrot/pepper sticks to dip in. I find my kids are more likely to eat the veggie sticks if there is something to dip them in.

Mortgagefreeforme

I'm very lucky in that my kids are not fussy eaters, but they do ask occasionally for "normal" food to look like thier friends so I do give in to the odd jam sandwich.

Today they both have salads made with cold pasta and pesto, couscous, cucumber and tomato from the garden, savers peppers and a tiny bit of poached salmon (bought a whole side reduced, cut it up and froze in portions) they both have a cheap yogurt a bottle of water (I refill fruit shoot bottles so they look "normal") and a wee pot of dried apricots and raisins. The oldest also has a wee tub of low fat crisps as she is very tall and needs more calories than the youngest.

It sounds like a lot of work, but I make the main salads on a night I'm not busy and they keep for a few days. I also make a huge batch of Twinks hobnobs for snack as they keep for ages and rock cakes with various dried fruit, the kids tell me both of these make thier friends jealous.

I admit to saving the jam sandwich for really busy days, but with homemade jam, a yougart and fruit it's not as bad as what some of them get.:eek:

MFFM

Kimitatsu

Mine are now both at secondary school, so they take packed lunches and maybe one or two meals a week at school.

Leftover lunches are one of their faves though, do chicken fried rice for tea the night before (homemade!) and they take leftovers, similar with spag bol, three bean chilli, tuna pasta bake. You can get food flasks for about £5 from the supermarkets.

In the summer they take veg sticks and humous, cooked pasta with chicken/tuna/cheese/pesto or whatever is left over in the fridge. We make flapjacks at home, or savouries such as sweetcorn and cheese scones (use up leftovers again if you have them) they take fruit every day and bottles of water (usually on offer from Approved Foods) We make our own yoghurt so they take that as well.

We also buy cooked meats from Lidl (much better quality and cheaper than a lot of the supermarkets) or occasionally they have been known to take hot dogs cooked in the microwave and popped in food flasks.

To those that have busy mornings - my two make their lunches the night before, and then heat up anything they need in the morning pop it into the flask and away they go. Flasks get washed out and lunchboxes emptied when they get in at night, and then lunchboxes are refilled and put in the fridge.

sunshinemum_2

Have you tried the whats4lunchclub dot com website? (Sorry, am newbie so can't post links yet).

It's not all good, but there's a few useful ideas on there to get you started.

MickiR

I have just written a new Back To School factsheet on my site at purehealthclinic.co.uk (sorry I can't link as a newbie!) with ideas for healthy lunches and tips to keep kids healthy at this time of year.

Here is the bit on packed lunches. And you can read the rest of the factsheet if you need more info.

Hope it helps.

Back To School


They Are What They Eat….

We know that diet is crucial to make sure kids have plenty of energy to cope with the day to day demands of school life, after school clubs, peer pressure, exams etc. We also know that diet has a huge impact on behaviour, learning ability and concentration levels. So, take this time to review what your children are eating.

A lot of parents are now waking up to the idea that school dinners may not provide their children with the healthy nutritious meals their kids need.

Packed lunches are a good way to control what your children are eating. However, there is a lot of peer pressure when kids take lunches that are different to what’s in their friends’ lunch boxes, so you do have to get a good balance to keep them healthy, but not make them appear too different.

A good packed lunch could include

• a wholemeal roll filled with organic chicken or good quality meat (no packet meats, please) and salad
• Or try peanut butter (no salt or sugar variety, and if peanuts are allowed in school) and mashed banana
• Tuna and mayonnaise with bits of cucumber and tomato
• As a change from sandwiches, give them a cold pasta salad or a brown rice salad with interesting bits in that they like. You could include tomatoes, small bits of broccoli, olives, gerkins, sundried tomatoes, cashew nuts etc.
• Their lunchbox should also include at least one piece of fruit. Try a little pot of berries, a couple of plums or a pear to vary it from the ubiquitous apple.
• Add in a few cherry tomatoes, a little pack of nuts and raisins or, even better, a few organic nuts and a couple of unsulphured dried apricots.
• Give them a flask of filtered water, organic apple or orange juice or include a good quality fruit smoothie such as the Innocent ones
• Alternatively, give them a food flask that has a good quality yogurt in it – preferably a plain live yogurt to which you have added some honey and berries or stirred in some pure fruit jam such as St Dalfour’s strawberry which is delicious.

Try to avoid rubbish foods like pre-prepared sandwiches and salads, fruit yogurts, sweets, crisps and sugary drinks. Remember, if you give them junk or money to take to school, they will always choose junk. If they have no choice, they’ll eat what they’re given and eventually their palate will start to change for the better.

Remember, that if you can’t control what your kids are eating at lunchtime, try not to worry about it – do what you can, and make sure they’re eating really well, preferably organically, when they’re at home.

A good breakfast and tea will go a long way to helping you nourish your kids well. If they are eating in this way most of the time, the odd bag of crisps or sugary snacks here and there won’t hurt. We have a rule in our house that there will be no junk foods in the house, but if they have the money and the inclination to walk down to the shop, they can have what they like. It usually puts them off!

dugdalegirls

I have invested in childrens food flasks (ebay) so they take a hot meal into school everyday which saves a fortune on hot dinners but can be healthy as you know exactly what is in it. I tend to send pasta with any type of sauce, baked beans, soup, chilli, stew. You can even use it for cold salads etc in the summer. My kids have set a trend in their school!