Great 'cheap but nutritious packed lunches' hunt

mancmum

Can include cooked sweet potato - theirs are a purple colour

and Sushi but this was swapped by her son at lunch time for exotic english items like ham sandwiches.

Come to think of it. I used to get cold new potatoes when I was young and I used to like them.

mum26

dugdalegirls wrote: »

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!

Do they really work and keep the food hot? I've been considering these but am reluctant to spend the money if they will become just more cupboard clutter :eek:

GraciesGran

When he went to secondary school my eldest son only ever took marmite sandwiches (2 rounds) and two bananas. For no other reason than the fact that he could carry on playing football and eat at the same time.

karen_g

mum26 wrote: »

Do they really work and keep the food hot? I've been considering these but am reluctant to spend the money if they will become just more cupboard clutter :eek:

I got a food flask in Sainsbury yesterday (TU brand) for £6.30, DD took homemade chicken and veg soup in it today and said it was perfect temperature, so I'm happy with that since I'm always making soups and stews they are a great winter lunch for her.

pickledonionspaceraider

wow ive never heard of these food flasks! definatley worth a look!

jennyb_2

I haven't hit the school lunches age yet but some of my great office staples have been rice salad, potato salad and salad with a fresh roll as follows:
Rice salad - left-over brown rice mixed with grated carrot and cucumber as basics plus any other bits of chopped up veg I have in the fridge, sunflower seeds and a dressing of yoghurt with herbs. Easy to ring the changes with different veg ingredients.
Potato salad - chopped cooked potatoes with chopped cucumber, celery, olives, frozen peas, sunflower or pumpkin seeds and a mayonnaise and yoghurt dressing with herbs (fresh if I can be bothered!). A good way to disguise green stuff.
Salad which for some reason used to impress my colleagues (I'd make it fresh at work) - leaves from a salad pack, chopped up apple or grapes, and chopped up brie/camembert/goats cheese with herb infused olive oil drizzled over. Incredibly easy but looks like something you'd get in a restaurant!
Homemade pates are also dead easy - cream cheese and herbs mashed or whizzed up with mackerel/tuna/cooked mushrooms/aubergine/carrots/butternut squash etc - up to your imagination and what's in your fridge.
We got a breadmaker at Christmas and it's really easy to use (especially when you get your husband to do it - ha!) - 5 mins' effort and you have proper fresh bread for your sandwiches with no dodgy shelf-life-prolonging ingredients and in our case a low salt content.

Kimitatsu

My two have had food flasks for the last 3 years and I wouldnt go back to be honest. In the winter they keep the food hot and in the summer they keep the food cool - so I dont have to worry about it fermenting quietly in the bottom of their bag!!

If you find the kids like them then you can invest in unbreakable ones when they get a little bigger - mine have thermos king from Lakeland which are quite small and compact so take up less room in their bags as I found when they started flinging their bags around sometimes the flasks can break.

MikiR - great post but all of the schools in our area have a blanket ban on ALL nuts being taken into school as the risk of allergies has increased so much in the last 10 years and schools can be deemed liable.

meg72

Mortgagefreeforme wrote: »

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

Well done you for the Jam sandwiches. When my Son was at school he used to winge and moan for jam sandwiches for his lunch. I would not give in and insisted on packing a proper healthy sandwich, cheese, ham salmon etc. It was years later, then in his 30s, that he told me he used to swop them for jam ones with his friends.

I can smile at this memory. I dont have my Son now and would give anything in the world to make him a jam sandwich.

mcallister1

The food flasks are great! In fact I think in filling them right up I gave them a bit too much chicken pasta soup.I got two to see how it goes,- I am thinking that if I see some reduced ready meals I can use them for the days when I could otherwise ave spent money on a hot lunch.

astonish10

My daughter loves homous with pita bread, carrot and cucumber dips - healthy and good for her!:j