Typical lunch box

Mrstim

Thanks everyone so much for all your replies! Have got lots of great ideas from you all.

I have sat and done a meal plan till tuesday next week with what I have in cupboard and fridge/freezer. and gone through the cupboard to see what i can make for baked good treats for everyone.

I have made a loaf cake today out of a wrinkly apple and some alpen that wasnt getting used, seems quite nice! Think DH will like it with some butter on

Found a ready made bread mix in the cupboard and stuck that in my bread maker only for it to work :mad: I have only used the ready made ones which I will be stopping now as they obv alot more expensive, but am wondering if my bread maker isnt working? I only ever used tescos own mixes, they have been fine! and then bought a couple of the hovis ones as they were on special and everyone of them hasnt worked! Hope its not broken, it wasnt cheap.

Found an easy recipe for making your own wraps which I will give a go!

BTW my shopping bill isnt just for food, that includes washing powder,loo roll, cleaner, nappies, baby milk etc. The next thing I a going to look at after lunch boxes is baby food. I must admit I buy the ellas kitchen and plum pouches for ease, but they soooo expensive so am going to use my slow cooker to make some meals for the baby. I think we going to invest in a wee chest freezer also, as my fridge freezer only has 3 small drawers.

Thanks again everyone, I have been giving myself a headache with this for a few weeks but am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel xx

SunshineBear

Mrstim wrote: »

BTW my shopping bill isnt just for food, that

Our weekly for 2 adults 3 kids 17, 16, 12 is about £75 per week inc all cleaning toiletries etc, I would expect to add more for nappies though!

Mrstim

SunshineBear wrote: »

Our weekly for 2 adults 3 kids 17, 16, 12 is about £75 per week inc all cleaning toiletries etc, I would expect to add more for nappies though!

Am sure I can cut it down, it will just take time. Baby milk is not cheap either and we go through nearly 2 boxes a week.

My husband comes from a family that shops at marks and spencers for food so believe me when I say its been hard to convert him to tesco's own never mind the value brands

jackieglasgow

Mrstim I am too lazy to go back and read the first post, but have you done things like cutting your soap powder amount down? I use the 30ml line as the measure for my soap powder, which works out at about 1/4 of the recommended dose, and I use two of the big (50 wash?) boxes of soap powder a year now, I buy them when they are on offer if I can (last time was £6 a box in Asda) I also buy 2 in 1 so don't need softener - I only use it once a month when I boil wash the sheets Instead of chocolate bars, I buy the Tesco value chocolate and golden syrup and rich tea biscuits and make rocky road (you can put marshmallows, dried fruit etc. in) I use this recipe and get about 18-24 bars out of it, depending on which tray I use, I don't bother with the keeping some back for a topping part, as it means another dirty dish! It costs me about a pound fifty to make

valk_scot

My nine year old DD isn't thin as in underweight, but she's definately thinner than most of her friends. She's tall, weighs five stone approx, she does a lot of sport (swim training three times per week, hockey x2, karate and gymnastics) plus she never stops running around. So her thinness is of the lanky athletic muscled type and there's not an ounce of spare flesh on her. What she has for lunch... One filled roll (either ham and butter or egg mayo), pack of crisps, apple, a box of pure fruit juice and something like a fruit scone and butter, or a muesli bar/flapjack. One of these will get eaten at snack time with her school milk. She has cereal, milk and fruit or fruit juice in the morning and when she comes in from school she'll have something like a slice of toast and peanut butter plus milk. Then a normal dinner, but with adult portion sizes. If she has any other snacks they are usually bread, cereal, milk, fruit and savoury spreads such as peanut butter or Philly. I'm very keen for her to have a fair bit of protein in her diet given the amount of exercise so the peanut butter is for this, also she's keen on cold boiled eggs so she sometimes gets an extra one in her lunchbox. She'd starve before she ate tuna though, sadly!

Hubby will eat anything for packed lunches so he quite often takes in a flask of home made soup, or a microwavable tub of last night's leftovers. I will make extra portions of things like curry and rice or pasta based dishes too for freezing for lunches. Hubby finds these more satisfying than just sandwiches and snack foods. I usually send in a bag of assorted fruit with him on Mondays, to keep on his desk. If he's really lucky, Tesco will have apple turnovers or Danish pastries on whoopsie and I'll send in these too. He's eating a lot of hot cross buns atm!

I never buy anything else but Tesco Value orange or apple juice boxes for packed lunches, or the big cartons for the fridge. It's got just as many nutrients as the branded juices. At home the kids often drink it mixed 1:4 with fizzy water. Much better for them than Coke or squash.

I make sandwich fillings rather than buy these ridiculously expensive pots. Cheese & onion & low fat mayo: chicken & sweetcorn with mayo: egg mayo: egg & bacon mayo: tuna mayo with a bit of ketchup.

Mrstim

jackieglasgow wrote: »

Mrstim I am too lazy to go back and read the first post, but have you done things like cutting your soap powder amount down? I use the 30ml line as the measure for my soap powder, which works out at about 1/4 of the recommended dose, and I use two of the big (50 wash?) boxes of soap powder a year now, I buy them when they are on offer if I can (last time was £6 a box in Asda) I also buy 2 in 1 so don't need softener - I only use it once a month when I boil wash the sheets Instead of chocolate bars, I buy the Tesco value chocolate and golden syrup and rich tea biscuits and make rocky road (you can put marshmallows, dried fruit etc. in) I use this recipe and get about 18-24 bars out of it, depending on which tray I use, I don't bother with the keeping some back for a topping part, as it means another dirty dish! It costs me about a pound fifty to make

Yum sounds good, will try that!

I dont know why but I dont find that powder gets my clothes very clean, I used to use fairy but my whites were never coming up, especially the babies! So I have changed to liquid tabs and get the tescos own. I have to use non bio as the 2 youngest have quite bad skin and when I changed to bio it got really bad on my 2 yr olds. I am going to try the Aldi tabs this time and there dishwasher tabs too. I bought the softener and only use a tiny bit. A small bottle has lasted me 3 weeks so far and there is still half in it. I changed from the fairy ones to those daisy ones you get in tesco, and apart from a couple of glasses looking a wee bit grainy I have noticed any difference! They are half the price!!!! :eek:

Mrstim

valk_scot wrote: »

My nine year old DD isn't thin as in underweight, but she's definately thinner than most of her friends. She's tall, weighs five stone approx, she does a lot of sport (swim training three times per week, hockey x2, karate and gymnastics) plus she never stops running around. So her thinness is of the lanky athletic muscled type and there's not an ounce of spare flesh on her. What she has for lunch... One filled roll (either ham and butter or egg mayo), pack of crisps, apple, a box of pure fruit juice and something like a fruit scone and butter, or a muesli bar/flapjack. One of these will get eaten at snack time with her school milk. She has cereal, milk and fruit or fruit juice in the morning and when she comes in from school she'll have something like a slice of toast and peanut butter plus milk. Then a normal dinner, but with adult portion sizes. If she has any other snacks they are usually bread, cereal, milk, fruit and savoury spreads such as peanut butter or Philly. I'm very keen for her to have a fair bit of protein in her diet given the amount of exercise so the peanut butter is for this, also she's keen on cold boiled eggs so she sometimes gets an extra one in her lunchbox. She'd starve before she ate tuna though, sadly!

Hubby will eat anything for packed lunches so he quite often takes in a flask of home made soup, or a microwavable tub of last night's leftovers. I will make extra portions of things like curry and rice or pasta based dishes too for freezing for lunches. Hubby finds these more satisfying than just sandwiches and snack foods. I usually send in a bag of assorted fruit with him on Mondays, to keep on his desk. If he's really lucky, Tesco will have apple turnovers or Danish pastries on whoopsie and I'll send in these too. He's eating a lot of hot cross buns atm!

I never buy anything else but Tesco Value orange or apple juice boxes for packed lunches, or the big cartons for the fridge. It's got just as many nutrients as the branded juices. At home the kids often drink it mixed 1:4 with fizzy water. Much better for them than Coke or squash.

I make sandwich fillings rather than buy these ridiculously expensive pots. Cheese & onion & low fat mayo: chicken & sweetcorn with mayo: egg mayo: egg & bacon mayo: tuna mayo with a bit of ketchup.

Thanks, I know I am probably worrying about nothing. She just looks ill. My other 2 children are wee chunky monkeys! She is only 118 cm tall and 3 stone so I do worry about it alot, but am sure she is just petite.

We do buy value juice, I never get the more expensive stuff unless its on offer.

Am going to try pasta for the two of them actually. Im pretty sure I have seen them eating pasta salad at a bbq!

jackieglasgow

Even with the fruit juice, use a reuseable bottle, still cheaper (and better for the environment) than the individual cartons, and you can watch the protions too.

Spendless

What about cheese scones or muffins to replace the cheese-strings? I will be watching this thread with interest since school dinners have gone up 30p a day recently, having gone up 20p a day this time last year. My 8yo DD currently alternates between pack ups and school meals but am going to be packing her up more frequently now. I am also a fan of the tesco value cartons of orange mentioned. There's 3 to a pack and the other 2 days she has tap water in a bottle. Not sure which yogurts you are buying, but I buy the stick ones that are £1 for 6 and freeze them. I take one out each morning and it defrosts by lunch time. I also find if you want quick small freezable food items, to keep in for packed lunches, look around the 'party/buffet' food in supermarkets.

tigerfeet2006

Mrstim wrote: »

Hubby has breakfast at work most days, we are up most nights with the baby so he always sleeps in a bit later and has a 15 min shower as he is shattered . im not the best mum really, I suffer with chronic insomnia so mornings are a huge struggle for me, I should maybe get up earlier and feed him! My dd has a small bowl of cereal for breaky and sometimes a bit of toast but that is very rare as she takes about 15 mins to eat her cereal :eek: . She is a pain in the bum! Judging by what she tells me some people have in their lunch boxes ( can of coke mars bar and a pepperami) maybe she is so thin because I am too strict with healthy food

I have got a couple of these
http://www.matalan.co.uk/fcp/product/fashion-to-buy-online/Accessories/Ez-Freeze-Cereal-To-Go/29860&resultsPerPage=100&attrList=Dept,brand?cmpid=10&of_tid=01MkKXBc5UA49lGsnDORQRVNtc54fJXevzAOS9yIyb-oV_1kNfyu-0Pqi-I-mulK

and my DH takes it into work as he can't eat breakfast before 7am when he goes to work so eats it when he is ready. It has saved us a fortune as he was stopping at the garage and buying all sorts of rubbish.

I am going to look at making these for him as well
http://www.rivercottage.net/recipes/honey-peanut-butter-booster-bars/