Lunch ideas for DD (5) at school please

the_cat

How about crackers or breadsticks? HM cheese twists? Plus some cubes of chicken/cheese/ham/hardboiled egg etc and her olives/some fruit.

A flapjack or homemade scone (cheese would be ideal) to get some carbs in her? Alongside healthy snack stuff that would be balanced

Leftovers - mine love meatloaf, quiche or frittata, pasta or couscous salads, hm burgers or mini meatballs, bbq chicken drumsticks etc cold the next day for lunches.... most of their friends are jealous on these days as they just have 'boring sandwiches'

FarmersWife_2

Thanks for all the comments.... Ive put a box together and Im going to pop it up to school in a minute...

It has olives, cheese, cream crackers, onion chutney, sliced peppers and carrots.

She would usually have a hot meal at lunchtime yes and at teatime... dinner time would usually be pasta with peppers and mushrooms and tea is usually whatever game has wandered this way or a stew of somekind in winter or roasted meat of somekind with cous cous or something like that.

I will remember to put some rollmops and olives on the shopping list and get some bread sticks, maybe she will eat them.

Thanks

C x

financially_gaga

I have a similar issue with my twins who started school in september - they were not used to sandwiches etc so refused to eat them. However, i made almost a 'bento box' style lunch for them where they have some sort of fruit, some protein, a homemade cake/bisbuit and a 1 slice sandwich with cheese and cucumber. I have stuck to my guns and the lunchboxes are coming home emptier each day as they know that they are not getting anything else. They also have 2 days of school meals (we're lucky, all school cooked, not bought in) to teach them to try new things.

Proteins - cheese cubes/houmous and dips/yogurt/cold quorn sausages etc (we are veggie)
Fruits - they are getting better at eating whole fruit but do better with 'smaller' fruit like berries/grapes/oranges etc
Sandwiches - bit of a struggle but we make homemade pizza together/cheese sandwiches/salsa and bean sandwiches etc

HTH - it can be a such a struggle but we are slowly finding our feet and our routine with it all!

FairyPrincessk

I used to eat cold quiche, tabbouleh, cous cous, nuts (perhaps not an option at your school?), various cheeses, dried and fresh fruit. What about crudites and dips? Hummous, wedges of pita or veg to dip in it might be nice, as well as pasta salads, or perhaps cold sliced roast beef/chicken on its own, without the 'sandwich set up'.

I'd test out a flask-fill it one day, with soup when you normally make her lunch and then at lunch time open it up and see what its like. If its too cold, try pre-warming the flask with boiling water, if too hot, pre-cool it with cold before you put in the soup. I would imagine that with a bit of practice that could be easy.

Can't remember--have you tried pita 'pocket' sandwiches? I'd make the fillings up out of things she already eats--so if she likes a roast dinner, put in left over roast, veg and a tiny bit of gravy.

YORKSHIRELASS

Hi

I bought my kids Thermos Food Pots from Great Little Trading Co for winter. They are not cheap but they do work and this opened up endless possibilities for lunchtime meals.

I also bought a stack of little pots which can be filled with cheese cubes, cucumber/carrot sticks, diced fruit, bits of cold meat etc which makes a nice lunch with some crackers or pitta bread.

I do think your daughter is old enough to learn a bit of compromise here though. I dont mean to be unkind but when she gets older she is going to have to eat at friends houses or out somewhere. I cant help thinking that there must be something she can eat in a packed lunch.

I also think its daunting sometimes for kids eating in a big school hall and I never worried too much about what my kids ate at school, I just made sure their evening meal was good and nutritious, which is sounds like you are doing already.

Good luck with it.

FarmersWife_2

Yeah I think Im on top of it now... i have this plastic dish which has a dinosaur bit in the middle of it for sauces which she uses in summer, I just wanted her to have something a bit warmer during winter.

C x

mama67

I work as a lunchtime supervisor, and we are also a small school with 80 pupils but only have 3 staff on which is all we need for the ratios according to Ofsted.

Hot lunch children sit in a different area to the packed lunch children because of H & S regulations.

This would probably be why the school will a) not heat up food sent in and b) not allow flasks of hot food.

We have some children who do not like sandwiches etc and they seem to have pots of pasta salad or one child has 3 pieces of fruit some cheese chunks and some carrot sticks and rice cakes, she eats everything every day.

So as long as your daughter is eating what you send I wouldn't worry about what it is you are sending, if its olives, crackers and cheese it doesn't matter.

The main thing whilst they are at school is hydration,we have more problems with children not drinking than not eating.

VJsmum

It always makes me laugh when you see these "what to put in a healthy packed lunch" type articles. It can have all the fruit and veg you like, but my 2 wouldn't eat it, and then i get a bag with a manky apple / pear etc.

My kids take a sandwich or wrap or roll with a savoury something and a sweet something. To be fair the wrap would have salad in it but for some reason they won't eat a sandwich with salad - say it goes soggy.

The savoury might be a small sausage roll, cheese, cold sausage, cheese straw, etc, the sweet will be HM cake or flapjack (or bought if i haven't made any). I just give mine the health at other meals and when they come in from school. Most days they have their 5 a day.

They have taken soup in a flask but it is more of a problem with it being too cool than too hot.

I think the snack boxes sound the best idea with a bit of everything.

quintwins

have you spoken to the school about school dinners, i would have said my kids school dinners were brought in because they used to be but acually there al made on site and alot of the time are proper dinners, my twins are loving the fact they can have cabbage about 3 days a week because it's so rare here (i eat lots of veg just not cabbage) could be worth speaking to them, also our school provides a meal plan at the start of the month which lists the 2-3 options they have that day (they can also have sandwichs/wraps,baps ect) and if you thought she wouldn't be fussed you could send in a lunch that day


as a side note our hospital bring in food and it's lovely it's heated in ovens and never dried out (unfortunatly i spent alot of time in hospital and never had any compaints except possibly portion size) so it could be worth trying it to see what her feedback is

valk_scot

Can I ask why she won't eat bread? Clearly not a dietary issue if she'll eat toast. Thing is, bread is such an all round useful and common food that it's going to be a complete and utter pitb for you in future years if she won't eat either it or sandwiches. Childrens parties, picnics with other families, days out with school, even just playdates and sleepovers and staying to tea with a friend can all get very complicated if she won't eat even basic foodstuffs. I never bothered much with what mine ate on out to tea days, for example, I'd just tell them (and the mother) that if they didn't like what was on offer, just have bread and butter instead. It encouraged them to try a lot of new things because they always had a safety net as were, and it did save them from a non-stop diet of allegedly fail safe favourite childrens food like chicken nuggets.

I really do belive that at this age unless kids are familiar with a food and also like the food a lot, they "don't like it". Most of the time they mean they've either not tried it or they want something they like better, not that they actually hate it. It's best to try to encourage them to get past this at an early age...sure, we'd all like to eat our favourite foods all the time but sometimes we've just got to eat what's availible, to be polite or whatever. Otherwise you end up with the sort of scenario I read about here non-stop...Dad won't eat any vegetables but peas and insists on red meat at every meal, son won't eat anything with a sauce or gravy, daughter will only eat soft foods, no fish or anything boiled, mum is tearing her hair out making four different meals ever day because she'll only eat chicken breast meat. Just don't go there is my advice. Give her a basic snack lunch of fairly ordinary food every day, feed her a good nutritious breakfast and dinner and don't make any sort of fuss about "horrible school food". It will just encourage her to think that you approve of her being faddy.