The Great Hunt: Cheap and healthy packed lunches

ShrewdDude_2

A pretty good value snack/addition to packed lunches are little boxes of raisins. Lidl do a 12 pack of small boxes for £1 which are tasty and nutritious.

I sometimes also like making homemade pizza. I make the base dough in a bread machine using a 50:50 wholemeal:white bread flour mix (not quite as healthy as 100% wholemeal, but a lot lighter to eat and healthier than your typical pizza base! Add a homemade tomato sauce topping (onions, loads of tomatoes, herbs, concentrated puree. Cook it up, reduce and blend). Add some mozarella and a little cheddar, and you have a good basic starting point. (Pizza is never going to be the healthiest meal, but you can control the ingredients if you make it yourself, and this isn't bad!). Add tasty/healthy toppings according to taste - e.g. freshly cut pineapple or mushroom. My kids don't seem to mind that the pizza isn't hot in their lunchboxes and devour it!

babyshoes

Assuming no nut allergies, consider nuts as a healthier alternative to crisps, cake etc. They are high in protein so more satisfying for longer, and although they are high in fat the level of fibre means that most of the fat is not absorbed. (I've forgotten the exact science behind this, but apparently whole (or fairly large pieces of) nuts are good in this respect, nut butters, crushed nuts etc are not as the fibre is broken down, so more of the fat is absorbed.)

I usually have a good handful of basics/value cashews or other nuts mid-morning at work, and find it helps me keep going until lunch time far better than a bag of crisps, fruit, biscuits or some other tasty, sugary junk would. If I run out of nuts and eat something else mid morning, I find I either eat more than I otherwise would, or I am starving by lunch time, and again eat more than I usually would. I also find that I have less intense and fewer chocolate cravings when I have nuts to snack on.

Other good snack foods are high protein ones - think about chicken legs/wings, boiled eggs, bite sized pieces of cheese from a big block, hummus, mini sausages or cut up leftover sausages (look for the highest meat content you can afford) etc. All are things that can be prepared in bulk a few days in advance and kept in the fridge or freezer, for a quick addition to a lunch box.

mr_knight

My lo loves pasta with cream cheese and either sweet corn or chopped cucumber.

We make pitta pizza either with homemade sauce or a spreading of tomato paste and sprinkling of oregano. Top with cheese and whatever as long as it is finely chopped. Stick it under the grill and then leave to cool.

She also enjoys hard boiled egg and soldiers (obviously just buttered bread). I then do pots of veg sticks and fruit.

I also aim for at least two of the five a day.