Summer holiday food

Tink_04

With the 6 weeks holiday around the corner I have been making some lists of what food I can make to keep the kids full and try not to blow my shopping budget at the same time!

We make a lot of packed lunch type meals for during the day as try to get out and about as much as we can when the weather is nice, we have, sandwiches, tuna or chicken pasta bulked d out with as much salad I can find, hard boiled eggs, raisins (from a big bag split into portions) dry cereal (my kids love bags of Cheerios to snack on) I have little bottles of water from a$da that are 330ml and 6 for £1 we refill these and take with us as have a handy top like a fruit shoot but not.

Evening meal I try to make the same as normal. Breakfast seems to be bigger and spread out over the morning, and the constant asking for food drives me as mad as constantly making it!

The snack stuff im trying not to resort to expensive things in the shopping trolley like branded drinks and food but still make it nice for them ( kids with you at the supermarket is a whole other post!)

With I still find my shopping bill goes up over this time as they just eat eat eat all the time. Was just wondering how everyone else deals with holiday time and I'd love to pinch some tips too.

Oh and we do have a couple of indoor picnics where I clear out all the bags of bits in the freezer and half garlic breads to have a bit of a clear out!

Islandmaid

My 3 are all in their teens and twenties now - but when they were younger, the holidays were a nightmare, they were all out door kids, and they would often turn up with any amount of random friends all starving.

I would make various tray bakes - great to portion up and freeze, pancakes were another cheap easily freezable staple. Quesadilla - quick cheap and microwaveable. Popcorn kernels - cheap as, and a quick crowd filler.

Buy a big block of cheese and grate it - makes it last longer and easy for sandwiches - jacket spud topping - pasta topper etc.

Heathy options were raisins as you,ve said - carrot sticks with cheap soft cheese, pepper batons, bananas - loved by all

If you have the space, make up some cheese, ham etc filled rolls for the freezer, they defrost quickly and you can add cucumber, salad etc

Ask the kids what they would like - mine used to help me write a meal plan

FairyPrincessk

Hi Tink, I don't have kids so you might have to take my ideas with a pinch of salt. It might be worth having some snacks 'on tap' but telling the kids those are the snacks for the week. This might save you prepping them constantly. I'm guessing you do bread variations on the sandwiches--pitas, wraps or a hollowed out bakery loaf. You might also think about flapjacks or twink's hobnobs, veggie batons, mini calzones (can be heated up or eaten cold in picnics, cous cous salads to vary from pasta or try making up a coleslaw base (onions, carrots, cabbage) and leaving undressed. You can add vinegars, lemon juice, oil, mayo, yoghurt or whatever takes your fancy that day and it seems more varied (warning store in tightly sealed box or it stinks!). If the kids can have nuts, then peanut or other nut butters with fruit, or even make your own 'trail mix' with dried fruit, nuts, seeds and maybe a few treat bits. You can mix in cereal as well. Hummus can get expensive, but spread thinly on bread and then topped with roast veggies it can make a good sandwich filling and goes a bit further. I'm sure you do your own yoghurt pots, you can also do stewed fruit this way. Some kids like to snack on frozen peas and corn--cheap and healthy. You might also try making your own ice pops with diluted juice.

Hopefully at least some of these are things you haven't thought of yet!

suki1964

Popcorn, made in a saucepan, not the microwave stuff

Pizza buns. Make a pizza dough. Rise, knock back, roll out to a rectangle. Spread with passata, grated cheese, whatever toppings you have. Roll up like a Swiss roll, cut 2inch slices and pack into a cake tin like Chelsea bun, leave to rise again an bake for 20 mins

Pancakes with bananas big fluffy American ones

Jacket spuds filled with beans and cheese

Hm sausage rolls. Skinned sausages and shop bought pastry

Twinks hob nobs

Corn on the cobs ( in season during the summer and cheap from the market)

Cheese and onion pie or quiche's


Nigellas noodles-Google the recipe, DELISH

Hm hummus with veggi sticks or pitta

Tbh when I've the grandkids I stuff them so full at mealtimes, they forget to ask for crisps etc. But then they are little,I'm sure it's going to get harder as they get older

theoretica

How about rather boring snacks so they only eat them if actually hungry? Carrot sticks, plain bread, milk...

cheel

I have a boy who is eight and gets so hungry he get pains in his belly!! I find flapjacks really tide him over, and I've learnt to keep a couple in my bag! Id I've not made them I keep aldis fruit slices in. At home he adores rock buns, fruit toast, fruit chopped up seems more successful than just offering him the whole fruits. toasted sandwich also a handy snack.

But the thing that works best is to give him a cooked breakfast, not necessarily a fry up,but beans on toast, scrambled egg on a bagel, mushroom and sausage sandwich. I do t k ow why but fill him up at breakfast and he asks for less snacks. Xx

kathrynha

Snacks in my house over the summer:
Carrot cucumber sticks
Cherry tomatoes
Strawberries
Cherries
Home made ice lollies - pure fruit juices are nice
Homemade popcorn


Also I have baking ready to go.
I make cookies that you make in a roll, and slice. I freeze them in strips long enough to make 10ish biscuits, then just defrost, slice and bake.
Also freeze brownie and flapjack squares individually so they can be got out a few at a time.

tessie_bear

its hard work keeping them going over the summer...i make sure mine have breakfast and i check the cake tin is full...chocolate crispies with cornflakes go down well...packed lunch like you say if you are out and about also look out for vouchers/special offers if you want a treat out and about meal

you could make some ice lollies or get freeze pop sort of ones...toast is cheap with a selection of toppings jam peanut butter marmite not all on the same bit

im sure i will get the healthy eating brigade on my tail but toast and spaghetti hoops is a cheap lunch that mine get at least once a week in the holidays

might i suggest you have to put your foot down if you are being eaten out of house and home...dont get too much in and when its gone thats your lot....im a hard woman

good luck tessa

purpleivy

Home made hummus is easy if you have a blender/food processor. If you can cook your own chick peas even easier. Gram flour isn't expensive, especially from asian shops, can be used to make onion fritters/bhajias. I shallow fry, rather than deep. How old is your crew? Get them to make some bread!

suki1964

purpleivy wrote: »

Home made hummus is easy if you have a blender/food processor. If you can cook your own chick peas even easier. Gram flour isn't expensive, especially from asian shops, can be used to make onion fritters/bhajias. I shallow fry, rather than deep. How old is your crew? Get them to make some bread!

I stocked up on gram flour yesterday. My tesco is no longer stocking it so got four bags for 50p each :beer: