The schools are back – how are the packed lunches going? Would you like some inspiration? We covered packed lunches on Feeding the Family on BBC Oxford on Friday’s show and Jo and I have some great suggestions as well as some recipes especially for children who dislike sandwiches.
Making packed lunches for children every day of the week, 36 weeks a year, that’s 180 packed lunches per child per school year. Now that’s daunting, how do you know if your child has actually eaten their lunch or just thrown it away? You don’t, unless you have access to CCT in their class, actually there’s an idea.
180 cheese sandwiches per day per year, or even splitting it into different sandwich filling each day can still be boring for you and for your child so try something different and encourage your children to help you.
Savoury muffins, make them at the weekend and freeze them taking one out each evening to defrost so they’re fresh and moist ready to go into your child’s lunch box the next day. Use my basic recipe and vary them by adding pesto, sundried tomato, parmesan or mozzarella cheese, ham, olives, whatever your child prefers, a few pine nuts maybe. They’re great for children to help with as you just stir everything together.
Flapjack, quick and easy to make and packed with slow release carbs to keep your child going throughout the day, add dried fruit, seeds or nuts (if they’re allowed at school) for extra vitamins.
Scones – my son dislikes sandwiches but loves cheese scones, change the cheese around, add fresh herbs or pesto to them or make cheese scones and fill them with ham and tomato or salad like you would a sandwich.
Flatbreads – OK I admit they take time but they are lovely and cheaper than buying them from the supermarket. Or make breadsticks instead and roll them in seeds, parmesan, oats, whatever you fancy.
We had Annabel Karmel on the show giving her advice on packed lunches too, so if you’d like to listen again or you missed it check out the link to Feeding the Family