Back to school lunchbox ideas!

[Madi]

Share your great lunchbox food inspirations here.....

I'll be back when I have two hands free with an awesome muesli bar recipe. :great

[Kali]

DH made scrolls today. You take scone dough and roll it out into a rectangle. Put what ever you want onto it, like a pizza. Today he put bolangnaise sauce and cheese, but we also like brown sugar and saltanas. Other options are Nutella, vegemite and cheese, whatever you want.
Roll it up and cut, place on baking tray and cook as per scones (180 for 15 minutes?) Voila!

Another favourite is mountain bread covered in cream cheese, grated carrot, saltanas and alfa alfa sprouts.

[shaestar]

grease a texas muffin tin and squash slices of bread in like pastry. whisk tuna, cheese and egg together & fill. bake until egg sets. my kids loooove these

[jodiemiller]

Slices of last night's quiche or pizza. I look forward to your muesli bar recipe Madi!

[Stardust]

Yum, yum!
Rice balls and egg rolls
salad
leftover pasta
mini meatballs
cold chicken fingers
hardboiled eggs and salad
cold homemade sausage rolls
rice cakes
carrot/celery sticks with hummus/dips

Custard/sago/rice pudding
back later. Baby crying

[emd]

My girls like Peachy Keen. Rice pudding with diced peaches. Also good with stewed apple, or fresh blueberries (which are $5 for a 300g punnet at the local farmer's market).

Sushi with avocado and carrot, or egg and carrot, is also a winner. No raw fish in the lunchbox in summer though.

Sandwiches with different breads: pumpkin bread goes well with feta and tomato, or with honey. Shrek Bread (broccoli bread - the green chunky bits are ogre's boogers) is good with cheese and tomato. Makes a boring sandwich more fun, and adds vegies without complaints.

Sweet William brand chocolate spread is nut free. All Canberra schools have a nut-free policy.

I've been buying Organix treats. The kids like the rice cakes with sweet apple juice concentrate flavouring; blackcurrant fruit bars; and fruit puree pots.

Home-made yoghurt will be good when the weather cools off a bit.

Four o'clock cookies - they have cornflakes and sultanas in them.

Sometimes I puree a tin of fruit and pack a little container with a spoon. Peaches in mango juice makes a great topping for home-made yoghurt.

[~kaoss~]

We do sandwiches cut with cookie cutters (hearts, stars, teddy bears - I get to eat the outside bits for breaky)

Corn fritters

Homemade yoghurt here too.

My kids just like plain stuff - carrot sticks, dried fruit, rice crackers, scones with jam, sandwiches with boring fillings like honey or jam. If it's too fancy, they don't eat it.

Hanging out for that muesli bar recipe Madi....

[Joey]

I think I need to learn to make sushi, is it hard?
I am sick of the boring lunchboxes my kids get and i dont even have to eat them lol. They get either a sandwich or a salad wrap, a few rice crackers or similar, a piece of cake or something homemade and sweet and fruit. DD is wheat intolerant which makes it a bit harder, DS wont eat cold quiche at all but they both love Sushi.

[Hailstorm]

Oh this is great!! I'm really worried about what to do with food as Haze is such a big eater I'm worried she won't have enough to eat during school hours. Tahnks for the ideas

[Joey]

My kids are big eaters at home but at school they often eat next to nothing, a decent breakfast an then afternoon tea on hand is very important in this house to avoid afterschool meltdowns

[Hailstorm]

Yeah that's what I'm thinking I will do always have snacks straight after school

[Hailstorm]

I've just been to taste.com.au's Lunchbox ideas recipe collection (http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/collections/lunch+box+ideas/1) they have some really really good recipes there and also I went to the Healthy lunchbox recipes (http://www.kidspot.com.au/best-recipes/recipe-search+Lunchbox+10+++.htm) section at kidspot.com.au and there's some good ones there too

[emd]

Sushi is very easy to make. When I first made it, I couldn't find a bamboo mat at the shops - so I used a piece of plastic wrap to roll it. Bamboo mat is a bit easier to roll with though.

Roasted chick peas are yummy too, but beware the flavours - one of them is quite spicy. Good for kids who are used to eating nuts at home.

I sometimes pack a plastic container of popcorn. Corn or rice cakes with a yummy spread are fun. Home-made Turkish Delight is easy to make and yummy (I use a microwave recipe). Or a little container of corn kernels. Frice rice in a container with a little fork (great use for the toddler forks now that the kids are growing up).

Sandwiches don't have to be boring. Just vary the fillings. Carrot and sultanas with cream cheese is yummier than you might think. Roasted mashed pumpkin and feta is also good, with just a sprinkling of nutmeg and cumin - good in mountain bread.

[Rach]

There should have been a caveat with this thread: "Do not read when hungry"!!! LOL

[Rach]

Ah yes... sushi rolls. I made them once and never again even though I did an okay job! Am definately making some this weekend. Older girls are keen on making or at least helping to make their lunches so I'll get them onto it too!

[Indigo]

I've been making DD brown rice/miso/tahini/honey & vege sushi - I make it up the night before, it's suprisingly really easy to prepare.

Corn wraps (moutain bread) with salad, miso paste rolled up..sometimes she has almond butter on them too.

Spelt banana muffins - 3 ingredients, banana's, agave nectar or rapadura sugar, flour. Cinnamon if you like it.

[Phoenix]

Question: Would almond butter create a problem with nut allergies?

Oooh I love spelt! Thanks for the idea!

[Indigo]

Phoenix how old is your little one?? I've been giving DD almond butter since she was 2. She had a mild dairy and wheat intolerance but seems to have outgrown it now.

[Indigo]

yeah the spelt banana muffins are looooovely! I often use agave for them, they turn ou lovely and sweet are are very filling.

[Phoenix]

H is 16 months. I am looking for alternatives for B as he really only enjoys boring sandwiches, he would be happy if he only had butter on his sandwich everyday. I would love to give him a change but wondered as he goes to school with the strict nut policy that almond butter wouldn't be ok.

[Indigo]

I guess you could just ask?? DD's school are fine with anything but I have heard of schools being really strict about all nuts. I make DD corn wraps with salad, cheese wrapped up inside - she loooooves them, and would take a wrap over a sandwich anyday. DS is the opposite and only ever wants a honey sandwich.

[Hailstorm]

**Bumpity bump***

It's that time of year again, when our littlies will be off to school (I believe some start today?) so I thought I'd bump this thread to inspire us all.... Also preparing awesome lunches may just take our minds off the emptiness at home....

[boy wrangler]

yep, staties in QLD start today, most independant schools are tomorrow or Wednesday.

I'm not planning much excitment for lunches, just the usual sandwiches, salad, cold meat, rice salad, wraps, muffins, cheese and crackers, fruit, yoghurt etc etc. We eat pretty basic food and I don't have to add any embelishment for him to eat it! :) I'm very lucky!

[Bron]

today mine have quiche but because we eat as little grain as possible, the base is a slice of nitrate free ham :) They also have a muffin, but I've reduce the flour content by adding ground almonds. These are apple and cinnamon - I sliced the apple thinly and cooked it in butter with the cinnamon. They have a side salad.

[cherish]

I have neglected children- they get a sandwich, a couple different fruits, some vegies sticks sometimes and whatever else I can find to pop in.. I rarely cook anything for them to take.. if they are really lucky I might give them a wrap.. oh.. and yogurt when I buy/make it....

better than packets of chips etc!!

[boy wrangler]

I generally bake something in bulk and freeze it - muffins (savory or sweet), piklets etc

I'm not into fancy lunches. We don't eat fancy lunches when we're at home so I'm not going to start now! Zucchini slice or similar is a good backup to keep in the freezer.

[marmee]

My big man harly eats at school. He eats like nothing else when he gets home. I am OK with that and have learned to just pack a piece of fruit and a biscuit / rice cake / small other thing. When he gets home he has a hot lunch!

[Bron]

I made mayo this morning to add to some salad and tuna, in addition to a mini quiche and a muffin.

[Mercurious]

Spelt pikelets, rice cakes, home made yogurt with chopped apple, diced chicken or cold home made chicken nuggets, left over sausage.

We are so lucky we have access to a fridge at our school, so meat and yogurt are safe choices.

I made a muesli bar from the recipe on the back of the dried blueberries packet which DD likes. Dried blueberries are expensive ($3.99 for 70g packet that you need for the recipe) but most the other ingredients are pretty cheap. Honey, oats, flour, coconut, and the recipe made 10 serves for DD, so much cheaper than dodgy muesli bars, and a lot less plastic packaging.

I used homemeal spelt, and replaced the coconut with almond meal because she doens't like coconut.

DD isn't really a sandwich eater. So it will be lots of fruit.

I'm still on a learning curve here.

[Bron]

Merc, Aldi sells frozen blueberries (and raspberries and mixed berries) at a reasonable price. I buy 2 boxes of the first two each week. We eat them as is or with some greek yoghurt. They also cook well :)

[Mercurious]

Thanks Bron, We always have frozen blueberries because DD loves them, but I wasn't sure how they'd go in muesli bars because they usually have dried fruit in them.

[boy wrangler]

Could you dry them yourself? I use frozen blueberries in homemade yoghurt for lunches too. So easy to pop straight in from the freezer!

Today El's got some carrot and cucumber sticks, some apple slices, a piece of banana bread a friend made, some homemade yoghurt and blueberries, half a pita with ham, cheese, carrot and lettuce and a banana. He's a big eater at home and would routinely eat much more than that but I'm showing restraint! He also knows that he doesn't have to eat everything in his lunch bag.

[jodiemiller]

Unless we have leftover quiche or wraps, we do boring old salad or spread sandwiches, some kind of fruit or vegetable element, yoghurt or muesli bar. Now and then we might have something home-baked like cookies or banana bread, but right now we're winging it (already!). We invariably come home with only half the food eaten anyhow so I've learned to keep volumes small to avoid the waste (especially fruit!).

[Bron]

Today they have some roast beef I put in the slow cooker overnight, with some curry spices. Add some salad and coconut cream to mix when they eat it and that's lunch done. An apple and some yoghurt.

[Phoenix]

My boy gets two sandwiches, a fruit or sometimes 2, some rice biscuits and today there was some left over quiche.

[Hailstorm]

My biggest is Ben, that boy can eat!!!! I bought him a new bigger lunch box today so hopefully I can fill it up. Last year all his kinder teachers were shocked by just how much he would eat every single day, usually 2 sandwiches, a packet of crackers, a piece of fruit, and a packet of cheese and crackers (the ones you dip) of course I'd mix things up a bit. Fried rice and my famous sticky chicken is always a good one, a slice or two of pizza, or these little bacon and chive tart/quiche things I make. Ben's lunch box never came home with food in it.....and he was only ever at kinder for a few hours at a time :2lol

I think next week we'll spend the week getting back into the school time routine, eating breakfast, then morning tea when it would be recess, lunch when it would be lunch etc, maybe that'll change his eating habits? I might start it tomorrow on second thought, just to make sure

[Bubly]

H is so boring, he likes plain and simple so it's fruit and a homemade muffin or similar and two sandwiches for lunch. Maybe some rice crackers or veggie sticks 'just in case'
I'm hoping J will like some more interesting combos, but we'll see!

Lots of great ideas in this thread though..

[Bron]

There's not much protein in some of those lunchboxes. Kyles, maybe adding some protein will decrease his intake of simple carbs? It digests so quickly (raises insulin levels in the process) so it's not surprising some people do feel hungry soon after eating it (myself included).

[marmee]

Today they have some roast beef I put in the slow cooker overnight, with some curry spices. Add some salad and coconut cream to mix when they eat it and that's lunch done. An apple and some yoghurt.

I wish my children would eat a luncbox like that! But as it's too different to what their friends are eating - no way! Esp Mr almost 11.

[Bron]

Niccola would wait till the trip home to eat tuna (cos her friends didn't like the smell) but the others couldn't care less what their friends thought. In fact, most of their friends are jealous, cos they only have packaged rubbish.