As the kids are back at school next week, I thought I would team up with the wonderful Laura Matthews Nutrition again to share some more ideas and inspiration for what exactly to put in those daunting lunch boxes. Most of these ideas should even be perfect packed lunch options for mini fussy eaters too!
Laura and I teamed up before and we’ve written blogs which include tips on Healthy Packed Lunches For Children and What does Good Nursery Food Look Like and now we’re sharing some extra lunchbox inspo to help you on your way to settling them back into school.
Raffy’s Lunchboxes
Raffy’s been having lunch boxes at nursery pretty much since the start of covid and I’ve been a bit rubbish at sharing them – mainly because they are always bish bash bosh and chucked in from the fridge depending on what leftovers we have (I’m not organised like Laura!). However, adding the little extras with napkins, little messages and a toddler fork can help them to get a bit more excited about opening them. I’ve also included a lot of store cupboard options too to make his packed lunches just that little easier.
Raffy’s lunchboxes this week:
Tuna mayo (I used yogurt) and sweetcorn wraps
A veggie pot with chopped tomatoes, peppers and some extra sweetcorn
A couple of mini figs and a tangerine
A hard boiled free range egg
He also had some fortified oat milk (he keeps it at nursery) as he’s still off certain dairy.
Carrot and lentil soup
Crusty bread
½ a pepper (Raffy loves eating it whole)
A porridge muffin
A kiwi
A yogurt pot
Water
Marmite crackers
Peas and an egg protein pot
Porridge Muffins based on my carrot cake porridge recipe with carrot and cinnamon
Cucumber chunks
Cheese and apple (with a few drops of lemon for freshness) slices
Oat milk and water at nursery.
I made sure that he always had an ice pack in the top and bottom of the lunch box to keep things cool, especially when he has egg and tuna. He also always takes a bottle of water in each day too.
I’ve also added a napkin and a fork and a little message from mummy to make it a little more special.
Elliott’s lunchboxes
Laura has focused on using store cupboard staples for Elliott’s lunchbox ideas to make it easy and cheap for parents to put these balanced ideas together. If you’re running low on fresh produce it’s so handy to still be able to pull a packed lunch together when your cupboards are well stocked! Think pasta, couscous, crackers/oatcakes, dried fruit and tinned foods such as beans or fruit (in juice).
3 bean tinned mixed salad (with no added salt) (cannellini, adzuki & flageolet beans)
Mini shell pasta & basil with a lemon juice & olive oil dressing
Dried apricots (chopped)
Cherry tomatoes (chopped)
Cheddar cheese (sliced)
Tinned salmon
Herby couscous (made using frozen parsley) in a lemon juice & olive oil dressing
Orange slices (or you could use tinned mandarins in juice)
Cucumber sticks
A pot of plain yoghurt
Chickpea houmous
Oatcakes
Kiwi fruit
Pepper slices
A pot of plain yoghurt
To make life easy for ourselves try to decant food straight into containers where possible to make the packed lunch operation quick! So, make sure you’ve got leakproof, reusable containers that little ones can open easily.
We hope these ideas are super helpful for some easy kids lunch box ideas for Back to School next week!