Packed lunches can evoke dread in busy parents. There's always the ubiquitous sandwich but it's not always a nutritious option. Here, Penelope Friday gives five easy-to-make and healthy alternatives to sandwiches which should keep even the fussiest eaters happy.
Budget
Hard boiled eggs can be jazzed up for very little cost. Cook the eggs through and cut them lengthways in half. Then mash up the yolk and mix it with tomato puree or ketchup, with mayonnaise or salad cream, with grated cheese - even chopped olives or anchovies if your kids are happy eating them. With such a range of possibilities, this recipe can use up various odds and ends left in your store cupboard, giving the children a healthy packed lunch which doesn't break the bank.
Healthy options
Rice salads or Couscous salads are healthy and filling. What's more, if you have a child who spends her time complaining “I'm hungry” every hour or so, packing rice mixed with veggies for her lunchbox is a good way of making sure she doesn't come home famished.
It's as easy as it is with sandwiches to ring the changes – use different vegetables, chunks of cold chicken, pork or beef; or add beans or chickpeas to make it a vegetarian delight. If you can use brown or wild rice in the recipe, so much the healthier! And the very act of sending the kids off with a spoon or fork makes the lunch seems totally different. What clearer sign can there be that this is no usual sandwich picnic?
Quick to make
Take a look down the cool food area in the supermarket, and you'll find a wealth of quick 'n' easy lunchbox fillers. Children who would turn their noses up at a cold sausage sarnie will pounce with glee upon a sausage roll; pasties come in both vegetarian and meat varieties (or make your own Veggie pasties) and with a mixed filling, they're a good way of sneaking veggies into a resistant child.
Leftovers
One of the best things to re-use from dinner the night before can be pasta dishes. There are many pasta recipes which taste as good cold as hot; and as long as the pasta was originally cooked 'al dente' (so that it doesn't go soggy overnight) dishes such as Warm Pasta with Pesto and Crispy Bacon, or Roast Tomato and Pepper Pasta can make a fantastic lunchbox.
Food for fussy eaters
I have one word for all parents of fussy children: dips. The element of fun in having a little pot of something and poking food into it encourages most kids to start eating. In a perfect world, you get them dipping breadsticks and sliced veggies into soft cheese or hummous, but the nice thing about dips is the amount of choice there is.
Start with the dip itself. There's an array of dips on supermarket shelves, from spicy salsas to creamy sauces. Even tomato ketchup can be used as a dip, and is generally popular with children; whilst it might not be the healthiest option, if it gets the kids eating things they might otherwise not touch, I say go for it!
As for what to provide with the dips, that depends on the child. Good dippers include pitta bread, breadsticks, slices of pepper, cucumber, carrot or celery (avocado is less good as it tends to go brownish after it's been in a lunchbox all morning), cheese wedges, even apple – you might think it a horrible mix, but there's a chance your kids won't: my son would eat ketchup on jelly given half a chance.