Packed Lunch Vs School Dinners

Two weeks ago, before Lucas started in school for full days, we had a taster session of school dinners. We were invited along 1/2 an hour before rest of the school descended to the hall to have our lunch. All schools in South Lanarkshire serve the same meals over a 4 week rotation. I was very nervous as school dinners back in my day, yes I am that old, weren’t up to the culinary standards I am now accustomed too. I knew I was going to have to chew and swallow this food to set a good example to Lucas.

The option of the red tray being stew or the blue tray being a cheese toastie, smilie faces and sweet corn. Both going for the latter, I thought that would be the safer option. We paid for our meals and with our little bands one we went to collect our trays. Sitting at the table with the other mums, grandparents, and children we began. I was pleasantly surprised it was actually ok, not the best but edible all the same. Lucas ate his all up and that was the main thing. The desert was a jelly, now I thought how wrong can they go with jelly? Well I couldn’t eat it, I heard someone else from another school say the same thing. It was hard and just horrible. However, the main point is Lucas had a nice warm nutritious meal, deserts are treats after all. He can have some fruit.

On his first day I made a pitta pocket stuffed with the roast chicken left overs I had cooked in the slow cooker the night before. He had loved it. A yogurt, an apple and a wee packet of yogurt raspberry as a treat. I have put in a hydro, only this once as a treat and he hadn’t been drinking a lot. Normally all he drinks is water. The toy story thing is a cooler, you keep in the freezer. Very handy. 

He ate most but not all. 

Other days I made cheese and tomato wheels and some pesto wheels. And some pesto wheels. Cheese and ham wraps to name a few. I will put the recipe up if anyone is interested. 

Ok, my lunches don’t look as good as domestic goddess Pippa’s, but I tried. Fruit snacks ranged from chopped strawberries, apples, grapes and even some water melon. 

I was also sent some of these fantastic little cheese blocks called Chedds, these are made by Cathedral City.  They are perfect for lunch boxes, easy tear open, small bite size chunks and more importantly they are 100% cheese. Cathedral City is one of my favourite type of cheese, and these little pieces did not fail to disappoint. They too have the creamy, rich texture and flavour the main cheese has. 

They come in three variety’s, the little bricks we had, cheese and toasties, which are little slices of cheese between some yummy melba toast and nibbles, these are smaller bite size pieces of cheese, we tried these too and my little boy Tyler loved these. These were his snack for his pretend school bag, so he was the same as his big brother.  They even have little jokes on the packs. Just now I have to read them out but once the older one is reading, it will make a good conversation piece in the playground.

I would highly recommend these as a great addition to the lunch boxes, they are quirky and a great way to get kids to eat calcium. 

What else would you put into the lunch boxes?

The first week packed lunches went down a treat, then fewer and fewer things were getting eaten. Not sure if he didn’t want to eat or just wanted to get out to play. Yesterday he went for school dinners, he choose macaroni cheese and came in happy as larry, saying how yummy it was and ate it all up. 

I am not convinced school dinners are the only way to go, I will continue with packed lunches but will through in a regular school meal too. 

What do you think, school dinners or packed lunches? And do you have any other ideas about packed lunches?

This post is protected under copyright. SusankMann 2009 – 2014