I am a busy fulltime working mum and don't have time to cook all those fancy frittatas and muffins, etc I have seen on some websites. Just really want to see what others give their kids in their school lunchboxes. Mine are 5 and 8. Of course...:

- No nuts
- Easy to access food



Thank You

4 slices bread with jam, or vegemite and plastic cheese slice.
some crackers or corn thins,
2 pieces of fruit or some veggie sticks
a tanglez or nuggets
bottle of water

If we've got some cake or homemade biscuits, they will get a slice instead of the tanglez.

Not particularly imaginative, but they eat it, it doesn't need temperature control and its easy enough that they can make it themselves at ages 8 and 6.

A friend of mine was talking the other night, she said she fills her kids small bread rolls with plastic cheese and ham on a sunday, then freezes them all, puts 2 in a lunchbox each morning and by lunch time they are defrosted.

Yep, you don't need fancy.

Lily has - jam or ham sandwich, yoghurt, fruit (usually apple, sometimes banana), carrot or celery, rice crackers, 1 choc chip farmbake cookie, and I chuck in cruskits or corn thins for the car ride home. Can't see much changing about that as we go on.

We have started "mums tuckshop" after I got the idea from a friend ... we have written a menu in 3 sections ... fruit / sammie-rolls / snacks .... they get to pick 2 x fruit, 1 snack and 1 sammie .... although my 2nd boy gets 2 snacks cause he has always eaten everything and is STILL starving.

Sammie/roll = 2 slices of bread or a roll or a wrap or 2 x mini bagels - with different fillinngs like ham or vegemite and cheese or lettuce and tomoato or salami

Fruit = Im passionate bout fruit - so they always have the choice of about 5-6 different types they can take ... also on the list is carrots / cherry toms / cucumber slices and for my girl gherkins.

Snacks = piklets / crackers / biscuits or slice (homemade) / cheese / pretzels / yoghurt / cake / jelly / fruit bar / dried fruit / muffin / boiled egg / salami stick

My eldest still complains he is the ONLY kid who doesnt get chips for morning tea ... I often remind him that he cant be, cause his bro and sister dont either Other kids however comment that my kids get *subway* everyday cause it looks like it with their filled rolls ... I guess that comes from kids who only get jam/marmite every day.

Mine gets a sammy with ham/egg/nutella(treat)/jam(treat), yoghurt, rice crackers or corn thins, small bikky/pikelet, fruit bar. I make the sammy with frozen bread so it is thawed and nice and fresh at lunchtime. He won't eat fruit at school, so I make sure he gets it at home.

At the top of this forum is a consolidated lunch box list, I got some great ideas off there.

My boys tend to have, cheese cubes, jam sandwich, capsicum slices, cucumber slices, carrot sticks, rice crackers, raisins, dried apricots, often a protein like leftover chicken or tuna or ham. I often add 1 piece of baking like a date scone or anzac biscuit. Usually fruit either pineapple (tinned) or an apple or mandarin.

DD is 5 and seems to eat a bit at school, which I'm not too worried about as she's not a big eater generally.

Her class had a brainfood break at 10am as the teachers felt it too long for the littlies to wait until 10.40 am for morning tea.

Brainfood has to be a quick snack, cause they have 10mins
Fruit or crackers and cheese or Le snak, or I've found some hummus and crackers packs as well. This is always in a separate container from her lunch box for easy access.


Then in her lunchbox goes:
sandwich (2 slices bread with marmite/jam/honey/peanut butter etc)

100g yoghurt (I buy the big pots and just put some in a small container, any more and it goes to waste as she won't eat a full pot) OR some hummus and capsicum/crackers/carrot sticks

Cheese stick or snack bar or salami stick or biscuit or nuts.

Piece of fruit, generally grapes/strawberries as they are guaranteed to be eaten, apples/oranges are cut up because then they get eaten.


Sometimes the cakes/biscuits are homemade, sometimes they're not. All depends on how busy my week/weekend is (I work 30 hrs a week) and whether I have the time/energy/want to bake.


I give DD the choice of what she wants on her sandwich, whether she wants yoghurt or hummus. Sometimes I'll ask her what she wants and she comes up with some good ideas too.

Occasionally I'll surprise her with marmite sammies and some chippies so she can make her own chippie and marmite sammies. Not often though.

Tulips, its really nice to see someone else to feeds their child capsicum. So many people I talk to seem amazed that DD will eat capsicum. But then she won't eat tomato or cucumber (or will if forced) so

I do 2x lots of baking at the weekend, and freeze half.
school lunches are usually
-brain food -1 piece of fruit (have to have fresh fruit/veges for this)
-morning tea - crackers and cheese, piece of baking, a little container of yoghurt, sometimes i do a little dried fruit mix (prunes, apricots, strawberries, apple, mango, blueberries etc) they both love that as long as i dont do it too often.
-lunch sandwich(#1 will only eat butter sandwiches, #2 has the works meat/salad sort of deal), fruit, another piece of baking (depending on how big the first piece was), sometimes some popcorn. DS#2 likes to have a little container of salad to go with his lunch which is easy peasy to do.
if we have leftover from the night b4 i.e chicken kebab/roast meat/pizza etc ill pop some into #2's lunchbox as he gets really hungry.
(#1 will often just eat his brainfood and have a bit of his sandwich and that it, #2 will eat the lot and come home starving - on days where #1 surprises me and has an empty lunchbox it usually turns out #2 found him and asked for some more food lol)


when im desparatly busy and unorganised ill buy muesli bars/biscuits or chippies or something but i hate seeing that sort of stuff in their lunchbox so i try not to - have maybe had to resort to it 2-3weeks lastyear tho, hopefully not at all this year
-lol kamox my kids complain of the same thing about chips and fruit bars but I just remind them that in our house those are 'treat' foods only - not that that goes down really well haha.
and last year when i did put chips in (had a few stressfull weeks came home from holiday day b4 uni went back...but came home to my aunt passing away, and having to bring all my practical exams up closer so i could help organise and attend funeral things bla bla bla) anyway they had about 1.5weeks in a row of getting chippies everyday and they started coming home unopened anyway lol

my DD is at preschool parttime and i teach, what i use or see are prezels, rice crackers, variety of dried fruit, cherry tomatoes, cut up cucumber, cheese, salami sticks, home baking or brought, sanwiches, bagels, pikelets,wraps, crumpets, rolls, muffins, leftovers like pizza, quiche, noodles, cold sausages, fruit of all sorts, yoghurt, jelly, fruit cups,popcorn,musli bars, cold custard, creamed rice, ham or sliced chicken, crackers and hummus or carrot sticks, cooked plain pasta, the junk food type stuff ie chippies etc,
you can freeze water bottles to keep food cold and give them a cold drink or by mini icepacks that fit in their lunch box.