Packed Lunch Inspiration - #HartleysYourLunchbox Challenge

As the summer holidays draw to an end, I am preparing for my children's return to school. That means getting back into our routines and getting myself organised.

As Freddy is starting Year 3 in September, he no longer gets a free school lunch so making packed lunches is back on the list of things to do. It is important that he gets a nutritious, yummy lunch that will fill him up but is still easy for me to make in the morning.

Britmums and Hartley's are challenging bloggers to come up with some ideas for quick, easy and nutritious lunchbox suggestions.  Hartley's currently have a special promotion on their pots of No Added Sugar Jelly Pots, where you can collect 12 special edition green lids to claim a free lunchbox and some funky stickers to personalise it! Find out more at www.hartleysfruit.co.uk.

Here are some of my top tips for packed lunches:

• Freddy isn't always the biggest fan of sandwiches. He gets easily bored with eating the same food day in, day out, so we like to offer him alternatives to bread. One of his favourites is corn cakes. Topped with a dairy based spread (such as cream cheese and mushroom pate) and some veggies such as sweetcorn, chopped cherry tomato or red pepper, they are a tasty, filling alternative to a cheese butty! Wrapped in foil, they survive in a lunchbox pretty well.

• Make it fun!  We don't all have the time or inclination in the morning to create an elaborate Pokemon themed bento lunch for our little ones. However, anyone can take a minute to write a message on a banana! Or add a little note written on a napkin to let your child know you're thinking of them on their first days back. A personal touch like that can help with your child's confidence and remind them of home.

• Add two or their five a day to their lunchbox or it's difficult to be sure they get enough fruit and vegetables in their diet. Fresh fruit or salad is great at lunchtime: plums, bananas, a pot of grapes or strawberries, a box of raisins, carrot and cucumber sticks or a small green salad are healthy additions. Add some chopped veggies to a sandwich, pitta or wrap filling or cracker topping. A smoothie is another good way of adding to their daily fruit and veg quota.

• Add a treat!  Hartley's sugar free jelly is convenient, refreshing and flavoursome. It is suitable for vegetarians too. Just don't forget a spoon! 

• Keep kids hydrated by including a bottle of water with their lunch. Our tap water is not great where we live so we use mineral water instead. Buying individual bottles is a really expensive way of doing it. Buy a big 2 l bottle (35p in Lidl) and pour it into a refillable, sports top drinking bottle and save a fortune across the school year.

• Buy a small flask and give the children a hot lunchtime meal of soup. A good chunky vegetable or tomato soup and a brown bread roll is perfect for when the weather gets a bit colder.

This post is an entry for Britmums #HartleyYourLunchbox Linky challenge sponspored by Hartley's Jelly.

Making Packed Lunches Fun with Capri-Sun Fruit Crush Juice Drink

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. This post is for the #CapriSunSchool campaign with #CollectiveBias.

We have had a wonderful summer this year, enjoying a brilliant holiday, lots of fun days out and some quality family time spent together. I can't believe that the summer holidays have come to an end and my children will be returning to school tomorrow for the new academic year.  The new school year also means a return to packed lunch making and trying to make the children's mid day meals as appetising and exciting as possible. Coming up with lunchbox ideas that the kids want to eat can be a challenge, but is also an opportunity to give the children healthy lunchboxes that they will love, scoring lots of mummy points in the process!

We went to our local Tesco Extra at the weekend, to stock up on the things needed for the new term. We picked up some last minute school uniform bits as well as some stationery items.  Packed lunch groceries were also on the shopping list.  We went to the drink aisle to get some long life juice drink multipacks and were pleased to find Capri-Sun Fruit Crush on special offer as part of a back to school promotion, at just £1.32 for a five pack.  We bought both Tropical and Blackcurrant and Apple varieties (they also do an Apple and Pear flavour) so the children can have a choice of which flavour they want each day.

Freddy is quite a fussy eater so I try extra hard to provide him with food and drink that he will really enjoy, which is balanced and (mostly) healthy.  Capri-Sun Fruit Crush is definitely a great choice.  He loves the fun pouches with the straws and the fruity flavours really appeal to him!  Best of all from my perspective, is the fact that they are made from 75% fruit juice and 25% spring water and count as one of their five a day. They are also 100% compliant with the new school's Food Standards.

Another fabulous thing with Capri-Sun pouches is that you can pop them in the freezer and put them in a lunchbox frozen.  This keeps the food cool and fresh.  Plus as they defrost, with a few squeezes of the pouch, they turn into yummy chilled slushies.  Definitely a treat for Freddy who absolutely LOVES this!

Ever since my eldest son Joe started school in 1993, I have been making kid friendly packed lunches.  I used to make little sandwiches using shaped cookie cutters and cut cheese and fruit into bite sized pieces.  In hindsight I think I was making Bento lunches long before it became the trendy thing for mums to do!  We called them "bits and bobs" lunches though. Making food visually appealing and preparing it in small portions makes it so much easier for little ones to tackle. Over twenty years later, and my lunchbox skills are still in demand!

I thought it was a good idea to have a trial run, making a midday meal for Freddy to get him back into the idea of having a packed lunch. Making a packed lunch around the Capri-Sun Fruit Crush, I thought that a summery theme would be fun and seasonal. So, I used small cutters shaped like a leaf, a butterfly, an apple, a flower and a berry, to make bitesize sandwiches (and cookie bites which were cut from a large white chocolate cookie - everyone deserves a little treat).  The sandwiches were filled with cheese spread and sliced grapes. I cut a flower shape from the red wax on a Babybel and made the stem and leaves from a green grape. Not only does this look cute, it also makes it easier for little hands to open the cheese.  A fruit salad comprising of red grapes, melon and mango accompanied the lunch.  Freddy loved it and the little mouth size shapes went down a treat, as did the Capri-Sun Fruit Crush juice drink!

Hopefully, the children will enjoy their packed lunches at school this year and will eat everything up, and I won't have to worry about my little babies going hungry or thirsty during the school day!

It's particularly reassuring to know that fussy little Freddy loves his "bits and bobs" lunches and his Capri-Sun Fruit Crush pouches. I'm going to miss my children when they are back at school, but at least I know they will be well fed.

Capri-Sun is the perfect way to get a genuine "Thanks mum" from the kids this school year!

You can buy Capri-Sun at Tesco and enter a competition to win £100 of Back to School prizes!

Cawston Press Kids' Blend Juice Cartons

My children have packed lunches at school and I like to make sure they eat healthily but still enjoy what they have, especially important with my fussy 4 year old Freddy.

Cawston Press sent us some of their new Kids' Blend juice cartons to try in Apple & Summer Berrries and Apple & Blackcurrant flavours.  Consisting of ripe pressed fruit and water in a 60/40 ratio, they are a lighter, milder tasting juice yet still give you one of your five a day.  They contain absolutely no added nasties and are sweetened only by naturally occurring sugars making them a perfect drink for little ones!

They come in handy slimline 200ml cartons with a straw so are perfect for when you are on the go with the kids.

The flavour of the juice is pleasant, refreshing and natural tasting.  Kizzy and Freddy both enjoy it and I am happy that they are having a drink which is free from potentially harmful artificial sweeteners.  Being mixed with water, the juice isn't too harsh on their teeth, unlike pure fruit juices.  So it ticks all the boxes for me.

Apple & Pear and Apple & Mango flavours are also available.  Find them in Sainsbury's and Tesco for £1.79 for a three pack.

Healthy Lunch Box Treats

Sainsbury's Healthy Fruity Snacks For Kids

My children return to school tomorrow.  The summer holidays have gone in a flash and I'm now preparing myself for the routine of the school run, uniforms and packed lunches.  Thankfully, a much appreciated delivery from Sainsbury's will help me out with the organisation of packed lunches.

We received a really cute pink owl design lunchbox which Kizzy has fallen in love with.  It is a good size with insulated walls, a sturdy handle and zip.  Perfect for school.   

Kizzy was even more delighted when she saw what was inside!  Sainsbury's have a range of healthy, satisfying fruit based snacks and smoothies designed for children, which will provide them with energy to keep up with the demands of the new term.  They are a great alternative to unhealthy snacks like biscuits and sweets.

Kizzy loves anything fruity and she was delighted to discover the mini packs of Raisins and Blueberries and Bite Sized Apricots.  A perfectly sized portion of dried fruit to add a sweet but healthy treat to her lunchbox. The Strawberry Fruity Flakes and the Yogurt Coated Raisins are also delicious snacks packed with taste, offering a twist on traditional dried fruits.  The fun characters on the packaging will appeal to younger children, encouraging them to try them.  Who said healthy can't be fun??

The Smoothies in Orange and Mango or Apple and Blackcurrant are naturally sweet and come in a convenient pouch with a screw top.  Not only will they be perfect in a lunchbox, they are also great for travelling, offering a healthy solution to hunger pangs!  Freddy loved them and enjoyed slurping them from the pouch.

The Smoothies cost £2.59 for a pack of five and the Fruit Mini Bags are 38p each from Sainsbury's.

Harvest Cheweee Bars

Finding yummy snacks for the kids' lunchboxes that are more than just empty calories just got easier!  We were sent two packs of Harvest Cheweee bars, the UK's no.1 best selling cereal bar, to try out.  They have the appeal of containing chocolate or toffee chips, but they also contain wholegrain wheat and oats, are a source of fibre, vitamins and iron.  They also contain no artificial colourings or flavourings and are low in fat and salt.  Kids get the best of both worlds!

Each box contains 9 of the cereal bars, which are made in a nut free environment.  Each bar contains under 100 calories and has approximately 7% of a child's daily sugar intake.  So as a treat it is perfect as part of a balanced diet.

Tiny Tester Kizzy was willing to give the Harvest Chewee bars a try.  She tried both flavours that we were sent.

White Chocolate Chips

"This is very yummy.  Nicer than ordinary chocolate bars.  It is chewy and sticky...I like that.  I like the texture and the taste.  I'd like one for my school packed lunch!"

Toffee Chips


"These are nice but the toffee pieces are quite hard and stick in my teeth a bit.  It is very yummy though."

Both flavours were a hit and the bars will be featuring in her packed lunches for the summer term.

Kizzy chomps on her Cheweee Bar

Promotional boxes of Harvest Chewee Bars currently give you the chance to win 1 of 5 School Packed Lunch prizes worth £3000 plus Haven Family Holidays.  There are also other competitions online, so check it out!

Harvest Cheweee Bars are available in supermarkets with an RRP of £1.56