Organising the Kids' Lunches with Sistema

Kizzy has a packed lunch at school most days and we have used various lunch boxes, bags and tins to try to make sure that she doesn't end up with soggy sandwiches, bruised bananas or yucky yogurt leaks.  Some methods have been more successful than others.  When I received a sample of Sistema to try out, Kizzy was delighted as two of her best friends have the exact same box and everyone thinks they are really cool! 

Sistema’s uniquely designed boxes from New Zealand use leading edge technology to ensure that children’s food stays fresh for longer.  Each lunch box has a rubberised seal making sure nothing can escape and the separate compartments in each box mean you don’t have to worry about the food getting mixed up and squashe against each other.

The lunch boxes come in a bright fun colours aqua, pink and lime green making it more fun for the kids. They are also freezer, dishwasher and microwave safe, making them practical for parents too. All Sistema products are BPA free and made from lead free materials.

Kizzy's usual lunch fitted in perfectly into the compartments keeping everything safe and undamaged.  The drink bottle is a great idea and will save us a fortune in buying cartons of juice.  Due to the box having separate sections, you couldn't fit in a whole large piece of fruit, but funsize fruit, grapes, sliced cucumber, carrot sticks or halved kiwi fruits are fine.  As each section has a rubberized seal, things can be placed  directly into a compartment without worrying about them falling out or needing to be bagged up first. Food stays fresher for longer too.  The hard outer means that the food is protected against being squashed by school books or PE trainers inside Kizzy's school bag!

I like that it is easy to clean.  I hate cleaning the soft lunchboxes and bags, they get so mucky and mouldy in the hard to reach places.  Sistema boxes can be immersed in hot, soapy water or put in the dishwasher.  Far more hygienic!

Not having a handle might make it more difficult for a younger child to manage, but to combat this, one of Kizzy's friends puts her Sistema box into an old zip up lunchbag.  This way it is easy to carry but all the lunch things are safely compartmentalized inside.

Sistema products are available to buy at Asda, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose, Wilkinson, Amazon, Cargo, John Lewis and many more. RRP ranges from £2.49 - £7.99 for packs.

Back To School For Me!

School Dinners Remembered!

Today I'm off to Kizzy's school for an Open Lunch, where the parents are invited to join their child for a school dinner, all for the princely sum of £2.93!  Kizzy is very excited about this and assures me that there will be a veggie option available (fingers crossed!) Knowing that in a couple of hours I will be stood in the queue of a school cafeteria with my plate in my hand has brought back a flood of school dinner memories!

When I was in Infant's School I was a very shy little thing.  My over-riding memory is of getting my school dinner of a sausage, a scooped ball of mash and a spoonful of peas and walking back to my table, when horror of horrors, my sausage rolled off my plate and across the floor. I helplessly watched the runaway sausage roll underneath one of the tables.  I remember the feeling of embarrassment as I froze to the spot praying that no-one noticed my mishap, but at the same time wishing a kindly lunch lady would come to my rescue offering a replacement sausage and a friendly word.  Sadly it was not so.  Poor little six year old me was far too timid to tell anyone that I had lost the bulk of my school dinner under someone else's table, so I went hungry that day.

A little later on in my school career, I remember queuing for my pudding.  I was disappointed to discover that the sweet offering was some kind of fruit cake.  I have always disliked currants, raisins and sultanas so plucked up the courage to ask for a bowl of custard only...after all, these were the days when you were forced to eat up your food before being allowed back out onto the playground.  I didn't want to have to sit there nursing a bowl of my worst nightmare in cake form!  My newfound bravery was however destroyed when the dinner lady said "So don't you like chocolate chip sponge, love?"  Noooo!!  I had got it wrong...I loved choc chip cake.  But the shame of changing my mind and admitting that I had it wrong was too much to bear.  So I shrugged and said "Nah!" in my best nonchalant manner, whilst crying inside at the prospect of losing my fave pud.  

My mum did a stint as one of our school dinner cooks when I was about eleven.  My overriding memory of this era was that she got to bring home leftovers.  We'd get big trays of coconut sponge topped with jam, chocolate cake and my personal favourite Manchester Tart (remember the pastry case with jam and solid cold custard!!)  this kind of made up for my traumatic choc chip sponge incident!!

I always had a fondness for school dinners.  I was the weird kid who actually liked soggy semolina and tapioca pudding.  I had no problem with the overcooked vegetables, lumpy mash or thick gravy.  I actively enjoyed the strange chicken pie and spam fritters that were served up.  As long as it wasn't the gruesome mincemeat tart or fruit cake I was happy!!

So today, I will be looking forward to sampling school dinner again 2012 style.  Things have changed dramatically in the school kitchens since the seventies. They get things like pizza wraps, Cajun potatoes and Korma.  It all sounds very exotic compared to my school dinner memories.  But I will continue to look back with sheer nostalgia at the memory of my school day lunches!