The Ultimate Cheat Sheet for Packed Lunches!

School dinners or packed lunch? The million dollar question that is spoken in every household with school-age children! I'm not going to influence your decision as all local authorities have different policies and menus in operation, but here are some great ideas to point you in the right direction of a healthy packed lunch!

1. Lean meat, chicken, tuna, eggs, low-fat cheese or houmous are all great tasting healthy choices. Try to avoid ham, salami and bacon which are high in salt and saturated fat.
2. Always add salads and vegetables like tomatoes, cucumber, carrot sticks, sliced peppers and sweetcorn.
3. For a change to 'normal' bread sandwiches, try pitta bread or wraps to make tasty sandwich parcels.
4. Spreads like butter, margarine and mayonnaise can be used but only in small amounts. They add flavour but can add fat and calories to the meal.
5. Try using wholemeal bread as it's higher in fibre and will bring other benefits to your child's lunch.

For the record, I'm not biased either towards or against school dinners; my son has lunch provided by the school but my daughter prefers to take a packed lunch! We're lucky that we have an overall great school lunch menu in our county with a great team who provide it!

Why not try some of these tasty sandwich filling ideas out on your family? They're great for days out too - when we get the sunshine back!

• Boiled egg and watercress
• Tinned tuna and sweetcorn
• Cold chicken, lettuce and low-fat cheese spread
• Boiled egg, tomatoes and soft cheese
• Houmous, grated carrot and lettuce
• Low-fat cheese spread and grated carrot
• Sliced cheese and tomato

Check out the Great Grub Club website here for more nutritious sandwich ideas! Enjoy!

Organix Mighty Meals & Snacks Review

We were sent a bumper box of Organix goodies - my children were excited to see what they had been sent to review and felt very important to be part of the process!

We passed the Tasty Beef Stew and Dumplings to a "toddler-neighbour" who I'm sure will update us in the next couple of days... but my children were thrilled to share and try the other goodies!

Jack's favourite was the Raisins & Chopped Apricots fruit bag - he loves anything fruity and these are ideal for packed lunches or the morning fruit snack at school.  The addition of apricots rather than just raisins and/or sultanas makes a nice change and adds different flavours to our children's diets.

Charlotte was torn betweeen 2 as her favourite... the Mini Cheese Crackers and the Mini Gingerbread Men.  Again, both great for packed lunches and picnics on days out (eaten in the car with the weather we're having at the moment!).

They also liked the Cheese & Herb Puffs but weren't so keen on the Veg & Oat Bar nor the Raspberry & Apple Fruit Bar.  They both said they didn't like the "feel of it" - for younger children, I think the texture would be just right but my youngest is 5 and has a wide ranging diet of basically everything and he just wasn't keen!

Organix products are all organically produced and come with the Organix No Junk Promise... their products contain no hidden nasties; just simple ingredients full of goodness.  More and more so recently, there is increasing hype about organic foods... is it better for you, your children, the planet, the future???  Deep down, we all want to do what's best for our children and their future so with great tasting snacks like these, you can be rest assured that you are doing your best and your children can still enjoy snacks they love to share!

Have a look at the Organix website here - you can also visit their Facebook page here.

These are all readily available in supermarkets - look out for them on the shelves.  With wishful thinking, I'm stocking up for those summer day trips we have planned... Plan B is to have lots of Living Room picnics!!!

Nestle Cheerios "Grab 2 Go" Packs Review

We were sent a new concept in Cheerios products - "Grab 2 Go" packs are portion sized bags of delicious Cheerios perfect for packed lunches (school and work!), picnics and also for a quick snack on the go at any time of the day!  Living "out in the sticks" any journey is quite often a long one... our nearest "big" shops are an hour and a half away so these are great as a snack in the car for the kids (and me!).  They would also be good to pop into an overnight case for a quick trip away; better than carrying a normal-sized cereal box around with you!

They come in a multipack of 5 - the magic number for packed lunches... 5 school/work days = 5 packets in a multipack, perfect!  As more and more schools (quite rightly!) are promoting healthy lunchboxes, these are an ideal snack to replace sweeties and savoury snacks much higher in fat than Cheerios.  And, of course, they carry the usual wholegrain guarantee that Cheerios are proud of!  The 25g packs are just the right size for a snack.

The new packaging certainly does solve the problem of a trail of Cheerios where my son has sneaked a handful from the packet and is wandering around munching them one by one!  It's like a scene from "Hansel and Gretel"... at least I can always find him!

To keep up to date with new Cheerios products and news about existing products, pop over to the Cheerios UK Facebook page and say "Hello!".