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Many parents now send their children off to school with a lunchbox and forego the option of a cooked school dinner. While school meals have greatly improved since the days of over boiled cabbage and lumpy custard, the choice is always there to provide your child's midday meal yourself, but how do you ensure it's healthy and, equally important, that your choice of content doesn't get boring and, as a result, doesn't get eaten.

Sending your child off with a lunchbox full of stuff they won't eat is a waste of your time and money and will mean your child will miss out on their important midday meal. Indeed, many schools now have rules about pupil's lunchboxes and often things like crisps, high sugar snacks are banned, which can make the choice even more difficult. Whether you have been giving your children packed lunches for years, or are just starting, you may find some useful suggestions in this section.

So how can you make a lunch box good, healthy and interesting.

First thing to try is to do what any service provider would do, and ask the customer. Ask your child what they would like or if they fancy anything different, and encourage them to tell you what they see their friends having. Often they see their friends eating something out of the ordinary and want to give it a try, so see what they say first. With all supermarkets now stocking a massive range of food, alternatives to sandwiches and fruit are readily available and often fairly inexpensive.

Alternatives to Sandwiches

Being thorough, the Best Advice team asked Mum's, kids, school Catering Managers and professional Chef's for suggestions to put in the lunchbox's and these are some of the ideas we got. Everything listed here is available at any supermarket.

Sandwiches and rolls are often the absolute staple of any lunchbox. Because bread is a good source of carbohydrate, it is filling and provides energy which growing bodies and active brains require. Some children are more than happy with a variety of different breads or types of bread, so alternating between white, brown, whole meal and whole grain, and using sliced bread, baguette and finger or round rolls is often all that is required to keep a lunch box interesting. Fillings can be as diverse as your child's imagination.

As an alternative you can try other sorts of bread, such as pita, which can be bought cheaply and will keep for several days. You can get small pitas now which are ideal for a child. Just cut the pita open to make a pocket inside and fill it with whatever you have to hand.

Flour tortillas are also popular and these can be used to make wraps. One tortilla will make two good sized wraps and the filling can include cold meats and vegetables such as chopped lettuce or tomatoes.

Nan bread also works well if your child likes it, but this cannot be filled although it makes an excellent accompaniment to some of the ideas mentioned later in this section.

Some children like to take crackers one day a week with cheese or ham and make their midday meal themselves. Whether you use the large Jacob's type or the smaller biscuit type this can make a pleasant change and it's easy to make up the night before using pre packed cheese triangles or a cream cheese, and then keep in the fridge until the morning. You can get these ready prepared but often the cheese and ham is processed and for what is only a moments work you can easily prepare the same thing and keep it that little bit healthier. Crackers now come in a wide variety so you can use wholegrain, oatcakes or crisp bread, whatever your child likes.

Sandwich Fillings

Ham, cheese, tuna, tinned salmon, are all good standbys providing your child likes them. Remember what we said earlier, it's no good filling a lunchbox up with stuff they won't eat and will give away to their friends.

Most manufactures of cheeses loved by kids (of all ages) now offer "Lite" versions which have less fat so try those out on your family without telling them they are "Lite". Chances are they won't even notice you have changed and they will be eating a healthier alternative without even realising. Philadelphia, Laughing Cow and Dairylea all make them and they are usually found right next to the to the full fat version on the supermarket shelves. If your children prefer the hard cheese you buy in blocks, you can also get lower fat versions of this as well. As with the creamy cheeses, it's very hard to tell the difference.

To help them get there all important "five-a-day" ration of fruit and veg you can add to the fillings by using tomatoes, cucumber, shredded lettuce or, if they like it, a small amount of chopped or grated onion. (Not too much though, kids are supposed to make friends at school!)

Don't totally disregard things like sweet pickle, and remember as children's tastes develop, what they didn't like last term (or even last week!) may well appeal to them now. One child we spoke to loved mango chutney on his cheese sandwiches, so if it works...why not?

You can buy pre- prepared sandwich fillings in the form of pastes and spreads, but it is always worth reading the label before you buy as some can contain a lot of salt, while others are perfectly healthy alternatives, and it is using alternatives which keeps a lunch box varied and interesting.

If you are going to try wraps or pita bread, then salsa makes an ideal accompaniment, and goes well with most cold meats and cheeses. Easy and cheap to make, or available fresh from most supermarkets, the only thing to watch out for is how hot it is, as many pre-prepared versions are aimed at an adult audience and can contain chillies which give it real kick. Great if you are an adult, not so good if you are a 7 year old. Look for mild varieties or use the recipe you will find in the "Fun at Home Cooking" section of BEST Advice, which was given to us by a professional chef and is specially designed to produce a mild and tasty version, which is one children can make themselves with a little supervision from an adult. As salsa contains tomatoes and onion it's another step closer to the "five-a-day" as well.

What can you use to give your children a change from sandwiches, wraps or pita bread?

Depending on their age they might like a pasta bowl or a salad bowl. Use a simple plastic container with a well fitting lid. Potato salad, coleslaw, tomatoes, and any other salady stuff they like goes in first, either towards one side or on the bottom and then whatever else goes at the other end or on top. (Easy recipe for potato salad in the "Fun at Home Cooking" section)

Like the salad wraps, tuna, salmon, cold meat or cheese is ideal, but you can also try egg, chicken, Scotch egg or even, as one child we spoke to suggested, cold homemade meat balls, left over from the previous evening’s tea. (And yes.. you guessed correctly, there is a recipe for meatballs in the "Fun at Home Cooking" section.)

You can also try potato, onion and chive salad or, if it’s popular with your children, homemade coleslaw. Pasta bowls are equally as easy and can be as simple as pasta with a plain sauce or more varied by using different types of sauce. (No prizes for guessing where you can find some pasta pot suggestions ... "Fun at Home Cooking"!)

Again if your children have reached the age where they like to join you when you eat foreign food, why not try them with a Samosa, or a couple of small Spring Rolls which you can get with meat or just made with vegetables.

Another good suggestion we received was dips and raw vegetables. Carrot sticks, celery , cherry tomatoes with a homemade dip, like the salsa mention earlier. If their taste buds are up to it and it's something they like, you could also try Zadziki, Taramasalata or Humus although these do seem to be more popular with slightly older children.

Fruit

An essential for any child is fruit, every day. It's vital for the vitamins it contains, which kids need and will continue to need even after they have stopped growing. (The "Healthy Eating" section will tell you exactly why fruit and veg is so important to a growing child) Rather than just putting an apple in the lunchbox every day, (but if the only fruit they like is apple, stick with that) you can easily ring the changes here. If you have a fruit salad for tea, save some and pop it in a container for the following day’s lunchbox.

Try fruit yogurts, Frubes or different types of fruit such as satsuma's, kiwi or grapes. If you do try grapes, go for the seedless variety as many children find the texture of grape seeds, and the idea of accidentally swallowing them, off putting and for younger children they can constitute a hazard if they "go down the wrong way."

Dried fruit is also an alternative worth considering with pre-packed raisins now available in lunch box sized servings. Contrary to popular belief, dried fruit does count as one of the "five-a-day" and a wide variety of fruits are now available in dried form.

If you live in Central Bedfordshire, right on your door step at Broom is Jordan's Mill which produces a wide range of healthy cereals, flour and snacks. At Holme Mill they have a shop where you can buy all the Jordan's products as well as the constituent ingredients. They have a massive range of pre-packed dried fruit there and the "no-frills" packaging means you can often get it cheaper than a supermarket.

(To find Holme Mill drive through Langford on the A6001 towards Biggleswade. Just after the Rugby Club you will see a turning on the left signposted Broom. Follow the road for about 500 yards and you will see Holme Mill on your right. The Mill Shop is directly in front of you as you drive in through the barriers. The shop does close for lunch, so a morning or afternoon visit is best. Take a bag as well as you may find that with all the choice of products available, could end up buying more than you went for!)

Drinks

Making sure we all get sufficient fluid is considered important by Nutritionalists and Doctors alike, so, like fruit, a drink is an essential ingredient of any lunchbox. Individual small drinks in a variety of flavours are available from supermarkets and small shops alike, but as many lunch boxes made for kids which you can buy from the shops come with a drinks bottle, you can put some squash in that.

Sugary, fizzy drinks are discouraged by schools for obvious reasons, not least the fact that some tins of fizzy drink can contain over 10 teaspoons of sugar or a lot of sugar substitute. Try to go for either pure fruit juice or high juice squashes. Smoothies are also a good idea and are popular, so will certainly get drunk, and will help towards the five-a-day total.

Crisps

While some lower schools don't like crisps in lunch boxes, as children get older often the rules are relaxed. All we can suggest is that if crisps are acceptable by your school, try to use crisps which are baked as opposed to fried as they contain considerably lower levels of fat, and taste just as delicious.

Room left in the box?

Still go some space left and need an idea to fill it. Kids love to open their packed lunches and find you have put in a treat for them. Chocolate rice bars, cereal bars and even yoghurt bars always go down well as do "stringable" cheese sticks. Small pots of creamed rice or flavoured custard also make nice treats and surprises.

Vegetarians

Many children, even quite young ones, now opt to give meat and meat products a miss. The reasons for this are varied, some because they don't like the idea of eating flesh, others as a stance to reflect their dislike of how some types of animals are farmed or kept to produce meat. Some go Veggie and it lasts a few weeks, others will stay Veggie for the rest of their lives. Whatever the reason, it's good to respect your child's decision, even though it can make feeding them a little more difficult.

Some children are happy to be Veggie and eat simulated meat products such as meat free sausages and pies and if your child is one of these, help is at hand. A large range of products are now available which although they contain no meat what so ever, look and taste like the original. The products are usually made from soya or a substance called mycoprotein, which is a processed foodstuff derived from a type of edible fungus.

One of the country's biggest mycoprotein manufactures is Quorn who offer mycoprotien as a cooking ingredient and as pre-prepared foods such as meat free ham, bacon, chicken, pies, pasties and sausage rolls and whose brand name has become synonymous with meat free food. Quorn is naturally high in fibre and protein, low in fat and it contains no cholesterol at all, so it is healthy and tasty as well. All the supermarkets now stock Quorn products, and when we asked children who have tried them, they certainly got the thumbs up.

If you have a young Veggie at home then meat free alternatives, like the Quorn ham, can be substituted for the real thing in their packed lunches, or if they don't like the idea of that, then increase the amount of bread, fruit and vegetables you include and try them on fish pastes or tuna as sandwich filling or the pasta pots and salads. (The Internet information site Wikipedia reports that egg whites are used as a binding agent in some Quorn products, which is worth remembering if your child has an intolerance to eggs.)

Useful links

As usual we will finish off with some web address where more information is available to you on how to provide healthy, varied and interesting lunch boxes.

Eat well, be Well This site is run by the Food Standards Agency and is one of the best you will find. It gives you full lunch box recipes for children, split into different age groups, and gives you a day by day contents list for over a fortnights worth of packed lunches

BBC Website, Food section Again another good site with lots of ideas.

A must visit site: Tesco Healthy Living, Lunchbox Selection Tesco's seem to keep coming up with new and innovative ideas for consumers, whether or not you are a customer. They offer a lunch box tool kit where you can make a 'virtual' lunchbox for an adult or a child. You simply drag and drop the ingredients from a list of Tesco's products and it will tell you how the contents stack up against you recommended daily allowances for: Calories, Sugar, Fat, Saturated Fat, Salt. The site also has section on healthy eating for children and nutritional advice.

Harvest Lunchboxes Contains good overall information and some handy tips for what to put in a lunchbox.

We have only listed those four sites but there are hundreds more to help you with ideals and suggestions.

Lastly if you think you have a good idea for a lunchbox item, lets us know and when we update this section of the site, we will add it.