One hundred and ninety five. If you had to produce packed lunches for one child for the whole school year, that’s how many you’d have to make, give or take a few inset days.

Times that by two and you’ve got 390. Or 585 if you’ve got three kids. No wonder my mum resorted to sandwich spread (you know the stuff, it was beige, came in a little jar, was flecked with red – which supposedly passed for tomato, or possibly pepper, no-one really knows – and had an overriding taste of vinegar).

So how can you conjure up quick, easy and nutritious lunchbox creations saving yourself from the dreaded What To Put In The Lunchbox Today conundrum, and, more importantly, saving kids from the dreaded sandwich spread?

Fun lunchbox ideas for kids

1. Make sandwiches into monsters. All you need is the flick of a knife and you can transform a boring snoring sandwich into a growling monster with beady eyes. Simply cut the bread in half in a zig-zag for the mouth and cut semi-circles into one half of the bread for the eyes (cucumber, tomatoes and radishes make great eyeballs).

2. Swap sandwiches for pin wheels. Take a piece of bread, flatten it with a rolling pin, spread your filling on top – BB absolutely adores smoked salmon, which is not only tasty but a great source of brain and heart friendly omega-3 fatty acid – then roll it up swiss-roll style. Cut it into one-inch pieces – et voila!

3. Use cookie cutters to cut fruit into different shapes. Transform pieces of apple, pear or melon – basically anything that can be sliced – into stars, hearts and animals. They look great, they’re healthy and they’re fun fun fun too.

4. Include a bit of party food, like jelly pots. Hartley’s no added sugar jelly pots are 115g so the perfect size for kids’ lunchboxes, and come in raspberry, blackcurrant, orange, strawberry, apple and tropical flavours, adding a pop of colour, not to mention fun, to any lunchbox.

5. Let them personalise their own lunchbox. Hartley’s is giving parents the chance to claim a free lunchbox with stickers and an alphabet sheet by collecting 12 special edition green lids from its jelly pots as part of its #HartleysYourLunchbox campaign. All you have to do to claim your free lunchbox is visit their website once you’ve collected all your lids and fill in your details.

BB’s had a ball personalising hers!

Do you have to produce kids’ lunches during the school year? What do you put in yours?

This post is an entry for BritMums’ #HartleysYourLunchbox Linky Challenge, sponsored by Hartley’s Jelly.

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