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Eves if you are sending lovely food as above, don't worry about the quantity, I would rather my children enjoy their food and leave nothing than to worry about underfeeding them, after all, you are not sending your daughter to school with a fat ridden lunchbox

Phew...... Well, when she gets fed up of pack lunch, she can go back to school lunches again. I'll leave the choice to her.

Hi Eves, thats just about the same as i gave my 5 year old before he changed to school dinners ,he ate most of his ,rather give a little to much than not enough

This might sound silly, but how much do you give the kids in their pack lunch? The childminder told my daughter that she gets more in her pack lunch than her 2 boys who are older than her. She was taking pack lunches for about 2 months before the summer hols last year. What I gave her in her pack lunch was a sandwich, a mini pepperami/baby cheese, cucumber sticks or raw sweet potato, a fruit(s), a yoghurt, a drink and a 'treat' (eg. 1/2 small biscuits). She's just turned 8.

hi, Eves. My grandchildren take packed lunches and I try to vary it for them so, along with sandwiches, they also have pasta salads, rice, wraps, salads, dips with crudites etc. I have to say that neither of them are keen on cous-cous, but I get away with the rest of it. Dried fruit, the ubiquitous yogurt and home made muffins make up the sweet portion and I usually add a piece of fruit, even though the younger one gets fruit at school every day.

What about pasta salads with sweetcorn, boiled egg, avocado and that sort of thing, if the school doesn't have anywhere to keep them chilled you could send her in with a little cool bag and an ice pack. Sandwiches every day do get a bit boring don't they?

Thanks for all your help. Will have a look round this weekend for the flask. At least it's getting warmer now, so sandwiches would be ok initially. She's not too keen on having sandwiches all the time as she gets given a sandwich when the childminder collects her after school. Gave the school the required 2 weeks notice to come off school lunch this morning.

Not sure if it would work but worth a try- cous cous, you could fill a flask with some hot stock or just water and have a pack of cous cous, and when ready pour the water over the cous cous cover with cling film, she could also have some mixed bits like chicken, mange tout etc and mix it in as well. Just a thought!

Best bet for flasks, food or otherwise, is a camping/outdoor shop (eg Blacks or YHA), where you'll get unbreakable steel ones. Aladin is a leading make.

Will have a look at Tesco and ebay as suggested. Plastic inside sounds better Porridge, as the worry was that she'd drop the thermos......

you could always look on ebay for the food flask

Eves, I have a flask that I bought in Tescos, it has a very wide opening and is plastic inside so you can eat the hot food straight from the flask, it seems a lot safer for a child, I often take home made soups or casseroles to work with me, especially in the winter it is nice to have something warm, if I make a big batch at the weekend I freeze them in batches just the right size for the flask and then whack it in the microwave in the morning and pour it in.

And of course Lucy Pickle for her frankfurter idea

Ditto Eves and nice to 'meet' you

Nice chatting to you bubbles and thanks again.

Lol quick easy and delicious Eves

I will definitely be 'the best mum in the world' if I make that bubbles! (until she has that everyday for a week.........just joking..)

Frankfurters would be lovely chopped up with pasta and a little tommy sauce You can get the proper german franks which are a lot bigger and longer (ooer missus) from most supermarkets Eves

Frankfurters would be great. She loves those. Can you have that with mash potatoes? Reason why I ask is that whenever she has frankfurters, the franks disappear but the roll? it's a case of .....this is not very nice mum......... this is dry mum.....don't want this anymore. Anyone would think that the roll is 4 times the size of the franks...

Thanks. The next thing to do is to hunt down a food flask (and give the school 2 weeks notice). John Lewis or Argos I suppose. Might be an idea to actually test this out over a weekend..leave food in the flask till lunch time then see what it's like. Looks like we'll be eating a few 'pack lunches' then. Should be interesting.

My only bone of contention here would be to say that having to prepare a hot meal @ that time in the morning would be hell lol

That would be great Lucy, frankfurters and a lot of german sausages keep their texture well

Make sure you cook the pasta al dente so that in the approx 3 hours before she eats it will not go mushy

I have heard of but never tried myself putting frankfurter type sausages in flasks, not sure if that kind of thing would work.

With regards to pasta, I use to take some in a flask to my Aunt in hospital For some reason it use to get so soft it was disgusting. I guess being in heat does that to it. Rice keeps well in flasks.