Many of you have asked for a little more detail into what I feed the kids, specifically snack and school lunch foods. I only have one at school, but I will share both of their ‘usual’ lunches as well as their snacks. 

Noah is a little fussy when it comes to food, he has a limited number of foods he will eat which sometimes makes lunch box packing a little challenging {and boring} but he has come a long way and I am proud of his progress and can only assume it will get better even if slowly.

Also,  I’ve been asked for more info on the store-bought snacks we have.
So here is an example of what I usually have on hand in our pantry {and fridge}

  • Sultanas {although only Chloe likes these}
  • Popping corn to make our own popcorn. I usually leave it plain, sometimes will add a little pink sea salt or jazz it up like I did here.
  • Nuts and seeds. My kids love nuts {almonds and cashews} and seeds {pumpkin and sunflower}. Obviously though this is not a snack for school lunch boxes
  • Home made ‘milo’ with milk is a common yummy afterschool treat here.
  • Cream cheese – I spread this on the rice cakes or on crackers or sometimes the kids will have them as a sandwich. I also use it as a base for some home made dips. Check your cream cheese – I believe the mini containers you can buy contain preservative. The blocks do not. I do not buy cheese spreads.
  • Yoghurt squeezies – we usually have tub yoghurt in the fridge but I buy a few of these each shop for convenience. Noah might take one in his lunch box once a week. The Vaalia Vanilla and the 5am Organic Vanilla are our favourites and are additive free. I steer clear of flavoured yoghurts in most cases.
  • Sesame snaps are a nice little occasional treat that my kiddos love
  • We love the Macro Organic Corn Chips at our house. But we only buy the plain
  • Macro Organic Rice cakes are great for topping with cream cheese, avocado, organic peanut butter etc
  • Marcro Organic Crackers, great with cheese, cream cheese, home made dip
  • Coles brand Chocolate Koala and friends – my kiddos love these as a little treat with a home made babycino or hot chocolate. 
Not pictured but some other things enjoyed at our house are:
  • Aribar organic rice bars
  • a little bit of good quality chocolate
  • natural confectionary lolly or organic lollipop (very rare though!) 
  • arnotts scotch finger biscuits
  • Coles organic sweet / salty popcorn
  • Cruskits
  • Fairy bread made with natural coloured sprinkles
And in addition we have a lot of fruit and raw veggies {although only carrot and cucumber for Noah} and home made yumminess like pizza scrolls, scones, cookies, muffins, banana bread, pikelets, cinnamon rolls. I make a batch and freeze half for Noah’s school lunch boxes. I just try to change it up so that our food is always interesting and varied and also try to make sure there is a good balance of healthy food and less healthy food or ‘treats’ in our day to day. 
A normal lunch box for recess and lunch at school for Noah consists of:
  • A sandwich – just cheese or tuna and mayo or egg and mayo – made on wholemeal bread {Brumby’s Pure Bake contains no additives and this is what I buy} sometimes with a spread of butter {home made or Mainland Butter Soft salt reduced}.
  • An apple, peeled and cut up {otherwise he doesn’t eat it}
  • A banana but most days this comes home
  • Carrot sticks
  • Crackers with dip or rice cakes with cream cheese or corn chips or popcorn or some chocolate koalas etc
  • Something I’ve baked
  • Sometimes a yoghurt or a box of plain milk
A normal snack + lunch for Chloe consists of:
  • Cut up fruit for morning snack – apple, strawberries, grapes, orange, melon, banana, almost anything goes for her
  • Something I’ve baked
  • Lunch is usually a plate full of cut up veggies {carrot, capsicum, cucumber, avocado, tomato, celery} some cheese, maybe a little sandwich {though Chloe doesn’t often eat her bread so I rarely make her a sandwich, of course when Noah is here she wants the same as him but picks out all the filling haha} and some form of protein like some tuna, boiled egg etc. And some yoghurt.
Both my kids are starving at 3pm so I do offer them a snack at this time.  In the afternoons the kids usually have something I’ve baked that day or the day before. Or will have a home made ‘milo’ and milk or some pop corn or fruit or a banana smoothie etc. I want them to eat but not too much as dinner at our house is normally between 5/5:30pm.
Although I try to stay clear of additives and highly processed foods, we still eat some store bought processed stuff. I just try and make the best choices additive wise and balance out the rest of their food for the day accordingly. I do try to make most of our foods from scratch or at least offer healthy / semi-healthy snack foods but I’m a busy mum too so I like the convenience of being able to pop some corn chips or a yoghurt squeezie into Noah’s lunchbox. You can read a little more about what I feed the kids in this post here.
I hope this helps? Please feel free to ask away if you have any questions! xx

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