Over the last two years Mini has moved on to have packed lunches for school and as he isn’t really a sandwich person we have been working with Flora looking at non-sandwich lunchbox ideas.
A recent survey commissioned by Flora has revealed that only 17% of kids lunchboxes contain any vegetables of salad, which as a mum I find really shocking. Worse than that it also showed that only 1.6% of children’s packed lunches met national standards for school food in England. Now I know that children can be really fussy and picky eaters and totally understand that it is your decision as to what goes in your child’s pack lunch and that we are all busy and do not want to spend too much time on a packed lunch, I do believe as do Flora that with a little planning we can make sure that our kids lunchboxes are packed with goodness. Why not check out Flora’s Lunch Box Guide, it is filled with ideas and inspiration.
Did you know that Flora has distributed 631,000 lunchboxes with recipe planners to retailers throughout the UK to help make packing lunches easier for parents and that Only 1 in 5 lunchboxes (17%) contains any vegetables or salad! Dr. Charlotte Evans, Nutritional Epidemiologist and the study’s lead researcher, comments: “I hope the results of the study are an eye-opener, highlighting that more stringent policies need to be introduced if we want to see real change in the nutritional value of children’s packed lunches. New policies for schools, food manufacturers and retailers are needed, which will require strong support from government and stakeholders if progress is to be made. Flora has made a good start, but we need everyone on board in order to make an impact.”
One of the things that I really fail with is tuna. I hate tinned tuna, the smell, the texture and the taste, but I know that it is full of goodness and Mini adores it. So I decided to get the husbeast involved and him and Mini have prepared this week’s packed lunches on a tuna theme!
Jewelled Tuna Pasta
We adapted this recipe from the Pasta Tossed with Tuna and Fresh Herbs off the Flora website and it was a big hit. Simple to make, delicious (so I am told) and great hot or cold.
Ingredients
- 350g penne pasta
- 55 g Flora Original
- 1 red pepper, seeds removed and finely chopped
- 115 g button mushrooms, thickly sliced
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- 198 g can sweetcorn
- 200 g canned tuna in water, drained and flaked
- 1 pinch of black pepper
- 4 Spring onions chopped finely
Method.
Cook the pasta according to packet instructions. Meanwhile, melt the Flora in a large pan, add the red pepper, crushed garlic, spring onions and mushrooms and cook for about 5 minutes. Stir occasionally until soft.
Stir in the sweetcorn and tuna, cover and cook very gently until piping hot.
Drain the pasta and gently toss with the tuna mixture.
Serve immediately, or allow to cool and pack in tomorrow’s lunchbox.
What Mini loved about this recipe was just how simple it was and also how colourful. It can be so easily adapted and if you are in a hurry you can use a tin of mixed sweetcorn and peppers. Mini also commented that it would have looked and tasted great with peas in too.
Tuna Wraps
We are big fans of wraps here. Both my boys love them and they are super simple to make and rather than filling up on bread, you get loads of filling. This is a twist on a classic tuna mayo sandwich.
Ingredients
- 15g Flora
- 100g of tinned tuna steak in spring water
- 1/4 red onions sliced thinly
- 1/2 green pepper finely chopped
- 15g od peanuts, crushed
- lettuce
- 2tblespoons of mayonnaise
- 4 small wholemeal tortilla wraps
Method
Spread Flora over your wraps
Mix together your tuna, mayonnaise, onions, peppers and peanuts
Cover with a lettuce leaf (this stops the wrap going soggy in your lunchbox) and spoon your tuna mayo mixture onto your lettuce and wrap.
MadDad also loves this mixture spooned on to the top of a baked potatoe.
For lunch boxes we wrap these in clingfilm when rolled.
This was Mini’s lunch, the wraps with an orange, so yellow baby tomatoes we grew in the garden. He also took a yogurt and a flapjack.
I love the idea of tuna pasta for lunchboxes; neither of mine are massively into sandwiches (more often than not they get pulled apart, the filling gets eaten and the bread left for the dog to hoover up!) so something like this would be a far more nutritious option which they’d actually eat! Thanks for sharing.
My youngest loves tuna pasta, we like to add olives into our recipe. Great ideas for lunch boxes
These look like such tasty lunches, to add a bit of variety. I love tuna – my kids don’t, sadly, but I’d happily make these for myself!
My little duo quite often have tuna wraps or pasta – they love it x
This pasta look great! Thanks for the recipe 🙂
My girls love pasta in their lunchbox, it is always what they ask me for. Mich x
My daughter doesn’t like pasta but she’d definitely go for the wraps, luckily she does like lots of fruit and veg.
Big fan of tuna here and absolutely delighted with the jewelled pasta recipe. My four year old loves pasta and tuna but the name will definitely inspire her to eat it!
Also great tip using the lettuce leaves for the wraps!
Great post X
Abbey loves tuna so would adore this
Is that your boy cooking? My, he is so good with his hands. The dish looks neat.
My middle one, Spike, loves tuna, so tuna features regularly in our lunch boxes. I love the pasta salad ideas. Currently looking for new ideas, so thanks! A great post and interesting thoughts. x