My boys love fresh rice and kidney bean salad. It's wholesome, full of flavour and so easy to make. Get a can of ready-boiled kidney beans. Drain and wash and put aside. Cook some wild or brown rice. No fuss, just boil them with a pinch of salt and a bay leaf. When done, drain, run some cold water on them and put aside. Finely chop cucumber, tomatoes and any other salad veg you have in the fridge and also some herbs. I do mine with mint and coriander.
Now comes the fun part that the kids can do with you...mix the rice, beans and chopped veg together. Squeeze lemon juice on the salad followed by a good glug of extra virgin olive oil. Add salt and pepper to taste. To make it more interesting, I add a bit of garlic- or chilli-flavoured olive oil or (this is our family special) dry roast some cumin and crush it to a fine powder and add to the salad. You can also add pine nuts and olives to this for a grown up version.

A favourite after school snack is a very quick & easy hommous (food processor  ) with lebanese bread cut into "chips" and baked until crisp. Plus some carot sticks etc as well.

For school lunches:

I sometimes roast a dozen or so chicken drumsticks that are first marinated with herbs, olive oil, salt & pepper. Bake on racks over trays. Once cool, I wrap them & freeze individually for lunch boxes.

Once every 2 weeks I make 14 wraps from 7 large peices of lebanese bread.. included is chicken, ham or silverside, grated cheese, pickles, relish, cranberry sauce, chutney etc. Anything that freezes & travels well.

Tabouleh is Nakita's favourite and I can make enough to last 4 days in small plastic containers, kept in the fridge, this travels well if you can keep it cool.

This week Nakita made little cheese tarts (all by herself) by mixing an egg with grated tasty mature cheddar cheese, S&P, and lining patty pan trays with rounds of frozen puff pastry. Once cooled these are happy in the fridge & are going to school 2 at a time in foil.

Last edited by frizz1974 (Fri 29 Aug 08 9:09am)

That's a good idea about the cheese tarts frizz! I have seen the mini tart shells you can buy that's already prepared for you... so all we can do is add the filling. I think he would like to do that, especially pouring and cracking the eggs shells! I think Iam going to use the chicken idea too, lol!

Another idea I have picked here is making calzones. I also saw how to make them in an Italian cookbook I picked up a few months ago.

Now I have to start thinking thermos idea's! Hot chocolate/pasta/fruit salad/mini meatballs/soups... any other idea's mom's and dad's?

Mini 'pizza' flavored quiches (using tomatoes, your favorite pizza cheeses, herbs)
hummus, pita bread and a garden salad topped with chopped red bell pepper
sliced baguette with proscuitto, side salad
(these are favorites of my niece for packed lunches)

hello everyone! first of all, id like to say im a huge fan of jamie and i think he is absolutely brilliant.

when i was little, my parents used to tell me that calamari were onion rings 
thats just my little input, thanks for reading!