Innocent Kid's Lunchbox Challenge

Did you manage to catch the fabulous twitter parties with Innocent, hosted by Maggy and Christine?

I really enjoyed the sessions, and picked up loads of great tips for making lunchboxes fun and healthy. There promises to be a round-up of all the great ideas in a booklet soon.

Innocent contacted me and asked if we'd like to take part in their lunchbox challenge. Well, of course we would!

We were sent a pretty pink lunch box, a personalisation kit (that's stickers to you and me) and some Innocent goodies, including their fruit tubes and juice drinks.

You can never go wrong with stickers in this house, especially these super-cool foam shapes, so Ruby wasted no time pimping her lunchbox!

That all done, next it was my turn for a challenge: to come up with healthy and fun contents.

A balanced lunchbox should contain a mix of carbohydrates, protein, dairy item for calcium, a drink and fruit/vegetables.  It's important to vary the contents day-to-day and to keep it fun and interesting.

So, here's what I came up with.

I made up a batch of cheese and broccoli muffins with leftovers from last night's dinner. I used Red Leicester cheese and used the fail-safe recipe by My Daddy Cooks. This is a great recipe and we use it lots, adapting it to whatever vegetables we have. Usually Ruby likes to help me bake, and this would have been a great way to get her involved. However, the contrary Mary decided she didn't want to do baking this time!

Sandwiches are usually a bit hit-and-miss with Ruby. She tends to just eat the filling from inside, so as there was carbs in the muffin, I cut out the middle man and made her ham 'rolls'.

Simply spread a slice of ham with cream cheese and roll up. You can cut into small slices for a pinwheel effect.

I included a pot of cold rice pudding, left over from last night's dinner. This is delicious cold, and I added a frozen Innocent fruit tube (made from 100% pure crushed fruit and juice) which helps keep the lunchbox cool, and then can be squirted over the rice pudding.  Ruby loves to add foods together and mix up into a mush, so I'm banking on this being a winner!

I also popped in a frozen carton of Innocent juicy drink to act as an ice pack. It will thaw by lunchtime and give her a tasty drink, plus one of her 5-a-day. It also contains no sweetener, flavourings or preservatives.

Finally, as it's her favourite fruit, a banana for another of her 5-a-day.

Ruby hasn't yet returned to nursery because of our house move but we had this as a packed lunch picnic in the garden today as a trial run! It went down rather well.

What do you think of my lunchbox selection? What do your kids like in theirs?

Sponsored post: the lunchbox and some Innocent products were received free of charge in order for me to take part in this challenge. however, no financial reward has been received.  All views expressed here are my own.