Five hot & cold school lunch ideas {& a giveaway}

Brought to you by Thermos®.Five hot & cold school lunch ideas {& a giveaway}

Can I alert you to something? School goes back soon. SOOOOOON. Fourteen days, or something like that. Not that I’m counting or anything. No, I’m not at all. Also, lies.

As a kid I loved this back to school period. All the new things, and the excitement of new teachers and seeing all my friends again. It was A-grade thrilling for a nerd-burger like me. Today I want to share 5 lunch ideas with you, using the beautiful Thermos® product, as well as a really generous giveaway.

But first let me tell you two things. I refuse to buy inferior stuff for school. I was a nanny for 12 years and have been a mum for almost 8 years, and I’ve had too many leaking, cheap drink bottles over the years. It’s my pet peeve. I buy quality and it lasts the WHOLE year and beyond. It’s only a few dollars more, and if you label them… they’re sure to survive the school year.

This sounds redonkulous, but when packing lunch for Lacey, I think of it as a main meal and then bits and bobs to support it. So the five yummy ideas below are based around that concept. One big, hearty meal for lunch and then you’d add your fruit/vegetables/crackers/snacks to fill them up as well.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been testing out some of the Genuine Thermos® Brand products, in particular the FUNtainer™ food jars and drink bottles. Below are just three of the designs available. You can get plain colours, as well as Mickey & Minnie Mouse, Butterflies, Cars, Tinkerbell, Thomas the Tank Engine and more.

Five hot & cold school lunch ideas {& a giveaway}

Thermos® keeps cool things cool, and hot things hot. If the kids leave the house with chilled water in their bottle, it will stay chilled for 12 whole hours. If you send them off with hot food for lunch, it will actually still be warm 5 hours later, and if you send them off with a chilled lunch, it will still be cool up to 7 hours later. WHY WASN’T THIS AROUND WHEN I WAS A KID? {I’m scarred by my luke-warm lunches}.

For the below lunches I’ve used the FUNtainer™ for all the lunch ideas below, and like all Thermos® products, it comes with a 5 year warranty, and a 110 year promise of quality, safety and performance {see it lasts!}.

And just an FYI, because I didn’t know. There are cheap imitations on the market, but only the Genuine Thermos® Brand has that quality.

Onto the lunch ideas…

Five hot & cold school lunch ideas {& a giveaway}

This is so yummy, and I’d eat it for my own lunch. It’s my Speedy Fried Rice recipe. The kids love it. It’s got egg, bacon, peas, and grated pumpkin. So good.

Five hot & cold school lunch ideas {& a giveaway}

This is my Cheaty Chicken Soup dinner, that Lacey loves and would be excited to eat the leftovers for lunch. It’s just poached chicken, fettuccine broken up, chicken stock and water, as well as 2 minute noodles thrown in {I know! Cheaty}.

Five hot & cold school lunch ideas {& a giveaway}

Another leftover meal; this time spaghetti and meatballs. And remember that you heat it up, put it in the container and it stays hot up to five hours later.

Five hot & cold school lunch ideas {& a giveaway}

I spent 13 tortured years at school eating luke-warm sandwiches and fruit. Imagine eating chilled fruit salad for lunch, with a sandwich chaser? Our kids are living the life.

Five hot & cold school lunch ideas {& a giveaway}

And lastly, you can make wraps and place them inside the FUNtainer™ , so that you don’t have to worry about the temperature of meats and dairy throughout the day, especially over a hot summer. Simply fold the wrap down, and pop the lid on.

As far as drink bottles go, my girls only drink water so we just filled these and they stay chilled all day. They’re easy to open, don’t spill and pretty funky too. You can grab Thermos® products at Baby Bunting and Toys R Us, or other childen’s specialist stores.

Now for the awesome giveaway. One person is going to win over $400 worth of goodies to kick off the new school year.

prize-pack

This prize pack includes:

  • 355mL Stainless Steel FUNtainer Vacuum Insulated Drink Bottle – Disney’s Frozen (RRP $29.99)
  • 290mL Stainless Steel FUNtainer Vacuum Insulated Food Jar – Disney’s Frozen (RRP $29.99
  • 355mL Stainless Steel FUNtainer Vacuum Insulated Drink Bottle – Fire Truck (RRP $21.99)
  • 290mL Stainless Steel FUNtainer Vacuum Insulated Food Jar – Fire Truck (RRP $23.99)
  • 470mL Stainless Steel FUNtainer Vacuum Insulated Drink Bottle – Purple (RRP $34.99)
  • 470mL Stainless Steel FUNtainer Vacuum Insulated Drink Bottle – Charcoal (RRP $34.99)
  • FUNtainer Insulated Lunch Case – Fire Truck (RRP $14.99)
  • Thermos® Cooler Backpack (RRP $44.99)
  • Book – Best Lunch Box Ever: Ideas and Recipes for School Lunches Kids Will Love by Katie Sullivan Morford ($34.00)
  • $50 Officeworks Voucher for Back To School supplies ($50.00)
  • Discover The Awesome World – kids science book ($29.95)
  • Geek & Co Science: Glow Stick Lab ($34.95)
  • Minions Colour & Sticker Book by Crayola ($5.00)
  • Crayola Super Tips 20 Pack Washable Markers ($12.00)

The total value is $421.82.

To be in the running, simply answer the following question: In 25 words or less, what was your favourite lunch to eat as a kid?

 

Thoughts on the products and ideas are my own and not influenced by Thermos®. Competition closes 27th January 2016 at 11:59pm. One entry per person. Open to Australian residents only.

The winner of this competition is Melinda. Congratulations! x

336 thoughts on “Five hot & cold school lunch ideas {& a giveaway}”

  1. My favourite lunch as a child was always a salad sandwich. It was relatively cool as Mum gave us a small frozen water bottle but it was usually soggy from the tomato ?

  2. I was a really fussy eater (my poor mum) but I loved cracked pepper vita wheats and cottage cheese. I am getting payback and now my daughter is a very fussy eater, keeping thing cool/hot would help alot!

  3. Cold sausage sangas with
    tomato sauce. By lunch time the tomato sauce would be soaked into the bread and
    it was JUST like heaven

  4. I had not considered this ! (why not?!)… our school has a rubbish awareness policy (it all comes home – their waste/recycling profile is awesome, mine not so much). So all the broken unpacked bits come home – including the lunch wrappings, which makes for messy unpleasant backpack discoveries and mucky-unlucky me. Putting a lunch wrap in a thermos will keep it cool (tick) and doesn’t use ANY wrapping at all (double tick!).

  5. We first got a Thermos for our daughter for our baby food. She’s now six and uses it for school lunches sometimes but I didn’t have many ideas of what to put in it so thanks for the ideas!
    I always had the most boring lunches as a kid (peanut butter or Vegemite sandwich). When I was able to cook myself, sometimes on school holidays I’d make a butterscotch self saucing pudding for my brother and I. Now that was a good lunch! And we had to eat it all so the parents wouldn’t know when they got home from work 😀

  9. during primary school, my sister & I were raised by my single mama. money was tight so in her lunch break every now & then she would pop a pie or sausage roll in the oven at home and whizz it into us just before lunch break. she would even put it in a brown paper bag so it felt like a bought lunch order! bless 🙂

  10. I don’t have a favourite as I got a vegemite sandwich and fruit every single day. Ripped. My kids, however love wraps and fruit salad!

  11. Standard lunch was Vegemite on white bread but occasionally Mum would be a bit fancy with spreads from (I think) the Commonsense Cookery Book. Can’t remember the exact recipe but one was dates, walnuts and lemon juice blitzed. Must see if I can find the recipe!

  12. Cheese and tomato sandwich, dad would wrap the tomato slices in their own gladwrap so I wouldn’t have a soggy sarnie at lunchtime 🙂

  14. My favourite was wanna be nachos… Corn chips in a zip lock bag and then a little Tupperware container of guacamole and a little Tupperware container of salsa. But I have to say, the cool bag didn’t really keep it cool and on a really hot day the guacamole wasn’t very good! And it wasn’t even worth trying for sour cream. Oh the days of warm lunches!

  15. My most favourite sandwich was a ham sandwich with butter on it.
    Now that I’m wheat intolerant I dream of white bread ham and butter sandwiches!

  17. Thinking back, it sounds strange and not all that appealing, but I loved to have cold leftover potato au gratin and alfalfa sprout sandwiches.

  19. Barbecue sauce sandwich on whole meal bread. I don’t know how I stomached it now but I loved it when I was a child.

  22. Vegimite and cheese sandwiches, which we then proceeded to take to the tuck shop and get microwaved. Cupcakes with jelly crystals icing!

  23. My fave was vitawheats with lots of cream cheese so I could squish the cheese up through the holes and call them “worms”.

  25. My favourite was tuckshop on the very rare occasions we had it! It was always the same thing – an iced bun (pink icing) and a hot dog on a stick (the battered kind) with tomato sauce for lunch – oh the horror of those foods even being at a tuckshop now!

  26. My favourite was 2 minute noodles, we lived in the blue mountains and it was cold. They warmed you up and tasted delicious.

  27. My daily lunch was corned beef in a sandwich. It took me nearly 10 years to be able to eat corned beef again. My favourite lunches were when I got a bit older and could bring cup noodles to school and add the hot water!

  28. I always got a devon roll, an apple & muesli bar for lunch (which I hated) so on rare occasions I had money I would get a buttered crusty bread roll and put cheese &onion chips on it. Yum, sometimes I would take cold steamed dim sims to school (oh how wonderful it would have been if they were hot)

  29. I ate a white bread, Kraft singles sandwich every.single.day at school. What a capital L Loser! Sadly that was my very fav…

  30. All time fave was a honey sandwich! Which we got about twice a year! And kraft cheese square sandwich, that went all melty and yum.

  32. Anything that wasn’t tomato sandwiches! I used to love a microwaved cheese roll in winter. still make them when I’m peckish 😉

  33. I was totally a peanut butter kid, and we used to eat odd stuff like uncooked to minute noodles! and jellybeans from the canteen!

  34. I used to love (wait for it…) baked bean sandwiches! They were okay lukewarm… Just don’t get me started on the lukewarm tuna sandwiches ?

  35. First day of term – the only unfrozen sandwich we had for the next 10 weeks. Scarred for life from damp bread crusts. #mymumdidnotusethermos

  36. I like to make food I know Georgia loves, but in bulk to save some time…. Things like zucchini slice and pasta salads are great options for us!

  37. My favourite lunch as a kid was freshly made “gimbap” (like sushi roll) because my mum would put in all the things that I liked.

  38. In the last few years at school, I made curried egg sandwiches for myself and my 3 younger siblings. And we lived in the outback and they were never still cool at lunch time…and yet again I live even more outback and my kids aren’t fans of packed lunches and I know it is because they are warm – this is a fantastic idea

  41. My favourite lunch was the fish that did NOT have maggots in it when i opened my lunchbox! #unforgettablelunchboxmoment #traumatised

  42. Lunches were so boring, but my favorite was still the plain vegemite and butter sandwich!! Just not too heavy on the vegemite.

  43. My mum made the most amazing quiche using old bread, as we struggled it was a relatively cheap idea, she would cut it up and it would last the week. Must admit on hot days, it would be warm and not in a good way . These thermos would have been awesome.

  44. I liked the hot lunches the school made. We were pretty poor when i was a child, so I can only remember like 2 times in my school life we had packed food. I loved the school pizza!

  45. It always felt special when on the rare occasion I got to buy a hot school lunch. A treat from usual turkey and cheese sandwhiches.

  46. My daughter starts kindy soon so I have to get used to making lunches. As a kid I loved vegemite sandwiches along with mums homemade slices and cakes! At boarding school we got horrible soggy salad rolls. The buns were absolute mush and you couldn’t eat it!

  48. My favourite lunch was salad with boiled egg from the school tuck shop. It was in margarine containers which seemed special in 1978.

  49. I was that wog kid with the big antipasto lunch that the other kids would laugh at. I didn’t care. My lunch was way better than their ham sandwich and wouldn’t have it any other way!

  50. My favourite lunch was tuna, corn and Mayo with crackers. Sometimes it was even served in a lettuce leaf.

  51. I always looked forward to my whole tomatoe and pieces of continental cucumber…. I loved it… my mum always packed it for me…

  52. I still get smell/taste memories for strawberry jam sandwiches, apple sixes and tiny teddies!! ? #thosewerethedays #favouritechildhoodlunch

  54. My mum gave me 3 options…Thick sliced KRAFT block cheese, vegemite or peanut butter. Needless to say I am far more creative with my kids lunches. (1977 baby)

  55. Anything that wasn’t a peanut butter or jam sandwich, yuck! Belgium and tomato sauce sandwich was my favourite.

  56. I was always happy with my Vegemite sammich, but loved the days when mum worked in the canteen – mini pizza, spring rolls and paddle pop!

  58. Mum was pretty strict so alfalfa, tahini & grated carrot on pumpernickel or wraps were pretty familiar but it was a delightful treat when dad packed macaroni IN condensed milk! Mmm

  59. Cheese pasties! My best friend and I once sat in the school canteen for our whole lunch break eating a second and a third helping!

  60. I loved tomato sandwiches but hated them soggy so I would take bread in one bag and sliced tomatoes in another and assemble at lunch

  61. I loved the ‘NICE’ biscuits my mum put in my lunch box, with cheese and butter on them. They’d be soft by the end of the day.

  62. Hands down Lasagne That came in a foil square tray from the tuckshop as a treat, otherwise ham on white bread sandwich please and thank you!

  63. Hands down Lasagne That came in a foil square tray from the tuckshop as a treat, otherwise ham on white bread sandwich please and thank you!

  64. Oh the glory days of gluten and food additives by the pound all deep fried in lard no doubt. Mine was deep fried lasagna squares. Sound gross was devine?

  67. My favourite lunch wasn’t actually one I took from home. Once a month we were allowed to order hot chips. Wow I can still smell them.

  68. The only thing I’d eat, therefore favourite by default, tomato sandwiches on white bread NO butter or marg……preferred over a pie from the tuckshop too!!

  72. Vita-weats with lots of Vegemite. I loved squeezing to watch the worms come out, before I devoured them. Still a fave to this day 🙂

  76. My favourite lunch was a Mexican type chicken stew – I think it was basically BBQ chicken shredded, taco seasoning and veggies. Pretty sure it was dad being creative with leftovers, but it was my fave – hot or cold.

  79. Cheesy cauliflower soup in a wide mouth thermos sometimes with cold cheese on toast for dipping! So good on a cold winters day – thanks Mum!

  83. My favourite lunch as a kid was cheese and pickles (the yellow relish-y type pickles) sandwich. We didn’t get insulated lunch boxes when I was a kid, so just like yours mine was warm. Ugh!

  85. I always ached for hot chicken and corn soup. Unfortunately Mum didn’t use our Thermos for this! Thanks Thermos-making it better for our kids!

  86. I used to love ham and cheese sandwiches, where (& this is the gross bit) the cheese had melted in the heat!

  87. I loved “Excursion Day” lunches. That’s when mum dished out the good stuff like kit kats & twisties! Drooooool

  88. Homemade corned beef, chicken or leftover roast fritters was my favourite lunch. Always went back for more.

  90. I loved Vegemite sandwiches. I must’ve eaten tonnes of them. And for variety I liked Vegemite on Saladas. You squeezed them to make Vegemite worms.

  91. My mum would make a massive salad roll in a french stick and cut it in half for my sister and me. I loved this lunch. My mum sent us to school with a foot long way before Subway existed!

  93. I am embarrassed to say but Polony (other states call it Devon- I’m from WA) and tomato sauce on white bread. So so wrong but so so good!

  94. I used to take buttered bread and buy a packet of tomato sauce flavored chips at the tuckshop to put on my sandwich. My friends were a bit freaked out at first but eventually one of them plucked up the courage to try it too and was an instant convert.

  96. I always loved my mums salad sandwiches. It would take ages for her to make them then by the time she was ready to eat hers someone would ask for seconds! ?

  97. I was a little older… Peanut butter sandwich every day in Year 11, cheese sandwich every day in Year 12. Shoulda mixed it up occasionally.

  98. Honey sandwiches that always tasted sweeter with the little messages and jokes my mum would write on the brown paper bag.

  100. In primary school it was cheese and lettuce sandwiches and in high school it was roast lamb and tomato sauce sandwiches! My Mum’s meatloaf also ranked highly for lunches too. Mmm I’m hungry just thinking about it.

  102. A salad plate. Once a week we were allowed tuckshop and it was sssooooo exciting! Each week Id forgo the temptations of pies and cream buns for a salad on a plate. I loved how exotic it seemed to eat a sad on a plate, at school, while everyone else had soggy sandwiches

  103. A VERY exciting ham and Kraft single sandwich. ALWAYS followed by a delicious home made cake or biscuit 🙂 yum!

  105. Bush biscuit (remember those?!) and peanut butter… Wasn’t a lunch I was allowed to have often but YUM!

  106. My favourlte was getting a Kitchener bun – essentially cream, jam, sugar on a split doughnut – wouldn’t look good today, my daughter (10yo) eats fruit thankfully

  107. If i was allowed either Nutella or a rollup and I was in heaven. Getting a Hawaiian pizza pocket from tuckshop was pretty great too.

  109. My favorite was ham and whole grain mustard sandwiches, although this changed when I went to boarding school, there is was yiros.

  110. A Peanut butter and sliced cheese sandwich or lettuce, cheese and sultana sandwich. Although in winter, as a special treat, mum would drive out to school with a hot pie and sauce from the bakers!!

  111. I LOVED those tuna packs, you know, tuna, mayo & crackers. You got that handy fork to mix the mayo & tuna together.

  113. I seriously needed this kind of stuff when I was a kid. Mum made me a cheese sandwich every day. By the time I got to high school I was over it so would give it to a friend & buy a chocolate yogo, packet of twisties & can of coke. This was back in the 80’s when schools still sold that stuff, I’m amazed I wasn’t seriously unwell having that junky lunch every day

  114. Definitely cheese and vegemite sandwhich for lunch. It was grilled cheese on toast for breakfast and my fav dinner was hotdog soup (veg broth with hotdog chunks). This could have rocked in the thermos for lunch 🙂

  115. TUCKSHOP!!! ?? I was a primary school child of the eighties….soggy baked bean sangas, squished peanut paste ones, dried noodles… mmmm…noice ?

  116. My mum kept a letter from 7 year old me begging ‘please no more Vegemite sandwiches just lunch orders’! Guess my favourite was a meat pie!

  117. My favourite lunch was mum’s homemade chicken schnitzel sandwiches with lettuce and hp sauce! Her chicken schnitzel was only for special occasions -drools-

  118. Oddly, vegemite sandwiches. But I think you are right, it was simply as we didn’t have the choice back then and we didn’t know anything else. I think my mum knew I would eat it so there you go. These are fab and I would love them to pack a little cold fruit or warm treat Thanks!

  119. Ham and cheese, but not with real block cheese. It had to be the plastic wrap cheese.
    Everyday for an entire year, ham and cheese.

  120. Anything that wasn’t a pressed meat sandwich because that’s what we had every single day. Being German my mum didn’t know what vegemite even was!

  121. I went to school in the UK so we had cooked school dinners but my fave in the summer was cheese and tomato tart.

  124. I loved a grated cheese sandwich, couldn’t be a slice of cheese, or a large grater. Poor mum got a special grater one Mother’s Day just to make my sandwiches!

  125. My mum made sandwiches from left over roast. We had meat, roast veggies and gravy on the sandwich! Best sandwich ever!

  127. I was always disappointed in a sandwich for lunch, but gosh I loved the homemade biscuits or slice that Mum always included. Delicious! ?

  128. The school canteen had cheese coleslaw and chicken wraps they were the best I was aloud to have a lunch order once a week Yum.

  129. my friends wasnt allowed jam so i would swap my jam sandwich for her chicken and lettuce wrap. Man they were good

  130. Devon and tomato sauce sandwiches or peanut butter and celery sandwiches – I can’t decide between them!

  131. I absolutely loved when we’d had roast chicken for dinner the night before, and mum would pack a chicken and gravy sandwich for school. Yum!

  132. Simple and easy,
    Saladas with vegemite, butter and cheese.
    Half the fun was squeezing the “wormies” out,
    Back then I was easy to please ☺

  133. As a special treat, my Mum would make me a sandwich with Dutch biscuits (Spekulaas) on it, they’d go all soft – Yum!

  134. Sao biccies with vegemite and butter- but you had to have enough butter and vegemite in them so that when you squeezed them all the ‘worms’ would come out through the holes…oh my god I loved them!! May go make some to treat myself now….

  135. Hash brown rolls. Hash browns, butter and tomato sauce on a crusty white bread roll. Not even remotely healthy.

  137. I use to love canteen day for lunch. I went to a small primary school that didn’t have a canteen. Instead we would be able to order from a local takeaway shop on Fridays. It was an awesome treat once a term. I would always order hot chips and a vanilla malt milk shake. It still brings back many memories of sharing with friends because there was always plenty! Of sitting on concrete with a tin roof keeping the sun off us and the wind howelling through threatening send the chips flying!

  138. Anything I could swap my boring ham sandwich for!! Everyone always seemed to have something better than me – grass is greener & all that! Lol

  139. Once a week tuck shop day was my favourite because my home packed lunches the other days were always soggy and hot and ordinary.

  140. My favourite was tuck shop which was every Friday a chocolate milk & chickadee burger, every other day was the same old vegemite sanga!

  141. every Friday mum would bring in a ham sandwich, prima, a piece of fruit and a cream bun, I always loved Fridays

  142. My absolute favourite was peanut butter & honey sandwiches. Always served in a brown paper bag, I hated the crusts, put the scrunched up paper bag in my school port (remember the cardboard school cases?!) and collected them for my mum. Oh, I cringe at that memory!

  144. Mum sent tin spaghetti in one of our old thermos’. It was tepid by the time lunch came around but it didn’t bother me.

  146. My least favourite lunch to eat was my own! whatever mum packed I didn’t want! My fav was whatever I could scam from the canteen…

  147. my favorite lunch to eat at school has to be LUNCH ORDER DAY !!! that exciting day you get the brown paper bag with your name and order on it ! how exciting was that !!! i Loved the hot lasagna for lunch everytime summer or winter !

  148. Devon with butter & tomato sauce. Only I would remove the devon before eating it. I didnt like the devon but the light flavour it left on the bread. I did the same with hotdogs.

  150. My mum made us fruit in jelly and I loved taking mayonnaise sandwiches and putting shapes or chips on them! (I still do it!)

  151. I was always a little weird! I loved banana sandwiches so i would take a banana and 2 pieces of buttered bread to school.

  152. Lettuce sandwiches. Weird, but that’s what I loved. My mum would try to add some ham or cheese, but not for me! Iceberg lettuce.

  153. Ah Dutch speculaas cookies on buttered white bread. By lunchtime they would be half soft, half crunchy! Best !unch ever.

  155. I absolutely loved a fresh bacon and cheese roll, with one of those little tubs of Nutella to follow afterwards 🙂

  158. I loved every body else’s lunch when I was a kid because my mum made her own bread and smothered it with peanut butter an sultanas!!! If it was a bad day, she would mix it up with some peanut butter and banana……Oh the smell and the shame 🙁 Everyone loved my lunch except me!! All I wanted was a sausage roll and a Kitchener bun from the canteen

  161. Peanut butter sandwiches; by lunch time the peanut butter was VERY warm and oozy. I’d lick it off and toss the bread.

  162. My mum’s stock lunch was vegemite and cheese with a piece of fruit and a frozen tub of yoghurt. So, any departure from this repetition was met with a joyful squee!

  164. At boarding school we had hot lunches 3 times a week in winter (soups, hot dogs, pizzas). They were the days the day girls became our best friends!

  165. I was a Vegemite Kid, eat them was all I did. Little lunch, big lunch I didn’t mind, because that’s how little Aussies are designed!

  166. I loved smashed crunchy 2 minute noodles with half flavour sprinkled on. Before class fridges, A/C. Remembering the smell of hot lockers and sandwiches!! Yuk!!

  167. Vegemite sandwiches – mainly because they wouldn’t go soggy during the day – I hated soggy sandwiches!! I also went through a stage of liking chocolate pudding tubs!!

  169. Lemon butter sandwiches – my Mum says I would have NOTHING else for several years, and I still love lemon butter to this day.

  170. My favourite homemade lunch was beetroot sandwiches! But my absolute favourite was Tuckshop lunch! A sausage roll with tomato sauce, iced doughnut for dessert and a juice popper.

  172. I stopped taking lunch to school because mum used to make soggy vegemite and lettuce sandwiches. Prepared Sunday and frozen for the week.

  173. My mum’s sandwiches by lunchtime they were warm & squishy in my bag. I loved toasted cheese sandwiches from the canteen – basic but ooh so good…

  174. My fave lunch was swapping my cheese sandwich for my besties baguette filled with polish greatness.Ahhh those were the days?

  175. I always had Vegemite sandwiches, but on reflection I realised they were my little bit of normal everyday at school as we moved a lot, 10 schools all up!

  176. OMG! Brings back so many memories! The smell of the sandwich and orange peel combo because the orange and rubbed on the bread so you ate around that bit! My favs were, grated cheese and Heinz English salad cream on white bread cut into two triangles or pressed chicken or tomato sauce and polony! I used to swap a half a sandwich with a girl I can’t remember what she had though! The canteen used to make these things called garlic crispies which were like pitta bread with garlic butter toasted in oven and at 10c each they were great! Showing my age hey ?

  177. So, I always wanted to eat the school lunch. That gooey cheesy pizza looked irresistible! But, usually I ended up with a healthy sandwich.

  178. My mum use to get quite creative with her sandwich fillings and this one was my fave! Grated carrot, crushed walnuts and sultana sandwiches!

  180. I loved when mum would make us pumpkin soups in winter and have croutons for us to dip in was so delicious and always kept me warm

  181. Mum’s salad which was wrapped up in a lettuce cup, there was a lot of lunch time envy from my school friends!

  183. Best lunch ever when my Mum bought fish & chips into school and we all sat down on the school oval and shared them…..nothing worst then soggy sandwiches by lunchtime nothing was ever fresh enough.

  184. My favourite was always a cheese jaffle on white bread. Simple. Perfect.
    Oh, how I miss those simple days when I was able to eat white bread and enjoy it.

  185. Loved Mum’s green coriander ‘chutney’ sandwiches. Back in the 80’s Indian food was NOT cool so was laughed at, but it was so worth it!! ??

  186. I loved it when Mum would freeze a 1L waterbottle with freshly squeezed OJ from our tree. It was like having my very own icy juice and would take me both recess and lunch to crunch and slurp my way through it. So good on a stinking hot SA summer day 🙂

  187. Canteen days were my favourite, a white buttered roll filled with cheese twisties… yep, we sure knew nutrition in the 70’s!

  188. I don’t remember my favourite but my most hated…gross soggy salad sandwiches on brown bread (different to wholemeal) that was always hot by lunchtime. ☹️

  190. Baked bean toasted sandwiches!! We lived down the back of the school field and my mum would cook them and wait for the lunch bell to ring, then I’d race down and she’d hand them over the fence in a brown bag!! Awe she was the best mum ever ❤️

  191. Egg mayonnaise sandwiches, I was always the kid on school trips where I opened my bag and everyone would say ewww who’s got eggs!!!

  192. Peanut butter and honey sandwich was a winner for me. Which means my school days would be different now as many school don’t allow nuts!

  193. Fruit salad in a little tub was my favourite, as well as cut up carrot and cheese sticks and celery with peanut butter inside. Yum!

  194. Mini packet of chicken twisties and frozen chocolate yogo. Don’t think there was much talk of healthy food pyramids or nude food in the seventies!

  195. All I ever wanted was promite on white bread…. but my mum would make me eat rye. The carraway seeds were revolting lol.

  196. I always had different types of sandwiches for lunch including peanut butter and cheese and ham but my favourite lunches were the ones that packed a little something extra for a healthy mind! Sometimes Mum used to add little notes saying “I love you” or simple smiley faces. Other times she was creative and came up with something like a funny cartoon or saying that she knew would put a smile on my face. I have fond memories of opening my lunch to discover what little message was inside!

  197. I’ve been buying new lunchboxes and drinks bottles for the girls – mainly because Esther needed one for Prep this year. I’ve always thought of Thermos as an old person’s brand and didn’t realise they made containers for kids. Great review and will definitely be seeking some out.

  199. After compulsory UK cooked lunches (liver, over-boiled swede and brussel sprouts) I was just grateful for a sandwich, crisps and drink in Australia!

  200. Sandwiches made by my nan, we always bought the bread fresh from the bakery and the fillings from the deli, they always seemed posh LOL

  201. Vegemite and butter on fresh white bread.Those little containers of Nutella that came with a little spoon. Oh and space food sticks. Still crave them. Cant find them anymore.

  202. Tuckshop every Friday – 1 sausage roll with sauce – 1 cream bun – 1 apple popper cost $2.25 (all red foods now)

  203. Vegemite and cheese – I loved these for 7 years straight, which was lucky since Mum had no imagination in this area.

  208. I was a pretty sheltered child….so my favourite was devon and tomato sauce sandwiches. Sooo much better than the alternative vegemite almost everyday.

  209. Fresh white bread, think layer of real butter and vegemite sandwich cut into triangles WITH crust on and an apple and blackcurrent popper

  210. My best lunch as a kid was a lunch order because it didn’t happen very often! I usually had a pie with lots of sauce.

  211. Freshly cut white bread with Devon and Pop’s Tomato Sauce. Always a favourite when visiting Nana and Pop ?

  213. Proscitto sandwiches. Coming from Europe my parents never heard of vegemite, so it was gourmet sandwiches everyday with sides of cheese, tomato and gherkins!

  214. A roast sandwich. Beef, pork lamb, mum would always put the leftover meat in a sandwich and it made my school week!

  215. My mum made delicious chicken and mayo sandwiches with mountains of butter on fresh white bread. Amazing! Love you mum!

  216. We had Thermos stuff as kids and Mum would make soup, bake fresh bread, slather it with butter, and off we’d go… YumYum, Thanks Mum!!!

  218. Vegemite or cheese were my favourites, and occasionally when I was really lucky, I got vegemite and cheese together!

  220. Like a lot of people vegemite and cheese was a favourite but over winter it was the 2 minute noodles in the thermos, cooked perfectly by lunch time.?

  221. I loved when my mum or dad would come to school before lunch time with a hot meal for me! It was usually fried rice or spaghetti bolognese!
    A thermos would have saved them the trip!!

  222. I went through a huge tuna and cheese phase where I ate it everyday for nearly a year. So boring but I loved it.

  223. I am sorry to say, I disliked every lunch that my mum made me eat.I think I threw out my lunch most days, except canteen day.. Even to this day the thought of warm sandwiches make me sick. I would never tell my kids this though. I am always making sure they have plenty of what they like. My daughter is always wanting to take pasta to school, but I can never find containers to keep it warm for the day. These might just do the trick..These Thermos are great for the footy too. Hot dogs and all sorts can be kept in here… I am still jumping up and down at the thought of this fabulous prize…Thanks for sharing.

  224. I love(d) jam & cheese sandwiches! Yum! Sadly, no-one usually agrees with me on the yum-mess factor of this delight! Oh well, more for me!

  226. My favourite lunch was at the canteen! cold days getting a sausage roll and tomato sauce was the best! My kids school doesn’t have one.

  227. In my day we were allowed to swap food , so I used to swap my sandwich with my friends she always had better fillings, my favourite was her silverside sandwich which I still love today.

  228. Vegemite sandwiches. My mother, who is Italian, would pack me a salami or mortadella roll. Luckily for me one of my adventurous friends would swap with me…..

  229. My favourite was noodles… I used to buy them from the school canteen most days! I loved them as a kid and I still love them now….

  232. My favourite lunch was “Milchreis mit Zucker and Zimt” which is rice cooked in milk and served with brown butter, sugar and cinnamon.

  233. My dad packed me a buttered smartie sandwich when my mum was away.. While it totally rocked, let’s just say my mum was totally shocked!

  234. Having a Italian background meant salami, cheese, salad sandwiches. Wanting to be like other kids i would trade friends for a simple Vegemite sandwich! Yum!

  235. Mum always made my lunches – lettuce & cheese, vegemite, whatever. My best friend always had tuckshop. All my best friend ever wanted was a home made lunch, so everyday at morning tea we would share my food and at lunch time she would spilt her money and buy me a packet of chips. I love this memory and I am sure my mum would have smiled that two little girls loved her lunches.

  238. I used to and still do love fairy fingers–> sprinkles on buttered bread- cut thin! They are so sweet, satisfying and mystical! xxx

  240. Don’t tell my mum but my favourite was cream cheese, ginger and walnut sandwiches. It was considered weird by other kids.

  241. I was the kid with the smelly curried egg sandwiches. But I still love them and eat them regularly to this day

  243. I loved mum bringing me in a thermos of soup in winter with bread & butter. A hearty warming winter lunch. ?

  244. White bread, lots of butter and peanut butter. These are just a memory now as my daughter has a nut allergy. These look amazing.

  245. My favourite lunch was tinned spaghetti on toast! Every now and then I have it again and it takes me right back 🙂

  246. I loved vegemite and lettuce on buttered fresh bread! My kids wont even eat vegemite, so I have to be much more creative. They love hot food for school lunches, so a thermos pack would be AWESOME!!! 🙂

  249. Since becoming a mum I barely remember what I ate yesterday! Though I do fondly remember the grease stained lunch order bag!

  250. Vegemite or just butter on fresh bread rolls – couldn’t really go off!! LOVED Salami and philly cheese too, but urgh with the whole keeping cool thing back then, our kids are so spoilt with the quality and whole bento craze plus thermomix which makes baking exciting 😉

  253. I loved the good ol’ fritz and sauce sandwiches! Or if I had to make my own lunch, then more famously raw 2min noodles (chicken flavour).

  254. Its funny because now its all cool but I had a hippie mum as a kid and got cottage cheese and iceberg lettuce sambos and home made muesli bars and I HATED them. For my 8th birthday I asked for a box of uncle Toby’s yoghurt top muesli bars and my poor mum got the point!
    I did love my mums curried egg on a knot roll the best – still do!

  255. I always loved it when mum had cooked a roast the night before and we got left over roast meat sandwhiches with tomato sauce, ahhhhh those were the days 🙂

  259. my mum used to make pizza on pita bread and i would take the leftovers cold, really enjoyed it as normally would get squished wholemeal bread with jam or honey, which had started to crystalise, still cannot eat wholemeal sandwiches.

  260. Coming from an Aussie Asian family in the 80’s, my lunches were a mix of East meets West, sometimes novel and often gross. But my favourite was avocado and pork floss sandwiches. The pork floss is simply dried, finely shredded pork, which once landed me in trouble when a teacher asked me why I had tobacco sandwiches!!

  261. Banana sandwiches! But grossly, the banana would always go brown 🙁
    Failing that, I LOVED making worms from Vegemite on crackers (what Aussie kid didn’t!?).

  262. Our mums used to be lunch ladies and would make rolls to help the school. Hot dog rolls, made with Vegemite and chips (ready salted). My favourite. My older sister a few years back saw me make one and was horrified, telling me how could I eat carbs on carbs. Haha.

  263. My favourite was salt and vinegar ruffles (remember ruffles?!) on a white bread roll. Highly nutritious! The combination of butter and salt and vinegar was stomach rumbling-ly delicious! If only they still made ruffles. *sigh!

  265. Salt and vinegar ruffles ( remember ruffles?!) on a buttered, white bread roll. There is something stomach rumbling-ly delicious about the combination of butter and salt and vinegar. If only they still made ruffles. *Sigh!

  266. a frozen prima, some fruit and a vegemite sandwich. The prima kept my fruit cold, which you wouldn’t need if you had this thermos pack!

  269. Vegemite and lettuce sandwiches, yep I am a true aussie little vegemite, and don’t forget mum’s homebaked hedgehog slice!

  270. Loved a Devon sandwich (fresh white bread only) and ‘donught’ apple slices (dad was a pro at making these super thin).

  271. My favourite school lunch was quiche, which was mildly better than the incredibly uncool 9 grain bread sandwiches I had on the other days.

  272. My mum used to use jam jars to send us a serve of jelly with our lunch. Seeing them in the fridge was like Christmas!

  273. My favourite day of the school week was Friday, when we got to order our lunch. Sausage roll and sauce with a choc milk. Every. Single. Week.

  276. Leftover lasagne from my aunts Cafe
    She used to come down on the weekends and bring a whole heap of leftovers from Friday’s that we would use for lunch for the following week and her lasagne was always the best

  279. Marmite and potato chip sandwiches. Yummy! My kids have inherited my love for this and cheese and tomato sauce sandwiches.

  281. Always ham and cheese sandwich for lunch. A bird drop its business on a Vegemite sanga once which was the end of those for me!

  282. Bread roll hollowed out with savoury mince inside & topped with cheese from the canteen. Mmmmm now I want one!

  284. My favourite was tuck shop, dinner rolls with cheese and salad and a frozen fruit cup (blended up fruit and frozen on a plastic cup with and ice cream stick in the middle

  286. My fave lunch I looked forward to opening on my lunch box growing up was a vegemite sandwich and salt and vinegar chips (which I would then put the chips on the sand which hahaha!!!

  287. Heinz spaghetti jaffles
    Made our tummies bedazzle!
    Second flavour choice braised steak & onion
    Was always a quick consumption!

  288. Not being a fan of sandwiches it was cruskits with cheese and mustard sauce – this is also liked by my own children.

  289. In primary school, egg sandwich. In high school, leftovers – Spaghetti sandwich, roast, Yorkshire pudding, curry, chocolate pudding, steak pie. Feeling nostalgic and hungry!

  290. Apricot jam sandwiches 365 days a year! Variety would have been nice, lol. It’s still a favourite of mine today!

  291. I made my own lunches for school so they were never terribly exciting, but since I grew up in FNQ (where it’s HOT!) my fave thing was to take frozen stuff! Frozen grapes, frozen poppers….anything cold was a hit!

  292. Granny’s Mouth watering succulent family roasts with dumplings&all the trimmings ,gravy from the juices,topped of with apricot pie dollops of cream,

  294. I loved anything that was different to a vegemite sandwich. If I got a chicken, lettuce and mayo sandwich, I’d hit the jackpot!!

  295. Hi loved and still love a tasting plate. Include crackers, ham, cheese, boiled egg, gerkins, tomatoes. Mix & max your combinations – delicious!

  296. More of a snack than lunch, but… Chickadees! Remember those disturbingly yellow chips shaped like chickens? And salada worms.

  299. so sad but I loved a fairy bread sandwich, even in year 12. I think I thought I was being “edgy” maybe even “cool” all I was doing was inhaling a ton of sugar.. my baby boy starts school this year.. he will not be having fairy bread sandwiches although I’m sure he would love them just as much as his mum!

  301. When I was little my mum would make us peanut butter and lettuce sandwiches, and pack a piece of fruit, we would sometimes get 10 or 20 cents to spend at the canteen and we would buy apricot coconut balls. I pack my children so much more food than what I had, and they still come home hungry, we must not have had as bigger appetites back in the 70s/80s even though we were more active, we walked to school and we rode our bikes all afternoon, hardly any tv either, we spent all our time out playing, we certainly were not as fussy with food, I like to remind my children of what I had and how little my mum packed and wish they would appreciate and eat what I do pack and the effort I go to giving them variety. Pretty sure they would die of starvation if I packed a PB and lettuce sandwich and 1 piece of fruit.

  302. Dad made lunches but as his eyesight was bad each day was surprise lunch with weird, wonderful combos. Some good, some gag, Never boring!

  303. Homemade sweet potato chips mum delivered to school; we’d sit and eat them together until I felt confident enough to go and play. Special memories.

  304. I loved tinned baked beans or spaghetti and leftovers but prefered it warm. This would have solved that problem when i was a kid.

  305. Cheese and beetroot sandwiches, cheese and pickle sandwiches, cheese and tomato sandwiches, okay I loved cheese. The beetroot days got a bit tricky though with my white school shirt!!!!!!! 🙂

  307. My favourite lunch was cold jaffles (toasted sandwiches) with meat, onion, cheese, capsicum, mushroom. Made the night before & refrigerated. Taste like pizza, packed easily & yummy!

  308. Other kids lunch! Lol. Just like now, when i go for dinner, as back in school…the other persons food always looked better.

  310. omg, my mum use to pack a huge long roll full of metwurst, provolone cheese, olives. Being Italian that was a normal lunch, I use to swap for a peanut paste sandwich as I was teased !!

  312. Devon and tomato sauce was always a real treat
    Vegemite worms in ryvitas never could be beat!
    And Homemade muffins melted in the heat.

  313. My favourite lunch as a kid was cheese sandwiches, potato chips and frozen chocolate breaka. Breaka kept everything cool. I also loved saladas with Vegemite “worms” for a snack.

  314. Cheese and tomato sandwiches. Never soggy for my gorgeous Mum always dried the tomato carefully prior to making the lunches.

  316. WE were as poor as church mice so it was a truly tasty treat when Mum made us jam sandwiches and not dripping sandwiches

  318. My favourite (and on high rotation) lunch as a little tacker was cruskits with cream cheese. BORING! But gee I loved them.

  319. Asparagus rolls were my favourite and the only school lunch food I will eat now – still can’t face a cheese and pineapple or tomato sandwich.

  321. Peanut butter and hot chip sandwiches, had them every day for a month, beautiful, no good for my waistline

  323. Peanut butter and sultana sandwiches and a banana, then at lunch time I’d open up the sandwich and squish the banana onto the sandwich.

  324. I loved Canned SPAM in Tip Top White Bread with lots of Farmers Union Butter and Sauce. I could eat it day in and day out and was my fave school lunch. Thank goodness my taste buds changed when I went to High School.

  325. mum used to give me dinner left overs heated in the morning and in a flask. got some funny looks but i enjoyed it!

  326. I loved when my Mum would make Salada’s with vegemite and butter…..squeezing them together to make ‘worms’ made them taste so much better!

  327. Lunch Order day lunches were the best as it was something different to sandwiches. I used to love the mini pizzas

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