School lunches

Groan.

On my daughter's creche days I need to pack her a lunch.  I've gotten it down to a science - a pretty ho-hum lunch can be made while waiting for the toast to pop.  I was chatting with some friends today and a friend of mine is just about to swap to a creche that doesn't prepare meals, so she will need to arrange a lunchbox three times a week.  I promised to send my lunch ideas, and would be interested to hear anyone elses.

My creche is egg/nut/sesame free so I've felt that I am sometimes limited by this, but there are still a billion other food choices and these are some of the ones that I've tried:

Carbohydrate:

Sandwiches: cheese, jam, honey, carrot and sultana, chicken, ham, (dried dates cooked in orange juice and mixed with butter)
Corn thins (we call them popcorn biscuits here).
Cruskits with vegemite and cheese
Rice crackers
Rice bears (see my Katsudon recipe)
Dumplings
Couscous (I put this in a little container and send along a spoon)
Wraps (with  lettuce and a sausage sliced lengthways) (or make wraps by using a rolling pin on bread, spread with filling then roll up).

Protein:

Le Snac (not as bad as you would think, check out the review on the NZ Herald website)
Cheese triangles
Shaved ham (I buy a pack and either add to sandwiches or put some in a wee container)
Chicken nibbles
Whole boiled egg, peeled (if allowed)
Small yoghurts (or homemade yoghurt with a spoonful of homemade jam)
A little sausage eg kransky or cheerios

Veges:

Cherry tomatoes
Chopped up celery and carrot sticks (you can do a whole bunch at the start of the week and then keep them in a container)
Raw broccolli
Edamame (we buy these frozen and they defrost by lunchtime).

Fruit:

Banana (you can cut these in half and leave the peel on, or I send it whole with my daughter's name written on the peel).
Apples: small ones if you can find them, for a time I used presliced apple bags from the supermarket.
Tinned fruit: I put tinned pears or pineapple into a smaller container or plain-ish jelly to take along
Grapes
Mandarin
Diced watermelon
Sultanas

Some suggestions that I've heard about:

Crudities and hummus (we can't take hummus if it has tahini in it).  Did you know that you can freeze portions of hummus?
Quiche squares
Mini homemade pies (by using a toasted sandwich machine)