Healthy Lunchbox – the great oxymoron of the school age. I was rather keen to do this shop for
Collective Bias and Flora. You see, its focus is ‘Healthy Lunchboxes’ –
something I’m interested in.We started off pretty healthy in September, but
there has been crisp creep and sugar sneak. At five, Alex already compares his
lunch to his friends; doesn’t want a squeezy yoghurt because he doesn’t want to
ask for help opening it, hates having to take a spoon because he worries he’ll
forget it. He said his friends though his dates and oranges with cinnamon
looked ‘disgusting’, although on that count he did say he still wanted them and
he didn’t care what they said, but it still bothered him. I’m hoping he doesn’t
start to worry that his bread is seedy.
Now, I don’t mind the odd crisp, especially given that you
can buy unsalted ones, but lunchbox contents were getting a bit repetitive and the
fruit was starting to get overlooked. He’s eat it after school. In fact, he’d
fall upon it like a starved kitten. I’m just not sure he’s getting enough
calories for his manic five-year-old afternoons.
So, I wanted to try out this Flora Healthy Lunchbox shop to
share some thoughts and offer some ideas.
Obviously used the spread on a tasty sandwich
– ham, Dijon and rocket. Rocket is a particularly easy sell to a young chap on
the leaf front because it’s called rocket – nothing cooler than that. And I say
the sandwich bit is obvious but any deviation from the straight and true
sandwich road was not popular. He wants to be the same as his friends and I
think it’s probably fair enough – there’s not a lot wrong with a sandwich after
all, is there? But, I also wanted to bake something using Flora Buttery, meaning
it would have 70% less saturated fat than if I’d made it with butter and that
Alex would get a sweet treat that’s not just empty calories.
I went for flapjacks because Alex loves them and oats have
the slow-release thing going for them, hopefully
this will mean he’ll get through
the afternoon and not come home quivering with hunger. Now, flapjacks already
have a ‘healthy’ aura around them, but most recipes use refined sugar and
golden syrup. My idea was to use condensed milk instead of both. Obviously
condensed milk is still sugar and is not a ‘healthy’ ingredient, but because it
is SO sweet, you can use less. There’s also the whole porridge vibe you get
from adding something milky to oats. Adding plenty of dried fruit ups the
healthy stakes though and gives a good energy boost too.
I wanted Alex to be thoroughly behind these flapjacks, so he
helped to research what we might put into them, wrote the shopping list and
took part in the shopping trip
(see my Google+ album showing how I got himinvolved in the shopping here). His sister was much more keep to help with the
cooking bit, but he was a willing taster and gave the flapjacks the thumbs up,
in fact he demolished his piece alarmingly fast – always a good sign.
In the recipe I just state ‘dried fruit’, because you can
either use what you’ve got in or get the kids to choose what to put into them.
Alex and Em choose dried mango and pineapple, so these became totally tropical.
The Flora Buttery is actually a bit of a dream to cook with,
because you don’t need to melt it – in fact this recipe doesn’t need any heat
in the putting together of it, meaning it’s a really good one to get the kids
to do.
If you prefer a thinner, crispier flapjack, replace the
flour with more oats, have half the quantity and bake for about 15 mins. The
recipe below makes a whole traybake tray full of nice thick, soft textured
flapjacks – they keep well and you can freeze them too. In fact a frozen
flapjack in a lunchbox will keep it cool and be defrosted by lunchtime.
You need - this makes
a lot of flapjacks! Please feel free to make half in a smaller tin:
- 13oz Flora Buttery
- 1lb porridge oats
- 4oz plain flour
- 12oz dried fruit – we used mango
and pineapple
- 7oz condensed milk
- Preheat to 170 degrees
- 'Butter' the traybake tin with Flora Buttery and line with greaseproof
- Weigh out the Flora and condensed milk - give them a good mix
- Weigh out the oats and flour. Add the dried fruits,cut, if necessary, into raisin size pieces - if the kids are doing this, get them to use scissors. Mix it to get the fruits coated, so they don't clump
- Mix everything together - might need to do this bit yourself it takes a bit of mixing to get it to come together. It should come together okay, but you can always add a dribble more condensed milk.
- Turn it out into the tin and use the backof a fork to press it down evenly
- Bake for up to 30 minutes, but start checking it after 20 - it's ready when it's pale golden and golden brown at the edges.
- Cool or a few minutes in the tin. Turn out and cut into small bars while still warm - a bread knife and gentle sawing action will give you nice, neat flapjacks. Let them fully cool before storing in a airtight tin or freezing.


So here's a few of my healthy lunchbox tips - what are yours?
- Make sandwiches with frozen bread, it'll be defrosted by lunchtime and keeps things cool.
- Buy little paper 'sweetie' bags for filling with dried fruit, chopped fresh fruit or vegetable sticks - somehow more appealing in a little bag
- Buy a decent drinks bottle, we use Camelbak bottles, which don't make the water taste of plastic and have cool designs on them - stick to water
- A cooked sausage always seems to go down well
- Chopped up fruit seems to get eaten more readily than a whole apple or whatever - I suspect this is a timing thing, they just want to eat fast! Fruit kebabs are good too, you can buy short wooden skewers on Ebay.
- Tomatoes make sandwiches go soggy, so either put them separate. Leaves don't, so put a few leaves in.
- Don't forget you can buy unsalted crisps, it'll make you feel less guilty about putting them in most days.
- And...What do you do to make your lunchboxes healthier?

I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community. This content has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias® and their client. #CBias #SocialFabric. Any dangerous addiction to condensed milk you detect is mine and mine alone and I would in no way condone eating it straight from the tin...