I have always hated eating lunch and I’ve always hated deciding what to have for lunch. Me and sandwiches have a difficult relationship to say the least! Bellow is a list of ideas for things I like to put in my lunch boxes, which might inspire you to think of more things you could put in your lunch box. As a kid I would become obsessed with one food and want to eat that for lunch every day and then suddenly decide I couldn’t eat it ever again. Now that I know that that’s just a part of my autism, I’m learning to embrace it and have been trying to recall various foods from my childhood that I went off but want to try again. I’ve been trying to keep long lists so that when I get sick of my same food I’ll have familiar things to go back to, rather than getting overwhelmed and going hungry.
I’ll link to some foods on the tesco website (because that’s where I order all my food from) but generic things like fruits I’ll leave you to source.
Sandwiches
cheese (and pickle?)
Jam (and peanut butter?)
Ham (with hummus or cheese)
Banana (with peanut butter)
Quorn Dino Nuggs (with ketchup, mayo, and cheese)
falafel wraps (with hummus, sweet chilli sauce, and lettuce)
Sandwich alternatives
spring rolls
nuggets (with some sauce in cute pots)
leftover quiche
pasta
Fruit
oranges (either the easy peel ones or the big ones cut into segments!)
bananas
apples (I like to cut them up into little chunks and enjoy them with a babybell)
grapes
raspberries
strawberries
kiwi (cut in half and eaten with a spoon)
Dried fruit
banana chips (or the chewy ones if you prefer)
apple
apricot (I think it smells gross but Joe loves it)
mango
raisins
Other picky bits
peanuts (or other nuts)
carrot sticks and hummus
crisps
Things made for children’s lunch boxes
dairylea dunkers (to packets of this kind get added to every tesco order because we love them)
cheese strings
babybells
Juices and stuff
apple/orange/etc
check if innocent smoothie cartons are on offer (they often are in tesco)
Up and Go have served me well on and off throughout my life (lunch is always made better by breakfast foods)
Yoghurt and yoghurt adjacent things
muller corners (the fruit ones or the ones with the little chocolate balls)
alpro (the vegan pudding things yum yum)
angel delight (you can add some slices of banana to the bottom)
activia (the yoghurts and the yoghurt drinks are often in our fridge)
Misc sweet treats
caramel crunch biscuits (these come out super cheap and are well loved in our flat)
Cereal bars are criminally expensive but these ones are tasty and reasonably priced
rice cakes (these ones are my favourite and the cheapest sweet ones tesco does)
these off-brand mini rolls that Joe says he prefers to the real thing
any of these sharing bakery boxes that all youth workers seem to always offer you
a handful of smarties is always such a fun treat (especially if you’re making a packed lunch for someone else)
biscuits (even better if you usually make a cup of tea at work and you pack biscuits perfect for dunking)