What to make for lunch with your School Meal grocery box
As many pupils are back to home-learning, we have been sending out our term-time grocery boxes to children eligible for Free School Meals, supporting schools to ensure that those staying at home can still access nutritional lunches. For some schools, our kitchen teams are providing daily packed lunches. We wanted to take this opportunity to give families some ideas of what they can create for lunch with these groceries, as part of our Cooking at Home support.
The grocery boxes are put together in accordance to School Food Plan guidance, and contain items such as:
Milk
Bread
Cheese
Eggs
Baking potatoes
Carrots
Onions
Cherry tomatoes
Red peppers
Cucumbers
Dried pasta
Baked beans
Tinned tomatoes
Tinned chickpeas
Tinned sweetcorn
Oats
Apples
Satsumas
Bananas
We wanted to make sure the grocery boxes were balanced and nutrient-packed as much as possible to provide high quality recipes for our members. We understand that all the ingredients may feel slightly overwhelming, but we have you covered. We have linked a list of delicious recipes you could make with your City Catering grocery boxes. For some, you may not have all the ingredients, but all of our recipes are flexible so that you can cook it your way. Here are some ideas to get you started;
SANDWICHES & TOASTIES:
Cheese sandwich/ cheese & tomato sandwich/ cheese & cucumber sandwich
Tuna sandwich/ tuna & sweetcorn sandwich / tuna & bell pepper sandwich
Cheese toastie / cheese & tomato toastie/ cheese & onion toastie
Tuna melt (toastie with tuna and grated cheese)
Easy pizza toast ( place bread slices on a baking sheet, spoon some chopped tomatoes and spread with the back of the spoon, top with some grated cheese, place in the oven or under the grill until the cheese has melted) – you can sprinkle some dried herbs if you have them for extra flavour or any other pizza topping your children may like)
Scrambled eggs/poached eggs/ fried eggs on toast – could be served with baked beans.
Baked beans on toast – add some grated cheese on top for extra yumminess
JACKET POTATOES /WEDGES:
TO COOK POTATOES IN THE OVEN: Pre heat your oven at 180°C. When hot, place potatoes straight into the oven rack and cook for 1 to 1 ¼ hours. Cooking time will depend on the size of the potatoes. You want them nice and soft in the middle but crispy in the outside.
TO COOK POTATOES IN THE MICROWAVE: Place potatoes on a microwave safe plate and microwave for 12 minutes, turning half way through cooking. If your potatoes are still not tender, continue cooking in 1-2 minutes increments until they are. If you are only cooking one potato at the time, start with 7 min and then follow above instructions.
TO COOK WEDGES: Preheat the oven to 200°C. Give the potatoes a quick wash under running cold water to remove any dirt. Pat dry the potatoes. On a chopping board, using a sharp knife cut the potatoes into chunky wedges. Put the potato wedges in a large bowl; add some salt, pepper and 2 tbsp of oil. Using your hands mix them around to make sure that they are well coated with the oil. Then transfer them to an oven tray and spread them in a single layer. Cook in the oven for 45 minutes approx., until golden, crisp and cooked through.
Jacket potato with cheese
Jacket potato with baked beans and cheese
Jacket potato with tuna and sweetcorn
Homemade wedges with any of the above toppings.
PASTA DISHES:
Pasta with homemade tomato sauce – finely chop the onion, cook in a little oil until soft, add chopped tomatoes and simmer on low heat for 15 minutes, serve with pasta and grated cheese (you could add a little garlic to the onion for extra flavour if available or any dried herbs you may have in your cupboard when making the tomato sauce).
Pasta with tuna and sweetcorn - cook pasta, mix with drained sweetcorn & tuna (can be served hot or cold as a salad) – you could also add some diced bell pepper
OTHER:
Poached eggs in tomato sauce – make a tomato sauce (see above), while sauce is still in the saucepan, using the back of a spoon make a well and crack and egg on it, continue cooking until egg is cooked. Serve with toast fingers for dipping.
Potato, onion & cheese frittata – peel, dice and boil potatoes, cook some diced onion in a little oil until soft, whisk some eggs and add cooked potato, onion and some grated cheese to them. Grease an oven dish, add egg & potato mixture. Cook at medium at 170 degrees C until fully set.
Chickpea patties: drain chickpeas, put them in a bowl and mashed them using a fork or a potato masher, add some grated carrot and onion (and one tsp of flour too if available), keep on mashing until it comes together, shape into patties (the trick is to squeeze them together hard using your hands), cook in a saucepan in a little oil until golden on both sides – if available you could add curry powder to the mix.
VEGGIES AND FRUIT:
Veggie sticks: carrot, cucumber, pepper
Cherry tomatoes (better cut in half)
Sweetcorn
Salad: use cucumber, tomatoes, pepper & sweetcorn
Fruit salad: wash fresh fruit, cut into bite size pieces, chop tinned peaches and combine all using the juice from the tinned peaches.
Children tend to eat more fruit once is prepared for them so instead of giving them a whole piece of fruit try cutting it into wedges for them.
Prepare Ready Brek and serve with some chopped fruit on top.
