The kids are back at school Hooray!!!

Now we have to make them lunch, every single day”¦ BOOOOO!

Term one has finally started and for those parents with kiddliwinks at school, it can mean up to five packed lunches a week per child. For the average family with two kids, that’s 10 lunches that need to be considered! Every. Single. Week.

Plus, if you have children that are fussy (pick me! Pick me!), making sure that they have an interesting, tasty, healthy and balanced lunchbox that they will love, and also meet the school’s strict guidelines, each day can prove to be a challenge. So Mums around Australia (and probably the world) are tearing their hair out”¦ Because it is so hard to come up with something that ticks all those boxes every day”¦

My Love Affair with ALDI

It isn’t a secret that I shop at ALDI. I can get about $700 worth of food for about $400. And that’s a lot of food. I shop there all the time, because even something as simple as bread and milk is so much cheaper than at all other supermarkets. In fact, I’ve been shopping there so long now that the brands are very familiar, and I actually look forward to the Special Buys in the middle of the store (and speculate on what they actually will be this week!).

Now I have to admit, it has only been since my son was diagnosed with ASD that I read food labels carefully. I now look at everything that I purchase for my family, to make sure there are no nasty additives like colours, flavours and preservatives. Because it makes them go bat-sh*t-crazy”¦ When I shop at my local ALDI I don’t have to worry, since they don’t stock any products containing artificial colours. In fact, ALDI is the first and only major supermarket to be able to say that their exclusive brands and other branded items have been reformulated to remove all artificial food colouring’s and replace them with natural alternatives at no extra cost to the consumer. Hooray! Now they are great on price AND I don’t have to worry about that kinda stuff!

So the best kind of stuff they have at ALDI is the cheese (OMG $6 for a 1kg block of cheese bargain), their fruit and vege is the bom-diggity really really nice I top up my supply regularly, and the biscuits are amazing. Oh and the meat is fantastic”¦. Like better than the butcher good don’t believe me? Come check out my freezer anytime! You’ll see!

School lunches with ALDI!

Oh where was I?? Yes, school lunches (boooooo!).

Here are five lunchbox ideas to get you through your first week back at school. The shopping list will cover the week’s worth of lunches, plus extra food to use for other meals and to store in the pantry. Feel free to download and print!