Question Author
Thanks for all those answers!
I cook from scratch and also make a point on Sundays of doing a roast, or making a big chicken pie, with loads of veg (and yorkie puds - every week!)
A typical day for the boys would be:
Cereal or porridge for breakfast. and maybe toast.
They have free fruit at school mid morning, and their lunchboxes have cheese, ham or pate sandwiches, more fruit, either whole, or cut up with yogurt or custard. Sometimes I make mini jellies in little pots too. They also have mini scotch eggs, or cheese and biscuits, and raisins or a fruit bar.
After school, I bring them a cake or flapjack that I've made.
Their tea could be casserole, or pasta and cheese. They LOVE fresh fish, home-made pizza, fishfingers or chicken. Rice with chicken, tuna or home-made curry. Poppadums too! Sometimes I do a mini roast, or a small pie that I make at the same time as the big one. Other big favourites are chicken kiev which is the only thing I buy ready-made, and gammon. They have a lot of baked potatoes, or new potatoes, and once a week they have oven chips.
Afterwards they have fruit and custard, or ice cream, or yogurt, or their top favourite - cherry bakewells! (I have been known to make those too!)
We also have a box of small sweets, eg cola bottles and jelly beans etc, and they're allowed 4 a day. Some of them count as 1, some 2, and some as 4. Little sugar letters count as half - good for maths! They don't have them every day as they often forget, which is great!! I strongly believe that having a few is a good way to help them understand the good and bad of food.
The oldest understands completely about eating a healthy diet, and he'll often tot up his day's food to work out if he's "earned" his sweet ration!
We eat a lot of the same, but with more grown-up stuff like chilli or curry, and we also have salad,