I don’t know about you but sometimes it can be hard to make sure my children have a balanced diet. Now my youngest has started Junior School we decided she could join her brother in having packed lunches every day, so I feel under more pressure than ever to give them a healthy lunch. Like most schools, theirs promotes a healthy lunch and we are allowed to send a healthy snack for morning break time too.

Little Sis has totally embraced her packed lunches and loves nothing more than helping to make and pack it every morning! As a working mum I try to stay organised by doing a weekly food shop, usually online. This means I can plan ahead for the week, and make sure there is plenty of choice for lunch boxes!

Fun ways to enjoy British piccolo tomatoes

I’ve shared packed lunch ideas before on my blog. You all know how fond I am of a little pots of fun and food picks to encourage my children to eat! Even though they are growing up quickly they still love to have fun with their food. Have you even tried piccolo tomatoes, the smallest and sweetest type of tomato grown in the UK? Last week we received a box full of British piccolo tomatoes which were supplied by Glinwell, a British tomato nursery. We get through a lot of fresh seasonal vegetables each week so I was excited to try these. They were bright and colourful and still on the stalk, which my children just loved.

Piccolo tomatoes are small and sweet, which makes them great for one of your 5 a day. My daughter loved washing them, picking them off the stalk and filling a small pot of them for her packed lunch. This is the easiest way to eat them, but my son wanted to see what else we could make.

We turned to Pinterest for some inspiration and the first thing we made were simple cucumber and tomato flowers. These were so easy to make, using sliced cucumber with half a tomato on top of the cucumber ‘petals’. We then picked some tomatoes which we turned into tomato caterpillars, by pushing them onto cocktail sticks. We decorated them with candy eyes and used black icing for the smile. The caterpillar was turned into a beautiful butterfly with the addition of cucumber wings.

The final thing we made was a sweet little tomato ladybird. We cut a Babybel in half, placing one half onto a Ritz cracker. My son cut some tomatoes and olives in half, placing them onto the cheese. He finished the ladybirds off with candy eyes and black icing dots on the tomatoes.

We soon had a huge plateful of snacks for after school. My kids are always hungry when they’ve finished school and this was a fun way to enjoy delicious piccolo tomatoes. Let me know if you try them!

Disclosure – this is a paid partnership with Gautier Semences, who provide the seeds to Glinwell.