A trio of lunchbox ideas for different ages #HartleysYourLunchbox

As a mum, I want convenience when it comes to lunchboxes. I have three to make each morning so I need quick and easy ideas that are also healthy and fun for the kids. I'm always looking out for low-sugar or no sugar options to add to their lunchboxes so I was delighted to receive Hartley's No added sugar Jelly along with a lunchbox to share our ideas.

As part of Hartley's #HartleysYourLunchbox campaign, you can collect 12 special edition lids and send off for your very own lunchbox and stickers too! There's more info on that here.

My 3 kids are all at different stages of childhood and so I've come up with 3 simple ideas that would appeal to each of them. The great thing is that you can improvise with ingredients you already have and many of the ingredients are the same for all three lunchboxes so you can stick to the same shopping list of items and there's less waste.

The Preschooler Lunchbox - Three Bears Theme

For Miss T's lunchbox idea I was inspired by the Hartley's bear and thought a teddy bear theme along the lines of a teddy bears picnic meets goldilocks would be good.

So here's what we did:

• Spiralised carrot for goldilocks hair.
• A paw print made of cucumber and podded fresh peas (you could use frozen peas as they'll defrost by lunchtime).
• Using a bear cookie cutter, we cut bear shapes from cheese slices and one from a slice of bread as a contrast.
• The bear face is made from bread, a circle cut from a cheese slice, a blueberry nose, carrot ears and edible pen eyes. 
• Then its was just the finishing touches...BEAR spelled out from cereal letters, and a popular bear shaped potato snack.
• Finally instead of a pot of 'hunny' for our bears we've got a pot of delicious Hartley's no sugar jelly - Yum! 

Top Tip: use any cookie cutters you have at home to cut fun shapes for kids packed lunches

Oh and don't forget to pop in a little spoon to eat your jelly with. 

If you need any special occasion bear inspiration, you can see the cute bear cupcakes that Miss T had for her birthday here. 

The Primary School Child - Tooti Fruity Theme

Our middle son adores fruit so we've gone with a fruity theme for this lunch box.

Here's what we did:

• We made 'Frushi' (fruit sushi) adding chopped strawberry, grape and melon onto pieces of wrap that had been spread with cheese spread and rolling them up.
• Fruit skewers are always fun for kids.
• A kiwi was cut open like an egg to be scooped and eaten.
• Instead of regular crisps, we've used some of D's favourite 100% natural fruit crisps which he adores - This was the pear variety from Nim's Fruit Crisps. 
• And of course a fabulous fruity flavoured Hartley's no added sugar jelly pot. 

Top Tip: Use silicone cake cases as handy little pots to create little portions of food as we've done here for the fruit crisps and before for the spiralised carrot. 

The Secondary School Kid - Space themed lunchbox

Our eldest has always had an interest in space so we decided upon a Space theme for his lunchbox. He would normally also have maybe a ham sandwich too (that could be cut as a star) or a boiled egg or babybel (they could be planets) too but this gives a few ideas on how to theme everything else.

Here's what we did:

• The Hartley's Jelly pot played an important roll as the base of the rocket! A wrap decorated with half a grape stuck on with cheese spread made the top half of the space rocket.
• Stars and moon shapes were made from leftover pieces of cheese, fruit and veg from the other two lunchboxes.
• Another fruit kebab to make things easier for mum. This time the fruit kebab could be a firework style rocket shooting into the air. 

Top Tip: If you have more than one lunchbox to make in the mornings, try to use the same ingredients to make life a little easier. As you can see, there are lots of different ways to use the same ingredients. 

So there you have it, 3 simple yet fun ways to #HartleysYourLunchbox for different aged kids. A Bear theme, a Fruity theme and a Space theme: 

And here's a reminder of those top tips:

• Use cookie cutters to cut sandwiches, bread, cheese, ham and fruit and veg into more interesting shapes.
• Use silicone cake cases and portion dividers for things like crisps and fruit.
• Use the same ingredients in different imaginative ways to keep your shopping list simple. 

Remember you can get your own Hartley's Lunchbox and stickers by collecting those special edition lids. 

This post is an entry for BritMums #HartleysYourLunchbox Linky Challenge, sponsored by Hartley’s Jelly

We received a lunchbox, stickers and 2 pots of Hartley's Jelly for this challenge. All opinions are our own.