MEALS, SNACKS & NIBBLES

Holiday meals  | 

Sweet Treats  | 

Back to School bliss  | 

Twists on old favourites  | 

Festive Entertaining  | 

Braai it up  | 

Family Day fun food  | 

Special Mother's Day Menu  | 

Special Father's Day meals  | 

Brown Bag It  | 

Meals In 30 Minutes  | 

Happy Lunch  | 

Quick-Quick Party Food ideas  | 

Fun & healthy party bites  | 

Safety tips for kids in the kitchen  | 

It’s back to school time and “hello again” to the same old lunchbox headaches. Sandwiches are the foundation of every lunchbox, but to think of new and clever ways with lunchbox bread gets trickier every day. Try these ideas to get even the biggest little fusspots loving their sarmies again.

Shape shifters
A sure fire way to say goodbye to brown bread fussiness is to pack them these two-toned sandwiches. Use a slice of brown and white bread each and, using a cookie cutter (in a shape your child would like), cut out the same shape from each slice. Remove the cutouts and fit each into the other slice. Spread as usual and add an interesting filling. Wrap the whole sandwich in wax paper and pack into a lunchbox.

Cool cutouts
Apart from using cookie cutters to make two-toned sandwiches, use them to make the coolest cutouts. Prepare your children’s favourite sandwiches and then cut them into cute shapes with a sharp edged metal cookie cutter. Look for large cookie cutters so that you don’t waste too much bread.

Flower power
Every little girl would love her lunch if you pack her these beautiful bread blooms. Spread a slice or two of bread with Melrose, then cut out large flower shapes. Set aside. Cut more flowers from plain slices of bread and cut a small hole in the centre of these, using a bottle cap or a small cookie cutter. Place on top of the Melrose flowers and pack two or three flowers into her lunchbox between pieces of wax paper. If boys are in the mix, no problem - tell them the flowers are clouds.

Roll with me
Remove the crusts from slices of very fresh, soft white or brown bread. Spread with Melrose and roll up (like a Swiss roll). Roll tightly in wax paper and twist the ends to secure. You can make these rolled sandwiches with any thin filling. Shaved cold meat works well too.

Crazy kebabs
Prepare a double decker Melrose sandwich using three slices of bread. Cut the sandwich into six or eight evenly sized pieces. Skewer the sandwich squares onto two wooden satay or kebab sticks with a cherry tomato in between each piece of bread.