Sandwiches shaped like unicorns. Cucumbers cut into crowns. Monsters carved into Babybels. Just when parents thought they had enough on their plate… Mums who spend hours turning their children’s packed lunches into works of art

• Instagram and Pinterest are awash with ideas for children’s lunch boxes 
• READ MORE:  Nearly all parents say their children get a better packed lunch than they ever did, research shows

For Rachel Stirling, the idea of sending her children to school with traditional packed-lunch staples such as a ham sandwich, packet of crisps and a KitKat is unthinkable.

Instead, her pair are dispatched with lunchboxes containing sandwiches in the shape of unicorns and rabbits, or with decorative ‘windows’ cut out of the bread, not forgetting the hearts, stars, crowns and even dinosaur footprints painstakingly sculpted from cucumbers. 

‘Mini Babybel snack cheeses are also brilliant as you can cut shapes from the red wax casing,’ says Rachel, 37.

‘Edible cake pens are a recent discovery, which I use to write messages on bread and biscuits and create rainbows or turn boiled eggs into spotty dinosaur eggs. Occasionally, I even write jokes on bananas for my son, too.’ 

Most harried parents will be exhausted just thinking about the prospect of spending hours making a packed lunch worthy of an art installation — or an Instagram feed, where Rachel, a stay-at-home mum, posts pictures of her creations.

Mother of four, Charlie Flanagan, 38, prepares impressively creative lunches her sons Zachary, seven, Hugo, five, Gabriel, three, and Maxwell

She insists it started out of necessity, not showing off, and she only began sharing her lunches when she discovered how much she enjoyed producing them.

‘By the time my son started pre-school six years ago, I was cutting sandwiches into dinosaur shapes and telling him that meatballs on sticks were lollipops, because making his food visually interesting was the only way to get him to eat it,’ reflects Rachel, who’s married and lives in Suffolk with her son, nine, and seven-year-old daughter.

‘I didn’t want it to become stressful for him — or me — so I realised making food fun was the way forward. For example, the “sushi” I pop in their pack-ups is made with bread.’

Still, it’s unlikely most frazzled mums would find the time to pander to picky eaters in a similar way. But with 145,000 followers on Instagram, where she posts as @thelunchbox.mama, Rachel has tapped into a trend for visually exciting food.

Even the most jaded parent couldn’t fault her creativity — though it might make you feel a bit inadequate by comparison.

Her grid is a brightly coloured smorgasbord brimming with imagination. There are trains made from bread and cheese, with mini crackers for wheels; reindeer sandwiches with red noses, googly eyes and pretzels for antlers, a Harry Potter-styled lunch (one of her son’s favourites), and a Halloween special filled with monsters and ghosts fashioned from food.

‘When I first started, I deliberated over whether to buy one of the compartmentalised bento-style lunchboxes as they were about £30,’ she says. 

‘But it was a game changer. The boxes keep wet and dry foods apart and make it so much easier to get super creative.

‘My son can still be fussy and my daughter would happily eat jam or chocolate spread sandwiches every day, so being inventive is essential to hold their interest and encourage them to try different foods.’

Rachel insists that while she knows her children’s fussy palates may broaden naturally as they get older, she’s happy to put in hours of creativity for now.

Some mothers choose Mini Babybel snack cheeses for their children’s lunches because you can cut shapes from the red wax casing

‘Sometimes, it takes so long to do the lunches that I abandon getting them finished before we leave and have to take them into school later in the morning,’ she shares.

And for all her creative flourishes, Rachel insists she doesn’t curate her lunchboxes to score points. 

‘My friends and I aren’t competitive with one another. But cucumber crowns were definitely a trend in my daughter’s class for a while after I first made some! 

‘What I do isn’t saving the world but I’m proud to know I’m helping other mums to get creative with their kids’ packed lunches.’

Critics may say it just adds to the pressure mothers are already under. Not so, Rachel insists. After all, if you don’t have time every day, you can just borrow her ideas for special occasions such as birthday parties.

‘I share my ideas to help other parents, never to make them feel worse or that they need to up their game,’ she says.

Sarah Almond Bushell is a registered dietitian and children’s nutritionist, and says it’s no surprise that parents such as Rachel are learning to be more creative when trying to get their youngsters to eat.

‘There’s been a rise in fussy eating in kids,’ explains Sarah. ‘Research shows that this can be linked to mothers who are well educated, middle or upper class, or older when they become parents.

‘For example, mums who are indulgent or controlling with their style of food parenting — with the very best of intentions — tend to have fussy eaters.’

But she adds: ‘There’s also a rise in parents realising that, like all of us, children eat with their eyes.

Compartmentalised bento-style lunchboxes costing around £30 are popular because they make it possible to keep wet and dry foods separate 

‘Between the ages of two and seven, kids are in a cognitive brain development phase, where they use their imagination a lot, so — as I tell many of my clients — food has to look interesting to stand a chance of being eaten.

‘Children are also born with a sweeter palate so they have to learn to eat more bitter foods, engaging with something new, such as broccoli, ten times before they’ll like it.’

Of course, getting toddlers to favour broccoli over biscuits is no mean feat. So perhaps it’s no wonder that Rachel isn’t the only one offering healthy lunchbox inspiration on social media.

There’s plenty of inspiration on social media. Instagram and Pinterest are awash with ideas, and there are websites dedicated solely to offering advice.

Caroline Job, 56, shares suggestions and recipes on lunchboxworld.co.uk. A trained florist who spent years getting up at 6am to make exciting packed lunches for her three children — all now in their 20s — she recommends adding more colour by using silicone cupcake holders to line a lunchbox and creating sandwiches in the shape of a child’s favourite creature, such as a bumblebee, using white and brown bread for the stripes.

‘Love letters are also a super addition to a lunchbox,’ she says. ‘Write a little note for your child to read over lunch — it’s a lovely way of connecting with our kids when we can’t be there to hold their hands.’

Love notes and bumblebee bites may sound far-fetched, but a recent survey of 1,500 parents by Amazon Fresh revealed that staples such as ham and jam sarnies have been usurped by modern interlopers including — among others — wraps, burritos, fresh pineapple and sushi.

Half of the parents quizzed admitted to feeling embarrassed when sneaking in traditional items such as chocolate bars and crisps, while a quarter now regularly post a photo of their own lunchbox creations on social media.

With more than 10,000 followers on her @the adventuresofus Instagram account, Charlie posts pictures of her children’s lunches 

Mother-of-four Charlie Flanagan is one such poster, with more than 10,000 followers on her @the adventuresofus Instagram account. 

She often sends her children to school with a proper homemade meal — a food flask containing the likes of cottage pie or pasta bolognese, usually batch-cooked for family dinners with enough left over for lunch.

 ‘My kids are generally good eaters,’ says Charlie, 38, a full-time mum who lives in Halesowen, West Midlands, with husband Chris, 38, an account manager, and their four sons: Zachary, seven, Hugo, five, Gabriel, three, and Maxwell, one.

‘Although Zachary will happily order lobster or crab in a restaurant, he’s fussy about packed lunches and prefers them hot.’

But even Charlie will sometimes get creative. ‘My boys don’t have star-shaped sandwiches or rabbit-shaped watermelon every day, but whenever there’s time I do get the cutters out.

‘Gabriel is dinosaur-mad, so I’ll cut his sandwiches into dino shapes and use broccoli for trees. Later this month I’ll do a Halloween-themed packed lunch for them all. 

‘I recently bought some lunchbox jokes to pop in with their food, too, with a handwritten note on the back from me.

‘The first time I did it, Zachary came home and said: “Oh, Mummy, I didn’t know you’d put a joke in my lunchbox!”’

Some mothers try to entice their children to eat fruits and vegetables by cutting them into fun shapes and arranging them in interesting ways 

Fellow mum and author Ciara Attwell, 42, has devoted the past decade to reinventing packed lunches, prompted by her then fussy toddler daughter.

‘There wasn’t a lot of information or inspiration ten years ago, during the early days of social media,’ says Ciara, who lives in Kent with her husband and their children, Aoife, 12, and nine-year-old Fintan.

Her ideas for family meals and kids’ packed lunches have gained her 197,000 followers on Instagram (@myfussyeater) and she is the author of several recipe books, including The Fuss-Free Family Cookbook.

‘I try to keep school mornings as stress-free as possible,’ she says, ‘so on a Sunday I’ll find a couple of hours to batch-cook all sorts of things, including savoury muffins loaded with veg, pasta and pizza pinwheels, then freeze them until I need them. 

‘Thermos flasks are brilliant for adding variety — my daughter loves curry, pesto pasta and soup for lunch, which might be leftovers from a family meal we had the night before.’ 

But is Ciara ever tempted to ditch her creative efforts and wave Aoife and Fintan off with a ham sandwich instead? ‘One hundred per cent,’ she laughs.

‘There’s no point creating something lavish or imaginative if your child isn’t going to eat it. You have to be creative with foods you know they’ll enjoy.

Mum and author Ciara Attwell, 42, has devoted the past decade to reinventing packed lunches, prompted by her then fussy toddler daughter

‘And while I’m creative with their lunches most of the time, it’s not about one-upmanship. It’s just that Fintan’s more likely to eat a red pepper that’s wrapped in strips of pastry with googly eyes to look like a Halloween mummy rather than a pepper on its own.

‘I know I won’t have to serve peppers that way for ever — it’s just to encourage him to try things in the first place.

‘To me, imaginative lunchboxes are absolutely worth the effort.’

There’s no denying the results of such efforts are a feast for the eyes. But whether you will decide to opt for a cucumber crown over a KitKat the next time you find yourself staring down the barrel of the school-run rush remains to be seen.

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