This year I want to be more adventurous with the ladies lunchboxes. I almost thought my eldest was going to turn into a ham sandwich by June of this year. Thankfully she didn’t start snorting but I really want to broaden all our horizons now that we have spent one year navigating all that starting big school brings. The ladies are back in camp at the moment so it’s perfect time for me to get the thinking cap on while the days are still lazy and come up with a selection of back to school foods that I can basically whip up in my sleep. I’ll throw in a few dinner ideas too and I have previously done a post on some dinner hacks I found that made cooking from scratch in a hurry more manageable. 
The one thing I’ll say is that I live in a small village in which access to elaborate ingredients is limited so I use basic ingredients that you’ll find in your local shop. I think it’s a fairly common occurrence now that children are given a set amount of time to eat then they have to get outside for fresh air which is a great thing but when you’ve got a small lady that like to look around her and enjoy food the trick for me is packing as much as I can into each thing she eats. So for example I mix yogurt and fruit in a little container because eating them separately would (obviously!) take twice the time! 
Here are two recipes I tried from Neven Maguire’s new cookbook. The banana bread was delicious, really moist and tasty but I found it a little bit sweet so I may pull back on the sugar next time or try out a different recipe altogether. The chicken though was absolutely delicious, it turned out perfectly crispy, it didn’t stick to the baking tray, so so nice, so this is one I will be adding to my arsenal of dinners. There was also a lovely honey and mustard dipping sauce which had greek yogurt and mayonnaise in it, two things I never would have thought to add to a sauce like that before but hey you live and learn!
