From a Yumbox to Healthy Family Food Ideas: In Conversation with Claudine Boulstridge
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Time to read 5 min
Healthy Lunchbox Ideas for Kids: What Makes a Great Lunch?
Looking for healthy lunchbox ideas for kids that are colourful, simple and genuinely appealing? We spoke with Claudine Boulstridge, creator of Healthy Family Food Ideas, about what she has learned from more than a decade of packing school lunches.
Sometimes the best ideas start with a very ordinary problem: what am I going to pack for lunch?
For Claudine Boulstridge, creator of Healthy Family Food Ideas, that question helped launch a journey that would eventually lead to a thriving food community, a cookbook and years of inspiring families to make healthy food more appealing.
And, as it happens, a Yumbox was there right at the beginning.
We caught up with Claudine to talk about those first school lunches, what she has learned after more than a decade of feeding children, her French approach to family food and why a little bit of presentation can make such a difference.
Once you know the basic building blocks, you can change the ingredients and flavours while keeping the process really simple.
Yumbox was there at the very beginning of Healthy Family Food Ideas. How did it all start?
Eleven years ago, when my eldest daughter started school, I was disappointed with the school lunches, so I decided to send her in with a packed lunch.
I bought a Yumbox and loved how easy it made creating great lunches.
Friends started asking where I’d got it from and how I came up with ideas for what to put inside, so I began sharing photos on Instagram. Initially, it was really just a food diary for myself, a place to remember the lunches that had worked well when I was lacking inspiration!
As I shared more, people started following, and Healthy Family Food Ideas gradually grew from there.
Do you remember those first Yumbox lunches?
I do, and I still have photos of some of them on Instagram!
I used number cookie cutters to stamp out my children’s ages, bought silicone moulds in animal shapes and used fruit and gelatine to make fun jelly shapes. I’d put little cubes of cheese and ham onto sticks too.
I really enjoyed finding small ways to make their lunches feel fun and special.
How important is presentation when it comes to getting children excited about food?
It’s definitely really important. I want them to open their lunchbox and think, “Wow!”
But that doesn’t mean lunch needs to take ages to prepare or be complicated. A few very simple touches can make a lunchbox look much more exciting.
I’ve shared lots of my simple tips for making lunchboxes more appealing in a recent Substack article. It’s often the smallest things that make the biggest difference.
Do you have a formula for building a good lunchbox?
I definitely have a formula!
Having a simple structure makes it much easier to create a balanced lunch without having to reinvent it every morning. I recently shared my lunchbox formula on Substack, along with lots of tips for making mornings easier when you’re short on time.
Once you know the basic building blocks, you can change the ingredients and flavours while keeping the process really simple.
What are your best tricks for adding colour and variety without turning lunch prep into a 30-minute project?
Keeping things seasonal is one of my favourite tricks because it naturally gives you a lovely variety of colours and flavours without having to overthink it.
I also make the most of leftovers.
Yumbox is so cleverly designed that I can often just open the fridge, add a few bits and pieces into the different compartments, and very quickly have a colourful, varied and exciting lunchbox with almost no effort.
What about make-ahead foods?
I’m a huge fan of making things ahead, especially when you’re packing lunches several days a week.
I have a whole section in my cookbook dedicated to packed lunches, with lots of recipes that are ideal for making ahead. There’s also an index at the back specifically highlighting snacks that work particularly well in lunchboxes, so it’s an easy place to find ideas when you’re short on time.
Having even one or two homemade things ready in the fridge or freezer can make putting together the rest of the lunch much easier.
With three children, did you end up making three completely different lunches?
Yes, absolutely! All three have very different likes and dislikes.
Rather than deciding everything for them, I encouraged them to get involved. We’d keep a list on the fridge of foods to buy or keep in the house, and each week they could choose a few things they particularly liked.
It made them much more involved in their lunches and gave them some ownership over what they were eating.
You’re French-British and grew up around the world. Is there anything about the French approach to feeding children that you wish more families would adopt?
Yes, definitely.
I think one of the biggest differences is the emphasis on children eating the same food as the rest of the family, rather than preparing a separate “children’s meal.” You see the same approach in restaurants, where children aren’t always expected to choose from an entirely separate children's menu.
It helps make different foods feel normal rather than “grown-up” or something children are expected not to like.
I spoke about this recently in an interview with The Independent, which explored some of the French approaches to feeding children that I grew up with.
You’ve also tested recipes professionally, including for Yotam Ottolenghi. Has that influenced the way you cook for your family?
Absolutely. I’m always thinking about flavour, texture and colour, and about how to make simple ingredients really exciting.
In fact, I once created an Ottolenghi-inspired lunchbox for my children. It had pomegranate seeds, giant couscous and lemon, an egg sprinkled with black sesame seeds and spices, and a date ball rolled in pistachios.
It was a perfect example of how a packed lunch can introduce children to lots of interesting flavours and textures without making food feel intimidating.
Claudine’s lunches may have evolved as her children have grown, but the idea behind them feels remarkably consistent: good food should be varied, inviting and enjoyable, but it doesn't need to be complicated.
A handful of leftovers, something seasonal, a favourite food and a little attention to colour can turn what’s in the fridge into a lunch a child is genuinely excited to open.
And we particularly love knowing that somewhere near the beginning of Healthy Family Food Ideas was a mum, a new Yumbox and an Instagram account that was simply meant to help her remember what to pack next.
Sometimes the best ideas really do start with lunch.
