Preparing fun-for-the-tum packed lunches the night before will spare you a soggy sandwich experience. Left overs from dinner are often lunch box friendly and simple things like keeping salad dressings separate, will keep things crisp and crunchy.

Keep lunchboxes cool with ice packs or freezer gels. Freezing cartons or plastic bottles of juice will keep things cool in the summer and provide a refreshing drink to cool kids down too. Insulated lunch boxes will keep the cold in and the heat out, which is good for regulating the temperature and keeping germs at bay.

Wet wipes are always useful and a pack with lunch is a less-mess solution for sticky fingers!

Don’t give your freezer the cold shoulder! Frozen food doesn’t deserve its second rate reputation, far from being less nutritious than fresh food it is often equally nutritious and more cost effective too.

If you freeze meals remember that:

• Prepared meals should be frozen as soon as they are cool
• Meals that have already been frozen should never be re-frozen
• Cooked food can be kept in the freezer for up to three months
• Reheat food until piping hot
• Never re-heat more than once