Feel Fresh Nutrition's owner Abbie O'Rourke had the pleasure of judging a competition between The Food Truck's Michael van de Elzen and nzherald.co.nz's Sarah Harris. Who could spend less than $50 at Countdown Supermarkets on two kids' lunches for five days. 

Quite honestly however, $50 for two kids school lunches is a total luxury for most families in NZ but enjoy the read via the link below, and enjoy the justifications :)

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=11792760

Hannah took on the challenge and she achieved $44 for two kids for 5 days.

Hannah's rationale: both my boys (6 and 4) are somewhat big eaters but like variety. They always do well with veggies and some sort of dip like cottage cheese or hummus. 

They also eat well if I keep their protein varied. Often it's leftover meatballs, sausages or chicken drumsticks. I also usually make a batch of fish cakes using salmon and Kumara or potato for my husband and I and they eat them 1-2 days per week.

We don't really eat bread or sandwiches except at the weekend when we get sourdough from the market, so to get some carbs in for brain fuel at school I give them potato in the fish cakes, roasted Kumara and corn. They also get carbs from fruit veggies and hummus.

To get costs down I could also make crackers instead of buying the 180 oat crackers, but I'm working with two kids a puppy and am 26 weeks pregnant. These crackers are great, I buy one pack and alternate between crackers, and popcorn made at home with coconut oil. I make The hummus myself to keep costs down but bought 1 tablespoon of sesame seeds for this experiment and soaked them in place of tahini which is more expensive. 

I like to keep their lunches simple with sweetness coming from fruit and the snacks as popcorn or crackers. With more budget I would also have bought peanut butter for celery or haloumi which both boys love. We save treats like bliss balls or home baking for weekends at home. 

PROTEIN:

• 2 days 4 chicken drumsticks bostocks $5.49

• 2 days Salmon potato cakes $3.39

• 1 day egg roll ups with cheese $2.90

VEGGIES AND FRUIT:

• 3 ears of corn $5

• 2 punnets blueberries $6

• 3 nectarines $1.80

• 3 apples $1.72

• Cherry tomatoes $2.50

• 4 carrots $1.29

• 1 yellow capsicum $1.59

• 1 telegraph cucumber $0.99

• Spinach leaves - from garden

• 1 lemon $0.78

• Garlic bulb $0.49

• 1 Kumara $1.29

MISCELLANEOUS:

• 1 tin chickpeas $1.29

• 1 tablespoon sesame seeds $0.23

• Cottage cheese $2.59

• Oat crackers $5.49

• Popcorn kernels from the bulk bin $0.99

Total $44.54

SAMPLE MENU

1 salmon potato cake
Cucumber carrot capsicum
5 oat crackers
Cottage cheese
Cherry tomatoes
1/2 nectarine and 1/4 punnet of blueberries

1 chicken drumstick
Roasted Kumara, 1/3 an ear of corn
Carrot cucumber hummus
Oat crackers
1/2 Apple blueberries

Egg roll up (1.5 eggs whisked with spinach and baked like a pancake) rolled with cottage cheese and sliced cherry tomatoes
Corn
Carrots cucumber capsicum and hummus
Popcorn
1/2 Apple 1/2 nectarine sliced.