This Morning viewers have slammed a mum for her tips and tricks on preparing school lunches.
Food writer Suzanne Mulholland, known as ‘The Batch Lady’, from the Scottish Borders, took to the TV show today to talk about how parents can save money by batch cooking their child’s packed lunch.
The former time management consultant spoke to Dermot and Alison about the cheapest foods to include in lunches, advising parents to make pasta in advance, freeze hummus and yoghurts and send their children to school with scones.
Suzanne is a fan of freezing various foods and defrosting them when necessary, and told parents to clean out a drawer to dedicate to school lunches, admitting she had a large freezer to store all her items.
However, her advice didn’t go down well with viewers, who said they wouldn’t give their children three-day-old pasta and asked how they were supposed to toast buns at school.
‘The Batch Lady’ Suzanne Mulholland, from Scottish Borders, went on the TV show today to talk about how parents can save money by batch cooking their child’s packed lunch.
He told Dermot and Alison about the cheapest foods to include in lunches, such as pasta, hummus and scones.
Suzanne Mulholland’s Top Tips for Saving Money When Packing Your Child’s Lunchbox
‘The Batch Lady’ appeared on This Morning today and talked about her tips and tricks on how to save money by making lunch.
Bake your own cakes
Instead of buying processed pastries to put in lunch boxes, bake your own when preparing other packed lunch items.
She said sweets are cheaper this way and she doesn’t give her children highly processed foods that come in packages.
Make hummus from scratch
Chickpea-based sauce is cost-effective and can last for days in the refrigerator, making it perfect for on-the-go lunch boxes.
Suzanne recommended baking fresh cakes and freezing them because it is cheaper.
But Suzanne recommends making it yourself rather than using store-bought hummus, as it only contains a couple of ingredients and is therefore cheaper.
Hummus can be used with vegetables like carrots, celery or cucumber sticks, making it an easy way to incorporate vegetables into on-the-go lunch boxes, she said.
She said you can also freeze hummus and yogurt to consume at a later date.
Buy your breads in advance
Suzanne said that if you want to change the type of bread you use in your sandwiches, buying the packets at the beginning of the month and keeping them in the freezer means you can thaw them and mix and match them easily.
Dedicate a freezer drawer to packed lunches
Because Suzanne’s tips include a lot of frozen foods, she says dedicating freezer drawers to school lunches allows her room to plan.
Buy in large quantities
The Batch Lady said to avoid buying things advertised as lunch or snacks and instead buy things in bulk.
That way you can distribute what you need and it is cheaper than buying convincing items.
Avoid juice boxes
Suzanne advised parents to avoid juice boxes because they can be quite expensive and instead use pumpkin, which gives the same fruity flavor but is cheaper.
The Batch Lady said, “If you’re not using your freezer right now, clean it out and reserve a drawer just for school lunches.”
Later in the show he added: “If you have some things that you took out of the freezer, you can put them still cold and then it will keep them cold in the summer.”
But one user wrote: “You can’t just have a freezer drawer full of kids lunches, what are you doing?”
He then went on to say that you can easily freeze hummus and yogurt, much to Dermot and Alison’s surprise.
But others questioned how true this was, with one user claiming that dishes would come out watery if frozen and then thawed.
Suzanne’s segment was not well received by fans of the show who criticized her freezing methods.
‘Who freezes hummus???? WHO??? Ridiculous article. Yogurt comes out watery if you freeze it,’ they said.
Suzanne also suggested that parents bake cakes while batch cooking lunches to use the time more effectively, adding that sweets could be stored in the freezer and taken out at a later date, ensuring no food was wasted.
The mother said cooking tons of pasta allows parents to divide it into portions throughout the week and estimated portions can cost as little as 7p.
She said: ‘It’s really good to make things like pasta. You can do it at the beginning of the week, it lasts a couple of days in the refrigerator, about three days. If you’re on a budget, pasta is a great way to go. [lunches].’
But one viewer took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to say he wouldn’t eat three-day-old pasta.
Another person wrote: ‘Who puts buns in the freezer? Just eat them.’
Suzanne also told parents to buy scones for school lunches if they are on a strict budget, as they only cost ’20p a serving and are really filling and nice’.
One user said they wouldn’t eat three-day-old pasta, as Batch Lady recommends
He then told parents to opt for nut-free pesto and chocolate spread, in case there were children with allergies nearby, angering some viewers and leaving them wondering how they managed their school days.
‘Why should you opt for things other than nuts? Ffs, how did we survive childhood before all this shit?, commented one.
Suzanne also told parents to buy scones for school lunches if they are on a strict budget, as they only cost “20p a portion and are really filling and nice”.
But viewers of the show wondered how their son could eat a bun when it needs to be heated.
They wrote: “A bun needs to be heated or toasted.” What damn school will heat a bun?
He then ended his segment by advising parents not to buy juice boxes because they are too expensive, but instead to use pumpkin diluted in water.