Our mummy blogger Anneliese says: ‘Young children can be fickle creatures. Offer them a sandwich sliced into squares and be prepared for upturned noses. Use the same bread and filling but roll it up and you’ll encounter eager smiles and full tummies. This is such an easy activity to carry out with your child and even the youngest helper can join in. Let them choose their own fillings and you may find that even the fussiest eater will be more willing to try new flavours and textures. Your child will love to put these cute roll up sandwiches in their school lunch box and tell all their friends that they made their own lunch!’
- 2 slices of bread per person
- Margarine or butter for spreading
- A selection of fillings such as:
- Cream cheese and pickle
- Grated cheese and ham
- Grated carrot and hummus
- Peanut butter and strawberry/raspberry jam (omit peanut butter if taking into school)
- Mashed banana
First of all, carefully slice the crusts from the bread. The leftover crusts can be put into a food processor to make breadcrumbs, or you could toast them and use for ‘croutons’ in soup.
Now it’s time for your child to get involved. Pass your helper a rolling pin and ask them to roll each slice of bread as thin as possible. Keep a watchful eye so that they don’t get too carried away and make gaping holes!
Once the slices of bread are suitably flat and thin, your little helper can use a table knife to spread on the filling, starting with the margarine or butter.
If you choose to use grated cheese or carrot in your roll ups then it’s best for you to do the grating, but children will love the job of sprinkling it over the bread.
Mashed banana is a great filling as your little helper can use the back of a fork to mash the banana. There will be a great level of satisfaction to have mastered every step by themselves!
Whatever filling you decide to use, now is the time to roll up the bread. Make sure that the shortest edge is closest to you and firmly roll the bread up into a spiral.
If you have time, wrap the rolled sandwich in a piece of cling film, store in the fridge for a little while and then slice into three or four pieces – or eat straight away!
Top tip for making Roll up sandwiches
Use brown bread and lots of veggies to make your roll up sandwiches even healthier