If you had to make a pack lunch right now, could you?

[Updatemate]

As in at 8pm on Sunday night, for a 5yo for school tomorrow? What would be in it?

Because that's what I'm having to do!

We got a text at 6pm saying the kitchen staff are isolating so all kids need a pack lunch this week. Typically the online delivery is coming tomorrow and all the shops are now shut.

So I've russled up a home made pizza (flour and greek yogurt base) with a defrosted portion of hidden veg sauce and the last dregs of the block of cheese, a slightly bruised apple and a couple of Jaffa cakes from a pack I forgot i bought at Christmas!

Thankfully school are the pack lunch police even in normal times but I think given the extremely short notice they'll say nothing at all!

The alternatives were a batch cooked portion of beef stew, frozen sausages or fish fingers.

So what would be in your pack lunch?

Yep. I'd find it weird not to be able to. We always have bread in and something to go in it. Cheese and eggs always. Also stuff like jam in a cupboard. I could always rustle up something. I would never be entirely out of food for breakfast and lunch.

Mini pancakes are the emergency carb for lunches here.

If I have eggs, flour and milk I make mini pancakes, maybe with more eggs than usual to increase the protein and toss in the lunchbox whatever fruit or dried fruit we have. I have sometimes done stovetop popcorn as a lunchbox snack too.

Pasta salad into a Thermos is something I've also done. You can get away with random vegetables chopped small then mix pasta, veges, mayonnaise.

Sunday night would be hard because DH usually shops on Mondays. We would often have no bread or fruit left on a Sunday night.

Even though it's the end of the week's shopping, I could make a lunch. Whether I could make something that meets school lunchbox police's arbitrary and idiotic rules is another matter.

It would probably be either a cottage cheese or a chicken and tomato sandwich, with an apple and/or an orange, and I suppose I could put oatcakes or rice cakes as a rather boring snack.

We shop on Sunday, so would be fine, but if it was the day before a shop I'd probably do tuna pasta, with whatever frozen veg we had left. I usually have stuff to make flapjack for a pudding, and maybe some raisins from the baking draw if we didn't have fruit.

Not an ideal lunch, but given the short notice I doubt anyone would complain.

I always have supplies of part baked baguettes in case the bread maker fails or I run out of yeast (it was hard to get in the last lockdown) also there's always a backup sliced loaf in the freezer. So it would be baguette with cheese or tuna Mayo, fruit which is always around and yoghurt. I always have a full fridge/freezer/cupboards so shopping is always a top up these days - never know if you suddenly need to isolate!

I would never be entirely out of food for breakfast and lunch.

We tend to have soup or leftovers for lunch. Salad in the summer but not the winter.

The kids have cereal for breakfast so we're never out of that or milk.

If we had to isolate we'd be absolutely fine, freezer and store cupboards are full. Just not with packed lunch stuff!

As it turns out, it was unnecessary anyway as the children got turned away at the school gate- someone in their bubble has COVID now. First time for us, which is amazing, so can't complain. But it means they got to eat their mini pizzas warm!

I can always cobble something together because we always have eggs, cheese and bread in.

Yes, I could put together a packed lunch, tuna or salmon with mixed bean salad or lentil salad, cheese & crackers, fruit bread, slice pf cake or biscuits, carton of apple or tomato juice.

I tend to keep a well stocked winter store cupboard in case of heavy snow or illness, so not directly related to the present situation.

Actually, I usually have frozen puff pastry as squares in the freezer. So I'd be able to make pasties with whatever was in the fridge plus any oddments of cheese.

There's definitely always Stunt Fruit knocking about in bowls - in my head, I have the sort of teenagers who grab an apple, banana or a handful of grapes as they're peckishly passing.

In reality I make an awful lot of bread maker bread with slightly past its best fruit chucked in. I find if I just leave the bread maker out once it's finished doing its thing, then whatever's in it gets eaten when I'm not looking.

So again I guess I could throw together slabs of banana bread for an unexpected lunch tomorrow.

There would also be carrot & cucumber.

Again, I'm not saying the dc would be delighted & they'd come home expecting a substantial dinner & agitating for a takeaway, but yeah, I could send 'a lunchbox'.

Yep, ham and/or cheese thin. Mini cucumber, carrot sticks, an apple. Bag of rice cakes and a pouch yoghurt.

All stuff we keep in as a matter of course. Appreciate not everyone is as lucky though.

Appreciate not everyone is as lucky though.

I hadn't really considered people would think we were poor. We aren't in the least! I just meal plan and buy for the plan. We rarely snack so don't have snack foods in, beyond fruit. There's usually a cucumber knocking around but they do go mushy.

I just don't keep a randomly stocked fridge of fresh food as I know it will get thrown away rather than eaten and I abhor food waste.

Also I freeze large quantities of juice boxes in flavours the dc don't like enough to go looking for.

So no guava juice as we all hate it, but red grape/pineapple/orange & carrot - they actively enjoy apple or straight orange, so don't pinch these ones, but they go in lunch boxes sometimes as they're the ones that have been left at the back of the freezer.

Helps keep the rest of the lunch cold too - we are in a hot country & much of the year need something iced in there.

I live in the North and it’s definitely a pack lunch. To me a packed lunch sounds strange and a little pretentious , I know it’s not but it’s so formal. Kind of like saying a round of sandwiches.

I thought everyone unless really struggling financially would keep a loaf of bread in the freezer and a block of cheddar in the fridge. Tinned fruit is a pantry staple as is tuna. I don’t just buy for the week though we are a family of ten and have enough food to last approximately 3 months.

MyDcAreMarvel

We've probably got 3 months food in the house. I'm all prepped for if we have to stay in the house for a prelonged period, I just hadn't considered being prepped for packed lunches!

@Updatemate

Appreciate not everyone is as lucky though.

I hadn't really considered people would think we were poor. We aren't in the least! I just meal plan and buy for the plan. We rarely snack so don't have snack foods in, beyond fruit. There's usually a cucumber knocking around but they do go mushy.

I just don't keep a randomly stocked fridge of fresh food as I know it will get thrown away rather than eaten and I abhor food waste.

I didn’t mean you OP You had stuff in to make a lunch with, there would be people that miss the FSM criteria who get KA1 meals and finding an extra lunch or two/three could be a real issue.

KS1

I could do:

A cheese or ham sandwich
An apple or banana
Packet of crisps*
I'd get a KitKat or something similar in the morning to stick inside*

• I have no idea if these are allowed in packed lunches these days? My dd has always had school dinner. If not, then I could chop up some carrot for her.

Yes, I could make;

Salami or cheese (or both) sandwiches
Tomato slices/carrot sticks/cucumber sticks
Yoghurt
Grapes/apple/Satsuma
Crisps
Fruit stars/fruit winder

We pretty much always have lunch box items in as that’s what the kids have for lunches at home anyway.

I call it a pack lunch (probably out of laziness!) but DH family refer to them as a pack up.
As in
"i made a pack up for the morning" meaning they made their pack(ed) lunch the night before.
In answer to the original question, we usually have wraps or bread, often there is bread in the freezer, or a pizza from the frezer, and a yoghurt. The thing we run out of most often is a lunch box drink, although obviously can take a water bottle.

Mine are a bit young for packed lunches, but I reckon I could knock something together. Ham or cheese or marmite or tuna for sandwiches, and some salad to go in as well. Couple of babybels, carrot and celery sticks, satsumas, a yogurt, crisps or crackers. And a bottle of water. I think that will work. Tbh it's hit or miss whether we have bread, so it's more luck than judgement today.

I could have done

Egg Mayo or tuna Mayo sandwich
A couple of mini baby bel cheese
Rowntree jelly pot (low sugar)
Packet of Quavers or some crackers

It's a long time since I had a 5 year old to consider but this is stuff in the fridge/cupboard that DH and adult DD like!