Aibu to ask how you keep pack lunch hot for school lunch?

[Threeandacat]

So with the kids back to school and the cost of lunches gone up to £3 each this means it will cost me £30 a week to give them school lunches. Single parent three kids and childcare means this is really stretching the budget. They have said they don't always like school lunch and prefer packed lunch on certain days (they can see the menu) I have really struggled with ways to keep lunches hot/warm I've tried various techniques and flasks but so far only one I have found is only really suitable for soup (small opening)

Aibu to ask if you have any hacks or recommendations for anything else I could use?

The thermos is fab and quite often on offer.

DD takes risotto, pasta, beans (with a cheese sandwich on the side) hot dogs (yes I know they’re awful), soup and ravioli.

The only thing with the risotto and pasta is I make a separate batch for lunches that are slightly undercooked as otherwise the rice and the pasta go ‘too goopy’ by lunchtime.

What's wrong with a sandwich?

Seems like a lot of faff for a packed lunch.

Are you sure you don't qualify for free school meals as a single mum with 3 kids? Failing that, I'd go with sandwiches, pasta salad or wraps and have a hot dinner instead.

My thermos is wide necked and if pre warmed stays hot for hours. My kids however get a bog standard sandwich lunch.

I take a Thermos food flask to work most days as I’m not bothered about sandwiches and find salad too cold on any day other than a hot sunny one. Preheat with boiling water first and make sure the food going in is REALLY hot - like an extra 30 secs or a minute over what you would normally give it in the microwave. It needs to be bubbling! That stays hot from 7-12.30 for me and is sometimes still too hot to eat! It will obviously lose heat so you can’t put it in at eating temperature or it’ll be lukewarm at lunch.

It’s packed lunch, not pack lunch. That would be lunch for a pack.
Predictable sneer at regional differences.

Packed lunch = lunch that has been packed
Pack lunch = lunch in a pack
Both fine, so you can relax and just answer the OPs question

@AlwaysLatte

Packed lunch = lunch that has been packed Pack lunch = lunch in a pack Both fine, so you can relax and just answer the OPs question

A lunch in a bag would be a bagged lunch.

Pack is not an adjective… that’s the way to remember the correct way of saying it. smile

It's a lunch that goes in a pack

I call them packed lunches but pack lunch makes perfect sense unless you're really fucking stupid

@SonicStars

It's more likely cultural. Sandwiches are a very British thing.

Really? I dont think theyre an unusual lunch in most of the western world, although what bread it is made with may differ

We use kids thermos. Fill it with boiling water and leave for 10 mins before putting hot food in

I feel really smart as I was perfectly able to understand what a pack lunch was. Woot

I feel really smart as I was perfectly able to understand what a pack lunch was. Woot

@Pottedpalm

It’s packed lunch, not pack lunch. That would be lunch for a pack.

This get the prize for the most pointless comment!

@Branleuse

I feel really smart as I was perfectly able to understand what a pack lunch was. Woot

Did anyone say they didn't understand it? The point is that it doesn't make sense.

Posters saying it's becauseit goes in a pack are making up an after the fact reason to justify their wrongness

I called it a pack lunch. I dont care if you think that's wrong tbh

@lockdownalli

Can you explain why it has to be hot? That would be fairly unusual to be honest.

Most children with a packed lunch take sandwiches, salads, wraps, samosas, scotch eggs, sausage rolls, fruit, veggie sticks, that kind of thing.

Exactly this. My kids have never had anything hot in their packED lunch. Sandwiches, wraps, pasta salad.

if you can understand it, then it makes sense. This goes for peoples local dialects and irregular terms that some areas have developed. We have gone past the years of only speaking in the queens english, and this was a mumsnet post, not a bloody academic essay.

Loads of terms dont make grammatical sense if you pick them apart, and never have done. This happens in every language, not just english. Language is about communication and if we understand each other then its working fine.

It’s packed lunch, not pack lunch

I am sure that everyone will be relieved to know that Wikipedia tells us

A packed lunch - also called pack lunch, sack lunch or bag lunch

Woo hoo everyone is right.

It's always fun to get an English lesson in the middle of a thread.

Well just asked my 7yo and her beautiful big blue eyes went very big and sparkly at the idea of being able to take warm Mac n cheese in her lunch box 🤣

'Really mummy, I could have Mac n cheese instead of jam sandwiches and tomatoes and stuff? Ohhhhh yes, can you ask school if they let us do that when we go in on Monday please?'

So guess I'll be digging out the thermos flask I put away when I stopped going to the office.

I’m going to blow everyone’s minds and say I know someone, who talks about ‘a pack up’.

I fill the flask up with boiling hot water and leave in there for a minute. Tip out water and fill with the hot pasta. I think that might help.

I’m going to blow everyone’s minds and say I know someone, who talks about ‘a pack up’.

I know lots of people who call it a pack up, all from the North of England. I also know someone who calls it a ‘bag lunch’ but she’s not from the UK and has lived in many countries.

I call it a piano up and I'm in the Midlands!

@OwlinaTree

I call it a piano up and I'm in the Midlands!

No I don't call it a piano up. A pack up!