Ideas for food flask meals for school lunches

[TwigTheWonderKid]

DS1 (age 15) doesn't like cold food and won't queue for school dinners. Any ideas for food flask meals?

Dd usually took noodles in hers. Ds liked pasta and fried rice dishes.

Jacket potato with cheese, tomato pasta with grated cheese, stew/casserole if they'll eat it!

Pasta and sauce (shop bought or home made), curries and rice, stews, casseroles.

Noodle soup, noodles, fried rice, tomato soup with a side of grated cheese, spaghetti hoops.

What do they like to eat?

I have last night's leftovers in a flask every day, no matter what.

Always remember to warm the flask with hot water before you put the food in (I fill my flask while I'm making cups of tea for breakfast - if I'm having pasta, I'll put that in there then too to either cook or reheat without going dry).

Roast dinner: just make sure there's enough gravy to fill any air gaps to keep it warm. Chop it up into bite size pieces first.

Pasta & sauce

Sausage, mash & beans

Stir fry & noodles (cook the noodles in the hot water while you're heating the flask).

Soups with tiny pasta dropped in.

I've even had scrambled egg, beans and toast (chopped into squares) in there. One of my favourites!

You can make most dinners work if you think carefully!

I hope your DS will be making the flask meals as to be honest I wouldn’t be bending over backwards making inconvenient flask meals because he can’t be bothered to queue!

I think most mince based meals work well like bolognaise, chilli etc.

Orzo seems to work better than other pastas in flask food.

Do school allow it? Ours won't because of 'risk of scalding' so they confiscate any food flasks.

Pesto and pasta (with diced chicken if we have any cold leftovers), and noodle soup are the 2 main ones here.
They have to make their own if they want hot food - i'll do sandwiches, as it takes only a few seconds longer to make 3 sandwiches as it does to make 1.

DD's loved cut up roast dinners in theirs. Including cut up Yorkshire puds 😊

Once had mashed potato with grated cheese and beans as I had nothing else

Most stuff can work tbh

I've got terminal cancer and won't be around for much longer so am happy to have the opportunity to over-mother him a bit.

They only get 30 mins for lunch so by the time they get to the canteen and queue up there's little time left to eat it and get back to their next class. I think 30 mins is utterly rubbish but even as a school governor I was unable to overturn this ridiculous policy.

Thanks all, there's some perfect suggestions here. 😊

Soup, bean stew, stew and dumplings, fried rice, noodles, ramen, pho, stir fry, pasta and sauce, pasta and cheese, chilli, bolognese, stroganoff.

I’m very sorry to hear that @TwigTheWonderKid, no wonder you want to do this for him. Plus I agree 30 minutes isn’t much to queue and eat lunch. What a crazy short window to eat that is.

A couple of other ideas are below.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/bacon_eggy_bread_22406

https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/microwave_chinese-style_53090

I also think cous cous is a brilliant carb for this kind of cooking as it requires zero effort. Just hot water and wait five minutes. Those pouches of flavoured pulses by Merchant Gourmet and Jamie Oliver are quite good to then go on top of the cous cous, and you could add some leftover chicken or roasted veg.

Could he pack a split crusty bread roll on the side and have something like warm pulled pork or pulled chicken in the flask that he assembles himself. That would be a treat.

Following with interest as I'll be doing the same for DP over the winter – I've been thinking about a layer of rice and then topping it off with a curry like butter chicken or a chilli.

Anyone know if rice does OK in these, or will it go gloopy?

The rice won't go gloopy. We tend to mix the rice and curry up before it goes in the flask to allow it to soak up the sauce more. It's also easier to get a good mix of food onto the spoon to eat as well - never underestimate the daftness of friends pushing around and sauce getting spilt onto uniform either!