Last Lunch

After fourteen years at the post, I made our eldest their last packed lunch this morning. School finishes for A'level students late morning tomorrow and they remove, as one, to the local public house for liquid lunches that will no doubt represent the real thing for years to come!

Unsure whether to jump for joy, or shed a tear for the speed at which the fourteen years of school have sped by, I remembered the umpteen times I've made up sandwiches at break-neck speed whilst fielding, 'have you seen my socks', and 'is there any milk left' type questions. It's not necessarily the sandwiches that cause the problems - although with the eldest they can do - but what the heck else do you put in there that will fill them up and be nourishing rather than an easy 'fix'?

When we first embarked on this, back in September 1999, I began with brown bread. The four year old child soon asked to try school dinners! A few weeks of tired child later and me assuming that all children were this exhausted after a day in front of the blackboard, a kindly teaching assistant told me that my child clearly didn't like the school food and would 'pick and leave', rather than pick and mix.