Jottage from Cambridge: Packed Lunches

Everyday, usually just after 7am when my husband is playing with Tristan in bed, I get up and make up him a packed lunch. The main reason for doing this is because he works on a back street in Angel with no cafes or shops nearby and, although a trolley does apparently go round his workplace with sandwiches on display, I figure that by making his lunch we probably save around £5 a day. (A significant saving now I’m not working.) I like to think too that, like Hugh who writes that his passion for food is equal to his passion for his wife, I am demonstrating how much I love my husband by including things that he likes to eat. On special days, for example, I cut his sandwich into diamonds rather than rectangles, and I get excited in Sainsbury’s when roast beef or mortadella are on offer as I know how much he prefers them to simple tuna mayo or ham salad. I always include something savoury, usually a pork pie, scotch egg or hard-boiled egg though at the moment I’m giving him pieces of the broccoli quiche I made at the weekend for Tristan. (Tristan has become a bit more fussy recently and, although he adored the quiche when I made it first time, he now only really wants to eat bananas –preferably two or three in one sitting.) More often than not though Theo’s lunches are quite bland and, as he’s away from home for nearly twelve hours a day, I’m not convinced that he’s really eating enough of the right things to offset the afternoon sluggishness. 

Hugh lists his reasons for making packed lunches in a chapter titled ‘weekday lunch (box)’ in the Everyday book. Although cost does come into it, for Hugh the main reason for doing it yourself is because, compiled from leftover meat and veg, you’re bound to be able to make something much nicer than a pre-packed sandwich. Certainly at the moment I’m not sure that my efforts are better than an M&S, or even Tesco, meal deal. So, with Hugh’s help, I am going to transform  the contents of theo’s lunchboxes, and I will make sure that he posts up his comments on this blog for you to read!