Packed lunches

All through my years at school, from my first day in reception to the last day of my final exams, I have always taken packed lunches to school. Usually, school meals are horrible – very unhealthy and not very tasty! So I took my own instead of eating the salty chips, overcooked vegetables and questionable meat served in the cafeteria.

However, although packed lunches were the best option, they do tend to get very boring. After my last day at school when I was 18, I threw my lunch box in the bin with joy. I thought that when I left high school, I would be free of packed lunches forever. I was so excited at never having to eat another ham and cheese sandwich.

However, when I arrived at university I realised that I lived a 30 minute walk from the library which was too far to go home for lunch every day. So I had to start taking a packed lunch to eat while I was studying, because it was much too expensive to buy meals from the library cafe every day.

This year, when I moved to France, I once again thought that I had put the days of plastic containers and carrot sticks behind me. But once again, I was wrong. Often, I spend a whole day at the same school, which means I have to bring lunch with me if I don't want to be very hungry by the end of the day! I started the year as normal, with cold sandwiches made of sliced bread, ham and cheese – not very interesting at all. But soon I made the decision to find more interesting ways to have lunch away from home. I had to find something new to eat or I would go mad!

I have started experimenting with different lunches. Sometimes I put the same sandwich filling in a wrap or a pitta bread to make it more interesting. Sometimes I bring leftover curry or pasta from my dinner the night before. Sometimes I make myself a pizza instead of a sandwich. Luckily, all the staff rooms have microwaves, so I can eat everything hot. It has become a fun challenge to find something new and exciting to make every day for lunch: although sometimes, when I'm feeling very lazy, I do have a classic ham and cheese sandwich!