Packing Lunches, Part Two

Last time I spoke about how my mum's idea of a packed lunch was sandwiches, a piece of fruit and a slice of cake or fruit loaf. This is basically what I took to school with me as a child, except I didn't normally get the cake - and the bread we ate then was the heavy, wholemeal, home-made bread which I hated. Usually my lunch came home with me, uneaten.

I know lunches can be more exciting than this, because I read blogs about them. All over the blogosphere there are women, and some men, creating interesting packed lunches for themselves and their children. This blog began as an attempt to emulate them, but quickly ran out of steam because I didn't really have any need to make a packed lunch while I was at university.
Now, I've got another chance to motivate myself to make interesting lunches, particularly since it isn't really fair to always leave my mum to make my lunch. Even with limited time (or perhaps especially with limited time - I find that the longer I think about what I can take, the less inspired I become), I've discovered it's possible.

Yesterday I took some left-over boiled potatoes mixed with a little mayonnaise to make a potato salad, a quartered tomato and a slice of bread, an apple, a slice of date and walnut loaf, and a handful of raisins. Unfortunately I didn't take a photo but I packed it all into the largest two of my Paperchase cupcake lunchboxes.

I'm always hungry mid-morning and mid-afternoon at work, probably because I have breakfast at seven thirty and lunch at one, and we eat at around six thirty in the evening. The morning in particular is a long time to go without food! So having the raisins and the fruit loaf meant I could have something to eat without buying chocolate from the shop or eating all my lunch.