School lunches without the panic: a whole week in one prompt

First week back, half past seven, and the same scene again: an open lunchbox on the worktop and nobody with an idea. What goes in is the same sandwich as last week, and it comes home half eaten. The problem is not a shortage of recipes, it is the hour at which the decision gets made.

The trick is to move that decision to Sunday and make it once for all five days. And above all, to start from reality rather than the ideal. If peppers are not eaten in this house, peppers are not eaten. A plan that ignores what your children actually like comes back intact in the backpack.

The prompt for the weekly plan

Plan packed lunches from Monday to Friday for two children aged 6 and 10. Things they do eat: bread, chicken, omelette, cheese, cucumber, carrot, apple, cold pasta, chickpeas. Things they never eat: lettuce, raw tomato, flavoured yoghurt. Allergies: [WRITE HERE OR SAY NONE]. There is no fridge and no microwave at school, so it has to survive four hours in a backpack. Ten minutes of preparation in the morning at most. Two of the five days should use up leftovers from the previous night's dinner. Give it back in two parts: a Monday to Friday table with the lunch and a piece of fruit, and a shopping list grouped by supermarket aisle.

Leftovers that look deliberate

• Last night's chicken: sliced, with bread and a little cheese, is tomorrow's lunch without touching the hob.
• Spare pasta or rice: turns into a cold salad with sweetcorn and tuna, and holds up better than a sandwich.
• Roasted vegetables: folded into an omelette they stop being vegetables and become omelette, which does get eaten.
• Pulses from a stew: drained, with a splash of oil, into a small tub as a side.
• Fruit that has gone soft: cut up with a squeeze of lemon, instead of the whole apple that comes back untouched.

Two small things decide whether the plan survives to October. One, let each child pick one of the five days, because what you chose yourself is what you eat. Two, do not reinvent it weekly. Save the prompt, update the list of what they eat only when it genuinely changes, and run it again. By week two it takes two minutes.