Guest Day Thursday: Hot Lunch Tip

We are so excited to have be able to share a great tip with you today (I know, don't faint, we have posted something 2 days in a row, but today's was pretty much a cheat since all we had to do was copy and paste. Hey! What do ya know it's even Thursday today, so I guess we can still call it Guest Day Thursday, hehehe). While blogstalking Teri ran onto this tip and thought it was such a great idea, she asked Don immediately if he would share it with you! He agreed, and so enjoy his great tip for homemade "hot" lunches!

Hi, I'm Don Carey, a full-time software engineer, part-time author, and over-time husband and father. I want to thank the 2 Sisters for inviting me to be a guest on this blog. I'm excited to share our handy little trick for sending hot lunches from home to school and work.

Both of our girls have food allergies, so when our oldest started kindergarten nearly eight years ago, we thought it would be best to send lunches from home. Not wanting to go the soggy sandwich on stale bread route, we came up with a system for sending hot lunches, and it has served us well.

The first thing I do in the morning is boil water in the teapot. Today's lunch menu is tortellini soup, so I also started some water in a second pot.

Once the water in the teapot boils, I pour it into our trusty little thermoses - one for each of the girls. There's usually one for me, too - no need to make lunch twice. But today I decided to pass on the tortellini soup in favor of left-over pizza in the fridge. Yum!

While the boiling water heats the thermoses, I make breakfast and heat lunch - either on the stove, or in our handy little toaster oven. This is also when I nag the sleepyheads.

Yum! Tortellini!

Now mix in the soup.

I empty the water and fill the thermoses with hot food. We usually try to plan our dinners so there are leftovers to use in lunches. Soup, stew, chili, and pasta dishes all work great. We've had mixed results with nuggets and burritos - they stay warm, but tend to get soggy.

Casseroles all work very well. Except for tuna casserole, which is never good. Ick! Yuck! Blech!

I then pack the thermos in an insulated lunch box with the sides, snacks, utensils, and a bottle of water. Today's menu includes goldfish, grapes, a granola bar, and bunny-shaped sugar cookies, just in case you were wondering.

All in 30 minutes or less. My only fear with this method is that one day I'll accidentally forget to fill the thermoses and send my children to school with nothing but hot water for lunch. But so far, so good.

My youngest still asks for hot lunch at school once in a while as a treat, but the 7th grader insists I pack her lunch every day so she doesn't have to wait in the long cafeteria lines. And she insists the food is better, too.