Out to Lunch

Packed lunches, by which I mean school packed lunches, by which I mean the ones lovingly prepared  hastily thrown together whilst simultaneously munching a bowl of breakfast cereal, answering the phone, signing for some post, getting the kids dressed, getting them fed, getting them fed without rendering it necessary to get them dressed all over again and all while frantically watching the clock and desperately trying to keep to the morning schedule that would have been so much more relaxed but for that extra five minutes you spent in bed with the alarm on snooze...

It'll probably never be a pleasure - a relaxed, unalloyed joy - but making the kids' school lunches can be a whole lot easier. We've been asked this month to try out new brac Cherry Tree Farm's range of cooked meats, available nationwide at Co-op stores. The range includes stalwarts like wafer-thin ham and roast chicken breast, but adds some American-inspired flavours like hickory-smoked turkey and fried chicken too.

Created for busy mums and dads who want quick and easy meals, the Cherry Tree Farm range is 100% British low-fat, ready-to-eat cooked meats and is perfect for sandwich fillings or just for snacking.

All you need then is a cool lunch box to put 'em in, like this Lego movie lunch box (with water bottle) courtesy of storage and organisational retailer STORE:

And when the kids come home from school and you can't be bothered cooking? (Let's face it, inspiration as well as energy can be lacking!). How about something from this - the Little Dish for Bigger Kids range?

This newly-launched range is perfectly nutritionally balanced for 3 to 6 year olds, with bigger portions and chunkier textures.  There are 4 delicious new recipes – Chunky Chicken Pot Roast, Mild Beef Chilli and Rice, Mediterranean Cod & Tomato Casserole and Seven Veg Lasagne - all available in Waitrose but soon to be launched in other major retailers.