What's Inside My Teacher Lunch Bag?

I was googling about the other day, as you do, searching for inspiration for my school lunches.  The only staple that never changes is my Thursday lunch.  A lunch you'll probably never see a photo of, because I never take my phone to the staffroom at lunch time.  But I will tell you, it's my favourite lunch.  Freshly baked baguettes from The Artisan Crust, filled with brie, fig jam and salad greens.  Oh be still my heart! Maybe it's a good thing our tuck shop is only available one day a week.  I might end up looking like a filled baguette!

On every other day, lunch is whatever I can cobble together from the depths of my pantry and fridge. Not always an easy task!  So for anyone else seeking inspiration, here's what's inside my teacher lunch bag (a smattering through last week and this).  Incidentally, my lunch bag is an insulated one I got from Aldi for about ten bucks.  It is exactly the right size, and in summer I slip in a lunch box sized freezer brick to keep everything fresh and fine.

Monday: Leftovers - chicken and corn soup, with a dinner roll from Costco.  For fruit time I have a mandarin, and for recess (morning tea) I have grapes.

Tuesday:  Bread with tomato, spring onion and goat cheese.  On this day I toasted the bread and then topped it with the tomato mixture.  My sister-in-law and I share a tub of real butter that is kept in the staffroom fridge, for such occasions, so of course I had butter on the toast as well.   Everything is better with butter!  Another mandarin and grapes for fruit time and morning tea.

Thursday:  Leftovers again - Chinese simmering chicken, stir fried veggies & basmati rice, with the requisite grapes and mandarin.  The recipe for the chicken is here.  I always use drumsticks and then remove the chicken from the bones and mix it through the veggies.  Then I use the liquid from cooking to thicken for a sauce.  So yum.  

Friday: Scraping the barrel means another toasted sandwich.  I always store my sandwiches for toasting with glad wrap between the bread slices so the butter doesn't stick together, and the fillings sitting on top.  It just works so well when you go to put into the sandwich toaster.  And my favourite grapes and mandarin again!  Am I sick of those grapes and mandies yet?  Nope.  They're only around for a limited time in the year so I take them while I can.  And red grapes are, by far, my preference over green.

And here's my lunch all packed and ready to go.  Obviously this was Monday's lunch.  My golly I love those Costco dinner rolls.  The only way I don't scoff the whole bag myself is to keep them in the freezer.  And determine to only eat them with things like soup.  That little container in the mesh pocket has rock salt in it.  Sometimes the salt in the staffroom seems to disappear.  This way I always have some when I need it.

And no, I did not forget about Wednesday.  On Wednesday I have the blissful joy of having a "day off".  I am playing terribly fast and loose with the term "day off".  Today, for example, I spent the entire day writing English reports.  So fun.  Said no teacher ever.

I am officially done with reports though, so yay me.  Now I need to start on an assignment. 🙄

What do you take for not-at-home-and-can't-buy-lunch days?