Top Ten Lunchbox Essentials

10. Lock & Lock tupperware

This is the kind of tupperware with 4 clips on each side of the tub. Shake it all about, do the hokey kokey and turn around, and your soup will still be inside the tub, and not inside your handbag.

9. Cling film

Making delicious cakes and cookies for a mid-afternoon pick me up is one thing, keeping them fresh (and in one piece) is another. I wrap muffins, cookies, bars, cake slices etc in cling film as soon as they've cooled to ensure they stay fresh in the fridge until they are needed.

8. Vanilla essense

You want to bake cakes? You're going to need vanilla essence in your cupboard. Just a teaspoon of vanilla and some jam, and you've got a delicious Victoria Sandwich. Vanilla essence is also scrum-diddly-scrumptious addition to a simple apple cake.

7. Cocoa

Like vanilla essence, you need cocoa in your cupboard. Choco-chip cookies, chocolate muffins, marble cake, brownies... the possibilities are endless.

6. Canned tuna

When you really don't want to cook, a can of tuna is a lifesaver. Make a juicy Tuna-Mayo Sandwich, or top a jacket potato with tuna mayo mixed with sweetcorn. Or why not whip up a Tuna Pasta Salad?

5. Banana's

Research shows that banana's are one the very best sources of energy, and they provide variety of essential vitemins and minerals needed to keep you healthy. For those of you who prefer fruit, rather than cakes and biccies, to keep you going through a long afternoon in the office, then you can't go wrong with a banana.

And for those of you who do like a sneaky snack, banana's are really useful for baking once the skins are brown and the banana is soft and sweet. There are hundreds of recipes out there for banana based treats, and any one of them is bound to be fantastic. My fave so far is a Banana and Toffee Loaf cake, but I cannot for the life of me remember which cookbook this heaven sent recipe appears in, but I will hunt it down. When I do, I'll bake it for you some time!

Not to mention, have you noticed how inexpensive banana's are?

4. Apples

An apple a day keeps the doctor away, so they say. Also, you can rely on an apple to arrive at it's destination intact and unsquashed, and for that alone it beats the banana.

Apple's are also rather fantastic in cakes and bakes. Apple-cakey receipes to follow soon.

3. Pasta

Need I explain? When you cannot decide what you have, the answer is pasta.

2. Museli

Why museli, I hear you ask. We're talking about lunches, aren't we? The answer to this mystery is Museli Bars. You could mix nuts and fruit with oats yourself, but why bother? Look in the cereal isle for museli (look for the special offers), and pick a combo you fancy. The results are impressive. Prior to this little experiment, my museli bars were always in the following formula: (Oats + Raisins) + (Sugar + Syrup + Butter) = Museli Bar. But consider this: museli is often a much more complex afair, bringing in seeds, spelt flakes, puffed rice, exotic fruits etc. And it's all put together for you, and it's often cheaper than buying the individual compontents yourself.

1. Fresh or frozen 'soup base' vegetables

A medley of  'soup base' veegtables (including a selection of onions, celery, carrot, swede, turnip, potato...) is a godsend for last minute lunches. Use the veg's as a base for almost any soup you can imagine, or even a stew! For starters, you could try any combination of Vegetable soup, Chicken & Vegetable, Spicy Parsnip, Chilli Veg, Moroccan Chickpea....

The frozen variety is especially useful:
* No waste
* No mess
* Can be used directly from frozen
* Use only what you need, and keep the rest in the freezer for another meal!