Five Minute Lunch Box Ideas

Strawberries stuffed with peanut butter or cream cheese; for a special treat, do the same with Nutella!

Forgotten to make the kids' lunches on a hurried school day morning? 

No bread in the house?  Or worst still, the bread is stale and you've run out of milk.  It's just one of those mornings.  Happened to me today, my son sadly shook his head and said "You're off your game, mom.  No milk..."

Either you can run into Starbucks and buy a ready made lunch on route to school, or try out some of these suggestions.  You'll be surprised what you can rustle up by ferreting around in your store cupboard and fridge.

* Carrots and celery sticks with a tupperware bowl full of cream cheese with a handful of raisins swooshed around in it,

* Crackers, pepperoni slices and cheese, quickly cubed on the fly!

* red and green grapes, black olives and cubes of cheese

* crunchy cos lettuce wraps - take a slice of luncheon meet, wrap it tightly in the lettuce and you've created a bread-free wrap

If you've got a little more time to spare then try out this concoction:  cream cheese or peanut butter-filled strawberries. 

For best results it's worth while investing in this fail-proof strawberry de-huller. 

It may look like a space shuttle from an Austin Powers movie, but it ain't.

Available in most cookstores, including Amy's Place in the Reading Terminal Market.  It turns hulling strawberries into an exact science...