You know that feeling when you are heading out and about in the morning without any care for where lunch is going to come from and certainly not prepared enough to bring something good/healthy/nutritious with you in a smart lunch box. And then sitting down with a dry shop bought sandwich only to watch your colleague devour the best part of her/his fridge neatly collated into a lunchbox filled with such yummies as avocado/quinoa/hummus/beetroot/beans/seaweed etc. You get the picture and yep I’ve been there too.

.. the purpose of this post is not to make us all feel bad when planning does not happen…

So the purpose of this post is not to make us all feel bad when planning does not happen the way we’d like but rather act as a little nudge to keep in mind that any leftovers can be used the following day and that very little of each item can make a pretty astonishing, and filling, lunchbox. We just need to keep it in mind.

What I recommend is that you start with an empty box from a recent take away (some of them are quite good quality and can be reused) or one of your kids lunch boxes for example. Then, when you’re tidying away the left over beans from dinner, or that extra bit of brown rice that would normally end up in the bin because it wasn’t that much, you stick it in the box instead. Add some cherry tomatoes, perhaps a few spinach leaves, variety of nuts/seeds, raw beetroot or broccoli, dollop of humus or tahini, left over veg curry, or yesterday’s oven roasted veg and so on. You’ll soon have enough and more for lunch.

The combo is not that important as most things thrown together will taste great with a bit of dressing or squeezed lemon juice on top. None of this is rocket science only a great way to maximise your fridge content whilst sticking to home-made and fresh ingredients for your lunchbox rather than succumbing to sandwiches or expensive takeaways from coffee shops. Good for you and good for your wallet too.

At V&A, the most wonderful of museums in London, we are lucky enough to have Benugo make our lunches in the staff room and what a treat that is. They have taken the mixed lunch box and added a bit of magic with their dressings, seeds and selection of raw veg that makes even the most stubborn carnivore salivate. They have inspired me to take the concept of a piecemeal lunchbox seriously and I hope they can do the same for you. Hats off to the Benugo team and get going with your own take on the healthy lunch box. What’s in it? I’d love to know. Good luck and happy Friday!