Credit Crunch Lunch - by the Hectic Host: two kids, two lunches, one week; under a tenner.

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It seems that time is not the only thing of which we are all short: If the papers are to be believed we are all feeling the pinch at moment; and some of us in more ways than one – and me certainly more than an inch! As we all know a balanced diet early in life pays dividends in later years. Convenient, but expensive, prepared foods are full of hidden fat and sugar, cleverly piling on the pounds and haemorrhaging them at the same time!
Whilst I guiltily packed slices of pizza and chocolate bars into my Godchildren’s backpacks on their last day of term I thought to myself that surely if one did one’s homework one could feed two children quick and nutritious lunches using fresh ingredients, sourced locally, and bring it all in at under £10. I put the challenge to chef and nutritionalist Suné Connell (www.nutritionredefined.co.uk) and can you believe it, Suné gave me change from a tenner!
The following lunches are nutritionally balanced with good amounts of protein, carbohydrates, fat, vitamins and minerals. Staggeringly the average diet consists of less than ten different foods a week; with this menu your child will have no less than thirty foods. The complete recipes and the shopping list are available at www.se22magazine.co.uk; here is a taster.
On Monday we made a mixed pepper and cheese frittata which serves four and will do for two days. On Tuesday – and these nuggets are worth their weight in gold – we rolled some diced turkey in egg and flour and coated them in sesame seeds, before baking them in the oven. I actually made these the night before whilst I was preparing the supper. I packed them with some vegetable sticks and a mini pot of thick yoghurt into which I had stirred some tomato purée – convincing them this was homemade ketchup, which I guess is not shockingly misleading.
On Wednesday we made wholemeal sandwiches with the left over frittata and some salad with a little light mayonnaise. The only problem with this one is giving it away – it is delicious – as they never made it into the lunch boxes we stuffed pita bread with chicken breast which I had marinated and roasted the previous night, also with some salad and mayo.
On Thursday we made an egg fried rice with peas and carrots, using leftover rice from our supper the night before.
On Friday, for a treat, I served up mini burgers in a wholemeal roll with the fake ketchup.
Total cost: £9.04. Total time: less than 30 minutes. Total guilt: Zero. Total happy kids: 2.
The Hect Host appears regulary in SE22 Magazine www.se22magazine.co.uk
Roullier White, 125 Lordship Lane, East Dulwich, London SE22 8HU.

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