What was in your childhood lunchbox?

mojesius · 30-08-2022 09:26PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119542524#Comment_119542524

Yes I forgot about the powdered soup :)

YellowLead · 30-08-2022 09:31PM

Somebody else mentioned banana sandwiches, I hadn’t thought of them since my school days. Lovely if you ate them fresh, but usually the banana was gone all brown by the time it came to eat it.

I also had jam or ham sandwiches (cut into 4 small squares even in secondary school) Always with a green apple and either a penguin, club or taxi.

secondary also heralded cheese strings which I actually loved - could never stomach the easy singles and thankfully wasn’t forced to.

Was glad there was no school milk in secondary, the ones in primary always seemed to be gone off and we’d all pour it down the sink, leaving the room stinking.

Secondary school also had a school shop where many bags of meanies and packets of Frosties were purchased.

phormium · 30-08-2022 09:47PM

Pink meat, chicken and ham roll with brown sauce, yum! But Bovril to drink, hated it with a passion.

Tork · 30-08-2022 10:14PM

My favourite primary school sandwiches were the ones after my mum made brown soda bread. I loved having slices of that with some smoked Easi-singles on top. If not, it was white sliced pan and whatever was around at home on that day. Cheese, ham, luncheon meat, corned beef. Sometimes I'd get soup in the flask and then bread to dip into it. I'm not sure now if I made up the soup myself (cup-a-soup) or if was already mixed in the flask. I think I also used to get Bovril sometimes. I can't remember if my mum made sandwiches if it was a soup day. Other times, it'd be drinking chocolate in the flash, or milky coffee. A modern day parent would be horrified! there'd also be an apple or two and yogurt. Then there'd be something Penguin bar sized. There was still milk in my primary school but as the years went on, fewer and fewer kids had any. The birds used to pierce the caps of the little bottles in the milk crates before they were taken into the school. There'd be a scramble to get hold of one of the non-damaged bottles.

maude6868 · 30-08-2022 10:29PM

Stew, cabbage and bacon, pork chops etc, full dinners. I lived in town so went home for lunch. Had to eat a full dinner in 15 minutes. Back in the day dinner was at 1pm for the family. Can't imagine doing that now.

The Mighty Quinn · 31-08-2022 10:43AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119545309#Comment_119545309

There was no such thing as lunch in my house. It was breakfast-dinner-tea. Dinner was between 12-2 time. Tea was 5-6 kinda time.

YellowLead · 31-08-2022 12:27PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119546694#Comment_119546694

We had breakfast, lunch, dinner and tea. Except on weekends when dinner was moved to lunchtime and lunch didn’t happen.

Dave_The_Sheep · 31-08-2022 09:39PM

Piece of fruit, small bar - something funsize, water/dilute bottle and a sandwich/roll. Started out as peanut butter back in early primary school, religiously. Then I fell out with that, moved onto ham and mayo or whatever. Graduated later on in later secondary school to (and i'm not joking here, weird looking back) prawn cocktail mix that you'd get out of superquinn with some lettuce in whatever bread delivery method was around that week.

I was everything Roy Keane hates.

tscul32 · 05-09-2022 03:21PM

Anyone remember haslet? Kind of herby.

sporina · 14-09-2022 11:36PM

what a wonderful thread OP..

PS 1980s...

I recall sambo's on white bread with either ham or corned beef (they went in the bin)..

Mum had a v sweet tooth so we always had a french fancy and or a 5,4,3,2,1.. cheese and onion tayto..

There probably was fruit as the fruit man called to the house once a week; we always had a large stock of mandarines, apples, plums, bananas, kiwi's in the house..

A plastic bottle with diluted mi wadi..

There was a milk run at school so a carton of that too..

Flask of tea in winter - you know - the flask with the tartan design lol..

yep - tis no wonder I have to go to the dentist tomorrow... but my gosh.. my lunch was the envy of a lot of kids..

Oh I just remembered.. we did have fruit - I rem a kid asking me for "a bite of my apple?".. yuk.. I thought - no.. thats gross

Grandeeod · 14-09-2022 11:43PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119539413#Comment_119539413

This! I remember all of it.

Free Speech · 14-09-2022 11:59PM

Every day in primary school it was the same, cheese singles on white bread.

Own brand cheese singles where the cheese tasted as plasticky as the wrapper.

This was all washed down with a flask of orange cordial.

To this day if I even look at cheese singles in the shop, I get the taste of cheap orange cordial in the back of my throat.

newmember2 · 15-09-2022 12:38AM

Sandwich of two slices of white bread cut in half with butter and sandwich spread with sometimes a club milk besides. I don't remember eating the sandwich very often and would nearly always throw it behind a wall as the first thing I did as I ran out into the yard at lunchtime, or else drop it off one of the fold-down bench seats onto the ground in the corner. Had a plastic bottle with quash orange that I liked or mi-wadi that I didn't really like, and at certain times had a flask of tea.

Pissy Missy · 15-09-2022 12:54AM

Butter sandwiches as I was a picky eater, then I'd toss them over the wall and buy sweets in the shop

bassy · 15-09-2022 01:27AM

Never had a lunchbox my sambos were wrapped in the bread paper that the sliced pan came in,them were the days........................

Goldengirl · 15-09-2022 01:51AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119537135#Comment_119537135

This is exactly me ! All the way through secondary school . Sometimes packet oxtail soup in a flask in winter or an oxo cube in boiling water . Club milks, blue snack bars , penguins, an apple . A small yogurt that was gone watery at the top by lunchtime.

Think I went home mostly in primary for dinner ..no lunch in our house until latter years only breakfast , dinner and tea . Then our mam went back to work so it was breakfast , lunch and dinner.

My poor mam tried to get me to eat proper meat or cheese but I loved that luncheon roll . Still eat it now occasionally when I need something comforting 😯

My school friends and family still laugh when they remember my school lunches . 1970s .

15-09-2022 02:09AM

In primary school, as if being a blow-in didn't make me foreign enough, I was a very picky eater as a child and generally only ate two things for lunch in Primary school. Toasted sardine sandwiches or sausage rolls. Both/either with a flask of tea.

Some of my school mates honestly thought I was an alien.

sporina · 15-09-2022 08:35AM

In secondary school (90's) - there was a fad where it was cool to eat those rehydrated lunch things.. can't rem the name of em but Knorr made them.. and Pot Noodles.. wow - thinking of it now, the total lack of nutrition - yuk

Kintarō Hattori · 15-09-2022 08:59AM

My mother used to give me egg salad sandwiches very frequently, which I detested. I used to leave the wrapped sandwiches in the bag and not eat them. I have no idea why I didn't think to throw them out. Eventually over time the rotten sandwiches started giving off a really bad smell which you could smell in the hallway (bag was under the stairs). It was tracked down to my bag. I was asked why. Told her I didn't like them. I still got egg sandwiches. This was the 80s.

the beer revolu · 15-09-2022 09:49AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119620189#Comment_119620189

To my shame, I remember squishing up butter sandwiches and throwing them in the bin. I guess I just ate whatever snacks I had with them as there was no shop in school. I don't ever recall being hungry.

Pissy Missy · 15-09-2022 10:49AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119620711#Comment_119620711

I would have gladly shared my sweets with you 🍬🍫🍭

nothing · 15-09-2022 11:05AM

We weren't allowed any type of sweets or biscuits in primary, but in secondary there was a school shop with loads of them.

Usually, it was diluted squash, some kind of fruit, and sometimes white bread with ham or cheese or jam or egg mayo, or cream crackers with Philadelphia or peanut butter or cheese.

Cream crackers with philly were the worst, they'd be gone soggy by lunch time and the philly would be hard and cracked.

Egg mayo sandwiches were my favourite, though my classmates didn't feel the same!

In secondary, the crisp sandwich became a recurring theme, yum!

RoryMurphyJnr · 15-09-2022 11:08AM

Cheese and brown sauce sambos.

Easi Singles

Chef Brown Sauce

Brennans white bread.

Every single day, through choice, my mam was a bit embarrassed and tried to get me to take ham or jam sambos.

To this day I still have them a few times a week for my lunch

Neyite · 28-09-2022 12:12PM

Homemade bread with home made butter and a thick slice of calvita. Along with an apple and milk from our cows.

Yes, despite it being the 80s and all the other kids getting white sliced pan billy roll sambos with taytos and a penguin bar, our lunches alas were stuck in the 1880s. I used to be so jealous of the other kids, yet I'd really enjoy that sandwich now!

awec · 28-09-2022 12:22PM

I went to school in NI so we were able to buy cheap hot meals in school which I don't think is a thing down here?

In primary school you didn't get a choice, everyone went to the canteen and every day there was basically a set 2 course meal (lunch and dessert). It was hit and miss, there was a Friday hotdog + chicken soup with chocolate cake and chocolate gravy dessert that was the highlight!

Secondary school was all about the chips, but some favourites were:

Chips, chicken nuggets (or sausages) and beans
Gravy chips / curry chips / cheesy chips
Chips, cheese and chicken soup (yep, that cream-of-chicken soup poured over chips is actually very nice with cheese)

Would have got things like chicken pie, lasagne etc too, all pretty good. There was a deli thing for sandwiches if you wanted.

Used to get hot sausage rolls during the morning break, 2 of those with ketchup was a daily staple.

I think nowadays the secondary school menus have been made all healthy, looking back on it there wasn't much green stuff being eaten!

Tabnabs · 28-09-2022 12:32PM

White Brennans bread, margarine from that massive margarine container you used to be able to buy in supermarkets, with "plastic cheese" aka easi singles or processed ham slices. When things got good there would be the occasional pate sandwich too. Usually an apple somewhere in the school bag too. We got the little milk cartoons too, otherwise it was a little flask/bottle with diluted orange.