Lunchbox From Last Night's Dinner: Pack Before You Sit Down

The habit: pack the lunchbox before you eat dinner

It is 8:30pm. The family has eaten, the pot is half full, and somebody says "we should pack lunch from this". Then the pot goes into the fridge with the lid on, unsorted, and at 7am you are scraping rice into a box that is still cold from the shelf.

The fix is a change of order. Before you serve yourself, scoop the lunchbox portion into its container. The food is hot and untouched by anyone's spoon, and you do not have to think about it again until morning. This post is about which dinners from our recipe library make good lunchboxes next day, and what to do with each.

Which dishes pack well, and which fight back

Times come from the recipe pages: chicken pulao is 20 minutes prep and 50 cook, aloo keema 15 and 35, chana masala 15 and 45, egg fried rice 10 and 15. If you plan to pack from them, cook for four even if you are three people, because that spare serving is the lunchbox. <!-- VERIFY: servings math is a planning suggestion, not from recipe data. -->

Chicken pulao: the closest thing to a ready meal

Chicken pulao uses 400 g (about 2 cups) of basmati, soaked 20 minutes, for 4 servings. Because the rice absorbs its stock in the pot, there is no gravy to leak. A pulao box is the easiest lunch on this list.

What to do:

• Pack a portion while the pot is still hot, then let the box cool uncovered for a few minutes before sealing, so steam does not pool on the lid.
• Put it in the fridge as soon as it is cool. Cooked rice is best chilled within about an hour and eaten within a day, so pack tomorrow's lunch, not Thursday's.
• Add a small tub of plain yogurt or cucumber on the side. They do not go in the main box.

If the school has no microwave, a rice box eaten at room temperature is fine for most children, though the time from fridge to eating matters. Check what your school advises about cold packs. <!-- VERIFY: school and local guidance on packed-lunch temperature differs; avoid specific hours here. -->

Aloo keema: turn it into a roll

Aloo keema is 500 g (about 1.1 lb) mince and 300 g (0.65 lb) potato cooked to a dry masala. It reheats well and can be tucked into a roti or paratha as a filling.

The mince should have been cooked through to 71 C (160 F), standard guidance for ground meat, and it should be reheated until steaming hot before it is packed, then cooled and chilled. If the lunchbox is going to sit in a bag for hours, put a frozen ice pack beside it. <!-- VERIFY: ice pack suggestion is general practice; check school and local food-safety guidance. -->

Roll it this way:

1. Make a chapati the night before, or use one from dinner. The recipe is 30 minutes of prep and 20 cook for 4 servings, so a batch will cover dinner and the lunchbox.
2. Spoon cold keema down the middle. Fold the sides in and roll like a burrito.
3. Wrap in baking paper, then foil. The paper stops the roti from sticking to the foil.

Chana masala: three ways to keep it from leaking

Chana masala is a vegetarian lunch that does not mind going cold. The trouble is the sauce.

• Thermos: Heat to boiling, pour into a pre-warmed insulated food jar, and seal. It will be warm at noon. Pre-warm the jar with hot water first, 5 minutes.
• Mash and wrap: Mash half the chickpeas coarsely, spoon into a wrap with chopped onion and a squeeze of lemon. It holds together without liquid.
• Dry-down: Cook it a few minutes longer than usual at dinner, uncovered, until the sauce clings. Pack that portion first.

Many schools have strict allergen rules. Check the school's policy on sesame and other allergens before packing anything with seeds. <!-- VERIFY: school allergen policies vary; check them individually. -->

Egg fried rice: made for the next day

The odd thing about egg fried rice is that the recipe itself wants cooked, cooled rice, "preferably a day old". So you can cook dinner's pulao rice a little extra, chill it, and fry it the next morning for lunch in about 15 minutes of cooking. Cool the finished rice quickly before packing. Do not leave it in a warm car or bag.

A one-week lunchbox map from four dinners

Notice there is no Monday lunch from a dinner, because Sunday has to be a cook night. Plan Sunday around the larger batch if you want Monday covered too; the Sunday daal for three dinners post shows how a single pot can stretch.

The pack-it-first checklist

• Containers out and washed by 6pm, not hunted for at 8:30.
• Scoop the lunch portion first, then serve dinner.
• Cool uncovered a few minutes, seal, refrigerate within about an hour.
• Reheat until steaming hot, cool again if packing cold, and always wipe the rim before sealing.
• Write the day on the lid with a marker.

To remember what is left in the fridge, the Degchi try-it pantry lets you mark items Have, Low or Out without an account.