Well, winter is officially here and it is cold. This morning, the kids and I pretty much sprinted to the bus stop because of how freezing it was outside. I immediately regretted not sending my son into school with a hot lunch. We send him in with a thermos lunch quite a bit, and it seems to be a special treat when we do. I also bought my husband a thermos for Christmas, and he’s been happy to go to work with hot soup and stews for lunch.
Lots of people aren’t sure how to send in a thermos lunch and have it stay hot. Today, I wanted to share with you the proper way to get your thermos ready to keep a hot lunch hot.
Here are the written steps:
1. Fill your thermos with boiling hot water, put on the cover, and let sit for 5 minutes.
2. While your thermos is warming, place your food in the microwave for 3 to 5 minutes. You want the food really hot! The secret is to always put hot food in a hot thermos.
3. Once the food is done, take the cover off of the thermos and pour out the water.
4. Place the hot food into the thermos, cover tightly (not too tight for little hands to open though) and you’re done!
The steps are so easy and make perfect sense but somehow people tend to mess them up and wonder why their lunch ends up cold. I know I used to. If you’d like some ideas on what to send in for your kids’ lunches, I have a great list of frugal lunch ideas for kids.
Have you ever made a thermos lunch for your kids and/or spouse? What kind of entrees have you put in their thermoses?
Great tips!
my middle guy loves warm noodles in his school lunch, we prepare our thermos the same way as you!
These days I have been souping up!!! I do not know why because in Trinidad it is very very hot.. so it is not the weather.. but I have just been craving it.
I will definitely give this a try and thanks for sharing.
Jillian
How long does it normally stay hot/warm for? DH is looking for new ways to eat lunch at work (UPS Driver). He and his work buddy go to Wendy’s pretty much every day! Sometimes they switch it up and go to Subway, but I’d like to give him something healthy. He leaves around 7am and takes his lunch at about 2:30. I’m not too far from him and I can always go out on my lunch break to meet up with him to give him some lunch. I can always make the stuff here so it’s really hot for him by time he eats it…but I dont want to make that a habit all the time and eat up gas, etc.
Hope you’re feeling better!
Thanks for these tips! It is so much more cost-effective to take your own lunch, and it’s always nice to be able to send something warm.
Our daughter brings a hot lunch once or twice a week….we get our thermos ready the same way you do 🙂
@spaghetti
DH leaves for work at 6am and takes lunch at 12pm. He says his soups and stews were still hot when he took lunch. For him, I got a Stanley Thermos that’s used mostly for camping. It’s metal, so it really retains heat on the inside. Found it at Target.
I’ll have to try and get a metal one for my husband. Since he drives a semi to Kentucky and back every day (From Indiana) he leaves home around 5, and doesn’t eat lunch until around midnight or 1AM. I am running out of cold lunch ideas, and he and I don’t want to start spending money at fast food restaurants. Cross my fingers and hope it works. Because he’s the type that scorches his food in the microwave before he eats it. He dislikes “warm” food, that I usually seem to think is hot. What size of thermos did you buy yours?
Ashley, this one is similar to the one I bought my husband: http://bit.ly/large_thermos
I LOVE this! Thanks so much for sharing! This is going to open up a whole new world for us!
You’re welcome, Brandi! Please let us know what awesome meals you decide to send in for your little superstar’s lunches this year.