How do I decide what to pack?

I don't plan. I don't have a beautiful organized grocery list. 

I don't even think about it before I pull out the lunch box and look at the empty spaces longingly trying to be creative (or at least not put in the exact same thing as yesterday!) 

So what do I do? Well the lunch box itself helps quite a lot. PlanetBox has three departments and I try to do the following: the big compartment I use for carbs and protein (sandwiches etc), the medium compartment for fruit and/or veggies and the small compartment for fruit and/or sweets (if the medium compartment has only veggies and dip I add fruit to the small compartment).

I use a lot of fruit because it is currently summer in South Africa (okay summery at the very least) so I'm making up for winter. In winter we have more baked goodies because the only fruit in winter is apples, oranges and bananas and just about nothing else. Baked goods are also easier in the winter as we tend to be home more (I have a very active social live in summer...not! I just don't feel like it when you have a beautiful day outside). Bread is becomming a bit redundant but salad is not substantial enough unless you use pasta and Hungry Hubby isn't that fond of pasta. So I need to work on that a bit. 

But it is just a lunch box not rocket science so my secret: colour! I try to have a little bit of colour from green to red and that makes it more attractive and you eat with your eyes first!

PS the photo above is deep fried Mexican Cheesecake from our Mexican Cooking Class!