As I am reading many things here on the forum including your stories about lunch I would like to hear from you what is usual and I would like to share how it's here in Holland.

There are no schools here in Holland that provide a schoollunch. Okay, some schools offer things like soups or some snack( like frikandel and kroket but I don't think you know these things) Also most of the companies don't have an opportunity to serve a lunch or it must be that they sell buns and slices of bread combined with cheeses, slices of meat and some jams etc).So here almost everybody takes his lunch to school or to work. But most companies don't have them or it just too expensive.

So almost everybody takes his own lunch. And that is quite simple. Slices of bread, buttered and with cheese, meat or something sweet(peanutbutter, jam, chocolate sprinklers) together with something to drink and a piece of fruit that is our lunch. Every day, every year. We never take leftovers or something that we have to reheat with us as there is not a place to do so. usually everybody has a lunchbox. We normally don't have it cooled as Dutch weather is usually not too hot.

I read in some threads that you are often looking for things for lunch. We don't have that problem here. It's bread or bread or bread. Quite simple, just as breakfast. Bread, butter, and something on it like( we are cheeseheads) cheese, sliced meat( we have over 50 different choices to make) or something sweet. Some kids do have cereals at morning. We are also big milkdrinkers. At least 3 glasses of milk per day is advised here in Holland. Totally recommended are  at least 2 pieces of fruit a day and at least 200 grams of veggies. Combined with about 6 slices of whole wheat bread, cheese, 3 eggs a week, margarine of halvarine( half of the fat of margarine and butter) or lean meat. Also 3-4 potatoes a day( not baked, usually boiled) some fat-off gravy and about 100 grams of lean meat. Of course depending on age. A 16 year old boy can eat a whole bread, a 60 year old man only needs about 4 slices a day. Our bread is pre-slices for about 1/3 of in inch.

Like to hear from you how you think about this.

But, Dutch Treat, we are all dying to know what are frikandel & kroket.  What are they made of, & how are they cooked?

So many potatoes daily!  do you have them in soup, or mashed, or just plain?

 Americans spend way too much thought on their next meal, IMO, me included.  Bread with occasional meat and cheese along with fruit for lunch would be much better for us all, both nutritionally and economically...Liz

Its funny because since my parents are dutch and I get bugged about my sweet tooth!  I say what do you except with parents from the land that has chocolate sprinkles for breaksfast food ! plus those sugar ones. brown sugar sandwiches mmmm.... butter and brown sugar haven't had it for a long time!  funny my kids like sweets but not  chocolate spread sandwiches made with nutella etc.  Maybe they are too young :)  

Also I am a cheesehead! always have 4-5 diff. varieties in the fridge.  plus mayo on fries instead of ketchup and indonesian sweet soya sauce instead of the chinese salty version.

Dutch treat, aren't microwaves, hair dryers etc very expensive there? so that is why businesses don't have them?  That is what my mom says. (I don't speak Dutch) Here a cheap microwave is $50.00.  All our relatives are still living in Holland. My mom always sends levi jeans that she gets cheap to my cousin because they are so expensive there.

Hi Everyone,

Well it's going to be a bit hard to explain how a frikandel is made, DeborahMichelle, as they are not homemade here. But I can explain how they look. A frikandel is a kind of sausage but also not.  It is about 20 cm long, brown and made of meat that is firmly grounded and spiced. We buy them in boxes frozen from the store. They have to be deep fried for about 4 minutes orso. But that's not the problem, almost everybody here has a deepfrying machine( electric) Just filled with oil, pull in the plug and wait untill your oil reaches te temperature 190 degrees(Celcius). Jummy, we wait them with mayonaise, or mayonaise and ketchup or and I love those filling them with cubes of onion covered with mayonaise and ketchup.

 I can give you the recipe of the kroket:

200 gr of beef, half on onion, 1 small carrot, parsley, 1 bayleaf, a little dried thyme 4 pepperkernels, salt, 30gr of butter, 30 gr of plain flower, nutmeg, dried breadcrums, 1 egg and fryingoil.

Put together in a piece of cloth: onion, carrot, parsley, bayleaf, thyme and pepperkernels together. Have 300 cc of water go to a boil with the cloth in it. Ad meat and cook for about an hour. After coocking keep 200cc of the liquid.

Melt butter in a pan and add the flour. Add half of the liquid and keep stirring untill there is a smooth mixture. than keep pooring liquid to it untill everything is used and boil for 1 more minute. Cut the meat in very small pieces(like threads) and add it together with the nutmeg and, if needed, some more salt and pepper. Spray it on a large plate and put it in de fridge to cool. Divide in 8 pieces and form rolls about the size of when you put together your thumb and index finger. cover them with breadcrumbs. After that beat the egg slightly and roll the rolls through them and than again roll them through breadcrums.

Heat oil in a skillet until damps blue, add 3 -4 rolls in the oil and fry for 3-4 minutes. Serve with mustard.

Oh and of course we have hairdryers and microwaves here and also not too expensive. But personally it never crossed my mind that there should be a hairdryer at the office!! All the ofices I used to work in, in the kitchen there was only a coffeemachine ,waterboiler for tea and a dishwasher. I think it is traditional to take your own lunch here. Most places I know did also not have a place to sit during luchbreak so a lot of people eat behind their desk. At this moment DH stays in a hotel every week because of his work The hotel provides a lunch bag with slices of bread of buns( he has to prepare them by himself) eggs, an orange or apple a two cans of soda. So you see that there is not much difference between home of hotellunch.Of course sometimes we would order something like a nice sandwich or fries with something or a burger. But 4 out of 5 everybody would eat his homemade sandwiches. Well, I don't think that I can call them sandwiches because they are quite simple. Just bread, butter and something on it like I allready mentioned. Nothing fancy. Some people would like a cup of soup at lunch, so they take..Cup of Soup, add water and it's ready. Warm lunches with eating leftovers I never saw somybody doing it.

I can recall the thing My family's Interest mentiond about the bread with brown sugar. Jummy, jummy it tastes so good.... a slice of white bread, a lot of butter and a lot of sugar pressed into the butter. So unhealthy but so good..And your mom is right about the jeans, they are very expensive here.

Since I homeschool, my children eat lunch at home. We usually have leftovers, soup or something else light and easily prepared. We take a break from classes for lunch and while the kids are outside or whatever they are doing, I get some housework done so I definitely stay away from lunch meals that require more work from me.

My husband is a fisherman on a boat that stays out for a week or two at a time. The captain provides food and meals are prepared on the boat.

I didn't mean using hair dryers at work lol, just that our relatives always said that appliances, vcrs etc were a lot more expensive in Holland than here. :)

Hi everyone,

Well Brandy A lot of parents have to pick up their childeren at noon for lunchbreak. But here mom( usually) has the table set with bread( again) and the other things I mentioned, she will not even think about serving leftovers. It is just not done here. If she has leftovers she will use them up for dinner. Almost as long as a child goes to elementary school they will sit at the table to have a meal 3 times a day. Dinnertime here is usually between 5 and 6 pm. If there are afterschoolactivities or sports, it will be before 5 pm and after 6.30 pm but never at dinnertime. As most fathers and noweadays also the mom are working to 5 or  6 pm, dinnertime is the only meal they share together as a family in weekdays so everybody wants to be there. In the weekend everybody has activities because soccergames, the most played game here in Holland, for the childeren is on Saturday and for adults on Sunday morning , so in weekends everybody is busy. Therefore usually there is soup and pudding on Sunday, that makes it an easy day with time to spend in the afternoon with the childeren. On Saturday I mostly make a stew or otherwise we have a normal dinner. But BTW I can't image how homeschooling works as I never saw it here. Do you take the same subjects with your childeren as on the regular schools or can you decide what to teach or not? And do you need a license to do so? I am reallu curious.

and to my Family's Interests, you are right, it used to be that those things were more expensive in Holland but that is quite some time ago. Just a few months ago a blew up my dvd player( as I was playing music too loud oops) and bougth a new one for about $ 45,00. With all the massproduction of China etc. today prices got way way lower. But I don't know how much tax you pay on your products, including in our prices are 19% tax and for food 6%. Maybe that makes the difference, I don't know.

Love to hear all your stories!!

 No, I do not need a license to homeschool. No, I don't have to follow the same curriculum as public schools. I can choose what I teach and what curriculum I use.

I can't imagine parents having to get their children from school for lunch. The public school here has a 45 min lunch hour and many people live 10 or more minutes drive away from the school. Most people I know who work do not go home for lunch as they live to far too afford the fuel to do this or make the drive in their allowed lunch time so one parent would have to not work and be home to get the child anyway.

We have a 7% sales tax on food or other products. So where I am DVD player can cost about $35 and with tax would be $37.45. A CD player (music disk only) can be bought for as little as $10 and with taxes would be $10.70.

As for what we eat overall..we consume a lot of grilled meats, veggies and fruit with moderate to small amounts of beans, bread, pasta and rice.