Lunch

[bonniethomas06]

I definately need to work on more ideas for my lunch. Recently I have been really lazy and ended up buying sarnies from the cafe accross the road from my work. Not very ish at all and I can't afford it either.

I am just a bit stuck for inspiration, and wondered what everybody else makes for their lunch, that doesn't cost the earth and is quick and simple? (that isn't a sandwich!)

[pelmetman]

Why not pack youself up a nice salad, or a bowl of cous cous with lots of different veg in or maybe a bowl of pasta.

We are lucky as we work from home so lunch is a more leisurely affair and much easier. I can remember back to the days when I used to go out to work and used to spend a fortune on buying something as I was always in too much of a rush in the morning to get anything organised.
Sue

[pitwipe]

Often it's left-overs from the previous evening. Vegetarian chilli nukes up nice the following day

[Millymollymandy]

What's wrong with a sandwich? I always used to make a packed lunch for my OH and me when we both worked in offices which saved loads of money and was of course based on a sandwich plus a yoghurt or muesli bar or packet of crisps and some fruit.

[herbalholly]

We've been having left overs but I've been freezing them and then shuffling them round so we don't have to have what we had yesterday we can have what we had a couple of days ago with the carbs from the night before from the fridge. Does that make sense - so today for lunch we had frozen veggie cottage-style pie filling(which we had for dinner on Monday with the traditional mash on the top) with the left over plain rice that we had with our fish yesterday (which had been in the fridge). It keeps things fairly interesting but makes sure there's always something to stick in our bags in the morning. I guess this wouldn't work if you didn't have any re-heating facilities at work though.

[pelmetman]

Just rememered back to my work days. A Gin & Tonic at the pub went down nicely. Sue

[MKG]

Oh yes! - I remember the rat race too. Unfortunately, the only race which ever took place was to the pub at lunchtime. A sandwich, to be honest, may have been a second thought

Mike

[JulieSherris]

And I can't be much help either - back in the day, a sarnie was always the failsafe pack-up of choice!

Nowadays, I'm still doing the 3 bowls of cornflakes plus one 'regular' meal - yep, usually a sandwich unless hubby is home, then I have to do a 'proper' meal

Mind, you can get those small cool bags now - why not make a salad & add a 'whatever' of your choice - especially as it's going to be a nice summer.... ? Add a dip or 2, a small jar with a dressing & you have something tasty & fresh. You just have to be organised & prepare it the night before to save you the morning rush!

[homegrown]

Try pita bread pockets with cheese and ham or a nice omlet from organic eggs, or narn bread wrapped around mushroom and riccotta cheese, or steamed rice serve with salmon and lettuce or homemade burgers or vegetable sticks and cream cheese or boiled eggs mashed with homemade mayonaise on toast

if you can't tell I like my food, but bread is not so hot for my aging body so I use flat breads where possible and I especiallay love a good omlet but we have our own chooks so rarely run short of eggs.

and never pass up scones with cream an homemade jam.

[bonniethomas06]

Thanks guys. I think I just needed a boost of enthusiasm. Pitta is not something I had thought about for a while, may have a go making it.

There is nothing wrong with a sarnie, it is just so BORING Invariably when I do make lunch myself it is a sandwich - but especially lately with me trying to shift some flab, bread really isn't ideal.

I may well try to make more salad though, thanks for the suggestions. I suppose making a batch of 3 or 4 different types on Monday night will see me through to about wednesday without having to prepare it the night before.

Just being lazy really, but thanks again for the inspiration.

[Annpan]

pasta salads and cous cous salads are good. But I was never very good at preparing them in the morning.

Here's what I used to do

Do you have access to a microwave? in which case get some little freezer/microwave tubs that are soup bowl sized, with lids (I used to have a tonne from IKEA but the eventually gave in) Make yourself up batches of soup and chilli and curry pop them in the freezer then all you need to do is remember to take one in the morning - they have defrosted by lunch and you pop them in the micro for 3 minutes.... and you make people jealous with delicious home-made wonderfulness.

or, I'd make those fold over pizza things (the name escapes me... something-oni??) Anyway, I'd make a batch and freeze them and grab one in the morning they zap in a microwave very well indeed

[pelmetman]

We make up a huge bowl of cous cous and it lasts for days in the fridge. Actually gets more tasty the older it is. Sue

[Green Aura]

Calzone

I echo the freeze up a portion of leftovers and heat it up at work.

Butties (sorry I'm from the north - we don't have sarnies ) get really boring after a day or two - and to be honest having a variety of different fillings to hand can be as expensive as buying them - even if you make them yourself. If you don't have heating facilities you can buy those soup flasks blitz your stuff and put it inthe pre-warmed flask and it's still reasonably warm at lunchtime.

Another favourite is hummus, tzatziki and/or taramasalata and a bagful of crudites - and a pitta if you want.

Or wraps, loads of salad, salsa and refried beans or chicken, cheese or whatever and rolled up.

[Millymollymandy]

I've been eating sarnies for lunch all my life with the exception of the years where I was made to eat school dinners.

However if you find them boring may I suggest a Spanish tortilla omelette as they actually taste a lot better cold the next day. We often make them due to a glut of duck eggs and there's always some left over the next day which is really yummy. The Spanish eat them cold anyway. It was one thing we really couldn't face eating when we were in Spain recently though!

[JillStephens7]

I'm a teaching assistant and spend 5 days a week eating my dinner with 5 young children with severe allergies to make sure they don't food swap without thinking and get poorly (surrounded by 400 other kids without severe allergies - this is not a tranquil dining option)!
For this, I get a free school dinner, which though not my dinner of choice is ok and well .. free. Best bit is the trays of fresh fruit slices we now have on offer every day and there is always fruit salad too.

The children with severe allergies are all foreign (are you allowed to say foreign these days ). Danish girl has a jam sandwich and a chocolate sandwich. One chinese boy often has sushi, either rolled or just balls of rice with seaweed scrunched in or he brings cold roast vegetables and cold meat e.g. pheasant or beef, he sometimes brings hot prawn and vegetable rice in a flask too. The other chinese boy brings cold rice noodles with a bit of fried spring onion and sweetcorn. The japanese girl brings cold soya bacon or ham, seaweed sheets, some kind of dried oriental plum fruit leather and a jelly. Australian boy always has a hot cross bun , sliced red pepper, crisps, fruit and a ham sandwich made from one slice brown bread and one slice white bread.

I realise this is probably a bit off topic but I find it interesting! A lot of the african and asian kids bring cold leftovers from the night before's tea which none of the english parents ever seem to do and the english lunch boxes always seem to include 'puddings' or sweets (yoghurt, biscuits, fruit etc) whereas a lot of the foreign kids only bring savoury foods.

Particularly it is amazing to me how many children have exactly the same lunch 5 days a week for years on end!

In the days when I had to make my own dinners, I had lots of pasta or rice salad which I made up while cooking tea the night before or would do an oven full of jacket potatoes and take one and day with coleslaw or 'savoury cheese' (make up big tub of grated cheese mixed with mayo, chopped peppers, cucumber, tomato etc.). I'd often make a trifle or jelly at the weekend and spoon some into tupperware tubs for each day so they were ready to go as I'm usually hopeless in the mornings.

I will stop now, I seem to have far too much to say about lunch!