Struggling to organise packed lunches

Prepare all your salad / veg at the weekend and keep it in individual bags or containers in the fridge. For example, lettuce leaves keep well once washed and popped into bags. Carrots can be chopped into sticks, as can cucumber and peppers, tomatoes can be chopped/sliced once you get to work. Then "preparing" your salad for work will just involve transferring stuff into your sandwhich container.

Do you eat tinned fish eg tuna and salmon? A small tin of tuna with a salad is easy to prepare, especially if you take your tin-opener to work!

If you're cooking rice for tea then make a little extra, then you can make a rice salad (peppers, tomatoes, tuna etc) at the same time as cooking tea, pop it in the fridge then its all ready for the morning.

Every time you cook something see if its viable to cook extra that can go towards the next days lunch.

If you have any time at the weekend one of the best things to make is soups, you can make up a huge batch of this, very quick and easy to do (I'm sure there's lots of recipes in the index!) and this freezes really well. Freeze in individual portions (I re-use large yoghurt pots or ice-cream tubs) then simply take out of freezer when needed. If you havn't got a microwave at work to re-heat then you could invest in a flask and warm it up before you go to work.

the hardest thing about packed lunches is getting into the routine of doing them - as you are finding out

im about to go back to uni, and to avoid getting into the trap of lining other peoples pockets for blan tasteless stuff i could make at half the price, im writing a big list of all different lunchbox ideas to stick in the tuppaware cupboard where the lunchbox lives. then i cant use lack of inspiration as an excuse.

i dont know about GI friendly foods, but gather all the snack type bits you use to bulk out a lunch box - be fruit, crisps, cereal bars - whatever, in one place so you can just chuck them in. all you have to worry about then is you 'main meal'.

why not have a nose through all the lunchbox threads (see the indexed collection) for inspiration of GI friendly things you can prepare easily, or in advance.

then im afraid its just a case of finding 5 or ten minutes to throw it all together - i normally do mine whilst tea is on cooking, then it sits in the fridge til the morning.

I make hubby a big pasta salad on a sunday night & keep it in the fridge,then each evening he just transfers some to a small tupperware box and pops into his lunch bag with a couple of peices of fruit & a slice of cake. Don't know if you can have pasta on the GI diet though? If so, I just use cooked pasta with a mix of any of the following : chopped cucumber, avocado, onion, kidney beans, tuna, cheese, cooked chicken, chopped ham/bacon, mayonaise or salad dressing. I find it keeps fine in the fridge for 3-5 days depending on exactly which ingredients I use. Rice only keeps for about 3 days.
If you can get into the habit of at least gathering the "ready" ingredients like the fruit etc the night before into one place ready to grab on the way out of the door this might help.

HTH

Buy some of those prepared salad leaves from teh supermarket. Some packaged meat and a bottle of dressing. I can make mine up for work at 6am, in 2 minutes.

Hey

Hows about carbonara pasta? Chicken breast,ham,pasta (any shaped), mayo, sweetcorn & chilli powder. Cook chicken and break into pieces, cook pasta. Add together in bowl, add chopped ham, mayo, sweetcorn and as much chilli powder as you want :eek: OH loves this and keeps in the fridge for a couple of days-just eat cold with salad or HM bread.

Do you have access to a microwave? Make large HM chilli/curry etc then put into freezer bag portions-then take a spud and have chilli/curry on spud? Also, double up on main meals then freeze a portion or 2. Lasagna/spag bol etc all work well. Beans/spagetti on toast (if u have a toaster)

Pasta salad with cheese/tuna/ham etc. Cottage cheese on crackers? Sarnies-chicken & stuffing, ham, cheese & pineapple, BLT, brie & grapes, egg & cress, cheese and grated apple, cheese and marmite, etc etc.

How about making a quiche at the weekend and freeze portions then get out daily. HM Pizza, sausage rolls etc.

I cant believe the prices of bought sarnies/lunches. Even a meal deal in Boots is like £3.00-thats £15.00 a week....OMG...thats half of what I spend weekly on food for 3 of us :eek:

PP
xx