Great 'Best credit crunch work lunch' Hunt: What to make or buy on the cheap.

flippy178

Pasta with pesto. Use left over pasta or make some night before. Add small spoonful of pesto - add small drop of water or olive oil to make it go further. Reheat in microwave. Not that exciting but very quick and filling. Aldi do an OK pesto.

Also, bagels and oatcakes with peanut butter or cheese. My local Tesco seems to always have fancy bagels reduced in the evening - I got four Food Doctor ones for 19p. Asda does big pots of peanut butter. Also good for a quick breakfast on the move. Oatcakes are very filling - Nairns do lovely cheesey ones.

clayremonkey

Loving the sound of the butterbean dip! I tend to make soups which can get a tad boring but sometimes i do a cous cous salad with tuna and veg - very yum! Got a jar or ready flavoured cous cous from costco for about £5 and it has tons of servings in it!

lynzpower

I have a really variant working pattern and never really know where im going to be ( office, out on the road in my van, or able to pop home at lunchtime)

I need hot food & drinks when im out and about, im very very cold at the moment!

im now taking a flask of hot water and a box of cupasoups/ crisps/ ceral bars/ hot choc sachets/ a jar of QT (which is a lto better than £2 for a horrible tea in a service station!) and bread roll for with the soup. I have got an inverter in the van and could potentially plug in kettle/ microwaves / sandwich toaster etc but not been organised enough for that yet!

supersaver09

guidarufino wrote: »

you can add pretty much whatever you like here, except parsnips which overpower the flavour.

Thank you! At last someone else thinks the same.
My boyfriend thinks i'm mad when i say that.

ThinkingOfLinking

I love parsnips and they're a great way to pad out stews etc, but I do not find they overpower the flavour.

Uniscots97

Bulgar wheat (500g, 50p) + dried vegetables (44p) + squirt of tomato ketchup (Mr T's Value, 27p).

This works out at 20p a day (bottle of ketchup lasts about a month), you can spice it up a bit and add some chilli powder or if ham is on offer I'll buy it and cube it and freeze it and put some through it. Bulgar wheat is really good for you and really easy to make. Put everything into a microwaveable container add enough boiling water to cover, leave for 30 mins (covered), then heat for 1 minute in the microwave.

angelfire

Netto do frozen ready meals for one person at 3 for £2.50 - they take 9 mins in the microwave to cook and are alright! They do lasagne, sweet and sour chicken and chicken curry....

mcallister1

A sign of the times... this thread gets a mention in the Financial Times!
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/1491506a-de9b-11dd-9464-000077b07658.html

Chia

There are some great ideas on here - thanks everyone. I especially like the bento idea!!! I wasn't aware of this but am now obsessed. Now I must see if I can get a deal on a bento box and a Hello Kitty mold...

Here are my (less impressive) contributions:

- ASDA own-brand wholewheat pitta breads filled with ASDA own-brand chicken tikka sandwich filler. I find this to be fairly tasty and cheap-ish. Other supermarkets almost certainly have their own equivalents.

- Wholewheat French toast with accompanying little bottle/container of maple syrup!! (Although maybe maple syrup w/ French toast is just an American thing? I don't know what you natives have with it ). In my opinion French toast is almost as good when cold and it is an excellent way to use up bread that's on the stale side. So if you are making a batch, 'fridge a few slices for your lunch the next day.

aless02

Chia wrote: »

There are some great ideas on here - thanks everyone. I especially like the bento idea!!! I wasn't aware of this but am now obsessed. Now I must see if I can get a deal on a bento box and a Hello Kitty mold...

If you've got an Asian shop/supermarket in your area, try that first. If not, eBay is pretty good and will usually cost the same as what you'd pay in a shop.