Packed Lunch for work

LouBlue

AlisonW wrote: »

Peanut butter and banana in a lakeland toasty bag muhhhhm!!!! especially with seedy bread or chuck some seeds in the butty. Yum yum yum. ( how many million calories in PB by the way? )

No calories. Its one of those Lou foods. :rolleyes: No calories.

champys

SparciaM wrote: »

To save money, I just take cheese or ham sandwiches with a biscuit and some fruit, but I need some variety and spice in my life!

Can anyone suggest any good packed lunches to take to work?

here's another one: drain a tin of sardines in oil, and mash the sardines well with a fork. mix in some plain fromage frais (you can use low-fat), lemon juice and season with black pepper and a little salt. great on brown bread with some sliced tomato or cucumber. very healthy too!

barbarella

Thought I would jump in with a few tips-sorry haven't read all the posts so I maybe repeating something.
Really fantastic ready made salad is the bags of chopped veg you can get for stir-frys. Usually beansprouts, cabbage,peppers,onions,carrot etc. I just add a small tin of salmon-am I the only one who hates tinned tuna!-and some dressing. It's so crunchy and beats limp lettuce & cue. You can add tomato too.
If you have to resort to a sandwich, the Lakeland toaster bags are great. Cheese, ham & tomato take on a whole new life when it is hot and melted.
As for a microwave at work, get one of those plate covers and some clingfilm and insist that everything is covered before it goes in.
The nice soups you can buy now are pretty good-although making your own is quite simple. I do a great celery & stilton, curried parsnip or lentil soup.
Make a big pot and it can last a few days.

When I first left school, I worked as a Microbiology lab technician so I know more than most on food poisoning bugs & maybe its just because I have a cast iron stomach but I don't believe in sell by dates. If it smells OK, it is probably fine!
Yoghurts aren't off unless they are fizzy-I have eaten them over 2 weeks out of date.
Anything vegetable will go mushy or mouldy if it is off-or you just cut out the good bits!
Agreed meat can be a bit more dangerous but again, your nose should let you know.
Having said all that, I am now touching wood incase I do catch something. I have only ever had real food poisoning once in Greece.

Good luck and trust your own instincts, not sell by dates.

Gemmzie

This seems to be where a large chunk of our food budget goes. My brother and father's lunches.

They don't want sandwiches everyday and don't bother making them very often. They currently eat scotch eggs, pastry slices, all that rubbish.

Any ideas for alternatives or cheaper variations? They both eat pretty much anything that's "real" food (i.e. no tofu etc :rolleyes: apparently).

ceridwen

French bread pizzas
Baked omelettes
Spicy potato wedges (also good cold)
Baked potatoes with various fillings
Homemade soups with nice bread

Sola

I feel for you; DH has been living on this kind of stuff for a couple of months as he hasn't been very mobile, and it's horrendously expensive rubbish.

Will they eat something out of a tub with spoon or fork like pasta salad or cold noodle salad? Homemade soup from a flask and a defrosted roll? Bagels, muffins or French bread to make a change from sandwiches? If they have access to a microwave, a jacket spud with beans or reheated leftovers like curry and rice.

Pink.

Hi Gemmzie,

These older threads might give you some inspiration:

Packed Lunch Ideas On The Cheap

Lunch for work

pasta lunch box help please..

Packed Lunch

Lunch ideas

HM Tortilla wraps for lunch?

saving money on lunch

Work lunches - ideas needed!

Help! Need Sarnies ideas for lunches

cold packed lunches

Packed lunches

Wanting help with packed lunches

Pink

JoJoB

If I have pasta for dinner I often make a little bit extra and put the leftovers in a tupperware box to take to work the next day. I like it cold but there is a microwave at work to heat it up if I want. Ditto for if I make a curry and rice the night before - makes ideal work lunch the next day. Also noodles in a nice sauce.

I also make a really nice chickpea salad (couscous can also be used instead of chickpeas) - add handful of chopped bell peppers/onion/little garlic - whatever you fancy really, and season how you like it. I use black pepper with some olive oil and balsamic. Whether the blokes would regard this as "real" food remains to be seen!

Gemmzie

Thanks guys, especially Pinkwinged. Will make some suggestions to them

jane130

I have decided that as I am home all day and we want to make moves to save money and loose weight as a family while still eatting well I need to restartbaking . Its someting I used to do a lot so know I have the skills.

I am thinking pasties , sausage rolls ( or someting other than sausage in a roll if you know what I mean)

I would really love if you could share any good recipies you have for fillings because I fear thats where I will fall down and if boredom sets in we will go back to the shop bough full of additives equivalent that I am tryng to give up.