Packed Lunch for work

Boodle

Someone mentioned pasta salads as a cheap packed lunch, esp true if it is leftovers from the previous night in a tomato sauce which is lovely cold. Also homemade scones are a cheap alternative to sandwiches: throw in some raisins or sultanas as the boys like fruit, or grated carrot and seeds are a nice flavour combo for scones. Fruit like bananas and apples are just as good as more exotic fruits or out of season berries etc, and a lot cheaper, and a tub of value dried fruits might go down well. My girls like carrot sticks too which are even better value, and instead of an ordinary piece of fruit my eldest likes a tomato in her lunchbox now we are in warmer months (she eats them just like she would an apple.)

There are loads of good value meals posted on the meal plans threads so could be worth a peep at those for inspiration. Pasta meals, things on jackets or toast, slow cooker combos using pulses, hm pizza are all faves here. We don't really think of them as "cheap" meals though, they are just meals we enjoy and happen to be good value

maman

Boodle wrote: »

Someone mentioned pasta salads as a cheap packed lunch, esp true if it is leftovers from the previous night in a tomato sauce which is lovely cold.

That was me. My personal favourite is pasta with roasted med veg stirred in but that might not be what children like. For them I'd stir in some red beans and chopped up ham or frankfurters perhaps with a bit of cheese. You could use some mayo or I suppose some baked beans would work and provide the sauce at the same time.

When my children were young, they loved sausage casserole made with onions, baked beans and pasta. I found that if I chopped up the sausages into meatball size pieces they went much further than putting whole sausages on a plate. Same goes for toad in the hole too. I find a pack of six sausages would be plenty for 4 portions.

joedenise

DCFC79 wrote: »

Maybe this thread, you could try the old style board as well.

So living in a seaside town means fresh fruit is scarce ?

So theres no weekly farmers markets or pick your own farms nearby ?

I live near the seaside and don't have a farmer's market or PYO farm near me. The nearest supermarket is nearly 10 miles away! I certainly can't get fresh fruit from the couple of local shops to me - which are nearly a mile away.

We don't even have a decent wet fish shop - just a little hut where a fisherman sells some fish which are landed in a small harbour but it's only open Thurs, Fri & Sat.

Denise

Boodle

maman wrote: »

That was me. My personal favourite is pasta with roasted med veg stirred in but that might not be what children like. For them I'd stir in some red beans and chopped up ham or frankfurters perhaps with a bit of cheese. You could use some mayo or I suppose some baked beans would work and provide the sauce at the same time.

Sorry Maman, I didn't mean to be rude. My girls would like the roasted med veg, sounds yum If our pasta salad isn't from leftovers, I tend to throw in whatever I have is hanging around the kitchen really so usually nuts or pumpkin/sunflower seeds, raisins or sultanas, chives or spring onions, grated carrot, and something like gherkins, beetroot or sweetcorn, then dressed with either plain oil or a salad cream/soya yoghurt mixture.

maman

Boodle wrote: »

Sorry Maman, I didn't mean to be rude. My girls would like the roasted med veg, sounds yum If our pasta salad isn't from leftovers, I tend to throw in whatever I have is hanging around the kitchen really so usually nuts or pumpkin/sunflower seeds, raisins or sultanas, chives or spring onions, grated carrot, and something like gherkins, beetroot or sweetcorn, then dressed with either plain oil or a salad cream/soya yoghurt mixture.

Absolutely no offence taken, I was just popping by.:)

kitrat

I find I'm spending an awful lot on my lunches at work and I really need to cut back. I'm a little fussy because I'm sick of sandwiches and I don't like salads! I find I get really hungry during the day and all the little snacky things I eat at tea breaks and with my sandwiches all add up and must cost a fair bit over the week (cereal bars, etc.)

Any ideas on things I could prepare/buy that are tasty, filling and not too pricey?

HappyMJ

kitrat wrote: »

I find I'm spending an awful lot on my lunches at work and I really need to cut back. I'm a little fussy because I'm sick of sandwiches and I don't like salads! I find I get really hungry during the day and all the little snacky things I eat at tea breaks and with my sandwiches all add up and must cost a fair bit over the week (cereal bars, etc.)

Any ideas on things I could prepare/buy that are tasty, filling and not too pricey?

I usually bring a plastic tub containing a slow cooked stew of some sort containing a small amount of meat and vegetables mostly potatoes and some rice which I have left in the freezer overnight. It's usually the leftovers from some evening meal from a few days earlier. Then I microwave it when I get to lunch to reheat it.

You can make cereal bars yourself for just a few pence each (for small bite size ones) so bring some of them as well.

If you eat crisps then make them yourself. They are very easy to make but they aren't particularly filling.

Bluegreen143

I NEVER buy lunch, always make it . I make sure to make a big batch of soup (4-6 portions) most weekends and freeze in single servings - I also keep bread in the freezer, in little wrapped up portions of 2 slices, so I just grab soup and bread most mornings.

If I have any dinner leftovers (especially stew-y things, pasta bakes, curry) I'll bring that, with some frozen bread if needed, so I'm not having soup every single day. Occasionally I'll make a double batch of a quick pasta salad or couscous salad and take that for the next two days - very useful when I realise at ten pm there's no soup left in the freezer! I only have sandwiches (tuna or cheese which we always have on hand) a couple of times a month when I'm desperate - I always slice up some carrot sticks/red pepper on those days to take with them.

For snacks: on Mondays, I bring a load of fruit into work so I can get two portions a day the rest of the week (usually a bag of apples as they're cheap and last if I don't eat them all, and then something fancier as well like a punnet of plums, grapes, strawberries etc). I also keep a jar of nuts (usually almonds) at work in case I get really hungry. We tend to have loads of chocolate and home baking in our work so snacks aren't that much of a problem - once every few weeks I'll bring in a batch of cookies or something I've made to share.

Hope this helps!

PasturesNew

I've never worked where there's a microwave available at work, so it's been cold stuff. At one job I just had 3 bananas/day ... eaten throughout the day, not in one go.

As a rule, I find if I take a packed lunch in, my little hand's dipping into it all morning .... and it's gone by lunchtime

PipneyJane

Do you have access to a microwave? When I cook dinner, I always portion up lunch boxes for me and my husband. Most recipes are for 4 or 6 portions anyway, so if I didn't do "set asides" when we portion out dinner, we'd end up eating huge portions and just getting fatter.

Our lunchboxes are Lock-n-Lock boxes which don't leak when you transport them. Zap them for 2 minutes on full power in the microwave with the lids off and that's lunch. (I wrap a paper towel over my lunchbox to catch any little eruptions. Helps keep the microwave clean.)