Packed Lunch for work

Sambucus_Nigra

Wraps - don't forget the humble wrap! Which can be filled with almost anything...sweet or savoury.

thriftwizard

Mine often trots off with savoury flapjacks and/or Nigella's Breakfast Bars, when there's not much left over to put in the food flask, plus fruit. Admittedly he's flying a desk at work now he's retired from active duties, but he only takes the car halfway in to work (to avoid parking charges, as well as to keep fit) and runs the other 4 miles each way. He finds oat-based snacks keep him going for longer, but he eats a big breakfast before he goes (at 6.30am) and hoovers up tea when he gets in at about 7 pm. I also have The Lodger, a windsurfing instructor who's currently working about 14 hours a day, not to mention DS2 who plays footy for 3 different teams, to keep in calories so the oven's pretty busy at weekends!

We have chickens so hard-boiled eggs & egg & cress sarnies also go down well with the boys; DH won't take them, though, as the smell permeates the office. Cold HM pizza also travels well so I make double-quantities, portion it up & wrap it & keep it in the fridge for them to grab & go. There's also a lady who sells lovely carrot cake at the farmer's market too, £3 for a big one, which keeps well in the fridge and also helps keep them all going, and manky bananas make a good banana loaf. There's always a big pot of soup on the go to heat up & take in in a flask, too.

I'm going to have to go into overdrive shortly when we host two young German students for a couple of weeks; DH & the boys generally make up their own lunches from what's available, but I'll have to do them for the Germans & it's years since I had to do lunchboxes as the girls were home-educated! I wonder if they'll be as conservative in their lunchbox choices as my own boys were?

Soworried

midnightraven3 wrote: »

the pasty idea could be expanded
leftover chilli, spag bol etc as fillings
wrapped in foil, he can peel it like a burrito

these could be made ahead of time and frozen

My kids love chicken curry pasties, I make them with just a few spoonfuls of left over curry.

Mini pies also. Made in a muffin tin. They keep several days and are very filling. Use up what ever you have left as the filling. Chicken supreme works very well.

skivenov

I work by myself so don't have set mealtimes, so find it loads better to eat little and often, so my lunchbox normally looks like I've raided a buffet.

Quiche, scotch eggs, sausage rolls (I buy the bags of frozen ones and bake them at home), I'm hooked on spring onions at the minute, good healthy snacking food. The other benefit to this is, with that much variety in there, I don't feel like I need sweet stuff.

Cereal bars are expensive, packed with sugar, and there's not really a lot to them. It doesn't solve the full of sugar bit, but if you look on the internet, there's plenty of recipies for making your own. They're really easy to do as well, so could be something to do with the kids if you've got them?

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

nickyhutch wrote: »

Have you asked him what he would like?

Sounds like he's one of those people who shrugs his shoulders and says 'I dunno.'

If he were like one of my exes, who when asked what he would like to eat would get angry and bark 'FOOD!', I don't think the OP would be posting for pack up ideas, she'd be posting for tips on getting bloodstains out of the lino.

Penny-Pincher!!

Fat free banana cake is very filling a bit like bread pudding but no fat and can last a couple of weeks and is high energy.

Pink.

Hi Supermop,

As your thread has dropped down the board I've added it to our existing one on packed lunch for work where hopefully you'll be able to find more ideas.

Pink

Edwardia

Husband's office has a fully equipped kitchen and rec room in addition to a staff restaurant. The staff resto prices are rising even though it's subsidised by 10% so he started taking packed lunches and quickly got bored.

I sorted him out a small cafetiere, cutlery, mugs, plates and bowls and a couple of small saucepans plus a tin opener and wooden spoon - all from stuff in the kitchen. He took one of the larger airtight plastic storage containers to keep cheese in, in the fridge at work.

It took a bit of money to start this but a lot of it came out of the fridge and cupboards eg Branston, piccalilli, sandwich spread, mustards, Marmite, peanut butter. He's got cornflakes, muesli, UHT milk, porridge, Weetabix, jam, marmalade, crackers, tinned soups, stew, hotpot, baked beans, curry, Bombay potatoes etc and every week he gets bread or rolls. I top up cheese as he tells me he eats it. He also gets bananas or pears every week and cherry tomatoes as well as treats like wine gums and carrot cake.

I reckon it costs about £10 pw to keep topped up - and most of the stuff is organic so I think it could be done cheaper

The plus points are, he never has to go without food because he forgot his packed lunch, he's got fruit and cheese as well as fresh bread/rolls and in the winter he'll appreciate a nice tin of Heinz organic baked beans on toast

Tomorrow I'm going rummaging in Poundland for wild salmon for him.

marmiterulesok

Penny-Pincher!! wrote: »

Fat free banana cake is very filling a bit like bread pudding but no fat and can last a couple of weeks and is high energy.

Do you have a recipe for it to share please?

Pink.

marmiterulesok wrote: »

Do you have a recipe for it to share please?

Here you go.

Pink