i need your ideas on food to take to work /meal planner ! help please

babie_gurl

hi everyone
could you please help me plan out meals for work / home i normaly spend £ 200 on food (yes i know way to much for a single person )
so i would like to spend £120 ish this month but i need some help i love cooking but i find with work i dont often get the time or i just get bord of sandwiches or the same food over and over !! so i go for take aways most days leaving the food i have purchased .

i love chinese salt and chilli chicken looking at my recipts from this month i have had this at least 10 day !
love mexican chillangos is another one of my haunts
any ideas ??
also i need some realy quick recipies i can make when i get home or something i can make on my day off and freeze ??

please help

quintwins

i would make a big pots of stew and soup to freeze, and some spag bol, which then on the bag can be turned into chilli or put in wraps ect, in this hosue quick meals are always pasta/beans on toast or something naughty from the freezer

sausagesandwich19

i spend more than that but one option is stop buying takeaways

Mrs_Arcanum

You can always do a bit extra rice, pasta or noodles and turn this into a lunch.

Add some sliced spring onions & small amount of cooked chicken with some bean-sprouts & noodles & spoonful soy or chilli dipping sauce for an easy lunch.

mrsb83_2

I hate sandwiches too. I have leftovers, or I'll buy something cheap like a pastie for the days when I can't stomach eating last night's tea again.

Could you try recreating your take away favourites at home?

If you do enjoy cooking, you could look into bento lunchboxes (japanese lunches. I make these for my DH, although they are time consuming and do need an investment in equipment. There are loads of blogs/websites.

Mrs_Veg_Plot

How about at the weekend making a large chilli and freezing it in individual portions with either baked spuds or rice
HM soup is always a good lunch for me. As you seem to like spicy/asian food haow about making alarge pan of sweet and sour soup. This could last a week or be frozen in portions if you easily get fed up with the same tastes every day.
I make pasties and freeze them for the kids lunches. They just grab on out of the reezer on their way out in the morning and it has defrosted by lunchtime.

Tish_P

Do you have a microwave at work, or a kettle, or neither?

Get yourself some lock-lock tubs (very MSE people might know where to get cheap ones, but I don't trust cheap ones not to leak soup all over my handbag) and make soups or salads for lunch.
It looks like you are keen on spices so try something like Thai tom kha soup, or a hot chilli, or chorizo with peppers and beans. If you've enough freezer space you can make up a big batch, freeze it in portions and then just grab a tub before you leave the house - if it's still frozen at lunchtime you can defrost it in the microwave.

Salads make a great change from sandwiches and don't need a microwave. I love couscous salads with toasted nuts, dried fruit or pomegranate seeds, lemon juice and spices like toasted cumin and coriander seeds. I usually put in some cooked and drained green lentils for protein because otherwise I get hungry mid-afternoon. Another favourite is a salad of grated raw carrot and raw beetroot like this one:
http://chocolateandzucchini.com/archives/2008/03/grated_carrots_and_beets.php - again, you can add nuts, beans or pulses to make it more substantial.

This chicken salad is incredible, and the chilli and mint combination sounds like it would appeal to you: http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/vietnamese-chicken-and-mint-salad-197

lostinrates

If you love mexican...it seems a good place to start with chilli...especially as you don't mind repetition! You could have chilli alone ina bowl with yogurt, over rice, over baked potato, in tacos, and ith corn bread. I might be alone in loving cold chilli, but a chilli and cornbread packed lunch maybe with some avocado (they are on offer somewhere...ether lidl or aldi...I noticed online while lopking for garden bargains). Chilli can be bulked with veg and red lentils, freezes superbly and

similarly, a green chilli could be a nice change ith mexican flavour would be a green chilli...with pork or for my preference, chicken (turkey would work I guess). Laods of recipes on line but here is one to give you an idea (I haven't tried this one) http://denvergreenchili.com/chiliverde2001.aspx. I imagine this would be similarly versatile and a new flavour.

babie_gurl

thanks everyone !! your all superstars i love the chilli ideal !!!
just done my big shop so heres what i have come up with .....
i have just bought some nachoes from tesco and i am going to some black beans ,salsa and cheese sause to go on them !! thought it would be a change for work .
also got the reggie reggie cook book so i am just in the middle of making curried chicken , dumplin , colslaw and rice+peas guess i can freeze the chicken for work
i have bough a role of brisket to make pho soup my all time favoret take away dish ummmmmmmmmmm
noodles and bamboo and veg for stir fry
and for lazy days uncle bens mexican rice lol

Mayflower10cat

I also tend to do some bulk cooking at the weekend. I tend to make what I call 'bases', sauces and soups that can be eaten as they are, or added to making to make something a bit more complex. For instance, I make a casserole of cheap seasonal winter veg in a savoury gravy sauce. Freeze in portions. Great as it is reheated to take to work, or used as a base for a shepherds pie or add dumplings or for us veggie 'meatballs' or add some cheapo red wine and quorn strips for a veggie 'coq au vin'. I also make a generic tomato and vegetable sauce, which can be made into a Mexican style dish, Italian or even let down with milk and water to make soup. Yes, it does take some planning and you need a decent size freezer.

I get very annoyed with the price of supermarket 'takeaway' salads - £3-£4 for a very measly amount of salad with a handful of prawns and a large amount of cheap dressing. I buy decent frozen king prawns and make my own salad box but with noodles and some spicy dressing.

Cous-cous reheats very well and can be topped with almost any savoury sauce.

One of my very favourite lunches and I make this several times a week is; miso soup. My version! Make up half a pint of veg or chicken stock from a cube (for convenience). Grate into this a clove of garlic and the same volume of fresh ginger. Heat to simmering to just cook the garlic. If you like, add a little chilli to taste. Then I add a tablespoon of miso. Into this yummy basic broth you can add your favourite finely chopped veg, then fine chopped meat/fish/omelette/bean curd, I then add some pre-soaked dried noodles egg or rice. Serve.

Quenastoise

I cook beef + veg + beef stock + chili + garlic in slow cooker for 4 hours.

Fill 5 tupperware containers with rice, top with the beef stew and freeze - that's lunches for the week sorted