Cheap packed lunch ideas needed

first78

I'm looking for any ideas for cold packed lunches for me and my partner as I'm getting soooooo bored of sandwiches!! I'm also trying to lose a bit of weight and don't feel that having bread every day is necessarily a good way to do this.

I'm not a huge fan of salads...I always find it doesn't fill me up. I only have 20 mins for lunch so need something that can be eaten fairly quickly and keep me full up...it's a lot to ask I know but all ideas would be appreciated

chanie

I know what you mean about sandwiches - I do Weightwatchers and find sandwiches a waste as you don't get much for your points:

Soup - I make soup using chicken stock. ALternatively, I get the packet ones, and add extra water and a stock cube and bulk out with veg (I heat it up before I go to work and take it in a flask)

Pasta salad (if you make extra pasta, if you have it for dinner, take some into work the next day)

mini pitta breads - I have mine with humous and loads of cherry tomatoes, cucumber

coucous salad (with veg)

bramble1

Pasta Salad - tuna & sweetcorn / Chicken and bacon / Ham and Mixed veg
Pasties or Sausage Rolls (Homemade to keep costs down!)
Soup - I make a batch on the weekend, portion and freezer, easy to grab out the freezer before work and quick to heat up/eat -I'll crumble crackers over the top or take a roll to dip in, This week i have spicy lentil soup
Cheese with crackers/tomatoes/onion chutney
Wraps/pittas instead of bread
my OH works 18 hour days in the summer, so need to keep his lunches varied or he'll die of boredom apparently!

moomoominx

I have recently started using wraps instead of boring bread for the kids and they love them - nothing nicer than a chicken salad wrap with a dash of mayo and few cherry toms chucked in the box mmmmm

Feebie

This is a really quick idea from the F2 diet:

Quick pasta salad
Cook 200g pasta, add small tin of sweetcorn and then mix in a jar of salsa (aldi do one for just over £1 - bit like Doritos one). I add a bit of chopped pepper, spring onion etc too. Lasts for 3 days in tub in the fridge.

SpottedLeopard_2

- Anything with houmous, I find it fills me up for a while!
Houmous with Ryvita (make it like a sandwich, butter the sides of the Ryvitas that have the houmous on, else they go soggy) [more a snack as part of a lunch, than the whole lunch!]
- Precook pasta at home and bring it to add to your heated-up soup, making it more filling. Could just put the whole lot in a Thermos flask?

- Couscous with chickpeas, tomatoes and herbs plus other veg you have. Flavour the water you use to make couscous with using a stockcube. Add chilli for flavour.
- Make a pot of rice for dinner (stir-fry onion plus meat [bacon/Value prawns/chicken] of your choice. Once cooked, add mixed frozen veg and rice, top up with water so that the water level just covers the rice. Bring to the boil then simmer for however long the rice instructions say to cook for, with lid almost fully on save for a small gap) - bring leftovers with you to work in a lunchbox the next day