Feb-YOU-ary 2013 - Take your lunch to work thread

Trim_my_budget

I am very impressed with how inventive everyone is on this challenge. I have fallen down a couple of times but it's surprising what you can do with a little imagination and a fridge and cupboard full of 'odds and ends'. Using things up this way, I have managed to throw together a couple of 'free' dinners at home too which is always a bonus and they have gone down a treat! I am trying some new cup a soups this week from Waitrose which I picked up for 99p for a box of four - Wild Mushroom and Marsala - sounds a bit exotic for work but I will give them a whirl!!

mineallmine

Hello :j

Been too busy to post (and update my sig) but I've been managing to do this on odd days. Which is a result. Sarnies have been a bit similar (ham sandwiches).

Keep up the good work all :j

Edwardia

OH volunteered to go to Lidl tonight and got the Rachel's organic yogurts for 99p saving 30p each.

So Monday he had a Riverford fruit bag 3.75 for the week and yesterday I got him Lidl organic bananas $1 so that should tide him over to middle of next week.

He's got a pain de campagne to defrost that was 50% off so 1.85 plus the two yoghurts and last week he took a bowl of organic mixed nuts left over from Christmas with nutcracker and a bag of monkey nuts from Lidl.

In his desk he says he still has a tin of organic Heinz cream of tomato soup (96p Ocado but 1.15 in ASDA !) and a tin of Ambrosia organic creamed rice (nearly $1 at Ocado, 50p in ASDA). He's also got some grated cheese and a baking spud left over from last week and a pouch wild pheasant stew plus a yogurt in the fridge.

Fruit 4.75
Yoghurts 1.98
Bread 1.85
I make that 8.58 so under budget

But his menu is fruit and nuts as snacks, yogurts and creamed rice as pudding, soup, bread, cheese, spud, stew.


Maybe that doesn't seem too MSE but when he was eating in the staff restaurant it was never less than $5 a day, sometimes $10. That means minimum saving is $15 pw

mrsdee

I've got home made tortilla today which I made yesterday using Delia's super-easy recipe.
With it I have some homegrown winter salad and a few tomoatoes. Also a slice of homemade lemon cake which I made from some lemons left in the fruit bowl. and a banana, a couple of plums and a yoghurt. Oh, and a lidl cereal/nut bar for emergencies in case I get hungry later! That's my fallback so that I am not tempted to buy anything from the vending machine or canteen!!

FatVonD

Edwardia wrote: »

That's the prob with pasta, it's the starch and unlike rice you can't pour boiling water over to rinse or it will go flabby.

Things which might help

• bit of oil in the pasta water
• adding the pesto to some oil (it will go further then) then stirring it through the warm pasta
• not using olive oil or pomace oil or pesto containing olive oil and then sticking it in the fridge cos the olive oil solidifies
• using spaghetti which you can chop finely if it clumps (cheaper than farfalle, spirale, conchiglie etc too)

Thanks, Edwardia, I did put oil into the water but, with hindsight, I wish I'd mixed some mayo (as recommended by someone on last month's thread) into the pesto but it was a real last-minute panic job when I found I'd cooked too much pasta!

Edwardia wrote: »

ASDA often has growing herbs which need a bit of TLC reduced. If you put them in the light but not blazing hot windowsill and water a little bit every day, taking just the worst leaves off, they often recover. Basil is amazing with pasta.

Hope that helps xx

I really must do that, I love gardening but I'm hopeless with indoor pot plants, I always buy the potted herbs with good intentions and then forget to water them

Lunch wise, today I'm off work sick (IBS is really bad:eek:) I have leftovers from last night's dinner though but it's curry, be afraid, be very afraid...

Snagggles

Edwardia wrote: »

Maybe that doesn't seem too MSE but when he was eating in the staff restaurant it was never less than $5 a day, sometimes $10. That means minimum saving is $15 pw

For me, this is the point of it. I know that if I cut waaaay back and spend hardly anything, I am not inventive or culinarily-gifted (it's a word :rotfl:) enough to take lunches that I enjoy, and therefore I won't stick to it. I'm just trying to go from spending £5 per day three times a week to £5 per week or less.

SmarterNotHarder

Twiggy_34 wrote: »

It sounds like maybe you're toying with the idea, and that's half the battle. I'm 36 days into my attempt to quit but it took a few months of thinking about it to actually bite the bullet and have a go. I haven't been perfect and have had the odd ciggie here and there when an opportunity has presented itself (the last 2 times have been as a result of a trip to the pub). But instead of focusing on the one's I shouldn't have had, I'm concentrating on the one's I haven't had. Very easy thanks to the app I have on my phone which tells me I've NOT smoked 340 and saved nearly £30. I bought one of those e-cigs which have helped tremendously to resist the temptation when my dp has rolled himself one to smoke

That's a really good point, I'm in two minds about e-cigs, I know that smoking is bad for you, but at least I *know* the effects it can have, with the e-cigs they've not really been around for long enough for people to know the long term effects. I know that most of them will be no different to the ordinary NRT stuff that is available, I'm just concerned that I'll end up with the variety that pumps you with more chemicals than smoking does, I'm a bit paranoid about my sheer bad luck lol. Well done to you though!!

I had some luck and stopped with some tablets I got off the GP, was a bit worried about side effects, but apart from some silly dreams I was fine. I stopped for 6 whole weeks!!

Back to the topic on hand though, I had a couple of wobbles this week but gritted my teeth and made the lunches anyway and I have had another full week of home made lunches!!

I think I need to have the motivation to do something more exciting than cheese sarnies though! It does the job, but well, it's boring!

I did however forget to buy more coffee mate this week though and that meant money spent at the brew machine. total spends of £3.00. Debating whether to add this to my lunch spends though as it's not technically lunch. Hmm.

Hope you're all having more fun than me with your wonderfully exciting lunches

Edwardia

Cheese sarnie ideas..

If you have a deli in your local supermarket you could ask for slices of different cheeses (there may be a minimum weight scales can do ??) and for them to be wrapped separately as you want them for sandwiches. As long as you don't pick a busy period don't see why that would be a prob. It gets you tasting different cheeses and keeps cost relatively low.

Morrisons does a multi-coloured striped cheese which would make mouthfuls a surprise.

My father always liked cheddar and coleslaw sandwiches. You just have to buy one that doesn't have runny mayo/dressing

Another one is grated cheese and mayo mixed together. If you like horseradish sauce then a tsp dunked into mayo or coleslaw perks it up.

If you find reduced price watercress or rocket you could leave it to drink in a clean bowl/sink of cold water and it should perk up. Put in salad spinner or grab at root end and shake gently over sink. Either of those will add a bit of pep to cheese.

Cheese and onion.. you could use spring/salad onions or shallots or onions - depends how hot you like them. Generally the bigger the onion the hotter it is. Lidl does bags of organic onions for 67p if you're bothered about pesticides.

Cheese and tomato.. cheese and cucumber self explanatory really but you could add fresh basil leaves to the tomato. You'll burp less if you peel the cucumber first.

If you find a decent priced baguette you could cut it across into thirds and freeze two to have later. Slice the third down the middle to get two halves, teeny drizzle of olive or pomace oil which you can pick up from 99p Stores or Poundland. Any old bacon diced up and fried in whatever you like til crispy, pat with kitchen paper then add. Top with sliced Mozzarella (value will do or Lidl does it quite cheap) and add top bit of baguette. If you don't like bacon you could add sardine in oil using the sardine oil on the baguette first then dotting on cheese and sardine.

A croissant going a but hard but otherwise dine ? Slice in half (so it will only work when hard) stick cheese and tomato slices in there could be processed or Emmental ..basically whatever melts. Ping in microwave at work

Cubes of cheese with grapes and cherry tomatoes on cocktail sticks..no bread needed...

Lidl is good for reasonably priced cheese, Morrisons generally have a big cheese section in deli and it's always worth looking at the 'This block is' at the deli counter and reduced price hard cheeses will keep in freezer for awhile before drying out. If you become a regular customer at the deli counter the asst should have no prob with you asking to try a cheese. If you get to have favourites try putting price alerts if poss on www.mysupermarket.co.uk

If you have chives on the windowsill you can snip those into goat's cheese or cottage cheese to perk them up. Poundland and 99p Stores usually have seeds and plastic pots.

I'm out of cheese ideas now I hope that helps x

SmarterNotHarder

Edwardia wow!! Here's me whinging about cheese sarnies and you make them into a daily gourmet lunch!! :rotfl:

I will certainly be taking on board your ideas and hopefully I'll get more excited about my lunches!

Part of the problem is I live with my parents and they do the food shop - I would but they hate the way I do it, apparently buying just enough for the week is silly because they like to have options :shocked:

And they go on a Friday afternoon, which means buying sliced meat is a bit silly as it'll be on its way out by Monday. I could go on a Sunday myself, but I don't think I've ever been able to walk in and out of a supermarket and only buy the one thing!

babes21

Hello everyone, glad to see everyone is still doing so well. I managed another 4/5 days last week again, chuffed with that.