Joyful June 2013 - Take Your Lunch to Work Thread

Twiggy_34

How's everyone getting on this week? The board has been pretty quiet this month, so I thought maybe everyone needed a pep talk he he.

I've done well with bringing LTW all week, although was cross with myself Tuesday when I brought lunch in on autopilot, only to remember on my way to work that I had an afternoon meeting to attend where lunch was provided... I ate it anyway though as I don't think the rolls would have kept much longer, I only had them as they were bought for a BBQ on Sunday and we ended up eating out because of poor weather.

I'm now out of bread at home (I had to bin the remainder of the aforementioned rolls as I found out lastnight they'd gone mouldy) so resorted to my frozen cous cous stash for today's lunch.

Having stubbornly refused in the past, I've actually started toying with the downshift challenge. I bought savers brand tinned spaghetti the other day and had it for tea last night and found it perfectly acceptable, plus they're large tins so the remainder is in the fridge for another night. I also bought own brand low fat mayo, which I used in my home made egg mayo sandwich filler this week and, again, am getting on with it fine. I'm trying to cut back on my sugar intake, especially as I have a penchant for branded fizzy drinks, so I've been sampling the different varieties of own brand sugar free fizzy drinks, so far orangeade is the most palatable. It may actually encourage me to see where else I can implement similar changes...

lilian1977

I always take my lunch to work but thought I'd join up with the thread for inspiration and hopefully inspire others.

Today I have brought a salad with leaves, tomatoes, avocado, beetroot, sweet peppers and sweetcorn - all from either the reduced shelf or value range at Mr Ts. This has lasted 4 days and probably cost about £3 all in, and has done the hub for sandwiches as well.

Alongside that I have a fruit salad of melon, strawberries and blueberries, all from the reduced shelf. Again, 4 days, £2.

A greek yoghurt from Her0n F00ds, 40p for 4 (short dated but not till this Sunday)

Caramel wafer bar from Mr Ts (40p for 5)
Baked stars crisps from Mr tS (£1 for 6 bags)

Chilled latte (free with coupon from discount thread) and home made banana bread.

Hope that's inspirational to some!

Bluegreen143

This thread is great, hopefully more people will begin posting again as I'm in need of some inspiration . Not really for me - I'm famous at work for bringing lunch in every. single. day - but for my OH's lunches.

I make his sandwiches up (maybe 85% of the time - I forget sometimes and he just gets a Gr*ggs some days ) and he also takes a bag of crisps and refills a small bottle with cola from the big bottle in the fridge. But I feel his lunches are a bit uninspired and he normally ends up buying chocolate during the day. I'd like to make them a bit healthier and I've finally cracked making HM bread that's good for sandwiches as well as fruit, so I'm hopefully going to switch him to that as well as making the changes below.

As for me, I eat too much of the chocolate/cake that's constantly floating about my work, so am trying to cut this down by eating both pieces of fruit I take in and taking nuts/crackers as well.

So the plan is:

For me:

- HM veggie soup (usually lentil/splitpea/bean based) with HM bread (made at weekend and frozen in slices)
- banana
- other piece of fruit, generally an apple
- almonds/other nuts and cream crackers in case I get peckish.

For OH:

- sandwich on HM bread with tuna & sweetcorn mayo, ham & chutney or chicken mayo if we have leftover cooked chicken
- 1/3 tin fruit OR individual carton value orange juice (he can't eat uncooked fresh fruit as is allergic)
- crisps OR piece of homebaking OR couple of value biscuits (though he might want to take both crisps and sweets :rotfl:)
- along with his usually bottle of cola refilled from the big bottle

Hopefully this will reduce bread spends, get an extra portion of fruit in him, cut the amount of crisps I have to buy and save him having to buy cakes/chocolate every day when he gets hungry mid-afternoon.

[Deleted User]

Hi folks can I join please? I normally take my lunch to work but would like to join this thread for inspiration and to keep me motivated. The past few weeks I have lost motivation and have been stopping into Mr T on my way to work to pick up a ready made sandwich!

I am aiming to lose weight so want to take healthy lunches and make sure its something that will keep me away from the constant supply of cake and chocs that are in the staff room

Bluegreen143

allie23 - I have that problem at my work too, the endless cakes are just irresistible yet I don't miss them if they aren't there!

They're so hard to ignore if you're a bit peckish so I've found making sure I always have something to snack on works - as well as the fruit I bring in, I also keep almonds at work and usually have some crackers too.

You could keep cereal bars or homemade flapjacky things or any dried nuts or seeds stashed at your desk in case you're peckish? The other things is I seem more likely to eat my fruit/healthy snacks if they're actually sitting on my desk, so more convenient than getting up to get a cake. HTH

[Deleted User]

Great idea Bluegreen. I have never made flapjacks before so will have a go at making them soon.

I want to do some more home baking stuff in my lunches and in OHs lunches. He works shifts so it can be quite hard sometimes thinking what to give him when he his 'lunch' is really his main meal of the day and still try to keep costs down.

This week I am keeping things simple with tuna/mayo sandwiches for first part of the week and then baked potatoes on Thurs. It is the last day of term for me on Friday and our head teacher is having a barbecue on Friday which I have signed up for. Then I will be away for a few days. When I get back I am going to spend some time organising lunch stuff and start keeping a track on how much we spend on it by setting aside a separate budget for it.

I still want to use this thread while on summer break as I can quite often just graze all day when off work rather than eat properly. I am hoping that this will keep me focussed.

Own_My_Own

We are great lovers of pitta bread. Ds is off training in the middle of nowhere for the next 6 weeks and will probably have 2 pittas in his bag most days.
We keep them in the freezer and just pop them in the toaster the evening before.
He likes these as you can get more filling in them and they don't come apart like a sandwich. ( he can eat hem with one hand).
Tomorrow he is having tuna/sweetcorn/mayo and salad in them.

He also likes hummus and salad in them.

Shortie

Morning everyone sorry for going so quiet - I fell straight back off the 'take my lunch' wagon

But on an attempt to force myself to stop spending I've decided to simply leave my card at home (except today as I needed to buy my new train pass). Yep, extreme but I absolutely have.to.stop.spending. It's causing me so much stress feeling so broke all the time

Today I have a banana for breakfast and then for lunch I have left over hm pizza (last night's dinner) and a small tub of strawberries

As long as we have milk in the work fridge (we take turns to buy it in) then I have tea baags. Otherwise water it is!

lilian1977

Hi all

Lunches for this week at work:

Today - leftover roasted cauliflower salad - delish! I love it when you find an amazing recipe based on "crap you have in the fridge" and it immediately finds it's way to your regular meal planner

Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday - soup made with the greens from the cauliflower, lentils, potato, tinned tomatoes, carrots and the dregs of a jar of pesto.

I don't work Fridays so will eat at home or take a sandwich if I go out with DS.

Snacks are fruit, home made banana bread and crisps/chocolate (Hoops and Crosses, 6 for £1/Mr T value caramel wafer bars 5 for 40p).

Have tasty weeks everyone!

Twiggy_34

Shortie wrote: »

Morning everyone sorry for going so quiet - I fell straight back off the 'take my lunch' wagon

But on an attempt to force myself to stop spending I've decided to simply leave my card at home (except today as I needed to buy my new train pass). Yep, extreme but I absolutely have.to.stop.spending. It's causing me so much stress feeling so broke all the time

As extreme as it feels I have to say I think that's a brilliant idea Shortie. Hope it works out well for you

Personally it wouldn't help me as I now very rarely feel the temptation to spend while I'm at work, if I leave the building for lunch it means I have a longer day, so I prefer working through lunch, eating at my desk instead, and sneaking out an hour earlier to go home. My biggest problem lately is resisting takeaways in the evening, both my dp and I are pretty bad at this and it takes very little to persuade the other that it's a good idea. Maybe that should be my next challenge?