Ideas for easy, healthy lunches

nlj1520

Omelettes make nice lunches and are quick to cook so low fuel costs. Can use all sorts of things in them.....my personal favourite is to sweat onions and peppers and then add the egg.
I also use up the left over meal from the night before.....surprising how nice some things are cold....stir fry particularly.
I also sometimes have 'real' ham with tomoatoes and other salad veg for lunch.
Sometimes I make pizza from scratch and freeze slices of that to defrost for lunches. Quite nice cold, although I find the texture a bit odd.
Hummus and pitta bread? Cheese and cold meats with salads? Smoked mackerel and salads?
Nuts, fruit and Greek Yoghurt combined?
Porridge with stewed fruit? (Doesn't have to be a breakfast dish.....I love it when the weather is cold at any time of day).

Siskin

I have had the same thoughts about lunch.

Sandwiches, sandwiches.....aaaaargh...so boring, but I do prefer to eat in the evening so still prefer to have a snack at lunchtime.

It is a real struggle but I do like salads for example, greek salad, caesar, prawn cocktail. I often look at bar snack menus in pubs and places to get inspiration but I definitely think there is a gap in the market for a lunch time snack that is not a sandwich! My local pub does a wicked home made hot scotch egg with a runny middle yum!
Wraps ring the changes too
also toasties ( I know that's a hot sandwich but somehow it does taste nicer)
Soup is good but then often involves a bread accompaniment and it's good to NOT eat bread at every lunch time

Perhaps you could edit your OP and add ideas as they come through. I would be really interested to see a list of ideas other than soup & sandwiches!

purple45

We have the same every day and never bored with it, its healthy plus it takes ages to eat so very satisfying and it easily packs up as a picnic if we're going out.

Sandwich - burgen bread with either cheese and pickle or tuna and low fat mayo, sometimes sliced boiled egg and mustard.

Salad - every 4 or 5 days I make a big batch of this and then divide it up into 8 - 10 portions stored in saved plastic hummus pots. Plus tomatos.

Fruit - I slice up 2 apples and 2 pears, just sort of adds to that buffet treat feeling if they're sliced! Plus a few grapes or maybe a slice of melon.

And thats it!
My 2 salad recipes are:

1. tin of sweetcorn, chopped bag of radishes, chopped cucumber, chopped red onion, cress, chopped peppers (economy bag of 3) (may vary the receipe but never use leafy salads as they don't keep)

2. bag of carrots grated (1kg), juice of 2 lemons, seeds from a dozen cardemom pods, chopped deseeded red chilli, 2 inch chunk of root ginger chopped, 3 chopped bits of garlic, 1 chopped red onion. (Takes a while to make, pongs of garlic but the most amazing salad ever!)

good_advice

I made some fruit and cheese scones in the week, they went down well with the 3 adults here. A change from sandwiches.
After next weeks shopping trip, I am thinking of making pizza and cheese and onion flan.
Always fresh fruit in the house.
jelly and yoghurt is also nice.

p00hsticks

Thanks for all the replies so far - some good suggestions here.

I can't comment for the OP (who's thread I've latched onto) but I'm not actually retired, I work from home as part of a large company in an office environment - which means it's not really feasible at present for me to either have the main meal at lunchtime or move the timing back to switch to two meals a day.

Hopefully now that spring is here and the weather starts to get warmer, cold items like sandwiches and salads will become more appealing - the particular struggle I've been having has been to find something quick and simple to prepare yet warming over the winter months. Things like bean on toast, jacket potatoes, omlettes, kippers and soup with a roll hit the spot though.

Eenymeeny

Thanks for an interesting thread OP. Like you, I don't always fancy sandwiches and since we eat a 'proper' meal at 'teatime' I often have a bowl of cereal for lunch with a few raisins or a banana (although OH isn't impressed with this!)
I make my own yogurt and treat myself to a bowl of it with anything I fancy fruit-wise, like a banana or chopped up apple, adding raisins, sunflower seeds, a spoonful of rolled oats, anything in my 'pick and mix' jars really! I find that I really enjoy it and it is quite filling without the stodginess of bread. I'm not a soup fan either but freeze single portions for OH from a big batch which I make when the mood takes me.:)
I'm still working on OH, who thinks that it isn't lunch without a sandwich but often follows with a smaller portion of fruit and yogurt.;)
Have you looked at student recipe books? Lots of low budget, quick and easy ideas there.

[Deleted User]

purple45 wrote: »

Salad - I make a big batch of this and then divide it up into 8 - 10 portions

bag of carrots grated (1kg), juice of 2 lemons, seeds from a dozen cardemom pods, chopped deseeded red chilli, 2 inch chunk of root ginger chopped, 3 chopped bits of garlic, 1 chopped red onion.

But where are the rest of your calories coming from? There's only 50kcal in a portion of that! I'm looking for an alternative to sandwiches too, but the suggestions I keep reading just don't add up. The four sandwiches I eat for lunch are about 1000kcals, that's twenty of your salads.

What are people filling up on? :huh:

SCFC1961

p00hsticks wrote: »

I'm in the same boat, so I'll be interested in replies as I struggle too.

We have things like beans on toast, pate with crusty bread, staffordshire oatcakes with mushrooms and cheese, pasta salad

You can never eat too many oatcakes...