I hate sandwiches!

Joolzr68

How about a lovely, yummy thick slice of spanish omelette.
Its delicious cold or warmed in the microwave. The spaniards quite often have this as a cold lunchtime snack so I'm told. If I make it for dinner I often make an extra big one so hopefully some will be left over for packed lunches the next day.....the trouble is my lot seem to think its ok to just pig out and eat the lot!!:rotfl:

black-saturn

You could buy a snack pot. It' basically a flask but with a wider neck. Then you can put food in it and keep it warm. I used to make extra of the evening meal to take with me the next day.

lightisfading

I try to avoid plain sandwiches as much as possible cus to be honest there are only so many veggie sandwich fillings!

Firstly I'd say invest in some tupperware, a couple of tiny tubs to fit inside your lunchbox are good too for stuff that might make everything else messy Ziplock bags are also very useful tho I try not to use many as it's a waste of plastic. If you don't have a fridge at work an icepack would be good too - wilkinsons do some good tiny ones.

If you have a micro at work you have a lot more possibilities, leftovers from the night before, jacket potatoes etc.

A kettle can be useful too for instant soups and noodles (you can get some really nice ones from Chinese 'supermarkets')

Today I had salad - lettuce, red peppers, baby tomatoes, cucumber, potato salad, coleslaw and a couple of hard boiled eggs (packed in their shells).

Even if you're not vegan have a look at http://veganlunchbox.blogspot.com/ , it has a lot of ideas for 'different' lunches, and ways to make things fun You may have to jump back a few months though as it's not as active as it used to be.

Some other ideas:

Wraps, pitta, french bread, crusty rolls, cracked, rice cakes etc as alternatives to regular bread.

Cold pizza (put pizza toppings on a pitta bread and grill for a healthier, portable version).

Chicken or Quorn stirfried with mexican/bbq/etc seasoning, and loaded into a pitta with salad, or mixed into a green salad.

Hummous or other dip with some crusty bread/pitta and lots of veggies.

Cold pasta / pasta salad / pasta bake / couscous / rice salad.

Homemade mini cornish pasties or similar.

'Quesadillas' - make a sandwich with 2 tortillas, filled with veggies, refried beans, salsa, cheese etc, dry fried to melt the cheese and stick it all together. Cut into wedges. Yum

For 'snacks' I try and take things like nuts or pretzels as healthier options if I fancy something salty. Ditto for sweet things - low fat chocolate mousse, yoghurt, HM cake etc.

I always take some veggies, carrots, tomatoes, cucumber, peppers, celery etc.. healthy finger food to eat while reading a magazine or book

I also almost always take some cut up fruit with me, and more imaginative things than apples! Pineapple (fresh or tinned), kiwi, melon, grapes, strawberries, raspberries, apricots, peaches etc etc - things like pineapple and melon I cut up and put in either a small tupperware container or sealed inside 1 (or 2 if i'm paranoid!) zip-lock bags.

belfastgirl23

Soup is always good. Don't know where you are but the weather is still so nasty here in Belfast that I'm still grateful for a warm up at lunch time.

In case you do like fresh sandwiches, you can just bring bread with you to work and a little tub with your sandwich mix so you can make it up fresh!

will look forward to reading about your experiments!

the_other_mce

I always make extra chilli and korma which we have in either wraps or halved pitta breads. Tonight I made extra enchilladas which are bagged up ready to either freeze for a couple of days or re-heat at work tomorrow. I always try to think whether I can make a bit extra for a lunch and put it in a wrap - it's great fun. I also freeze lots of left-overs to use in a few days time so I don't often eat the same food two days running - although both myself and DH have microwaves we can use at work - might not be as nice cold. Sliced duck, spring onions and hoisin sauce is divine cold and doesn't cost too much if you buy the duck-legs when they are on offer.
All the family (including the kids) love tuna, cheese and sweetcorn in a pitta ( I make a couple of days worth of this and keep it in a tupperware bowl - well old ice cream tub actually!;) ), also make a homemade egg and bacon with mayo mix which is lovely. I buy a roast chicken to slice for sandwiches as the flavour is so much better.
Kids have most of the above and also food flasks with either hot or cold pasta and sauce, soup or egg-fried rice.
If I am really pushed for time I'll have soup and a roll or occasionally - CEREAL which goes down a treat...
HTH

rls1973

i find those plastic containers with "klippit" fastenings better, the lids tend to stay on better!

my pasta salad is pasta shells (cooked in a stock cube or marmite, or bovril etc. for carnivores) for extra flavour, cooled

add your choice of salad veg:mine is cucumber, celery, radishes, carrot sticks

mixed all together with cottage cheese mixed through it as the dressing

make sure pasta is cold before doing this so it doesn't curdle

hth

beingjdc

I'm veggie and bad with dairy. I hate sandwiches too, and spending money even more. We have a microwave at work. My staple meals are

1) Pasta with tinned tomatoes, sweetcorn and spices.
2) Rice with peas, quorn and soy sauce
3) Quorn mince shepherd's pie with barley and lentils

They all work out pretty cheap if you make them in bulk, and they all freeze well, but I'm having to think up some new ideas as my waistline is swelling together with my savings account

loulvj

Morning all!

Thank you for the many delicious sounding suggestions, I will definitely be trying some of them out.

Day 1 of the challenge and I have the following for lunch:

Leftover roast chicken with sage and onion stuffing, broad beans and carrots. Pasta salad dressed with olive oil, black pepper and parmesan.

mmm, I'm looking forward to it! :rotfl:

hedgewytch13

I've started making my own lunch for a while now when I realised how much I was spending.
Today I had Houmous on toasted Pitta with HM Banana cake for pudding.

Tomorrow will be left over HM fish pie with veggies with HM Choc, peanut and raisin muffin ( I was experimenting lol).

Monday I had Tuna pasta.

I try to save a portion of what we had for tea for my lunch, for example I make extra rice then mix it with peppers, chickpeas, red onion and sweetcorn. I found fresh strawberries with Sainsbury's basic strawberry yogurt was yummy. I make up batches of lentil soup in the slow cooker then freeze portions in small containers so I just defrost one for work and have with a wholemeal pitta.

I buy tins of hot dog sausages as well, dice them and add them to pasta or rice with some tinned tomatoes and put grated cheese on top. It used to be our student pub food Then grill until cheese melts.

jannyannie

Hi
well done for your decision! Always take my own lunch. You could try pasta salad, rice salad, left over curry, tortilla wraps, if you have a microwave try homemade soup or baked potatoes with fillings, plus lots of fruit and vegetable crudites. good luck!