Cold lunches for work

GreyQueen

I take a Lock & Lock bowl containing a home-made salad with something like beans and maybe cubed cheese/ small amount of meat or fish, sprinkle of seeds and chopped nuts over the top, glug of olive oil, splash of apple cider vinegar.

Tasty, healthy, filling and cheap. Has helped me shift 3 stone + of flab in the past 18 months, too.

Add a spoon from home rolled into a cloth napkin, and I have no need to visit the office kitchen at all.

glider3560

Owain_Moneysaver wrote: »

Your employer is legally required to provide certain welfare facilities at work, and to keep them clean.

This includes a supply of drinking water and a means of heating food or water for hot drinks.

The fridge and microwave (if there is also a kettle) may be negotiable, but they can't stop you using the sink for water (unless there is a separate drinking water supply).

There is indeed a separate water cooler and instant boiling water machine, which hasn't been included in the rota. I use this with those expensive little pots of UHT milk for tea and coffee.

glider3560

Wi88le wrote: »

Would something like a small pressure cooker be an option, plug it in under your desk or in the canteen? Argos have the pressure King pro in a small size.

'Elf and Safety would have something to say about that, I think! They even made me have my phone charger electrically tested and a risk assessment carried out (I kid you not) before I was allowed to plug this in. And I occassionally use my phone for work purposes.

Pooky

Cold pasta and rice can be a lot nicer if you make them to go with salads/veggies rather than just a cold portion of last nights pasta bake if you see what I mean. I used to do a big pan of pasta and cool it under cold water as soon as it was cooked, a good glug of olive oil and then in a sealed pot in the fridge. Then daily everyone would take a portion and then add in extras they wanted, salad or roast veg, meats or cheese. Far nicer than cold leftovers (which I don't mind now and then).

You could do sausage rolls or a variation of with veg or chicken, I use the ready roll puff pastry and dollop on left over fajita mix of peppers, onions and chicken with a sprinkle of cheese, roll like sausage rolls and bake. Or use the pastry as a base, score round the edge gently and then fill the middle with whatever takes your fancy, out faves are tom pur!e spread on the base with bacon, sweet corn and onions, a sprinkle of cheese and bung in the oven or DDs love pesto on the base with a tine of tuna, sweet corn and cheese on top. Once cut up this will do you several portions.

Wraps can be great too, a big stuffed burrito, a quesadilla or just wrapped around a bit of meat and salad.

glider3560

Thanks to everyone who has replied. There are lots of things here to keep me going!

LameWolf

glider3560 wrote: »

There is indeed a separate water cooler and instant boiling water machine, which hasn't been included in the rota. I use this with those expensive little pots of UHT milk for tea and coffee.

Would you be able to tolerate Earl Grey tea? It's lovely without milk.

elsien

Or just take your own milk in a little thermos flask.

glider3560

elsien wrote: »

Or just take your own milk in a little thermos flask.

I did this a few jobs ago, when I didn't have a fridge. I ended up having two flasks since it needed cleaning every day, otherwise it started to smell quite bad. I might do this again, especially now I have a dishwasher so the cleaning won't be so much of a pain.

Annoying though, since work pay for the milk. They literally just give you 2 or 3x 2 litre cartons of milk if you ask for it in the canteen, which I have to every day since I am the first to arrive each morning. Might just keep one carton in my office (there's only three of us in the room so no-one else will ever know) and leave the other next to the fridge that I daren't touch for fear of the cleaning rota!

theoretica

glider3560 wrote: »

Annoying though, since work pay for the milk. They literally just give you 2 or 3x 2 litre cartons of milk if you ask for it in the canteen, which I have to every day since I am the first to arrive each morning. Might just keep one carton in my office (there's only three of us in the room so no-one else will ever know) and leave the other next to the fridge that I daren't touch for fear of the cleaning rota!

Could you decant a little milk before you leave it by the fridge?

Sarastro

Not cleaning the kitchen is a way for employees who don't feel they 'belong' or are 'permanent' or 'safe' to punish the organisation in a way that's unlikely to get them fired and is passive aggressive behaviour. The cleaning rota is an interesting and not entirely unreasonable way to respond but segregating the workforce into those who do use the kitchen and those who don't is unlikely to help as it will encourage yet more blame from those who have been effectively denied the facilities and want to use them properly. This will just feed the whole 'cleaning' issue yet further. I'm not surprised your thoughts have turned to protein based snacks. Eventually, it will become so much of an issue that it will return to senior management agendas and another initiative will be discussed and off we will go again. You could be brave and suggest some other ways of dealing with it that would allow employees to give 'feedback' in a safe way e.g. anonymous suggestion boxes, etc. This will allow them to 'speak' and hopefully make them feel more valued...they in turn will start to respect the facilities. Unfortunately, some people are just genuinely messy.