New job and I need ideas for not buying food on the go

lookstraightahead

Morning all
I've been working from home / very part time for the last year. I've lost nearly 3 stone by eating healthily and cooking from scratch, as well as saving the pennies from not buying ready made food. Just two of us as kids have flown.

I've now got a new job 4 days a week and through previous habits I know my fab habits could take a dive. I don't want to spend on lunches, and I want quick, healthy, low cost meals in the evenings rather than the "what shall we buy for tea" situation.

Anyone have any good habits to share? I'm thinking make a huge couscous salad and take a bit for lunch each day? Batch freeze (never done this, scared of reheating chicken 🙄).

thank you x

joedenise

Definitely do some batch cooking.  Things like curry, chilli, stews; all of which you can freeze in portions.  If you have a microwave where you work you can take LOs from the previous evening with you for lunch.  You could also take jacket potatoes as they only take 5 minutes in the microwave and then top with some tuna or heat up some beans or even some of your LOs from the night before, particularly curry or chilli which make great potato toppings.  If you have a slow cooker you could make all of these in it while you're at work.  I have a 3.5 litre oval one and can fit in about 8 jacket potatoes to cook at the same time - they freeze really well too although I have to say I prefer to reheat them either in the halogen oven or Remoska to crisp up the skins a bit.

If you need cold things then a batch of couscous salad is a good idea; as is rice salad or pasta salad to ring the changes.  They certainly make a change from sandwiches!

lookstraightahead

Ah I do use the slow cooker and I've frozen chilli from it - but I only ever freeze mince 😬. I might go out if my comfort zone. So you cook jacket potatoes in the slow cooker and freeze them? Sounds like a great idea x

PollyWollyDoodle

Plan the evening meal, and make it work for lunch the next day. Eg leftover rice, pasta or potatoes can be turned into a salad with a bit of ham, tuna, cheese or whatever. Add some salad, frozen peas or corn will be defrosted and edible by lunchtime (ask me how I know! 😄) and add some seeds or nuts for crunch. 

Or use leftover chilli, stew etc and add some carbohydrate - couscous can be made while you’re making a cup of tea or eating cereal or whatever you do in the morning.  I don’t batch cook, but I aim to cook once and eat twice - make enough and as well as the lunch you can put a portion in the freezer. Do this a few times and you’ll soon have enough ready meals to fill in on evenings when you’re too tired to cook.  Planning is key though, if you don’t have a plan then you will end up buying stuff in a hurry. 

Katiehound

Ham joint cooked in cola in your slow cooker for evening meal
Then lots of yummy cold ham to have with salad, hm sandwiches

chicken thighs in sc- again hot meal
freeze left overs for future meals or leave some out for pack up
Reheats perfectly in microwave.
Cool chicken quickly, freeze and make sure it is piping hot when you reheat.  Chicken is fine unless you leave it sitting around in a warm atmosphere. (I think rice is maybe worse for food poisoning)

lookstraightahead

PollyWollyDoodle said:

Plan the evening meal, and make it work for lunch the next day. Eg leftover rice, pasta or potatoes can be turned into a salad with a bit of ham, tuna, cheese or whatever. Add some salad, frozen peas or corn will be defrosted and edible by lunchtime (ask me how I know! 😄) and add some seeds or nuts for crunch. 

Or use leftover chilli, stew etc and add some carbohydrate - couscous can be made while you’re making a cup of tea or eating cereal or whatever you do in the morning.  I don’t batch cook, but I aim to cook once and eat twice - make enough and as well as the lunch you can put a portion in the freezer. Do this a few times and you’ll soon have enough ready meals to fill in on evenings when you’re too tired to cook.  Planning is key though, if you don’t have a plan then you will end up buying stuff in a hurry. 

Thank you - so do you just defrost the veg not reheat? I suppose it makes sense, like frozen fruit.

I think you're right it's all in the planning. I hate going into the supermarket after work and spending too much then having to cook - takes up the whole evening.

I would like a food budget of £50 a week ish for two of us (excluding toiletries). 

theoretica

Does where you work have a microwave?  I take in batched out meals to reheat.

lookstraightahead

theoretica said:

Does where you work have a microwave?  I take in batched out meals to reheat.

I'll be in two different locations so not sure yet. There must be something 

lookstraightahead

Katiehound said:

Ham joint cooked in cola in your slow cooker for evening meal
Then lots of yummy cold ham to have with salad, hm sandwiches

chicken thighs in sc- again hot meal
freeze left overs for future meals or leave some out for pack up
Reheats perfectly in microwave.
Cool chicken quickly, freeze and make sure it is piping hot when you reheat.  Chicken is fine unless you leave it sitting around in a warm atmosphere. (I think rice is maybe worse for food poisoning)

Yes you're probably right, I need to get over this 😬

Brie

big saver for me too was breakfasts - so easy to grab a bacon sandwich or a pastry at work, oh and why not buy a coffee while I'm at it??!!  All of which is both pounds and £££s!!!

So I would make a small pot of birchler muesli in a small microwavable soup mug - the plastic sort with the top to make it portable.  I'd add about 1.5 inches of uncooked oatmeal, top with 2 inches of frozen raspberries or an inch or two of fresh chopped fruit, topped with a big spoonful of yoghurt and then a bit of milk.  If frozen fruit is used I would leave it out over night, otherwise I'd pop it in the fridge ready to grab in the morning.  It just needs a stir and can be eaten easily at one's desk or on a train ride perhaps.

I found the same size mug was great for chucking in leftovers that could be heated for lunch, rice or noodles on the bottom, chilli or stew or whatever on top.  I used to work at a place that did jacket potatoes for under a £ and I could heat up my chilli or stew and top the jacket with that.

If there was left over meat - a bit of chicken or fish - I'd have a plastic pot into which I'd chuck salad, little tomatoes and top with the meat.  I'd squirt a bit of mayo or other thick dressing in one corner as lettuce/rocket/etc tend to go limp if dressed too long before eating.  If it was a thin dressing/vinaigrette I would use a tiddly jam pot - you can buy the sort you get in some hotel restaurants in the supermarket - I think the Tiptree jams are about 40p which is an expensive way to buy jam but it's much cheaper than spending a few quid on specially made dressing containers sold by Systema and others.  

Others I know have used their soup mug to take a home made "pot of soup".  There's lots of recipes to google but essentially it could be some instant chinese noodles, some thinly sliced veg (peppers, spring onion, courgette) or frozen veg, left over meat or frozen prawns.  And then sprinkle in some soy sauce or bisto or soup granules.  When it's time for lunch you just add hot water and leave it all to cook for a few minutes.

Another good thing for either breakfast or lunch is boiled eggs.  Boiled and peeled the night before and popped into a plastic pot ready for munching the next day.  If you think it essential you might want to have a salt and pepper at work (or acquire a lot of those little packets from food places....).  Others I know have had salad spray or dressing that could be left in a staff fridge if one was available.  

Prepping a load of carrot sticks and celery is great too to get you through a tough day.  And fruit - a whole melon or pineapple can be had for much less than a single prepared serving and will last you a whole week.  A tin of mandarin oranges is nice too as a treat.  I'd put about a third of a tin in a screw top container with some of the juice and add a big splodge of yoghurt.  Nice and filling and an easy alternative if the work crowd is offering around birthday cake or similar.

Brie

Oh and in an emergency - I normally had cuppa soup and oatcakes in my work locker.  They could just as easily have been in a work bag or a cupboard at home to grab when you haven't had time to prep anything the night before.  Now the thing I found with cuppa soup is that they are often strangely high in calories and, to me, overly sweet.  What I discovered is that the local Polish supermarket had a strange array of packet soups which had less sugar, less salt and were cheaper.  There were some that had croutons in, others that were full of cheese and herbs - very nice and, last time i got some, were 3 for £1.  Even better was a small pot of borsht soup powder - a teaspoon in a mug, add hot water and it gave a very nice meal.  And was labelled as 17 servings in a pot that cost £1.50 - talk about a bargain!!!

Basically - the problem with work is that you have to take a lunch break.  And that means telling yourself you have to eat.  You don't, obviously, as you aren't going to starve before dinner time but it does give you a nice little boost.

So I'll stop rambling and just say congrats on the new job!!!