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

London_1

Defintely cook once, eat twice, left overs for lunch next day Especially if you have a m'wave at work.My DD has both a m'wave and a fridge where she works which is great for her and her colleagues. 

Even a small portion of chilli in a sealed tuppaware plus a jacket spud pre-made from home that just need a quick zap in the m'wave will give you a hot lunch on a chilly day.

Soup in a flask especially if its chunky veg is a filling lunch as well and healthy,even if you sneak a small crusty roll in to add for dipping. You have done very well in dropping your weight and it would be a shame to put it all back on, plus the cost of eating out is prohibitive at the moment.Even the £3.50 quick meals from a supermarket is really only a sandwich,drink and crisps.Two slices of bread in a sandwich made and wrapped in foil won't come to that if you bring it from home. When I was working ( a good while ago now ) I used to spread two slices of bread with butter, wrap in foil and take the filling seperate in a tuppaware container, and build them at work in my lunch hour. That way no soggy sarnie I never eat crisps anyway as I think they are a waste of money a nice crisp apple is better for you and either a hot drink in a small flask made before you go out in the morning will keep hot until lunchtime. A small half litre flask can be bought for a few pounds and will pay for itself over the winter

JackieO xx

lookstraightahead

Brie said:

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!!!

Thank you so much it's all in the planning I'm discovering! 

lookstraightahead

London_1 said:

Defintely cook once, eat twice, left overs for lunch next day Especially if you have a m'wave at work.My DD has both a m'wave and a fridge where she works which is great for her and her colleagues. 

Even a small portion of chilli in a sealed tuppaware plus a jacket spud pre-made from home that just need a quick zap in the m'wave will give you a hot lunch on a chilly day.

Soup in a flask especially if its chunky veg is a filling lunch as well and healthy,even if you sneak a small crusty roll in to add for dipping. You have done very well in dropping your weight and it would be a shame to put it all back on, plus the cost of eating out is prohibitive at the moment.Even the £3.50 quick meals from a supermarket is really only a sandwich,drink and crisps.Two slices of bread in a sandwich made and wrapped in foil won't come to that if you bring it from home. When I was working ( a good while ago now ) I used to spread two slices of bread with butter, wrap in foil and take the filling seperate in a tuppaware container, and build them at work in my lunch hour. That way no soggy sarnie I never eat crisps anyway as I think they are a waste of money a nice crisp apple is better for you and either a hot drink in a small flask made before you go out in the morning will keep hot until lunchtime. A small half litre flask can be bought for a few pounds and will pay for itself over the winter

JackieO xx

Thank you, yes this is my worry. I tend to either comfort eat or not eat gif a whole day and then eat anything in sight. So prep is key 

bouicca21

Like JackieO it’s a long time since I was regularly in an office (and even before I retired, trendsetter that I so obviously was, I was wfh several days a week).  But what I used to do was to have a small teapot and a cafetière in the office kitchen so I could make drinks.  Lunch in the winter involved a small thermos of hm soup and a container of salad - Greek salad actually tastes better after all the flavours have melded together for a few hours.

ruis72

If I'm organised I make couscous, boil some eggs and make what my daughter calls square salad ( diced tomatoes, cucumber, peppers and red onion in a lemon and olive oil dressing) on a sunday and put them in separate containers in the fridge, then combine them before I go to work. This time of year I'll take in portions of chilli or shepherd's pie that I've batch cooked and frozen. Or I've made these and frozen them ready to take out of the freezer
https://www.egginfo.co.uk/recipes/leftover-roast-chicken-crustless-mini-quiches

If I'm not organised/ too tired then it's a small tin of beans and two slices of bread for beans on toast or a couple of eggs for scrambled eggs as our staff room has a microwave and toaster. And like Brie there's always a tin of emergency soup/pot noodle in my locker at work
Congratulations on the new job!

newlywed

Reheating any meat or rice, just make sure it’s “proper hot”. It’s the Luke warm stage that’s bad for bacteria.

so cool quick,  then zap till properly hot all the way through. And I don’t reheat twice, so if you reheat then save some, eat it cold.

lookstraightahead

How do you cool quick - put it in the fridge? 

skogar

Brie - My emergency back up in case I forgot to bring lunch, had nothing in or whatever was some tins of soup and a box of oatcakes (the ones where you get several packs of 6 inside). I used to buy the tins of soup when they were on offer.

CapricornLass

No, I would sit the pan in cold water, and regularly check how its cooling down, and changing the water with fresh if needs be.  Though I'm another that will only cook the rice I need, because of the risk of food poisoning.  I wouldn't put any hot food in your fridge to cool down.  What it will do is raise the temperature of your fridge, and you risk getting food poisoning from any of the other food that you are storing there.  

when  I was working,  I used to  make plain ham or cheese sandwiches, wrap them up and freeze them.  I'd take one out each day and put in the lunchbox, and as it thawed, it kept the other items in said lunchbox cool at the same time.  I never had problems with the bread being soggy.  I must admit that I used to pack a couple of biscuits or a piece of home-made flapjack as well!

My son regularly takes pasta salads with him to work.  

I would avoid anything particularly pungent, like fish or curry, especially if you have to eat at/near your desk, or you will not be popular with your co-workers!

But I think a lot will depend on what type of equipment and storage space is available for you to use.  Hopefully there will be a fridge as well as a microwave and kettle but one place I worked had a proper working stove and a dishwasher as well, so you never know your luck!

newlywed

I take it out of the cooking pot and put into another cold dish. For rice you can spread it out on a plate/s

if you put it in the fridge when too warm then your whole fridge will be too warm for a bit and have to work harder.