Lunchtime menu..?

Shaws

Hi To All!

I have taken my inspiration for this thread from the thread "How much do you save?"
I need to start bringing in my lunch into work for two reasons:
A) Need to lose weight
Need to seriously need to save some cash!

So, what do you bring in to work for your lunch? If you say left overs from the night before, will you mention what it was you had the night before.

Thanks a million for all your suggestions!!!:D

sandwich, fruit
various sandwich fillings
am on peanut butter + jam at the mo

sam34

i make my own soup - leek and potato or veg or chicken and veg. i make a big batch at the weekends, then freeze it in small containers, take one out in teh morning and its defrosted by lunchtime.
i also bring two pieces of fruit for lunch

MJOR

I sometimes cook an extra chicken fillet at night if i know the next day i'll be doing something after work that means i need a little something extra. I usually have this with lots of salad and a wrap. In dunnes at the moment they have containers that have a separate little pot as well for dressing.

A nice few pieces of chopped fruit with a low fat yougurt is nice too.

If I am hungover a bag of popcorn too.

Also tesco have their lunchboxes/tupperware on offer too. Thay have beakers that if you buy a litre of smoothie you can have it over three days.

Ginny

we cook chicken breasts (different marinades everyday) the night before, I then cut up some raw veggies in the morning too, I also bring 3-4 pieces of fruit in and a small low fat yogurt.
Or if we're doing a stirfry for dinner we do some extra and bring it in the next day.

Silcocky

If you are looking to do it to lose weight though, I'd be careful not to bring in dinner-sized portions of last nights left overs - I did it for a bit, and realised I was essentially eating two dinners a day, and it defeated the purpose!

I tend to have a big brekkie (and smaller lunch to compensate)- maybe make a few extra sausages at the weekend and have a slice pan and some ketchup in the office and then eat some cheese/fruit/nuts/small salad from a Spar salad bar or something (these can be cheap enough if you get one and a half scoops and complement it with some of the other stuff above)...I often find that a small bit of fruit from the salad bars costs less than buying fruit individually. If you have a sliced pan in (a nice granary/brown one, if you're going for health) and you have a toaster - have a thing of butter in, a thing of paté and maybe some jam or spreadable cheese - you can make sure you mix and match so as not to get too bored -the tendancy with diets!

Another good one is if you're an egg fan, to make boiled eggs on a Sunday and for lunch have a chunk of cheese (cheesestrings or one of those mix and match chunks) and two eggs, cut in half and with a small dollop of salad cream and paprika on them. Surprisingly tasty and if you've had the aforementioned bigger (i.e more carb-heavy) brekkie, enough to keep you going til hometime!
And cheap too!

MissFlitworth

I do the cooking-a-chicken-fillet-each-night thing too, just put one in a foil parcel on to cook while I'm making my dinner, then chop it up into a lunch box with a load of salad.

I also make soup sometimes and bring it in, really filling.

I have access to a fridge and kinda kitcheny bit in work so a lot of weeks I'll bring in ham, ryvita, bag of salad, tomatoes, cream cheese and a load of fruit at the start of teh week and just make up my lunch from what's in the kitchen.

SeekUp

At least twice a week, I'm one of those dinner leftover lunch people. I'm a big fan of casseroles and stir frys . . . some kind of rice/chicken/veggie combination works well and reheats okay.

As someone mentioned, soups are also good, although much better in the winter, imo!

I'll also bring sandwiches, but I tend to get a bit 'meh' about lunch if I have sandwiches more than twice a week.

I also tend to keep yogurts in the work fridge as a snack, and granola bars in a desk drawer.

offaly1

i need ideas for lunch too...! I like the chicken fillet with salad thing idea!!!!MMMM.........get hungry now talking bout it!!:p

emma82

One piece of advice I'll offer you is to try and take in different stuff a couple of times a week!! Heres some of my suggestions:

Feta cheese salad (lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, beetroot, peppers)
Beans/spagetti on toast
Baked potatoes with anythin
Plain old sandwich with stuff in it
Fresh fruit salad
Pasta & sauce with veg
Chicken, cheese, veg & pineapple toastie
Homemade veg soup

Ok think thats me out!!! Im always careful about taking in dinners from the night before etc as I tend to eat with my eyes not my stomach!!

PhysiologyRocks

Pasta and green pesto! Oh and add some olives and sunflower seeds. If there's a bit of chicken about, all the better.

And if you have the time to make your own bread, then do.

Leftover tandoori chicken is also brilliant (with naan bread). And I love lettuce.

Lia_lia

I get free food at the hotel I work in and eat way too much of it so I'm not one to give advice!

But, soup is a good one. Homemade soup. It really does will you up and is healthy. My Mum used to make it for my brother and I to bring to school. Adding cream makes it extra tasty, low fat cream! And lovely and warm for the winter

Novella

If you are looking for some healthy inspiration, I should not be giving you advice!! My lunch tends to be a Burger King, or if I'm lazy a packet of white Buttons :pac:

Some days I'm good though and bring pasta from home with pesto and that's pretty yummy! Use wholemeal pasta 'cause it's better for you.

RxQueen

toasted ham and chesse sambo in the making today :S

im the same as the above poster, BK ftw, damn waterford food places handing out loyalty cards to workers in the area, its done no good to my health!

Shaws

Thanks a mill, great ideas, think I might try the soup thing!
What's the story with Pesto? what do you do with it?
(Sorry may be a stuid question!)

Snowie

Shaws wrote: »

Thanks a mill, great ideas, think I might try the soup thing!
What's the story with Pesto? what do you do with it?
(Sorry may be a stuid question!)

home made recipie is easy

You need

Bazil not bazil faulty now :P
pine nuts.
Parmesan cheese
olive oil
Lemon Juice.

Thoast the pine nut gives the pesto better depth( me thinks) and gets rid of that butter nut taste...
grab the basil from a plant all the leaves into a blender.
add olive oil, 275 mils sounds about ok i think, i never look at how much i add
ad a lemon of lemon juice so that to halves of a lemon.
grated Parmesan
salt pepper to taste done
and blend...

You can eat it with pasta in a sambo on a pizza
use it as a sald dressing the list is endless

Novella

Shaws wrote: »

Thanks a mill, great ideas, think I might try the soup thing!
What's the story with Pesto? what do you do with it?
(Sorry may be a stuid question!)

As the above poster said!!!

You can buy it in a jar though, which is what I do, less hassle! It's really yummy too, and ya just cook the pasta and stir it in. You can eat it hot or cold. Bit of cheese mixed in is good too!

pow wow

Beans on toast or on corncakes

*parp*