Healthy lunches for busy Mum

[MummaBear4321]

I have a 2 year old and 10 week old, so I have my hands full. I need to stop eating so much bread. Its my weakness. I dont know how to have lunch if its not a sandwich with cheese, or a bagel, so I need healthy lunch ideas that wont take much time to put together (10 mins or so) or ones I can prep the night before (although again, I dont really want be effectively cooking a second dinner every night). Basic salads are an obvious thing to do, but I find I am hungry 2 hours after a salad, and with 2 kids I need it to last me through a busy afternoon til dinner time.

Healthy Mums, what do you eat?

Couscous feta salad www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/10minute-couscous-salad
Soy salmon noodles www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/microwave_soy_salmon_07689
Egg fried rice www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/microwave_egg_fried_rice_76040
Omelette www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/healthy_omelette_64122

Can you have jacket potato cottage cheese and salad ? Just Chuck jacket potato wrapped in foil in oven mid morning 1030 ish be ready for lunch. Very tasty baked in oven!

I love pasta salad - whole meal penne pasta, tuna, sweet corn & apple with a bit of mayo & lots of black pepper. Or a jacket potato with various fillings. Or homemade soup is great.

Soup. I live on soup. Either decent bought cartons or if you can manage it a homemade batch. Leek and potato takes minutes to make and can last for a few days in the fridge so you can just warm up a bowlful.

Wraps can be slightly less carbs than bread?

A plate of protein (tuna, egg or chicken Mayo) with veg sticks and some crackers or breadsticks?

Tin of soup?

realfood.tesco.com/recipes/bens-mums-warming-carrot-and-coriander-soup.html

Jacket potato with beans, cottage cheese or tuna with salad.

If you just make a larger portion of your dinner and portion a bit off in a tub you could reheat that for your lunch.

I was going to say soup too. I often make a big pot on Sunday and it last 3 or 4 days for lunch.
I am also a fan of leftovers for lunch reheated in the microwave.
Also roasting a big tray of Mediterranean veg which you can then add to pasta, cous cous, feta, wraps etc for several different lunches.

Leftovers with a poached egg on top. Rye bread on the side perhaps.

Jacket potato and tuna or beans (set an alarm on tour phone to remind you to put it in an hour before lunch and your 2 year olds can have it too.
Pesto Pasta with cooked chicken, salad and cherry tomatoes
Scrambled eggs on toast
Wraps with cooked meat and salad
Batch cook ratatouille and have with either pasta or jacket potato

Jacket potato 7 min in microwave. Take out wrap in foil 1 hour 20 minutes in oven = perfection 😍

I make a massive pot of soup on a Sunday and eat mon - Thursday

I also make A deliciously Ella recipe called warming winter stew. Again a massive pot and eat it for 3 days in a row. Also freezes well so make massive batches.

Beans on toast, leftovers from last night, smoked mackerel microwave rice/or cous cous and peas in the microwave, or tuna!

Smoked mackerel, avacado, oatcakes

I have a soup maker so can just chuck stuff in leave and go. Might be worth a try - it has a blend function so if you had anything chunky you could leave a dc portion in to mush up a bit more?

If we are having pasta for supper I always cook a bit extra for a pasta salad the next day for lunch.

If you cut up a huge batch of veg sticks (celery, peppers, deseeded cucumber, carrot, radish) once or twice a week and keep them in a box in the fridge along with some cooked chicken, hard-boiled eggs and a tub of hummus, then you can assemble a lunch easily without it getting boring. Also keep a bag of mixed seeds or some nuts in and scatter them on for crunch and because they're nice 😁

Omelette?

Wow. Some really nice ideas here. I will definitely be trying a few of them. Thank you

Those filled pastas are good. Boil a kettle and then cook them in the boiled water for 1-2 minutes. Then toss in pesto or ready made sauce. less than 5 mins for something that feels like real food.

Scrambled eggs, baked beans and a slice of wholemeal toast

Baked sweet potato - 10 mins or less in microwave - topped with chilli beans or sour cream and chives

Supermarkets do some good rice packs now. Not the cheapest way to buy rice, but half a pack heated up in the microwave with some petit pois and diced chicken or chorizo is a good lunch. Again - takes less than 5 mins.

Soup and risotto are both super quick and easy if you have a multicooker. I batch cook them and freeze, one batch lasts the weekdays.

Also eggs are great - omelettes, frittata, etc.

Pasta salad - I use wholemeal pasta.

Rice noodles are low in fat/calories, I quite like making Vietnamese style noodle salads or noodle soups.

Sweetcorn fritters with side salad

I used to portion up leftovers and use those plastic tubs you get with Chinese takeaways to freeze/microwave them.
I also used to freeze portions of soup.
So I was basically eating left overs but not necessarily from the night before which would get a bit dull.

My favourite is tuna pasta.

However it’s a handful of pasta, a tin of tuna, mature cheddar, peas, sweet corn, cucumber, pepper, onion, bell pepper and black pepper to taste.

Mix it together whilst the pasta is hot so the cheese melts. Absolutely lovely favourite lunch.

You can prepare a big portion to do you a couple of days.

I also like jacket potatoes with the same, although I do like mayo with that rather than butter.

Also like a vegetable fajita. Dinner leftovers too. I don’t really do sandwiches, not a fan.

Ooo and stir fry. That takes 5 minutes (I don’t have meat in mine)