What do you eat for lunch at work?

[Smokingsocially]

I'm usually ravenous by my lunch break and end up grabbing something from Sainsbury's, a prawn salad or a pre packaged sandwich. It's not particularly nice and it is very dull.

What do you have for lunch? What kinds of things do you bring if you take stuff in? I'm really unimaginative and unconfident when it comes to cooking food that I could take cold in the next day, or even constructing delicious salads - I just don't know what goes with what. I just have no idea. I tend to cook basics like curries, chillies, spag bol etc for dinner and don't want to also eat them for lunch, if you see what I mean. No idea how to make a nice soup.

Any suggestions?

Posted here for traffic.

One of the places I work has a canteen which makes life easier, just been moved though and now have to take lunch in so possibly couscous with roasted veg and some feta cheese, different salads (duck with watercress etc is nice) Bagels with different fillings, crispbreads with pate. I am not a big fan of pasta so don't make pasta salads.

Soup is very easy to make and worth the effort,

Pea and ham
Roasted red onion and butternut squash (MN recipe)
Roasted parsnip with bacon

Slim fast and a banana.

A pork pie, half a yoghurt and mouthful jelly beans
Hairdressers dont seem to eat lunch!

I don't work but make DP his dinner for work
Whole meal pasta salad
Or with chicken and bacon
Bagels with hoummus and rocket leaves, carrot and celery sticks
Quiche
Tuna with rice and peppers
Granola bars

Sometimes I make a big batch of spiced pearl barley on a Sunday eve, and take it in with random toppings/additions as a salad:
Roasted sweet potato & red peppers
Smoked mackerel & radishes
Crumbled feta & tomato
Any leftover meat
Rocket & smoked salmon

UABU. Oh, wait...

Either a sandwich or wrap (with ham/prosciutto/chorizo, etc.., mustard or hummus and some sort of rocket/lettuce and tomatoes) or a mix of salads. I'll quite often make up some couscous cooked with veg stock, with chopped veg through it, herbs and some raisins or cheese or something. I'll then have that with some cold meat or salmon, hummus or whatever else is in the fridge. In the winter I sometimes take homemade soup (when I'm not feeling lazy).

I usually take soup or salad, cheaper than buying at canteen.

I eat soup 95% of the time, tinned, get five tins for two quid in asda. The other 5% is tinned sardines on toast/ryvita.

I check Aldi veg offers so this week Soup is Leek and Zpotato and Butternut squash
My Dad made two two soup and I tend to do the same so each pot is
2 carrots 2 leeks 2 onions 2 celery sticks 2 onions 2 large potato 2 garlic cloves and your main veg 2 pints of stock
Fire into a pot or slow cooker and cook until ready to blitz cream is optional and eat or freeze

I always have a big bowl of salad. Basically I cut up any vegetables in the fridge that you can eat raw and bung them in, and sometimes add cooked green beans, peas or broccoli, and then add some protein so either chopped boiled egg, chicken, feta or mozarella or some chickpeas. Also sometimes add fruit.

It is delicious, it fills me up, and every day it is different while still being healthy and varied.

Biscuits...

Not brilliant really, my work area frequently kicks off in unpredictable ways- so ten minutes to grab a sandwich is the norm.

Between four colleagues we keep a stash of snack a jacks, apples, breakfast biscuits (bellavita?) And chocolate.

Occasionally get my act together to make a Greek salad (diced cucumber, feta cheese, olives, finely sliced red onion, drizzle of olive oil and black pepper).

My DH makes our packed lunches every day. Unfortunately for me, he is v much a creature of habit - he had corned beef and brown sauce sandwiches EVERY DAY during secondary school, and not because his Mum refused to make him something else!!!

These days he is on ham and cheese. I like both, but not every fucking day!!! However, he has more time in the morning than me which is how he ended up with that task. I try my best to choose variations for myself but we're not in the money just now. I've been unemployed for 8 months and started temping after the BH at the end of August, so I feel I'm in no position to complain too much.

Also, as a temp, sometimes I work somewhere v short term and there's no guarantee of what facilities like a microwave might be available. Sandwiches are the safe option in that situation. Am hoping for a contract over the winter with a microwave available for soup, etc!!!

Make our sandwiches - turkey/chicken breasts, mustard and spinach. Or peanut butter the day before shopping day!

Weight watchers yoghurt, an apple, other fruit (berries/grapes) and a snack size Cadbury Twirl. Water to drink. Often though some of the fruit or the Twirl gets eaten on the way home to stop me snacking when I get in .

Some days take leftovers from dinner the night before to reheat.

More often than not I take a big salad with either a tin of sardines, tin of tuna or 2 boiled eggs.

Sometimes I take a tin of soup and a sandwich, but ^ that is the usual.

Do you have a microwave? I know you aren't keen on leftovers but I do have those once or twice a week and actually freeze them so I am not eating last night's dinner if you get me.

How about beans on toast?

As for soup - nothing could be easier.

Carrot and coriander soup - chop one onion and garlic, fry till soft in butter or oil. Add 400g diced potatoes, 400g diced carrots, 3 sticks of celery and a parsnip along with veg stock cube and a pinch of chilli flakes. Cook till soft and add some fresh coriander. When cooled, blitz till smooth (NOT BEFORE - I once ended up covered in hot soup).

This is a favourite here with DH and I - though we use a lot more chicken, noodles and sweetcorn and use as a dinner but its very tasty - www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1869/chicken-noodle-soup

Actually I am a huge fan of the BBC good food guide.

I gave up bread, pasta and rice in the New Year so had to rethink my lunch at work.

I tend to throw a mixture of stuff together such as mozzarella, olives, cold meats, coleslaw, pickles and tomatoes. I sometimes take a couple of eggs and make an omelette ( or I take an omelette that I've made that morning and et it cold at work )

I usually have a yoghurt as a dessert, I rake blueberries and me long to work too but they have usually disappeared before 10am!!

These are great! Thank you! I think I need to get to grips with soup making. I don't know why I am so hesitant about it.

Yep, have microwave.

A couple of boiled eggs and an avocado. If I ate bread I would be asleep halfway through the shift.

Soup in the winter and a salad in the summer.

Being veggie I try and incorporate protein into the soup (beans or lentils). Make a batch on a Sunday and eat the same soup all week. Or once I get back into soup making I will have a couple of different types on the go.

Normally have a container of nuts and dried fruit, so I have something I can nibble on if I don't manage a lunch break, or are travelling at lunchtime.

I take hard boiled eggs as low carb snack

Soup is lovely at work,really filling and you can make batches and freeze in portions. Split pea is nice with ham or cauliflower sprinkled with cheese.
Buy some leakproof pots and grab one out of the freezer.

Cold sandwiches from supermarkets are made days in advance and full of salt and fat ,because they are so chilled they would taste of nothing otherwise.
I like:
Chicken and mango salad,shredded lamb and pomegranate,feta cheese,tuna and olives,ham and egg,prawns with feta and water melon.
Use a basic green salad and chuck one of the above in with it.
Drizzle of salad dressing and a handful of pumpkin seeds.
We are quite competitive about lunches where I work

Scrub butternut squash, microwave for 3 minutes to soften it. Cut I half and scoop out seeds. Cut squash up leaving skin on. Add squash and a large onion to a pan add a deseeded chopped red pepper and two pints of stock. Boil, simmer for 20 minutes the blend! I take this in with sandwiches or oatcakes and Philly.

I buy a smoke ham joint from LIDL and it does me all week in wraps. Tomorrow's will be ham, cheese, rocket and mayo.
I have saved a BLOODY fortune not going out to Tesco or the hot sarnie shop every day because I always bought additional, unnecessary junk food.

*smoked