To never know what to make for lunch?

[Florencemay0000]

DP would like to start taking a packed lunch to work
DD1 needs a packed lunch for school
DD2 is a toddler and needs a dairy free lunch
I am a SAHM and need lunch too!

All four of us have different likes and requirements, at the moment me and DDs end up with ham sandwich every day and Dh ends up buying something at work.

Help! There must be some option we could all eat that are also quick to make and cheap??

Please help me, I am so sick of ham sandwiches!

Fritatta! Like an omelette with sliced potatoes and you can put mushrooms/peppers/sweetcorn all sorts of stuff in. Nice cold and travels fine when wrapped in some kitchen roll.

Leftovers from dinner, salads (pasta or potato to be more substantial) wraps, soups

For packed lunches you pretty much have to stick to sandwiches/wraps.
If I make a quick lunch for my DP to take with her it would be something like a packet of cooked squid rings some cherry tomatoes roquet lemon juice and olive oil, combine it all and you have a cold squid salad.
For quick lunch at home, crosta and Mollica sell pre made pizza bases with tomato sauce already spread on. Buy a cheap pizza stone and put it in the top of the oven heat the oven as hot as it can get and make your own pizza. It will take about 8 minutes and it's a very very good home made pizza.
Even if it's just topped with some grated mozzarella it tastes great.
Birdseye bake to perfection prawns come frozen and you just need to put the bags in the oven for half an hour, mix with some 2 minute microwave rice and frozen peas for a simple long lasting rice and prawn dish.

dh likes to take a portion of leftover meal - curry, cottage pie, chilli, whatever
or a tin of soup (I am presuming access to a microwave here of course)

At home, I prefer something like egg on toast... poached, scrambled, boiled seems like 3 different meals....then there's 'things out of a tin', on toast (beans, spag, etc)....sardines on toast.... mushrooms or tinned toms on toast....cheese on toast. When I'm feeling a bit in need of a healthy day or 2 I might go for celery, carrot sticks, cherry toms with some houmous or even cheese spread. At home (if it's a day I'm out near a shop in the morning) nothing nicer than a thick wedge of some squidgy sandwich loaf or tiger bread with a chunk of cheddar, tbh.

Squid salad... Well in land of Midlands Aldi shopping chav's we eat the following:

DH (all from Aldi)
sandwich squares with pastrami, chilli Bavarian cheese & rocket
Squares with cooked ham pieces and tomato chutney or more cheese!

Me and toddler

• jacket potato
• beans or scrambled eggs on toast
• soup and half sandwich
• chopped ham, cheese, Apple, breadsticks and hummus

Packed lunch

• sandwich thins with filling
• homemade cake

I only buy nice fruit we'll all eat - again Aldi stuff is great. Get packets of crisps but kids only allowed once a week and let them chomp body weight in cucumber, carrot and hummus.

Trying to imagine my lot if I served up squid salad

Is there a microwave? My DP has a 'freezer surprise' every day. A small box out of the freezer that has leftovers from a previous meal in. Sounds rank I know! This past week he's had a roast chicken dinner, two pulled pork burritos (I hadn't mixed the boxes up enough!), curry and some kind of pasta thing that had been in the freezer a while.

Bonus is that it's not costing us any more other than a pack of individual freezer boxes from the pound shop.

Oh and a packet of crisps. They have to be amazing enough to cause severe jealousy with his workmates. Last week was the salt and vinegar 'fish 'n' chips', this week, bbq transformer-snacks. Although they keep pinching his wheels.

Can each person in your family make a list of 5 suggestions, so that you have 20 ideas and then you rotate?
An allergy I can understand but catering to each person's likes/dislikes is making a rod for your own back, isn't it?

Yanbu at all.

I'm always looking out for lunch ideas.

How old is DD1? My DH and eldest DC both have food flasks, they have all sorts in them ranging from soups to stews to pasta, corned beef hash etc., Batch cook and stick it in the freeZer. Lots of that type of food can be dairy free so also suitable for toddler and you of course.

It's a constant problem.

I never eat sandwiches as they never fill me up.

I usually take leftovers from the night before, or a huge salad. Add loads of chickpeas, lentils, nuts, cheese, chicken etc to the salad to make it filling. Not too leafy as it will go soggy. In winter I take soups, and maybe some cheese, boiled egg, Ryvita and hummus etc.

I find it useful to have snacky bits too - almonds, veg sticks, boiled eggs, apples etc. Good to munch on during the day.

Thank you some good ideas so far

I quite often take leftovers, either to heat up or to cheer up a salad. With roasted veg and stuff.

I make a lot of soups in the winter and take with a pitta bread. I very rarely take sandwiches.

I think we could do left overs for either me or dh on some of the days

I do soup Mon, Wed and Fri (batch cooked in slow cooker on Sunday night), something with fish on Tues and something with eggs on Thurs. So maybe salmon fillet (also nice cold) with boiled potatoes and peas, and then Spanish omelette. We have bread / cheese / fruit / random things from fridge with the soup.