If you are at home during the day (freelance/self-employed/sahm), please tell me what sorts of things you eat for lunch?

[Earlybird]

I need some good ideas for lunch when I am 'home alone' with just myself to feed during the week. Far too often, I skip lunch entirely, exist on leftovers, or grab 'empty calorie' snack stuff, so am hoping some of you can provide ideas and inspiration.

So please share what you eat at lunch (when it is just you) that has
minimal prep time
is relatively healthy
tasty and appealing
isn't millions of calories.

Thank you. And my energy level and waist line will thank you too.

Pastrami and mustard sandwiches + banana for afters (about 400 calories).

Sandwiches, grilled chicken/tuna/egg salads, pasta, jacket potatoes, omelettes, cheese and crackers, soup, leftovers from the night before, finished off with some fruit or a yoghurt. Just your basic lunch stuff really. I can't be faffed spending ages cooking lunch, I always cook a good dinner so I like to keep lunch quick and easy.

I often have leftovers.

Soup, usually home made. But in Sainsbury's you can get Marco Pierre White Indian Chicken soup and that is totally divine, let me tell you. No idea about the calories .

Eggs feature in my lunches quite often because the rest of the family are a bit meh about them.

Bangtastic - is that what you call a basic lunch?! Can I come round?

chocolate biscuits cake oatcakes, cheese, soup, salad with half a tin of sweetcorn/smoked mackeral chucked in, fruit, peanuts. I never actually cook a lunch (unless I have friends here) or even make a proper sandwich, so it is usually something that can be thrown together.

Pilchards on toast.

Half an avocado with a tahini dip or taramasalata or mushroom terrine and lemon juice and slice of rye toast or pumpernickel or ryivitas, maybe cucumber slices and or lettuce. I also sometimes make a haricot bean dip; you know like hoummous which I don't eat.

If i've room i'll then have 2 or 3 pieces of dark chocolate. I don't count cals. I'm on the paul mckenna diet and the blood type.

1. Open a bag of salad leaves
2. Open a tin of tuna in brine.
3. dump tuna (without brine) on top of leafy green salad.

If I have time, and feel really exuberant, I might add a few cherry toms, or maybe some olives, or substitute the tuna for smoked salmon.

Mushrooms on toast.

Fry mushrooms in a tiny bit of butter then tip over a slice (or two) of toast.

Very quick and minimal calories in mushrooms so you can have a lot of them.

I make loads of soup from left overs / going off veg and freeze in takeaway containers. I take one out in the morning, so it's nearly defrosted by lunch then bung it in the microwave. If I'm on a diet, it'll be something like carrot and coriander or spicy parsnip. If I'm not, more likely brocolli and blue cheese or leek and potato (or low fat plus roll and butter). It's what I take to work too.

When I am at home I have a v small portion of pasta and a tom/veg sauce.

or a blt because I can!

Soup mainly. I got organised yesterday and made a batch of parsnip soup so I'll be having some of that for my lunch shortly. I never took/take soup into the office as it's too much faff but love it at home.

Im following Slimming World and try to avoid bread where possible. I try where possible to pre-plan the nite b4 by cooking extra pasta, rice or noodles especially for my next day lunch. I therefore tend to have lots of pasta. Favourites are pasta salad with half tin drained.. Then the next day have the other half of tuna with or without mayo over a potato 'baked' in the microwave. Or make big pot soup to last 2 days. Or fried rice cooked with low cal spray.

The microwave 'baked' potato was my best shortcut cooking discovery ever. Only takes about 5 or 6 mins to cook and you can keep your toppings low cal. Eg baked beans, sauté mushrooms (cooked in low cal spray), tin sardines in spicy tomato sauce is really lovely. And you feel like you've had a decent lunch.

All above easily cooked or prep'd in minutes....I have 4 kids so usually don't have much time to prep for myself. All done while ignoring the lovely bready lunch the kids having.

These are some good suggestions.

Seems I simply need to think about it in advance a bit more so I have ingredients to throw together an easy and appealing lunch. Guess i plan so much for all else in life, and don't plan for myself (or at least not enough - but isn't that simply part of being a Mum?).

Any other ideas are welcome.

Thank you for starting this - I was thinking today as I ate my bag of cheese and onion with pastrami and some bits of cheddar on the side that I need to sort my lunches out.

I do love tinned mackeral on toast and have that sometimes but then spend the next few hours burping fish on people.

Baked potatoes.

Put one in the oven fairly low at about 10 or 11am (depending on when you want lunch). I normally do it when I'm thinking about having a mid-morning snack. Knowing that lunch is already cooking stops me spending the morning nibbling stuff. It just cooks itself slowly. Add a bit of ham or sweetcorn or whatever you fancy and in terms of effort it is quicker than making a sandwich, you just need to think ahead.

In the time the kettle is boiling to make a cup of tea the potato is in the oven. I find hot stuff keeps me fuller longer.

Rice noodles are a good base as they only take 3 mins in boiling water (just a jug works). I like low fat cottage cheese and sweet chilli sauce, tuna and sweetcorn, chicken and sweetcorn, chicken and sweet chilli etc with them. Or I do a tin of soup with noodles in.

Jacket potatoes feature a lot when I remember to put one on, and leftovers hugely

Most of mine have already been mentioned:

sardines on toast
pasta with tomato sauce, or pesto, or 'fridge mix' e.g. broccoli/cucumber/peppers/olives/cheese/whatever else appealing we have in the fridge
omelettes
boiled egg and soldiers
cheese and Marmite toasties
salad with tuna, or egg, or avocado
sandwiches and veg sticks
spaghetti with olive oil, chilli and garlic

I am a SAHM with a fussy 3yo and a baby, so lunch is always a bit of a balancing act Because it's the meal we always eat together, I try and use it to introduce new foods to my DS. Success rates vary E.g. yesterday I made rice cooked in chicken stock with some of Sunday's leftover roast chicken chopped into it, served with broccoli and sweetcorn. He didn't eat it but I enjoyed it - v simple and tasty. Other times we end up having fishfingers and mash or something else of the orange food persuasion.

I freeze smaller portions of leftover stuff like bolognese and dhal, so there is always something to whip out if I really cba thinking of that day's meals.

Never cook,tis usually matzos spread with hummus,a bit of nice cheese and some cherry tomatoes, followed by chocolate biscuits

Big salad and tinned fish. I throw in all sorts of stuff that you can have in the cupboard - olives, sundried tomatoes etc, so it makes it a bit more varied.

will often keep back a portion of previous night's supper to reheat in microwave next day for lunch (means you eat less and have something to look forward to).

If no leftovers available: scrambled eggs/cheese/baked beans on toast with tomatoes for veg and a piece of fruit

or hummus and crackers/bread with raw carrot sticks/tomatoes

or sometimes just bread and cheese with tomatoes.

3 egg omelette with ham and cheese, baby tomatoes. Have low fat natural yoghurt with blueberries and strawberries for pud. Have same every day because it is delish and I don't eat bread.

poached egg on toast