Easy lunch ideas that aren't sandwiches

[bumperlicious]

Hi

I'm starting to think that bread doesn't really agree with me, but I am stuck for ideas on what to eat for lunch. I need things that don't take lone, or I can't prepare the night before as I have a 6 week old baby and rarely get to eat my lunch without a background of crying!

Thanks in advance!

Second omlette, but third, fouth and fifth fritatta.
Particularly great the day after a roast dinner (if you have one) as a way to eat up all the left over veg. So easy, and virtually one handed if you are baby juggling.

Aitch, can i have your recipe for chckpea and chorizo stew? sounds yummy.

warm lentil salad
cous cous/quinoa with roasted veg
lemon chicken burgers wrapped in little gem leaves with grated carrot,tomato,spring onion
butternut squash or chunky veg or lentil soup
vegetable rissoto
baked garlic/ginger salmon & salad
roasted peppers & pesto pasta
bean burgers & salad
warm chicken salad with asparagus & pine nuts
quinoa tabbouleh in little gem leaves with chopped brazil nuts
brown rice sushi
tuna/egg salad nicoise
falafel & houmus & salad

Sounds delicious Lull but ... when my first was 6 weeks my dh made sandwiches for me before he went to work! Now I find oatcakes with various toppings (houmous / cream cheese / smoked fish etc) and a bag of salad thrown together with some sunblush tomatoes and pine nuts more realistic than risotto, much as I love cooking!!

Bumperlicious - I gave up bread after my last baby (22 weeks ago) due to breast thrush and haven't looked back. My PG looking belly suddenly shrank and I realised how much the bread was bloating me out

I don't touch it now but instead I eat:

oatcakes - with stuff on
ryvita with stuff on
hummous with salad
gnocchi
pasta
potato
salad with loads of things eg. beetroot (super food) avocado (another super food), olives etc, pinenuts

It took me about a week or two to work it out but it is possible to have a bread free life - there is so much other good stuff to eat

p.s. to save time I buy the ready washed salad and cherry toms, throw in some hummous, slice off some cucumber, throw in some pitted olives tec.

Takes about 3 minutes max

gnocchi takes 2 minutes to cook

Quick cook fusilli, bacon and sweetcorn in saucepan all at same time, add some sweetcorn. 5 mins its done.

Can you guess i like sweetcorn?!!
Only meant to put the first lot in sorry

oregonian, sweat the chorizo to render down the fat a bit. put the chorizo to one side and leave enough oil to sweat a large onion and some garlic.

then once that's done, add a load of smoked paprika (maybe three tsp), add a couple of cans of chickpeas and a good amount of chicken stock, to make it kinda soupy.

add either a bayleaf or a farcelet (?) which is i think bay and thyme and possibly something else tied in a cute wee bundle. i buy them in my local deli.

simmer the chickpeas til they're cooked, about 30 mins maybe?, mash them up a wee bit but leave about 1/2 intact, then put the chorizo back in to warm through, squeeze the juice of a lemon and serve with crusty bread and salad. i often put slices of roasted red pepper in as well near the end, just to 'up' the veggie quotient. i've also put spinach in and used butter beans instead, it's just a basic recipe.

at the end of the day it all comes down to the quality of the chorizo, if you can get good stuff it's amazingly zesty and yummy.

torilla wrap or wholemeal pitta - filled with grated cheese - 20 secs in microwave and a lovely melted cheese lunch.

oat cakes. Very easy.

Can someone tell me how to make fritatta please? (suspect it's really easy and I'm going to be horribly embarrassed because I don't know...)

farcelet?

quite amazing that in such a small number of threads, it goes from 'I don't want sandwiches for lunch' to 'how to make choick pea chorizo and farcelet stew'.

That is the beauty of mn.

Omelette

lol. i may have made up farcelet... it certainly doesn't come up with a google search. i presume they're some sort of spanish-y bouquet garni. but i wouldn't use a bouquet garni, iykwim? bay leaf does the trick, and thyme if you have it.

also meant to say, if the chorizo lets down a lot of fat, just tip it into an old yog tub and stick in the fridge to solidify and then chuck. don't tip it down the sink, oh no...

I find for both me and the little ones the best thing to do is include in weekly shop things that are healthy and don't need cooking that can be put together on a plate for lunch or tea, whichever isn't going to be cooked. E.g. cucumber, carrot, cheese, smoked salmon, apple, melon, sliced ham, bits of chicken, lettuce if you're really healhy, beetroot, anythinjg you like really and then just put any combo on a plate each lunchtime for whoever is around. It's quick, easy healthy and appeals to little ones too. Add pitta or wrap or leftovers if you like.Also great for picnics. Raisins...anything really, but the key is to have it all to hand for any meal.

You are all so fab and inspiring ... am I the only one who lives on toast, chocolate biscuits, bits of cheese, the ends of fish fingers, cold chips and lots of french bread spread thickly with lurpack ?! I'm never organised enough to do these vegetable based dishes.... I buy all the stuff to chop up and make into soup or dice and put into rice salad but never quite get round to it until it's all gone off at the bottom of the fridge.

my favourite favourite favourite quick lunch is stemed veg - anything you have handy but must include lots of garlic. And once they are steamed, chuck in some grated cheddar, mix it up, and voila: Cheesy Garlic Steamed Vegetables mmmmmmm

my heart sinks at the idea of pasta salad

I have never found a nice one

would love to be converted

rice salad also

if I'm good and have made a chicken stock I freeze it in little bits and then make soup of out if, fry an onion, fling veg in (whatever at bottom of fridge; once it came out purple)

whizz

Cappuccino, I LOVE pasta salad. What's in the ones you don't like?

i like pasta caprese, you know, basil, tomato and mozzarella and a good slug of olive oil and splash of balsamic. or a waldorf-y pasta salad is nice. basically i'm just adding a bit of pasta to a good salad recipe, though...

not much lilolil

mainly pasta

Thanks aitch, sounds delicious.