Lunch to take to work

[MeadowHay]

DH and I have become one of those poor, young couples who still spend way too much money on lunch when we are out at work due to poor organisation on our part. DD is 15 months and as first time parents to a 'high needs'/ 'spirited' whatever you want to call it baby, it has been hard for us to adjust and focus on looking after ourselves and our finances. But we really can't use that as an excuse anymore because she is doing much better now and generally in bed by 7-8pm on a night. I do tend to go to bed around 10pm most nights so it doesn't leave ages of time once we've tidied up etc but there is still time to spend 10 mins making our lunch and then once a week spending 30 mins on an online shop to make sure we have the stuff!

So help me get a grip on this please as on my tiny single wage and a bit of a student grant and then a bunch of benefits, we really shouldn't be squandering our money like this, we should be saving to buy a house or a car or something important!

We are vegetarian but not fussy eaters otherwise. What do you do for your lunches? How do you stay organised, do you plan a week in advance each week? What about vaguely healthy snacks too? As I can't just eat a sandwich alone for lunch, atm I need at least a sandwich, crisps, and an apple but that's boring every day. Plus I have a mid morning and mid afternoon snack. And DH would need an even bigger lunch lol.

There is no reason to buy ready meals, expensive, not very nutritious and not very filling.

Sunday: big brunch and then roast dinner (make enough for leftovers)

Monday: Wrap/sandwich for lunch with fruit and yoghurt/crisps. Leftovers reheated for tea.

Tuesday: soup and crusty bread for lunch. Pasta bake for tea (make enough for leftovers)

Weds: pasta bake leftovers for lunch. Stir fry for tea.

Thurs: soup and crusty bread for lunch. Fajitas for tea (make enough for leftovers).

Fri: wraps with fajita filling and salad for lunch. Fakeaway for tea (see pinch of nom site)

Saturday: batch cook soup for coming weeks lunches (can freeze in portions) and have for lunch or beans on toast. Tea: lasagne or pie and chips

I make buddah bowls. I have mine at lunch then make an extra portion for my teen daughter to take to school. Here are some examples :

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/collection/bowl-food

Also, I do Mason Jars. I will make enough for 3-4 days of a weekend. These are great if you can't reheat at work. Again, here are some ideas:

www.google.com/amp/s/www.simplemost.com/13-make-ahead-ridiculously-good-lunch-jar-lunches-arent-salad/amp/

But a Google search of these will bring up tons of ideas / recipes. I find pintrest really helpful too.

Our dinners can be

*frozen curry and basmati rice, fried with ginger turmeric lemon zest paste. I make a lot of different curries from scratch, pastes and all. Vindaloo, kerala, South African, Thai green curry (jar paste the only one I buy) tikka Masala, green coriander curry mmmmm. All made with quorn chicken (husbands preference), loads of fresh veg and beans. I have madhur jaffrey curry bible. Curries served with pilau rice, plain rice, ginger as mentioned, peas pilau rice, yellow rice. Or fried potatoes with seeds, which are delicious. we cook double batches of rice and always freeze half. Oh also dried ginger potatoes

*potato wedges sausage beans

*red pepper pasta sauce from freezer. Cook pasta reheat sauce. Add griddled sausage or chicken to taste. Can provide full recipe if you want it

*husband pasta sauce freezer, quorn mince etc. Lazy garlic bread made from old stale slices of bread frozen, toast in toaster and butter with garlic butter. I keep a tub made up in the fridge.

• fujien noodles

*hangover noodles

*other noodle dish, few actually

*laksa from freezer with veg chicken spice served on top of rice noodles

*homemade pie and chips and green beans

*quorn pies, hassle back potato, asparagus, gravy

*Singapore noodles. Noodles often topped with sliced soy omelette

*minestrone soup

*champ, sausages, mashed carrot parsnip

*baked bean lasagne

*homemade sausage rolls, spicy wedges, fried egg /fried patties leftover sausage mix

*mulligatawny soup

*crispy fried egg and toast

*curried rice and tofu or omelette chicken etc

*Sausage casserole

• all dishes packed with veg. Today's minestrone had courgettes, onion, carrot, peppers, celery, haricot beans and chickpeas

*very lazy option is tinned tomato soup with cheese toastie

• pizza from freezer

My lunch / dinner meal plan (we are a family of vegetarians)

Monday: (L) Bagal with cream cheese & Grated Carrot.
(D) cheats paella (olives, peppers, artichoke, sundries toms, lemons) with crusty baton & vegan butter.

Tuesday (L) Made pizza with the kids using pre bought bases, Tom puree and leftovers from the paella ingredients.
(D) Homemade Veg curried Pie with steamed greens

Wednesday: (L) falafal, hummos & halloumi with quick salad
(D) Veggie Black bean chilli with home made tortilla chips.

Thursday: (L) Vegan kebab mix with flat breads, salad & vegan cream.
(D) quick tofu stir fry with shop bought sauce (usually buy the £3 stir fry meal deal for this one.

Friday: (L) left over stir fry. Noodles & Tofu bowl.
(D) Enchiladas using old el paso or store version. Butternut squash & black bean for filling. Home made guacamole & any left over salad.

A tip would be to food plan your week Before doing your online order. Then only buy what's on ingredients list.

I food prep on a Monday morning when my food order gets delivered. By this I mean I chop all the veg and put them in containers. Saves a lot of time thought the week when you just want to get dinner on the table. I've attached a pic of my contains in my fridge.

Although they can be expensive long term, have you considered using a food subscription. There are good deals for new customers, just make sure you cancel before they gi full price. I use them on & off as they often ring me with good offers, eg £10 off your next delivery. I've got some good recipes off them, I keep the card and just reorder the ingredients in my weekly online shop. They are usually quick and easy to prepare and have given me lots of recipe ideas / inspiration. Pm me if you want me to point you on the right direction when it comes to meal kit subscriptions.

Aw, thanks everyone! You have all been so kind and helpful. Apart from the poster whose only comment was to ask why I sometimes make lunch for DH as well as me but that did give me a good giggle too...

Meal subscription service actually sounds like it might be helpful too, will PM you sometime. Loooove all this ideas. I make some of the recipes from the Quorn website, curries, pad thai, sausage casserole etc. A lot of the recipes take too long though if we've been out somewhere on the weekend or if I've got DD alone on the other weekday (she won't really tolerate being in the play pen longer than about 15/20 mins and I don't like to leave her crying for too long). Pre-prepping veg would save time in cooking though, good idea. I might actually suck up the cost and buy pre-prepped veg though because it just takes out a step, time is at a premium for us. I am trying to use more frozen veg for convenience and so there is no waste, I'm never sure how to alter a recipe to account for frozen veg instead of fresh though?!

I need to follow this. Going back to work and I find meals overwhelming

Pink Are you going back to work from mat leave?

So, Wed lunch box was a sandwich of white bread with Wensleydale and cranberry cheese + a few Quorn cocktail sausages + an apple + a packet of crisps. Does that sound like loads? I feel like I eat way more than everyone else at work but my BMI is right at the bottom of the healthy range like on the cusp of being underweight . Then I had a Kitkat chunky as my afternoon snack. I think Wed was the day I ended up buying a coffee and a pastry before I went to work though so kind of cancelled out any lunch savings but won't be doing that again any time soon...my dinner was a peanut butter sandwich and DH and DD had tins of soup with toast, cucumber sticks and fruit yoghurt for DD too as she would hardly eat anything. She's being funny with her food atm, dunno if teething or unwell or constipated or what...

Thursday mid-morning snack was a chocolate Brunch bar, lunch was peanut butter sandwich on toasted white bread + little chunk of leftover Wensleydale and cranberry cheese + crisps + apple. Afternoon snack was again a Kitkat chunky. DD and DH had a curry for tea at DM's and my tea was an Uncle Ben's curry pot.

Didn't realise til I wrote it down how AWFUL my diet is atm. One step at a time though.

My Asda order came last night so we actually have some food in the house now and today is my day off with DD. Don't think DH made himself lunch to take to uni today though .

Sounds like your doing really well. Don't worry about the coffee and pastry, maybe learn to carry an extra snack or two in your bag as default. I get these little flapjacks from Tesco 64 calories and they are really cheap.

I've tomorrow's breakfast and lunch made. Breakfast is bran flakes topped with leftover flapjack crumbs, ss milk. Lunch and the rest of the day is 2 round of sandwiches, banana, orange, 2 banana flapjack bites. I won't eat it all but its better for me to have a choice. I need a lot of food to keep me going on the shift like I'm working tomorrow. I take my water bottle as well. Don't worry about having too much food especially if you're underweight. Your choices could be a bit healthier but you're taking one step at a time. You could try just making a healthier choice once or twice a day. Whatever you feel happy with. Just don't put yourself under pressure. I have ocd so I'm almost ott on being organised but it's the only way I can manage things. Otherwise if I leave stuff to the last minute, I make poor unhealthy expensive choices. Perhaps you could make an agreement for you and oh to go out for dinner or lunch in x days, if you manage to stay within packed lunches and no expensive food purchases (or whatever goal you set yourselves). If you work out how much you will save by not purchasing while out, then a cheap meal out and you will still have saved a lot of money. Make sure your don't feel deprived xx

Can't seem to post a photo. Google Tesco summer fruit cereal bars. 67 calories each, tasty and not that unhealthy as a bottom of the handbag emergency snack 🍪 89p a pack of 5 so 18p each compared to your pastry at £however much they cost 😂 🥰