Quick, easy, healthy (non ultra processed) gluten free lunches?

[Mondaybluess]

I’m coeliac and I have healthy and tasty breakfasts and dinners down, but I STRUGGLE with lunch.

If I don’t have leftovers, all I eat is a boiled egg or a piece of cheese and an apple. It’s because I don’t have time to cook at lunchtime when I’m at home (wfh 3 days a week). When I’m at work, I take leftovers and make sure I have enough the night before. But don’t want to eat leftovers for lunch every single day of the week! (Plus not every dinner I make can be turned into leftovers. Baked potatoes, for example.)

Help!

Quick, easy, healthy gluten free veggie lunch ideas???

(I’m vegetarian. And don’t like gluten free bread, etc, because I’m cutting out as much UPF as I can.)

To add, because my lunches are so uninspired, I end up snacking through the afternoon too much too.

I would either make things that are fast in the moment like omelet or fried eggs, or cook something ahead specifically to eat for lunch only. For example:

• Make brown rice at the beginning of the week and use it to make quick Buddha Bowls by throwing on some tofu / eggs / avocado/ etc
• Make a pot of soup at the beginning of the week and heat up a bowl between meetings - something hearty like lentil or broccoli cheese thickened with potato
• Porridge with fruit and yoghurt
• Green salad with pre-prepared or easy toppings: potato salad, roasted beetroot, chickpeas, sweet corn

I often have a salad with chicken slices or tuna mayo, soup, scrambled egg with oat cakes (Nairn's gluten free), gluten free toast and avocado or a poached egg.

The ready-made frozen baked potatoes are good - they only take 5 mins in the microwave and endless options for toppings.

I'm not veggie but I'm currently GF and Low FODMAP so similar challenges. For work I've been doing either a batch of rice which I carefully cool, or roast small cubes of potato/sweet potato and cool them. Use them with salad + protein (for me chicken or tuna, for you presumably eggs or cheese or something else), with a (home made) dressing and some nuts or seeds. It's a bit tedious but it does the job! Fruit on the side too if preferred.

I'm always after ideas though for packed cold lunches which are tasty and healthy. Especially at the moment!

Sometimes roast some veggies with the potatoes; peppers or whatever.

Can I derail by asking you to share your ideas for breakfast and dinner since you have that sorted? I’d love to change my eating habits and like you I am a coeliac and would like onto cut down on UPFs.

Dd is vegi and coeliac. We make her poke bowls. So sushi rice, various veggi like peppers, avocado, cucumber, edamame beans, she has some sort of gf soy sauce or terriyakki sauce drizzled on, adds Quorn pieces for protein (fries them before hand with some nigella seeds and lets them cool down). Guess you could use tofu as well maybe.

she also takes soup in. Sometimes soup I’ve made or sometimes a carton/tub of soup from a supermarket.

gluten free quinoa with chopped up peppers and cucumber and pomegranate seeds. Chopped up fresh mint, drizzle over a little lemon juice and olive oil. Could add quorn or halloumi for protein. Or boiled eggs on the side.

Have some roasted veg and feta handy and tip in a pouch of cooked lentils.
I make soup most weekends with what's left in the bottom of the fridge and freeze a couple of portions. Defrost for lunch.
smoked mackerel salad.
quick rice stirfry with a fish or cooked chicken or ham.

I would go with soups in the winter and salads in the summer.

Soups can be batch cooked and frozen so you can have a variety during the week. i’d add dal into this category.

Salads more difficult as they can require quite a bit of prep but if you make a pot of dressing in advance that cuts down the time a lot. So do the pre cooked lentils/grains pouches.

Egg muffins / crustless quiche also worth a go, easy to make enough for 3 days, microwave for 30 seconds makes them a lot nicer.

Gluten free oatcakes could be a substitute for bread if you want to have cheese etc on something. And they are not too processed.

Ramen or pho but with rice. So cook rice the nice before, throw whatever toppings you want on top, a boiled egg, tofu, coriander, sliced spring onion, chillies, kimchi, whatever. Then I microwave at lunch time add some miso soup paste and boiling water from the kettle. It’s like a rice based soup in miso broth. I usually have with a plate of whatever raw veg on the side, sliced carrots, cucumber, radish, sometimes fruit like apple or orange. Very easy and portable.

Or what about a chickpea salad with feta, tomatoes, cucumber, olives, avocado, with some sweet potato or baby potatoes on the side for carbs. An easy thing to make in batches for the week.

Make a batch of mini quiches or savoury muffins and freeze them. Pull out a couple in the morning and they should be defrosted by lunchtime. Depending what you put in them, they could be a complete meal. Depending how many you make in one baking session, you won't need to make them very often.

Do you like polenta? It's quick to make in the microwave, and then you chuck whatever topping you fancy on top: grated cheese, tinned fish, pesto, whatever.

I make chia pudding for breakfast - chia seeds and cashew milk (the plenish one, which is cashews and water and that’s it) and then I add peanut butter, chopped nuts, seeds, chopped banana and whatever berries I have.

It’s absolutely delicious and I don’t get bored of it! And I get very easily bored of things!

I don’t even make it (much) in advance. I put the chia seeds in the cashew milk in a bowl first thing in the morning, stir it, then I go and ready for the day etc, and an hour later, I stir up (a lot) again and then add all the toppings. Honestly, it’s so delicious! Keeps me full until lunch and I feel very healthy.

For dinner, I do the organic food recipe boxes (I use Riverford) three days a week and, for the others, I have a bunch of faves that I rotate like dhal, chilli, tomato risotto, tofu stir fry, even just baked potatoes with cheese and chives.

I love all these ideas everyone! I’m feeling inspired!

Thank you @Mondaybluess I’ve just had a big bag of choc buttons for tea so this came at a good time to remind me I want to get into better habits!!!

I make a soup to last 3/4 days - using tinned tomatoes and beans and frozen veg and base mix ( onion celery carrot) and chilli or other spices - I make it in the oven rather than on the hob so it just gets on with it whilst I’m doing other things . I also make a frittata again in the oven with eggs cheese and something like frozen Mediterranean veg and maybe some harissa

Haha! That sounds pretty tasty, tbh!

Those pouches for rice/ lentils are useful - and while they're processed, I don't think they're UHP? I often roast tomatoes with garlic and a bit of oil and balsmaic (I use air fryer for speed), add a pouch of lentils and stick back in a for a few minutes to warm up then top with feta or goats cheese (are lentils gluten free? I assuem so but if not, rice would work).

I would agree ith the suggeestions re soup and lots of soups can be frozen in handy portions.

I also often do quick fried rice with whatever is knocking about in the firdge - but also use a pouch if I don't have any leftover rice.

Tortilla is good too - I recently did a lovely one to which I added peppers and bacon alongside the onions and potatoes and it fed me and DH at lunch for 2 days. I'm not going to lie though.... per a recommendation on here, I used tinned potatoes to make it less tedious to make!

You need to get on tiktok and search for 'dense bean salad' - loads of different combos and the idea is you make a massive one that sits in the fridge all week.

I'm also a fan of the lentil and grain pouches, you can eat them at room temp too, I just whack them in a bowl with feta, salad veg, any leftover bits and pieces.

Whenever I have the big oven on (use my air fryer a lot) I hunt through the fridge and just roast up all the stray veg, this is nice at room temp maybe with some rice stirred through or indeed one of the ready cooked grains pouches.

another fav for me is a microwaved sweet potato with quickly microwaved tomatoes and dollop of homous ( on the whole most supermarket homous aren’t too bad re UPF .. I’ve never made any that got past my teenagers )

I like to fry up some chopped tomato, onion, garlic and chilli for a few minutes, and some drained black beans and some water, cook for five minutes and stir through some chopped coriander. I like it on its own if it’s soupy, or if I make it thicker, with tortillas and some feta cheese.

I make a full batch of this on Sunday night
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/lentil-salad-tahini-dressing
and it lasts in the fridge for the working week.
I add different things to keep it interesting eg feta, different seeds, a poached egg - also chicken, bacon lardons etc but not for you obviously. You don’t need to make the tahini dressing if ut’s too much hassle. I mix yoghurt and lemon juice and it’s just as good!
You can eat it cold (probably better not fridge cold) or microwave it.

Scrambled eggs on smoked salmon instead of toast
Bean or lentil salad
DO an extra jacket potato when you cook them for dinner and have another day for lunch - I had half of one today with beans tuna and cheese and just heated for 3 mins in the microwave.
Avocado and tuna on hummus
salmon and broccoli fritatta - I make a big one and save a slice for lunch
Soup - I chuck stuff in the soup maker at breakfast time and switch it on 20 mins before lunch.

Corn tacos. I have them with roasted vegetables, feta, avocado, crunchy cabbage, hot sauce - whatever you have in the fridge!