Need ideas for lunches when I WFH

[MinnieMountain]

I’m stuck for ideas for lunches now I’m permanently WFH.

I prefer to batch cook for my 3 days so that I don’t have to spend any of my lunch break cooking.

Can someone help me please? Preferably no carbs and definitely no tinned fish.

Get a soup maker. You could make enough for 3 days on the first day. Unlike a pan and stick blender you can wander off and do something else. Also it makes velvety smooth soup.

I buy the 600g tubs of fresh soup from Tesco, 3 a week. Half a tub a day (plus a spare half for a hungrier day) and a roll and an apple. 3mins in the microwave.

I've started making minestrone soup for lunch - it does have carbs in the pasta but it's low calorie and full of goodness, plus it tastes better the next day so perfect for making in advance.

I'm really boring and make a roll in the morning when I do kids packed lunch, I do pre cut salad and make fillings up like tuna / chicken / egg mayo so it feels like I'm mixing it up a bit, or I heat soup / pasta then put in a thermos.

I make batches of various soups and freeze in soup&sauce bags. Things like veg and bean or tomato, pepper and lentil so they're thick. I have them either with some cheese or an egg poached in them (in the microwave so no extra washing up). Or heinz 5 beans.
I usually have some bread (homemade wholemeal or rye or oatbran flatbreads) but I do walk about 5 miles most days so I'm not as sedentary as full time wfh jobs tend to be.

Or a salad of some sort especially in summer.

I might also have some fruit/nuts/greek yogurt.

Frittata makes a really nice lunch with some salad or similar. I do a big one that's an onion, softened, and a couple of cloves of garlic, half a dozen eggs, about half a block of feta, and an entire bag of spinach. The spinach needs to be wilted first - put it in a colander and tip some boiling water over it, leave it 5 minutes, then squeeze as much water out as you can then chop it up a bit and drop chunks into the frittata. I cook it on the hob until it's starting to firm up around the edges, then under the grill til it's just set. If you let it cool then cut it into quarters, then pop a little bit of greaseproof paper between them it'll freeze beautifully. You can reheat it from frozen in the oven.

Mozzarella & tomato salad
Carrot & apple salad, with sultanas, nuts and vinaigrette
Dozens of soups - celery & stilton, french onion, cream of tomato
Scotch egg with salad leaves

I like smoked mackerel & potato salad, which I guess you wouldn't
Home made soups with wholemeal bread
Pate & toast

I'd struggle without carbs or fish

Not batch cooking but I do beans or scrambled eggs on toast. Done in under 5 minutes and a very filling lunch - but then I’m easily pleased!

Scrambled egg with vegetables eg mushrooms, peppers, wilted spinach.

Soup. Jacket potatoes (I do mine in the air fryer). Leftovers from the night before with additional handful of something to bulk it out (cheese, spinach, whatever you've got to hand).

I do a salad up in advance, per day 100g carrot 200g white cabbage, 5g olive oil, salt, teaspoon of salad. I then cook up 150g a day of chicken. ( or use up whatever random meat I have in the freezer). I usually prepare about 4 days at a go.

Lentils, tinned tomatoes, stock, and marmite/vegemite. Makes the best soup, I think it’s an old recipe from a vegetarian book by Rose what’s her face.

Paninis - in a frying pan or panini press - pesto plus cheese and meat. Tuna melt. Etc

Turkey/chicken mince mixed with paprika and garlic - flatten a small ball of it onto a wrap, then put meat down down in a hot frying pan. When cooked add lettuce/veg/sauce. That’s my favourite currently.

tray bake veg, I basically use my chopper to cube all the veg I have then roast it with oil and spices and just shovel that in to my mouth with a fried egg.

Shashuka
i batch cook the tomatoes/peppers base and then just scoop a portion into a frying pan, add an egg or two, and sometimes some avo/halloumi/feta
nice with a piece of sourdough but also nice without

I make batches of soup and freeze portions. Also I make a frittata at weekends with whatever is knocking around in the fridge. I make a fresh salad each day to go with either of them.

I usually prep salads at the start of the week, making 3 days worth at a time - these are some of my faves:

https://www.hrpfestivals.com/festive-fayre/recipes/detail/spiced-halloumi-chickpeas-with-black-quinoa-tabbouleh

https://www.instagram.com/melissa.hemsley/p/CNFMHMcHHuy/

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2018/aug/31/anna-jones-last-of-the-summer-salad-recipes

If you have a food processor it's so easy to make the slaw, no need to grate!