Do you take your own lunch to work? Inspire me please!

[treacletart]

Dh and I are trying to cut down on outgoings and reckon we could save quite a bit by taking our own lunches to work. DH works 4 days aweek and spends about £15 a week on filled rolls - I work 2 days a week and spend about a tenner a week on delicious nutritious takeaway from fab vegecafe. I want to get our working lunch budget down to say £15 a week between us without compromising on taste, variety or nutrition. What are your favourite take to work lunches?

Cold leftover pasta mixed with tuna,pesto, sun dried tomatoes.

baby salad leaves, feta cheese, in a pita bread

Soup for heating in the microwave

In fact any leftovers can be tarted up with some grated cheese and a blast in the oven.

Cous cous with pine nuts and feta - I zap it in the microwave at work so the feta goes all melty.

Tub of salad with a pitta bread - we have a toaster so I toast the bread then stick the salad in it; sometimes I take a couple of falafels to whack in there too.

Leftover pasta or risotto.

current fave is cold cheese on toast with loads of salad

(sounds bleurgh but nice)

alternatively i like loads of crudite and dip (a tub will last 2 - 3 lunches so good value IMO)

I make pasta salads to take to work and bung in the fridge. Sometimes I have a slice of quiche & green salad. When the weathers not so good, I just take a tin of soup and a couple of slices of buttered bread with me and bing it in the microwave in the staff room.

Leftovers usually! THings like chilli or pasta heat up well.

Failing that, a salad with a pitta bread and some houmous.

Do you have access to a toaster? Bagels are good too.

Soup, sometimes home made, sometimes from a tin, with a couple of slices of bread

I sometimes make a salad of couscous on the bottom, with sliced chicken or tuna, egg etc. With cut up peppers, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, olives and then baby leaf lettuce on top.

Really fills you up and you can snack on it all day if you don't want to eat it all in one go.

Dh makes wraps with sliced chicken breast, iceberg lettuce, cheese and mayo- like healthier KFC!

We opt for sandwiches (dull but quick since we now have four (gulp) pack lunches to make of a morning) but with nice bread and nice fillings and/or soup (homemade). It's also worth having things like a fruit bowl on your desk and a selection of cereal bars etc to nibble on through the day (or maybe I'm the only one who eats constantly at work ). Means I can justify my one takeaway Costa coffee per day.

I always take my own lunch, usual homemade soup (from freezer) or if I make chilli (and the likes) I will fill a couple of small lunchboxes..

everyday I just grab a postion sized lunchbox out of freezer a couple of pieces of fruit and that's me done lol

Lots of good ideas here - keep 'em coming! Now how do you stop yourself from scoffing the lot before 11.00am?

School dinners are £2 per day where I live. I reckon I can do packed lunched for half that and often less.

Same goes for adult packed lunch.

AAaaaah now taking it frozen/tinned might help me keep my greedy hands off for a few hours! We both have access to microwave's etc

LOL at scoffing the lot before 11 am!

i take loads of fruit and crackers so if i want to nibble then i can

TBH by 12 i am ravenous - i eat breakfast pretty early tho

Eat a good, filling breakfast (porridge, banana etc)

I use to start my lunch at about 10.30! (breakfast was a cup of tea and a fag then )

I say if you want to scoff it at 11am then do! It's obviously when you're hungry!

Then take some snacks for the afternoon.

treacletart take a good snack to eat at 11am it will save your lunch. I find something like a mullerice very filling.

I will take the liberty of posting someone elses lunch ideas , I've never seen anything like this , its awe inspiring!

www.flickr.com/groups/laptop_lunches/pool/

Wow shiny what a brilliant link!! loads of ideas there!

I neeeeeeeeeeeeed a lunch box like that...

look what I found

I was googling it at the same time.... ooooooh i want some..... but that's quite a lot to spend on lunchboxes when Im trying to save my pennies!

I have just started taking lunch too. I am not an early breakfast person, so I have a coffee and something to eat when I get to work. So I was finding I was spending heaps of money buying breakfast and lunch - most going into the coffers of Pret. I was also getting bored with it, and worrying that I was having too much salt and bad fat. I would love to have lunches like the ones in shiny's link (amazing !!) but... I often just take whatever I have lurking in my fridge - some bread, cheese, cherry tomatoes, hommus, etc. The other day I was making some pita bread pizzas for dinner, and I just made a couple of extra ones for lunch - yummy eaten cold !

I take breakfast in too, as I can't eat before 8 o' clock in the morning. I usually take either porridge, a Rachel's rice pot with some fresh fruit or some bread or a bagel for toasting (I keep jam or honey or marmalade in my locker).

OMG shinyshoes that flickr pool...
Serious inspiration there I think!