Lunch ideas for work

[Recycledblonde]

I wonder if anyone can help. I've got five stone to lose and need some ideas for lunches at work.
I work 12 hour shifts with a 30 minute break but I can eat at random times during the day. A typical shift would be 10am to 10pm so need to cover 2 meals. I don't want to be tempted to head for the vending machine as that's just chocolate and crisps. There's no local shops that I can use so need to be prepared. No access to any microwave etc.

Buddha bowls
www.weightwatchers.com/au/recipes/healthier-bowls

For the earlier break could you bring something in a thermos food flask? I do curry, Dahl, bean chilli, laksa and porridge. For the porridge I have oats, milk powder and honey then top up with water from a kettle and leave to sit. I'm not sure how long it stays warm if done beforehand.

The rest of the meals are at the hotter end of eating temperature after 5 hours. I usually bring a bit of lime or lemon to squeeze over just before eating and sometimes a tablespoon of crushed nuts or whole seeds.

The problem is the only break that you can have away from your desk is the 30 minute one, anything else is eaten while working and we aren't allowed anything smelly or anything that has to be eaten with a fork, not entirely sure why as I eat something like melon with a fork so I don't get sticky fingers on my keyboard. My break tends to be later in the evening when I don't want anything heavy otherwise I'm really sleepy and have a 40 mile drive home.
Today I've done a mixed bean salad with tomatoes peppers, cucumber, spring onions and feta cheese, some greek yoghurt with a square of dark chocolate grated over it and a few raspberries plus a hard boiled egg and a few dried apricots to snack on. We'll see if that keeps me going until tomorrow. Hopefully it'll keep me away from the mars bars which I don't even really like.
Anyone want to comment/improve on it?

With those restrictions I think I'd look at a meal replacement for the second 'meal'.

Egg white crust less quiche:
500g egg white, 250g reduced fat cheese, 120g Self raising flour 720g skimmed milk, any veg.
does 12 portions approx 2oo kcal each (adjust this to your needs)
Cook veg. mix other ingredients
Put In two largish brownie or cake tins
Bake gas mark 5-6 (for quite a while but that could be my useless oven)
Cut, seperate and freeze in individual portions (I do this on a baking in a carrier bag then when the quiche &4is frozen take it off the baking tray and put them just in the bag so no need for individual bags or containers)
Either reheat in air fryer or microwave. Or get it out of freezer before work, just leave to defrost and eat cold
Great thing about this you can prepare a whole load in bulk then there is little or no prep when you come to use them

Tesco do some wholewheat wraps in the mexican food aisle that are only 100kcal a wrap. I wonder if you can use them to prep some burritos for the freezer. Otherwise they work great with everything from ham to chicken mayo (roast up a whole chicken on a privet so out of the fat, strip off all the meat and freeze in individual portions)

Ryvita? Pack some toppings (sliced cheese / cottage cheese / mashed avocado / mashed egg / sliced tomato / cucumber) and spread with a spoon.

Ooh good luck with the new healthy lifestyle (hate using the word diet!)

You can totally do it, you got this.

When I was trying to get into better shape and wanted something filling, low calorie and cheap I went for soup!

You can buy Heinz or make your own which is even better, but personally, I didn't have the time or motivation to do so!

Heinz lentil soup is really filling and Sainburys do some really tasty ones too. Sainsburys own.

Bring that along with some ryvita to dip or bread - it isn't that scary!

Sooo cheap for the week and you can mix it up with different soups. Just make sure they are more than just liquid. Something like lentil soup or vegetable soup.

Hope that helps! The goal is to have something nice and filling so you won't need to snack loads inbetween. Being hungry is not fun.

Pack a salad every day

I’m trying to have as little processed food as possible to keep my gut health as good as possible. It’s going well today, my salad is big enough to split and the boss isn’t in so can eat it at my desk.😀 Like the idea of ryvita as they give you a bit of crunch. I’ve eaten my egg and dried apricots so far and have resisted chocolate.