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Food & Drink Packing lunch in advance

Discussion in 'General' started by DeadP1xels, 8 Sep 2015.

  1. DeadP1xels

    DeadP1xels Social distancing since 92

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    I've made the decision today to rethink my eating pattern. I usually have a cooked lunch at work with an overpriced fizzy drink and something else. This can cost me anything from £4-£6.50 a day Monday to Friday. This is clearly not cost effective nor healthy.

    I'm looking to pack myself a lunch from now on to save money and hopefully get some good into my diet. I don't want it to be a daily chore so i'm hoping to do MOST of it late on a Sunday into separate containers to take me through the week.

    I'm about to take a trip to ASDA to hopefully take that £100 or so a month eating down to £25-£30

    I've come up with a few thoughts about what i could get but i'm wondering if anyone has any smart suggestions or tips so i can buy in bulk to save continuous shopping trips.

    What i plan on getting currently
    - Large lunch box + 2 smaller nick back boxes for each day
    - Large bottle for water
    - Dried fruit & nuts (small box)
    - Grapes, Berrys, small fruits (small box)
    - Cereal bars
    - Cracker/Biscuit to last in a sealed box
    - Sandwich stuff i can prepare and freeze?? (looking for suggestions)
    - Apples, Bananas, Pears for the week. (bought on a sunday to last till friday)
    - Cherry tomatoes/ other lasting veggies for the week. (bought on a sunday to last till friday)

    Ideally i want to have to return to a shop for only a small quantity of items.
     
  2. theshadow2001

    theshadow2001 [DELETE] means [DELETE]

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    Cereal bars aren't particularly health as a minor fyi. The thing with a packed lunch is that you need variety. So just having some sandwiches, it will get old quickly, you won't be motivated to make them and you'll be back on the hot lunches in no time.

    Consider things like pasta or cuscus salads. You need to be some what creative which means putting more effort in than you would probably like. If you have access to a microwave, some left over dinners like a curry or bolognaise can be good too. I've been in plenty of factory canteens where a microwave facilities are made available to staff.

    If I was bringing sandwiches regularly, I would keep the contents of the sandwich separate from the bread. Then assemble it right before you eat it. This will afford you more variety and allow you to include something like salad with a lemon olive oil dressing, without having a mushy damp sandwich by lunch time. Also and mix up the breads you use. Sliced pan, crusty loaf or whatever floats your boat. You can buy bread during the week and freeze it, you can take it out the night before and it will be fine. I do this if I'm shopping during the week and plan to have some toast on the weekend as I don't normally eat bread at home.

    I doubt you could have a frozen sandwich. The best you could probably do is chop up things like onion, peppers, cucumber or whatever and store them in a bowl of water in the fridge. Although I've never tried that. If your dealing with iceberg lettuce, rather than cutting a slice out of it, peel the leaves off of the head and chop those. The lettuce will stay fresher longer this way. The outer leaves will wilt, but the underneath ones will be fine. Just peel off the wilted leaves, bin them, peel what you need and chop them up.

    There's no way this is going to be anyways close to convenient to what you currently do so don't completely cut out the hot dinners. Its no harm to take a day off from preparing lunches.

    But what do I know. I just go to the shop and buy lunch everyday.
     
    Last edited: 8 Sep 2015
  3. EvilMerc

    EvilMerc Minimodder

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    Make a load of pasta sauce (super easy, super cheap, better tasting) and use it throughout the week for work and home. Providing you have a microwave to use you can keep the boiled pasta and sauce separate and warm them prior to eating. Bring a couple bits of your preferred cheese to melt on top too, nom nom. (If you're feeling adventurous, that sauce is great for homemade pizza too, bonus points if you make the dough, but that's definitely something for home rather than work!)

    Chilli con carne (or bean chilli, just watch your flatulence after!) is great for keeping and reheating; make a big batch on the cheap, freeze what you want to keep and keep the rest in the fridge. You can boil up some rice for it, put it in a tortilla wrap, make enchiladas, whatever.

    In a similar vein to chilli, a simple way for something Indian tasting; fry up some chicken, or whatever meaty thing you want, with onions/peppers/whatever, spoon in a good glob of your preferred curry paste mix it up and put it in some appropriate stock along with a load of rice. Leave it for 15 mins and hey presto, curry kind of thing that is really hard to cock up. Just make sure the rice doesn't stick to the pot before it's all cooked, add some hot water if it does. Keeps well in the fridge, but not for freezing.

    Avoid cereal bars like the plague, you might as well have a chocolate bar.

    I'm unsure on your current lady status, but proving you can cook is definitely something to do!
     
  4. RedFlames

    RedFlames ...is not a Belgian football team

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    what do you have access to at work? kettle, microwave? neither? The ability to reheat things greatly expands your options. Some of the various things is took to work [where i had access to a microwave and kettle]

    Pasta/Lasagne/Chilli/Curry in a tub [curry/chili usually with bread as rice is a pain to reheat]
    Pho-like noodle concoction; kilner jar full of bit of cooked meat [leftovers from a roast normally], veg and noodles, stock cube and spices - just add hot water
    Pasta/Rice/Potato salads

    But I also ate 'junk' - be it pork buns from a local chinese cafe, whatever i could raid from the polish supermarket etc. etc.

    TBH as long as you don't get stuck in a rut of eating the same **** day in day out, you should be ok...
     
  5. theshadow2001

    theshadow2001 [DELETE] means [DELETE]

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    That's weird. Rice is full of water and should reheat well.
     
  6. DeadP1xels

    DeadP1xels Social distancing since 92

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    Thats my fear, i love food. I can't imagine eating for the sake of needing to do it

    I've become particularly bored of what my employment provide. because naturally its bulk food on a fairly regular rotation you tend to eat the same old stuff day in day out. Its one of the best examples of canteen food i've seen though.

    I've got some stuff together from the list above, I'm still looking for a 'main' section to my lunch i've bought stuff in order to eat little and often throughout my day. I've got a few variety pieces i can chuck in to spice things up

    My desk is the closest to the room providing facilities like microwave, kettle etc so i have that to hand whenever i want it. Another option is the canteen serving jacket potatoes and ones with spice rubs on them for a £1. That opens up the potential for maybe just bringing in my own fillings a couple times a week. Along as i can buy salad pieces in small quantity i guess that could be an option when cooking for the next day (chicken ceaser maybe?)

    Thanks for the suggestions chaps
     
  7. Strudul

    Strudul ~

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    I take a tub of pasta with tuna to work everyday. Can easily keep it interesting by swapping sauces / seasoning / veg.

    Alternatively, just make extra of whatever you have for tea and take that to lunch the next day.

    I also keep fruit / dried fruit / nuts in my drawers at work, as well as porridge oats and dried milk.

    Nip out to the closest supermarket during my lunch break to restock when needed.
     
  8. asura

    asura jack of all trades

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    Omelet in a baking tin works well - make up your desired mix, spinach tomato and goats cheese is a favourite - and do 6-10 eggs worth at a time. Once it's baked chop it into cubic inches or there about, it'll last for a few days in the fridge, or can be frozen.

    Another good one is diced black-pudding sausage and sliced smoked bacon... mmmmm

    Half an avocado (de-stoned) cling-filmed over the cut face is a handy spoon-able accompaniment.

    Roasted vegetables!

    Roasted nuts with sliced smoky bacon and a twist of herb-salt.
     
  9. Kronos

    Kronos Multimodder

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    All my working life I took sandwiches to work. Fresh made by me each morning. Never found it a chore, once you get into a routine making them takes no time at all. Added a yoghurt, fruit and nuts and usually bought a pint of milk at some point during the day.
     
  10. isaac12345

    isaac12345 What's a Dremel?

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    Another easy one is sweet potatoes and chicken with a quick cut salad. If you have an oven in your house, just get some chicken legs or breast, put some spices on it with oil and put it in the oven for 30 minutes. With sweet potatoes, peel em and boil em. They taste great! And for salad, you can always cut some tomatoes, lettuce and cucumber. You can do this the night before while prepping dinner. If you have a grill at work, you can let the chicken marinade overnight for even tastier results!

    Try to skip the fizzy drink. They are very unhealthy in the long run. Plus you could save around 15-30 quid assuming they are between 50p to 1 quid. Try to go for something else like tea, or yogurt with a sweet fruit of your choice like pomegranate,etc.

    Pasta and fish cans are another great and easy choice. But I am not sure if you can keep it frozen. Maybe you can make a salad out of sweet potato, tuna and your favourite fruit and veggies, dressing and freeze it. Give it a shot!

    Nuts for snacks are great. Or you can make your own bars like protein bars and have em with tea. Here's one - http://scoobysworkshop.com/healthy-inexpensive-meal-replacement-bars/

    Chilli con carne(vegetarian or non-veg) are also pretty good to freeze.

    If there's an indian shop, you can get some 'roti's made from wholewheat flour for cheap, and store them in the freezer. Same with wholewheat pitta.

    Make sure you mix and match hot food with cold so that you dont get bored. And buy some nice seasonal fruits to keep you happy, like in the summers go to some Asian supermarkets or shops and get pakistani/indian mangoes. They taste great with yogurt.

    But one last most important thing, dont skimp on good,nutritious and satisfying food just to save money. That's what you are earning money for after all.
     
  11. Guest-23315

    Guest-23315 Guest

    Its all about dining Al Tesco.

    Scoffing your £3 meal deal in the queue before you've paid for it because you don't have the time.

    On a more serious note, being in the City, bar a £3 meal deal, I'm spending £8+ on a decent lunch, which is an absolute rip, and I'm starving by about 4.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: 17 Sep 2015
  12. notmeagain

    notmeagain Minimodder

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    I used to spend £7-8 a day on lunch...
    it's stupid costly.

    My flatmate spends £4 a week on bread and fillings for their sarnies.

    Kinda puts things into perspective.

    What I've done:
    Tuna, Chicken, Beef - all offcuts from dinners the night before.
    Deliwraps, Wholemeal bread, Soda Bread, Sourdough - mix it up.

    My all time fave is the Med-Tuna wrap:

    Make a quick Tuna Mayo filling, pop in a sprinkle of basil, garlic powder, pepper
    Slice some pepper, some onion, some rocket, a tomato
    dump your salady formality on the wrap
    Dollop the filling in the middle of it
    drop on your sliced veg, top off with a basil leaf or two an a couple of sliced olives.

    Wrap it up like a burrito.

    Gorgeous, filling and cheap as chips.

    The filling can last 2 days, the veg can be used in other areas etc etc.
     

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