It can’t be good for my health to eat Gregg’s or Subways or Tesco mealdeals every day? That’s all we have near work.
If you work long hours and have small kids at home what do you do? By the time my day is finished I can’t face the prospect of prepping next days’ lunch!
People who come to work with a packed meal how do you do it???
Any easy quick meal plans? Any healthy options I can buy over the weekend?
Anything quick and easy I can try to cook or pack if I’m not too exhausted?
27 comments
Homemade sandwiches or leftover pasta, or tinned soup
Shred half a lettuce up dressed with homemade big mac sauce, and some cold cuts. With a can of coke zero.
Lush.
(not UK) but in Germany the grocery stores sell premade salads with like 300-400gram mixed veggies, for 4-5€, I buy like 2 every 2 days because they stay fresh for 3…. Maybe some UK shop has something like that?
I bring in the ingredients and prepare lunch at work, which is helpful if you have that option. Microwaved sweet potato with avocado and feta, instant noodles with marinated tofu and veg, puy lentils with goats cheese and beetroot, etc.
Work 7 till 2/3 in afternoon most days I have banana and an orange some days I get sausage roll or steak bake if there if some left in shop,if I start early then I get sausage or bacon sarnie for breakfast.
I do bloody love a Tesco’s meal deal
Meal prep is your friend, I’ll cook lunch for a few days in advance, and overnight oats for breakfast takes two minutes the night before
I take leftovers when there are any or my SO makes us both a butty. After making almost every meal most of our married lives I’ve become fed up with cooking, no joy in it at all, so my SO has stepped up and now he cooks the majority of the time. He even makes my lunch, simple butty, but I can’t tell you how much I enjoy them. He is my hero.
Oatcakes and fruit. But I’m not doing anything physical by any means so I just need to tide myself over.
I make more than I need for dinner and stick some leftovers in Tupperware. Or I make a big vat of soup and bring that in with some bread. It doesn’t need to be as big as prepping another dinner. Couple of sandwiches is always great as well.
Any option to make an extra portion at dinner and bring it with you in some tupperware next day?
A friend of mine tends to make a whole week’s sandwiches at the weekend and then freezes them, though I’m not sure how soggy they end up.
Greggs sausage roll and a can of Special Brew.
We prep lunches for the week before our first day/shift. I do a 4-on, 4-off pattern. So on my last afternoon off I iron my uniform if it’s not already ironed and prep my lunches for the coming shifts. Realistically if you buy a meal day on the day of its use by date, it’s probably as old as when I make a sandwich and have it on my last shift.
Sometimes I make soups or hummus. Or if I make enchiladas or burritos for dinner, I’ll make up extra and take the leftovers to reheat.
Make it easy; tupperware box with piece of cheese [vary it, get different types and flavours from Boursin to Brie] – sliced apples or some grapes, oatcakes or chunk of bread [don’t bother buttering it], – vary the protein with a chicken drumstick or some cold cuts – a few tomatoes. So no actual effort except washing the tomatoes/fruit. Making sandwiches is a pain but this sort of ‘assembly’ lunch takes only two minutes to put together. And it’s healthy! [if you want to be unhealthy, add a small bag of crisps.]
I make lots of salad for lunch. Mix up the ingredients, get some protein in there and a lot of veg.
Batch cooking is also effective: a slow cooker is a godsend for stews and soups!
Just make my sarnie in the morning before work, grab whatever extras I’m having with it and go.
Tin of soup, noodles, or home made stews and soups. I take fruit for snacks. My work has a big cantered but the food isn’t that healthy tbh, it’s all chips, Pies and stodgy stuff.
Uncle Ben’s microwave rice pouch, choose a flavour from the selection in my cupboard, empty it into a microwave Tupperware pot thing, tip half a jar of sacla red pepper pesto over it, then chuck a packet of firecracker chicken in there too. Give it a stir and take to work, microwave on a medium setting for around 5 mins… don’t forget to take a fork !
Sandwiches / salads made the night before or sometimes leftovers. If we have stuff like pasta for tea, we always make extra so there’s enough to take to work the next morning.
I make a sandwich when I make the kids packed lunches the night before. If we have pasta for dinner, I’ll usually put a bit aside for lunch too. Only takes 2 minutes and is probably £50+ saving a month if I was buying meal deals every day.
I lost 6st whilst having a Tesco meal deal at least 4 days a week. I just chose salads and protein/fruit sides other than high calorie sandwiches and crisps.
However I agree that the healthiest option is probably to eat leftovers from home cooked meals or home made salads though
Sandwiches and/or leftovers prepared the night before.
Or make a huge soup and take portions for several days with bread or rolls or whatever.
I make my packed lunch in the morning; it takes five minutes maximum. I usually have a roll with an easy filling that travels well – for me that’s marmite. Other days I might have buttered crackers and marmite, or cheese and crackers, or soup (sometimes instant, sometimes I make a batch in the slow cooker at weekends. You could also buy it ready-made if you wanted,) or leftovers from dinner.
Plus a carrot and portion of cucumber, cut into sticks, and an apple or pear (whole, zero prep). Maybe some snacky things from the cupboard (usually ready to go, just need putting in a tupperware) if I have any and feel like it.
It’s less time and effort than going to a shop in my lunch break.
Get a soup maker. You’d have to chop a few ingredients but once you’ve whacked them in, set it to ‘smooth’ and it does it for you. Good way to get veggies in and you can batch cook too.
I make a week plan and cook enough to include leftovers for lunch. Sometimes they it’s lovely and sometimes they are bloody awful. I add frozen peas always because.
Sandwiches for me, sometimes made in advance and frozen, or just done the night before. You can also make a few pasta/couscous/rice salads at once?
If you have a microwave, you could meal prep a load of actual meals, or use leftovers.
Or on the weekend make a big quiche or something, to take slices of each day with some veggie sticks and bread?
I’d say the main thing is to either meal prep (potentially freezing the food for storage) fully, or at least partly, e.g. making a quiche in advance, so it’s just assembly. Or stick with something quick like sandwiches/wraps/pittas, though these could be frozen in advance too!
Remember healthy doesn’t have to be super complex! A cream cheese or ham and cheese or tuna mayo sandwich or slice of quiche/pizza/asausageroll with some cut up vegetables, a piece of fruit, and a snack, is a great lunch! As is just some feta cheese, pasta, tomatoes, cucumber, etc, all mixed up, to make a nice Greek pasta salad!
Leftover curry or just a box standard sarnie and crisps. Sometimes a meal deal