Pro - Does anyone else's nest boxes get soaked in rain?

[Chortle Chook]

I've only been back at work a few days and I'm already bored with sandwich lunches . What do you guys have for lunch at work and is it something you prepare at home? I desperately need some suggestions on how to spice things up in my lunchtime diet.

[soapdragon]

Dippy things...tatziki, hummous etc with pitta bread/crackers and crudites

Rice salad

Cheese and biscuits/oatcakes with walnuts and apple

Flask of soup

Pasta in a pot with....tuna mayo/eggy mayo/leftover roast meat etc

 

I have to do a packed lunch for ES (and sometimes YS) and its often hard to remain creative!

[Chortle Chook]

Oh I like the sound of rice salad and walnuts too as a change from apples

[Olly]

I don't eat much bread, so my lunch is usually based around rice, pasta or couscous, with peas or sweetcorn (I've discovered that you can add them straight from the freezer in the morning, and they are edible by lunchtime! ), with some chopped celery, tomato, cucumber or whatever veg is leftover from the night before. Add a bit of chopped ham, cheese, cottage cheese, bacon etc (I don't mean all of these at once!) and then some sunflower seeds or nuts; balsamic vinegar, hoisin sauce, mayonnaise etc depending on what's in the fridge. Yum!

 

If I've had a stew or pasta in sauce or similar the previous night then I'll take that in to work - we have a microwave but for various reasons I often prefer to eat it cold at my desk. And about once a week I allow myself the 'treat' of buying lunch instead of taking it with me.

[Daphne]

OH is on a diet of wraps at the moment, filled (and I mean stuffed )with either hummous or smoked mackeral and whatever is around from raw grated carrot, salad leaves, toms, cucs, raw sliced mushrooms, sweetcorn, chili peppers in jars, sliced olives etc. It keeps him going for much longer than a sandwich without the need to snack. Alternatively I do him a rice/couscous/bean salad with assorted fridge bits and often tuna. I've found that sesame oil is strongly flavoured so you don't need much of it and a bit of extra hot chili sauce or soy/miso will stop any moaning about blandness.

 

But as I work at home my lunch seems to be heated up leftovers from last night which is a treat, or a bit of old toast and Bovril or Peanut Butter, which is the norm

[Chucky Mama]

I do salads with dough balls and also noodle salad with lightly stir fried veg and some char sui pork or nandos spiced chicken.

[CatieB]

I often batch cook a soup and freeze it in soup flask size portions. (Quite often this involves using up the left overs from the fridge)

 

In the morning I fill my flask first with boiling water (this means the soup is at a better temp at lunch time) and leave it in whilst I heat up the frozen soup in microwave. I can do whatever flavour I fancy that day ...at the moment I have lentil and bacon, leek and potato, spicy turkey in the freezer.

 

Last weekend I did add to my lot with a new recipe; brussel sprout and chestnut with a hint of blue cheese. It was a yummy lunch on Tuesday but I suffered so much with the after effects I had to bin the other portions

 

Somehow I find soup far more filling even when it's full of relative goodies.

[Couperwife]

I often do last nights tea for the following days lunch (if that makes sense ) I just make a lot more

This is fine as long as you have a microwave to heat your food up at work, unless you don't mind it cold.

 

Pasta salad? Rice salad? Potato salad?

[newcountrygirl]

A salad made of bulgar wheat with some chopped onion, cucumber and tomato and some flaked tuna. A dollop of french dressing or some mint with balsamic vinegar is yummy.

[Lesley]

Next time you are near a sandwich shop pick up a copy of their menu! I've got one I've had for years and when I need inspiration I have a look at it, it's amazing how you can get stuck in a rut and not think of anything new.

[Space Chick]

I tend to have soups or stews homemade. Sometimes I'll have something like beans on toast. Or I'll often make a Puy lentil salad with herbs, tomato, onion and bacon. There are occasions where I will have last nights tea if I make too much risotto* or lasagne.

 

*if I have risotto it is always eaten cold like a pasta salad the day after due to the risks of reheating rce, particularly white rice.

 

I must have about 10 soup recipes that I vary between. I made a fabulous curried Puy lentil soup this week.

[chickencam]

We vary ours with wraps, I prefer the square Warburtons ones to the flabby pale round ones. We also have cold pizza, and sometimes pasties that we make a batch of hot for tea the night before and make extra for lunches the next day. You can also play around with other different breads and fillings, but it does take more effort, I am not a fan of the humble sandwich especially if it has been made the night before and refrigerated.

[kinsk]

Wraps

Chicken Legs

Frittata/tortilla/spanish omlette type things

Toasted bagels, can be done at home, then spread with salmon pate

Avocado and prawns, I cut in half, squirt one half with lemon to stop it going brown before lunch, leave the stone in the other half and seal in a bag and it will be fine for the next day.

Stuffed pittas

If you have a microwave at work mini squashes, or the bulbous end of a butternut squash, scoop out the seeds, season with black pepper and stuff the hole with chorizo and some cheese (gruyere works well) put it's lid back on and microwave for about 5 minutes.

[Chortle Chook]

Wow are you lot inventive Thank you so much for all your suggestions. Today I had wraps with a sort of Greek salad which was rather yummy. Tomorrow it's gonna be frittata - left over from tonight's supper (chickens are laying again ) and I'm looking forward to bulgar wheat, cous cous, risotto and puy lentil salad variations.

 

By the way, what is wrong with heating up white rice

[Space Chick]

Just made a Mexican Bean soup for lunch for me and OH tomorrow with another portion for the freezer for another day

 

Softened onion in a bit of oil, added some chopped jalapeños, salt, fajita seasoning, cumin, 2 tins of mixed beans, a jar of passata and a bit of water. Brought to the boil, simmered for 10 mins..... Cheap and tasty homemade soup done in the just a little more time than to make a sandwich, and quicker than walking to shops for a Sarnie Cheaper too no doubt (oil 5p, jalapeanos 40p, spices 10p, 2 tins of beans 90p, passata 30p..... So total £1.75, so about 44p a portion.... Bargain!)

[redhotchick]

I'm another who sometimes takes leftovers (or deliberate over catering!) to work the next day.

My standby is a Greek salad. 5 ingredients that keep well, feta, olives, cucumber, tomato and sweet pepper

Also Ryvita and low fat cream cheese, I have this instead of crisps when I feel like a snack, there's a fridge in work.

A treat for me is a piece of hot smoked salmon, a potato salad with a little horseradish in it and some cold green beans or asparagus.

Pasta quiche (recipe posted previously)

[Luvachicken]

 

By the way, what is wrong with heating up white rice

 

 

It's something to do with it being reheated and if not done for long enough or hot enough can produce a very bad bacteria that obviously is not good for us.

I can't remember the exact details but I'm sure someone will know.

[Geoid]

 

By the way, what is wrong with heating up white rice

 

 

It's something to do with it being reheated and if not done for long enough or hot enough can produce a very bad bacteria that obviously is not good for us.

I can't remember the exact details but I'm sure someone will know.

 

Rice contains spores of Bacillus cereus. These spores remain even on cooked rice. When cooked rice is left at room temperature, the spores produce bacteria. So, cooked rice must be put into the fridge within 1 hour and, when reheating, make sure it is piping hot throughout.

[Chortle Chook]

Many thanks Fred. I think you have just saved me and my dogs too from upset tum

[kazaddress]

I normally cook a little more of what ever i am having for dinner to have cold the next day

 

pasta salad (left over pasta with tuna / ham / cheese etc. stirred in)

 

Couscous/bulghar wheat salad (normally with peppers, parsley, feta, tomatoes, cucumber)

(I also leave couscous and packet soup at work for emergencies... empty packet into couscous and add water

 

Potato salad (potatoes, chives, salady-veg)

 

homemade soup + homemade roll (I made up the soups at the weekend, and decant into bags and freeze)

 

pitta and dips (pesto mayo, houmous etc)

 

french toast and pate (just thinly sliced bread dried out)

 

homemade falafel with pita and salad

[Chortle Chook]

Oh that sounds so good I think I'll have to invite myself round to your workplace for lunch

[chickencam]

I mentioned wraps in a previous post and we have found some lovely large ones in Asda and they are only £1 for 8 at the moment. They are great to keep in, tend be dated about 10 days ahead, freeze well and only take minutes to defrost enough to make into a tasty snack, and take up very little freezer space compared with a loaf. The Asda wraps are far tastier and a much better texture than the Mission ones, their cream cheese is yummy too and only 50p at the moment. We spread then with cream cheese then add some ham, cucumber sticks crunchy lettuce and spring onions. YD likes chilli sauce on hers.

 

I would just like to point out that I have no connection with Asda, I sound like an advertising promotion

[sadietoo]

I am soo lazy about packing lunches that I've decided to make it one of my "things" to do for Lent, because I really do find it a trial. I totally agree with the comments made by the the lovely Alice on her blog here http://thesightofmorning.blogspot.co.uk/ and some of the replies are very inspiring. I have googled "bento boxes" (a totally new concept to me, I know where have I been all this time...well not in London is my answer to that!) and there are some very yummy photos out there of achievable things which don't involve carving radishes. I do have a problem with leftovers because I live with a very greedy family who tend to eat up everything I cook even when I make extra for the next day but I will perservere. My initial strategy will be to prepare the lunches whilst I am preparing supper.... so on that note I'd better get on!

 

PS I can vouch first hand for the unwanted side effects of a rice salad I ate at a buffet once so I won't be including any of those in my repertoire Incidentally,as I understand it ,reheating the rice does not kill the bacteria...no matter how hot you get it, and you have to make sure you cool and chill it really quickly to stop the little blighters multiplying in the first place.....

[chickencam]

That is because it is not the bacteria that makes you ill but a toxin that they produce that is totally impervious to heat