Any Suggestions for Packed Lunches??

Well I am new to SW and in desparate need of some inspiration for lunches to take to work. I am not based in one location and travel quite a lot which can make things difficult. Some of the offices I go to have a microwave but not all of them. Can anyone give me some ideas of interesting meals I can have, as I do rather have a lack of imagination. I am currently following the EE plan. All suggestions welcome, as one reason I know I fail diets is that I tend to stick to the same meals all the time so get bored very quicklyand I am detirmined not to let this happen this time around.

Many Thanks
Lori

Hi
I follow the green plan - ideas:
Mug Shots - Just need a kettle
Cous Cous Salad, Rice Salad, Pasta Salad can all be prepared the night before
Batchelor's Pasta and Sauce - Just need hot water and a microwave
Home made SW quiche - can be eaten hot/cold.
Hope this helps.
Irene

What about some cooked pasta with some sweetcorn and salady bits and some helmans extra light.

You could pre cook some quorn sausages and have some salad with pitta bread.

take a jacket for the microwave and a tin of beans, curried beans, bbq.

Take loads of fruit for if you are peckish.

You could bulk up some savory rice with salad and have that cold with a lunch box.

Make some homemade soup and take it in a lunchbox to heat or take a tin for a healthy b

make some sw quiche (recipe on the recipe thread) and have it cold cut into sqares with a lunchbox salad,

Thats all I can think of for now!

We only have a kettle at work (no microwave) and I'm not a big fan of mugshots, so we take soup with us in thermos flasks.

If we're being good we make soup at the weekend and freeze/defrost/heat up before going to work, or if we're stuck for time, just heat tinned soup up and stick it in the flask!

There was a brilliant recipe for minestrone soup (with loads of bacon in the Jan/Feb SW magazine) for EE - it's tasty and syn free!

Try making the quiche with a cous cous base which is in the recipe folder, it's really easy to make and you can adapt it to suit your plan. I mainly stick to EE so I put bacon, ham, onions, peppers, sweetcorn...whatever I have lingering in my fridge. It's totally free if you use the cheese as a HeA, 6 syns for half a quiche if you don't.
Take a muller light, with chocolate if you want as they're also free (except the Cherry ones - 2 syns) add a banana, strawberries, or mango etc depending on what you like.
Ryvita's and cottage cheese. You can use Ryvitas as a HeB if you want and LF Cottage cheese is free.
If you have a red day or EE how about taking some pieces of chicken or a leg etc...that's if you don't mind it cold. Maybe make a pasta salad and throw some chicken pieces in it, mix it with mayo and sweetcorn or some peppers....or both!!! Or you could do the same with some savoury rice and have a chicken and rice salad.
Don't forget you can make pasta sauce and savoury rice in the microwave if they have a bowl or put it in a tupperware container and make it in that using the lid instead of cling film.
Theres a lovely quick and easy recipe for Chinese chicken and sweetcorn soup in the recipe folder too. It only takes 5 mins so long as you have the chicken already cooked, I used left over roast chicken pieces. Either take it in a container to warm up or in a flask. It's completely free too so long as you use chicken bovril to make it, but if you don't one oxo cube is 1/2 a syn which is low anyway.

Pm me if you want a chat or help

I did my pasta n sauce in a food flask during the week. Just add boiling water about 10 minutes before you want to eat it. Put the lid back on an 10 minutes later - hey presto. You don't need as much water as when you do it in the microwave or pot though.

I do cous cous in a similar way - put in tupperware box, add water, replace lid and wait 5 minutes. I add halved baby plum tomatoes and sometimes some chopped dried apricot.

I sometime make up a roll in the morning using frozen roll/bread - it defrosts over the morning and helps to keep the filling fresh. No more smelly egg!

Extra easy recipe for soup in a flask

Make the following soup in a large quantity in advance, it keeps really well in the fridge for days.
Just heat it up in the microwave before you go to work and fill a thermos flask.
It's great for stopping sweet cravings too so you could have it instead coffee and biscuits/cake at break.
I'm sure that this soup has helped me lose 1.5 stone so far on the Extra Easy SW diet by tackling those sweet cravings particularly at the PMT time!
It's free on extra easy and green. Give it a go.
Sainsbury's sell cheap sweet potatoes in their prepacked "basics" range so it's economical too.
I like Finn Crisp original thin crispbread with mine (5 are a healthy extra on Extra easy or 1 syn each).

The Recipe:

3 sweet potatoes to 1 of potato to 1 of onion, peeled and chopped

garlic optional crush and chop

1 chicken oxo cube or chicken bovril see jar (can add 1 veg. oxo cube too if you wish but oxo cubes count as syns although minimal for the quantity of soup you are making)

1 - 1.5 litres of boiling water (trial & error re. thickness you prefer. Start thick as easier to add more boiling water to thin it which can also be done after soup has been cooled)

Bring to boil and simmer for about 20 minutes
Then blend with a stick blender.
Enjoy!

Wow!!!! What fanstastic lunch box ideas. I would never have thought of most of these. There is not one thing that has been suggested that I would not enjoy. Thanks very much everyone!!

Lori x

Lori forgot to blend the Sweet Potato soup!

Hi Lori, sorry but I forgot to add that at the end of cooking blend the soup (I have a stick blender which is easier).

I sometimes make a frittata with salad potatoes, onions and tomatoes (I have been known to use tinned potatoes). Do them in frylight, then add beaten eggs, and when the bottoms set, shove it under the grill to do the top. I love slices of this cold.

Bumping up more lunch ideas!

Thanks for finding this Princess Sausge

WOW, would never have thought pasta n sauces would work like that. Nice one!

With ref. to the blending of soup - does it not gain points if you blend it?
Take fruit for example, it's free, but if you turn it into a smoothie it then has points. Apparently it's something to do with the science of food optimising. So if you blend soup does the same theory apply?

Blending soup

There are other soup recipes in the various SW books and mags which say blend the soup and are free on Extra easy. I have now lost over 1.5 stone whilst regularly having my Sweet Potato soup so I don't think it is a problem. I have also tried out a couple of recipes from the books etc. Soup is filling whether it is blended or not so it is a great "diet" food.