[Closed] Work Lunch - Sandwich Alternatives

What facilities do you have? Kettle presumably? Microwave?

Yep, kettle, microwave and dodgy toaster! Occasionally take left overs, but want inspiration for regular healthy alternatives. Tired brain gets stuck in sandwich or salad state.

Salad with cous cous and some eggs? Then a huge bar of choc to make up for the overdose of healthy. I work from home and have same problem!

Do you (or someone) cook evening meals? If so, make a bit more than needed and build a supply of left overs.

Ask some colleagues and arrange a spit roast.

Lots of microwave alternatives, eg curry with no ride (healthier that way). Summer is here so salads inc with bulgar wheat etc.

Fresh soup cartons but most especially........

Glorious Skinny Soup - Goan Tomato and Lentil

Nutella pancakes, not exactly healthy but make sure carb stores are well topped up for evening ride 😀

cheese n toast

Fresh soup could be a winner. Cous Cous and egg salad sounds good too. Any kind of roast would require a digestion nap, not sure the boss would go for it

Probably old news but I've just discovered eating your butties at your desk is "al desko".

CaptainFlashheart - Member
Ask some colleagues and arrange a spit roast.

funkmasterp - Member
Any kind of roast would require a digestion nap, not sure the boss would go for it

Well, you'll never know until you ask her.

Aldi Specially Selected Vine Tomato & Lentil Soup winner of gold medal in the grocer food & drink awards.
[img] [/img]

Well, you'll never know until you ask her.

He's a big fella, you can ask him 😉

Not sure that this will inspire anyone, but my default is:
Pour half a pack of Ainsley Harriet's finest couscous in bottom of Tupperware; cover with boiling water, go away and do something else;
Come back and fluff up couscous;
Pour half a tin of chickpeas on top;
Mash a tin of salmon on top of that.
Not very exciting but piece of cake to make, reasonably filling and inexpensive. Your welcome 😉

fluff up couscous

#peakSTW

Pie
Sausage roll
Pie
Sausage roll
Pie and sausage roll

A week's worth of ideas there for yer

Cooked some chicken last night, marinaded it with some Tikka (homemade) dressing. Add some salad, microwave the chicken and makes a nice healthyish change 🙂

Ask some colleagues and arrange a spit roast.

Cream pie for afters 😉

Pie
Sausage roll
Pie
Sausage roll
Pie and sausage roll

A week's worth of ideas there for yer

It's okay I guess, but I think Tuesday should be a pastie day

Attempted sneak edit to pasty failure. Shakes fist at flashy

fluff up couscous
#peakSTW

I think Tuesday should be a pastie day

While eating a pasty?

microwave rice and a jar of sauce and add veg. My favourite easy dish probably go for 250g of brown rice, 1/3 a jar of uncle bens chilli and add 1/3 tin of garden peas and 1/3 tin of kidney beans, chuck some lettuce in as well for good measure. It's a massive portion and usually only about 600/650 calories. add in some fresh chilli or chilli flakes if you want spicier.

get 3 days if you buy 3 packs of rice, bit much doing that every week though. need to mix it up.

Baps
Buns
Huf****s
Stotties
Baggettes.

Probably old news but I've just discovered eating your butties at your desk is "al desko".

Eating them on the sofa with one hand tucked in your pants is 'al bundy'

Eating sandwich is like eating cardboard stuff with plastic sheet of artificial meat. They are so disgusting even the homeless people don't want to eat them ... every evening my local charity would provide food for the homeless people in the city centre and non of the homeless people even want to take a look at them sandwiches.

Nowadays my lunch is Gregg or local chip shop or Milligans or I starve ... the rest are not worth eating or simply too expensive. I mean I cannot even buy a hot meal for less than a £5 put it this way.

The street food I ate in the far east are considered artisan gourmet restaurant food here ... if you want to eat them here, you get charge an arm and a leg for that. Minimum £10 meal. 😡

Couscous with smoked mackerel

Couscous with left over lamb/beef/chicken

Rice, beef, broccoli and a splash of teriyaki sauce

Chickpeas, tuna, beetroot, sweet corn and balsamic vinegar.

Morrisons salad box (£1) with either a tin of mackeral or some turkey slices. Either that or you can do their meal deal thing to get a three quid sushi box, two and half quid's worth of coconut milk and something else (fruit pot, crisps or chocolate) for three quid. It's a steal! It's a deal! It's sale of the etc

Subway tuna salad bowl every day for me. Club card points mean a free lunch every couple of weeks, 10p extra nabs a Pepsi max too.
Jalapeños/pickles/olives/hot chilli sauce keeps things tasty.

Subway [s]tuna[/s] any salad bowl every day for me. Club card points mean a free lunch every couple of weeks, 10p extra nabs a Pepsi max too.
Jalapeños/pickles/olives/hot chilli sauce keeps things tasty.

This.

Maybe the easiest starting point is to make better sandwiches?

Wang some of this in your Tupperware.
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Along with some of these...

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And some of this...
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And a good dollop of this...

[img] [/img]

Or variations of...

Google home made pot noodle.

I use whatever I have, grated carrot, courgette, peppers, chicken and prawns etc.

Always make a base sauce with stock cube, sesame oil, Chinese five spice and sriracha.

Cup of hot water and 2 mins in micro. Then cover in lime, coriander and sliced chilli.

Amazing.

Am i the only person whose lunch time diet is decided purely on the basis of the yellow stickers in the supermarket?

The thought process is purely, "hmmm what's less than a quid" which produces a varied diet of salads, soups, sandwiches, microwave meals or pastry products

I batch make food on a Sunday to eat for the week. Current favourite is a tomato rice type affair that has been adapted over the years but is basically:
Browned onions
Mince - turkey is leaner, beef is tastier
Chopped leeks
Mushrooms
3 cans of chopped tinned tomatoes
Whatever herbs I have kicking around the kitchen
Cup of brown rice
2 stock cubes
Hot sauce
Bit of water if it seems too thick.
Throw all in pig pan, simmer for 40 minutes to cook the rice, cool and put into pots or bags for the week.

Dirt cheap, tasty and filling. Tastes better warm but is fine cold if needed.

Sorted.

Cold cous cous or pasta salads until the autumn.

Sweet potatoes take ~6mins to cook, unless they are monster sized.

Job Jobbed.

[img] [/img]

We have the same set up as you OP (although our microwave is also dodgy) and I pretty much live off beans on toast, and occasionally scrambled egg on toast.

I can't be bothered carrying too much food to work on my bike so I do a weekly shop at the tesco in town and keep it at work.

Not high class, but it does the job and is very cheap. Plus you can adjust the volume of toast or beans depending on how hungry you are.

Beans + chicken/fish + rocket

Beans = borlotti, pinto, kidney, black eye, cannellini, butter, chick peas, lentils (no sauces)

Fish = mackerel, tuna, sardines (no sauces)

Nagas if you like spice

Eat as much as you like no cooking required

Black spaghetti, cherry tomatoes, feta cheese and basil leaves. Crusty bread with it is good. Cook spaghetti the night before, stick it ina a plastic box and coat with olive oil keeping it edible for next day's lunch
Lidl do black spaghetti from time to time, stained with cuttlefish ink and has a slightly seafoody taste.
Not only delicious, but looks utterly vile.
[img] ?ver=6[/img]

Throw all in pig pan, simmer for 40 minutes to cook the rice, cool and put into pots or bags for the week.

You want to be a little careful with this, you can get surprisingly potent food poisoning from reheating cooked rice. You need to make sure it spends as little time as possible lying around at room temperature, and make sure that it's properly reheated.

Not sure that this will inspire anyone, but my default is:
Pour half a pack of Ainsley Harriet's finest couscous in bottom of Tupperware; cover with boiling water, go away and do something else;
Come back and fluff up couscous;
Pour half a tin of chickpeas on top;
Mash a tin of salmon on top of that.
Not very exciting but piece of cake to make, reasonably filling and inexpensive. Your welcome

That's pretty much one of my non-sandwich work lunches too. But usually substitute salmon with tuna/mackerel/sardines in tomato sauce. Also savoury rice/beans/chicken works well.

Eating sandwich is like eating cardboard stuff with plastic sheet of artificial meat. They are so disgusting even the homeless people don't want to eat them

Nowadays my lunch is Gregg or local chip shop or Milligans or I starve

This is a joke, surely.

I guess it depends what you put in your sandwiches but mine don't taste of cardboard and plastic. Homeless people would love mine, even the fussy ones 🙂

Aldi Specially Selected Vine Tomato & Lentil Soup winner of gold medal in the grocer food & drink awards.

But that requires going to Aldi. The noise, my dear, and the PEOPLE!

Cougar - Moderator 
You want to be a little careful with this, you can get surprisingly potent food poisoning from reheating cooked rice.

Quick cool and freeze.

The danger is if you leave warm rice sitting around at room temperature for a while which allows the bad bacteria to form. Even in fridge or frozen, and subsequently cooked, the bacteria survives.

Cooled and frozen fast enough and it will be okay. Wouldn't leave in the fridge for more than a day though.

Though it depends if the problem bacteria spores are present in those grains of rice.

Some top ideas for next week, thanks everyone. Never thought of doing a week's shop and leaving at work, genius suggestion.

Today's lunch was a greasy pasty. Had a meeting just after lunch and the paperwork suffered from dirty, meaty fingerprints

Never thought of doing a week's shop and leaving at work, genius suggestion.

Your workmates will thank you! If they are anything like mine, your shopping will be gone by Wednesday.

There are only four of us in the office on a regular basis so food shouldn't go missing. I'm usually the first in and last out too

Gary_M - Member
This is a joke, surely.

I guess it depends what you put in your sandwiches but mine don't taste of cardboard and plastic. Homeless people would love mine, even the fussy ones

(I know this is a thread about sandwich alternatives but ^ that needs answering 🙂 I'm current comparing bought pot noodle [but not THAT brand] for convenience/speed when I run out of bread)

Lidl salami (full size 'sausage' not a packet of slices), home made chilli jam, salad & a smear of mayo... Cheddar, a red onion chutney, salad.. It's not difficult or expensive (economies of scales & all that), decent bread makes a huge difference, if you using pre-sliced nastiness I'm not surprised (only to be used on proper crap, if lovely Fishfinger sandwiches)

I'm struggling as to why this is a news story, or why ppl would buy supermarket crap everyday
[url] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/business-39896838/a-cheaper-tastier-way-to-eat-lunch-at-work [/url]
I applaud his use of fresh bread everyday but that off-set by the nasty cheap cheese

A really cheap option is Lidl emmental with French mustard in sliced white bread. Utterly awful unless you cook it in a toastie bag but delicious if you do.

asda near my work. few nice cheap options i use.

chorizo, feta, toms, hummous. all from the £1 range.
smoked salmon, avocado, toms.
salami, feta, olives, toms

Okay give me some examples or ideas of what you put in your sandwich so I can give them a go. Cost should be around £3 - £5 if possible.

Bagel. Toasted.
Layer pastrami and good cheddar with mustard and gherkins add salad.

Devour.

Regret not making two.

Smash a grab bag of wotsits.