Recipe Suggestions for Work Lunch

Sugar Free

Hi all,

I like to bring in my own lunch to work as much as possible, partly to save money, partly to eat better.

I was hoping for a few suggestions for a meal I can make the night before and bring in the next day.

I don't mind routine so even just one or two suggestions would be much appreciated!

A few criteria:

Microwaves well or tastes good cold.
Can cook several portions (2-4) in one go.
Doesn't take too long from preparation to lunchbox, say ~1 hour.

I've loads of good quality minced beef and chicken breasts I'd like to use in it.

Other ingredients I could use (looking at my cupboard!):

Several herbs/spices - thyme, parsley, sage, rosemary, herbs de provence, lemon and thyme mix, five spice, cumin, coriander, chili powder, garlic...

Chicken/vegetable stock cubes.

E.V. Olive oil, sesame oil, cider vinegar and a couple of condiments like red onion relish and Ballymaloe.

I keep loads of frozen peppers and have plenty of onions too.

Any advice appreciated, thanks.

ChewChew

A good friend of mine gave me this recipe, and it is just gorgeous, simple and cheap!!! boil up some pasta.. enough for a lunch portion that you would eat. When it's cooled down, mix a tiny bit of olive oil through it so it's not sticky in the morning, and leave in fridge over night.

In a small bowl put in 2 tablespoons of olive oil. crush a clove of garlic and add to that, and about 1/2 a teaspoon of oregano. Cover the bowl and leave over night to allow flavours come together.

In the morning, pour this olive oil mix over pasta. Chop some cherry tomatoes in have a throw in. Halloumi cheese is amazingly delicious with this, but any cheddar is nice too. Also some scallion is nice in there too.

The Hill Billy

Hi there. Please try the forum search function. There have been quite few threads on this topic already.

Thanks,

HB

Sugar Free

Hill Billy wrote: »

Hi there. Please try the forum search function. There have been quite few threads on this topic already.

Thanks,

HB

Hi Hillbilly,

I had a look at the other threads but I was hoping for responses more or less specific to the ingredients I listed above if that helps?

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Have you any tins of tomatoes, or fresh ones? Tins are mega cheap, and with the other ingredients there you could make a savage bolognase type thing.

Lightly fry some chopped onion and garlic in some olive oil until the onion is soft, add about 500ml of veg stick (ideally you'd use beef stock, but the veg will do here) and a tin of tomatoes - or about four or five chopped fresh ones and some herbs, I'd use oregano and maybe some parsley and basil here, thyme would be ok too, bring to the boil and then lower the heat and reduce to a nice consistency that you like. that's a basic tomato/italian sauce to which you could add some browned mince at the stock adding stage for bolognase. You could serve that sauce over grilled chicken too, it would be nice.

For an extra kick whack in some of the chilli powder and/or the cumin.

You could have it with pasta or rice too.

It freezes really well, and works in the microwave.

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For the chicken breasts, make a mixture of olive oil and any of the herbs and spices which you like to make a marinade, stick the whole breasts in it for an hour or two in the fridge, then wrap in tinfoil and stick them into an oven for ~40minutes. (lemon and thyme chicken sounds nice, HdP and chili could work)

If you cut the cooked chicken into strips, it would be nice in a lunchbox with some pasta tossed in olive oil and herbs and eaten cold.

vicwatson

You've got the guts of a good spaghetti bolognese there, freezes really well too.

Sugar Free

Thanks all, I can easily pick up items I'm missing like tinned tomatoes, oregano etc.