Inspirations for bringing lunch to work?

[ambuletz]

Tired of wasting money buying fast food during my lunch. Can anyone offer any ideas for things to make for lunch? I'm on a calorie deficit so it would be ideal if I can make something as filling as possible that's low cal. Perhaps something that's around 500 calories.

Had a skim through the lunch topis and I like the idea of cooking some chicken breast and throwing it into a salad. But I'm not sure what to do beyond that. Something with chicken & broccoli? It would be ideal if its something I can chuck it into a plastic container and eat it at room temp, or microwave for afew minutes.
I figure that I probably spend £5 in somewhere like KFC/McDs. Salads cost about £2-3 and have about 300cals. so I figure I could spend that amount (or less) making something nicer, that's more higher in protein & lower in carbs.
I was thinking just buying stocks of frozen chicken breast, drenching them in various marinades and grilling them the night before.

The simple, the better.

[ambuletz]

nagsheadwarrior said:

The way I do it is pretty simple.

Most dinners i make an extra smaller portion or two,whack em in the fridge and thats lunch sorted a day or two later.

Curries,pasta,roasts,stews all good and most taste better reheated a day or two later.

See, I'm the type that doesn't like eating the same thing 2-3 times in a row. If I've had something at dinner, I wouldn't want to have it again the next day for lunch.

Pferdestarke said:

Roasted vegetable cous cous.

I've never made cous cous before, I wouldn't mind trying it. I much prefer turkish 'Kisir'. I wouldn't mind a small amount of that with a chunk of meat which can be eaten cold.

jmorgan said:

DIY salads and a bit of chicken or mackerel with a mix of olive oil and balsamic vinegar (a good vinegar). I take the oil and vinegar in separate in a small conatianer and chuck it last minute so it is not a soggy mass. That way I say what is in the salad not 9/10 lettuce and a slice of tomato from the usual suspects and anything else being charged at an exorbitant rate.

What do you do with the chicken?

captainzep said:

It's a minor faff putting the dressing together but it's vital to making this one of the few low fat, healthy salad dishes I actually want to eat: http://www.asianfoodchannel.com/recipe/834-crunchy...

The dressing gives it that sweet, sour, salty, spicy edge and you can omit the cashews to keep the calories down. Most meaty things, cold chicken, left-over Sunday roast meat, tuna, prawns etc will sit on top nicely.

Sounds like a great idea. Not sure how adaptable it is to make different types though (to keep it interesting). Would need to find some kind of tiny bottle that would be enough to throw in just enough dressing for one meal.

Pferdestarke said:

FunkyNige said:

A typical lunch for me would be to cook some rice and shove a tin of fish in (there are loads of different types so you can vary your lunch a fair bit, all about £1 each, mackerel in Indian sauce is lovely) and half a tin of fruit cocktail (I would use fresh but would never use one of each fruit in time).
No idea of the calories mind...

That doesn't sound particularly appealing.

Yeah I can't imagine rice & a tinned tuna being that good... Rice and chicken though..

NISMOgtr said:

Bread, margarine and Jam.

Terrible! I'm not much of a bread fan to begin with.

Mastodon2 said:

Calorie deficit diet - bag of basmati microwave rice with some chilli sauce. Winner.

Far from inspiring though. I'd like to make something tasty. When I was a kid my last resort food would be eating rice with ketchup, so this doesn't sound too different, or inspiring.

bobbo89 said:

Baby spinach, chicken and hot sauce!

ONLY those two things?