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Lunch/Dinner Ideas

  • Thread starter Thread starter DagsJT
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DagsJT

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Anyone make their own dinner/lunch for work? If so, what kind of stuff do you buy/make?

I've realised that I'm probably spending something like £4-£5 a day on my lunch as well as other snacks, which adds up to quite a bit at the end of the week :SHOCK:

I'm particularly fond of wraps so if any of you have any nice suggestions for wrap ideas, that'd be great :D
 
Bagels

With Pastrami, Gherkins and Applwood smoked cheese - Toasted :DD bit of pepper on top.

It is the stuff of legends!!

Also I take pasta to work and heat it up with a bit of cheese on top.

Other sandwiches - try Chorizo with a bit of Humous in a baguette - I add Applewood smoked cheese - but any cheese should do :DD

I love Applewood smoked cheese - Everyone should try it!
 
Depends if you can get to a microwave at lunch time and stuff like that.

You could fry some chicken/turkey/beef off and mix some fajita sauce the night before and have it in a couple of wraps if that's the kind of thing you want. Or just make a sandwich. Or make some pasta with chicken or tuna or something and reheat it the next day. Or stir fry. Loads of things.

I was in the same situation as you about a year ago and I bring my own now.
 
Its crazy how much you can save - I think I am probably saving about £20 a week by bringing in food. :DD
 
Today I bought from the Asda;

Grated red Leicester medium cheese

Grated Dutch edam mild

Grated cheddar medium

Mayo

Tikka cooked mini chicken breast fillets

Mexican style cooked and sliced chicken breast

Wraps

Pitta bread

Multipack of McCoys crisps



Cost me £11 which isn't bad going considering that's my lunch for five days :)
 
Can't be arsed grating cheese to be honest :LOL:

The 3 bags of cheese were 3 for £4 so it wasn't that much more expensive than buying an equivalent size block of cheese really.
 
^ I never thought of that before actually, I'll try it out. This is actually a good thread, helps a lot of people who look to make a nice snack / meal.
 
some of the things i'm reading in here are just scary. i'm serious.. i can't find any other word to describe it than scary.

anyhow never buy grated cheese. it's not just more expensive, but also way worse. once u grate cheese it starts loosing crispness..... half of the original flavour is lost in 1 day from the moment it's grated..... i mean, if it's "real cheese" we're talking about. :))
 
What's scary - none of it sounds bad?

I would like to know your suggestions? that are not Scary ;))
 
BobbyBox said:
What's scary - none of it sounds bad?

I would like to know your suggestions? that are not Scary ;))
Click to expand...

don't get me wrong, it was not a criticism (although honestly it looked like). :))
afterall taste is something personal and subjective. ;)

i'd love to come out with my "contribution" but it wouldn't be really useful as everything i cook requires fresh ingredients and i know how hard it is to find fresh ingredients in uk :))
 
What can't you get in Italian Supermarkets?

Pastrami? Chorizo? Gherkins? cheese? cucumber? Tuna? Mayonaise? sweet corn? chicken breast? pitta bread?
 
Jumbo_ said:
:LOL: of course you can get fresh ingredients here Ben
Click to expand...

i dunno mate. i must admit my british experience was not very long, but still i remember how hard it was to find a good grocery, with (real) fresh vegetables.

i mean, the easiest, simplest thing i can imagine right now is a pasta con la salsa... it requires just a few ingredients and about 20 minutes of cooking....
but still u need fresh parsley, fresh basil (and when i say fresh i mean that the leaves must have been taken from the plant 3 days before tops) decent quality tomatoes onion and and garlic (and when i say onion and garlic i mean the bulbs, not that horrible flavourles grated stuff).

i honestly wasn't able to find any of theese ingredients (in a good state) in southampton..... neither in portsmouth.... neither in ireland.....
my mates told me that those things can actually be found but they are quite rare (and extremely) expensive as the wheater is not exactly appropriate for things like parsley and basil.

in italy such a meal would cost about 1 euro (per person), while in uk even if u'd know where to find fresh parsley, fresh basil, an entire bulb of onion and garlic, and some (real) pasta... it would be much more expensive.

not to mention cheese. parmigiano or grana are so damn expensive in uk

anyhow what i found scary was the tuna-mayo-pepper partnership...
mayonnaise has a very strong flavour and puttting it together with a fish.... :CONFUSE:
however, as i said, in the end it's all about personal taste :))
 
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BobbyBox said:
What can't you get in Italian Supermarkets?

Pastrami? Chorizo? Gherkins? cheese? cucumber? Tuna? Mayonaise? sweet corn? chicken breast? pitta bread?
Click to expand...

You won't find half the cheeses mentioned above, or chicken tikka - especially ready cooked stuff. Tuna mayo sandwhiches are already a rarity. Italian sandwhiches are completely different, even simple toast in the UK is different in Italy. Italian supermarkets are the equivalent of a really fancy Waitrose in the UK.

Even the crisps selection in Italy is limited compared to the UK/US... we get salted, paprika.... ermm.. bacon flavour.
 
lo zio said:
i dunno mate. i must admit my british experience was not very long, but still i remember how hard it was to find a good grocery, with (real) fresh vegetables.

i mean, the easiest, simplest thing i can imagine right now is a pasta con la salsa... it requires just a few ingredients and about 20 minutes of cooking....
but still u need fresh parsley, fresh basil (and when i say fresh i mean that the leaves must have been taken from the plant 3 days before tops) decent quality tomatoes onion and and garlic (and when i say onion and garlic i mean the bulbs, not that horrible flavourles grated stuff).

i honestly wasn't able to find any of theese ingredients (in a good state) in southampton..... neither in portsmouth.... neither in ireland.....
my mates told me that those things can actually be found but they are quite rare (and extremely) expensive as the wheater is not exactly appropriate for things like parsley and basil.

in italy such a meal would cost about 1 euro (per person), while in uk even if u'd know where to find fresh parsley, fresh basil, an entire bulb of onion and garlic, and some (real) pasta... it would be much more expensive.

not to mention cheese. parmigiano or grana are so damn expensive in uk

anyhow what i found scary was the tuna-mayo-pepper partnership...
mayonnaise has a very strong flavour and puttting it together with a fish.... :CONFUSE:
however, as i said, in the end it's all about personal taste :))
Click to expand...


How long ago was it that you lived here? I mean I can get all of that easily at my local supermarket, I make that kind of dish for myself quite regularly so I always buy garlic and onions especially when I go. You can get like a small parsley or basil plant for very little and then take the leaves off yourself too.

And that's from the supermarket, you can go to nice markets where they have REALLY fresh stuff and pay a little more but for better quality than supermarkets. It might not be as cheap as Italy but it's not that bad.
 
Jumbo_ said:
How long ago was it that you lived here? I mean I can get all of that easily at my local supermarket, I make that kind of dish for myself quite regularly so I always buy garlic and onions especially when I go. You can get like a small parsley or basil plant for very little and then take the leaves off yourself too.

And that's from the supermarket, you can go to nice markets where they have REALLY fresh stuff and pay a little more but for better quality than supermarkets. It might not be as cheap as Italy but it's not that bad.
Click to expand...

really?? i can see why u were laughing at me then :D

last time i've been in england it was 5 years ago... i joined some friends who were in southampton for the erasmus project and spent about a month rambling around britain.
they pretended to cook with some rubbish grated stuff... i wasn't even able to tell wich was onion and wich was garlic, as they basically looked the same, had the same flavour and the same smell aswell.... not to mention the other ingredients...

but now that i think about it, it wasn't me the one who bought that stuff. i mean, i was on holyday, so i obviously didn't wanna spend my time in supermarkets or markets... they were the ones who bought the ingredients i was supposed to deal with.... and everytime i complained they used to tell me "what are u expecting? to find basil plants here in uk?"

damn bastards :D i guess they were just too lazy to pay attention to what they were buying then :))
 
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Milanista said:
You won't find half the cheeses mentioned above, or chicken tikka - especially ready cooked stuff. Tuna mayo sandwhiches are already a rarity. Italian sandwhiches are completely different, even simple toast in the UK is different in Italy. Italian supermarkets are the equivalent of a really fancy Waitrose in the UK.

Even the crisps selection in Italy is limited compared to the UK/US... we get salted, paprika.... ermm.. bacon flavour.
Click to expand...

Bloody snob.
 
lo zio said:
really?? i can see why u were laughing at me then :D

last time i've been in england it was 5 years ago... i joined some friends who were in southampton for the erasmus project and spent about a month rambling around britain.
they pretended to cook with some rubbish grated stuff... i wasn't even able to tell wich was onion and wich was garlic, as they basically looked the same, had the same flavour and the same smell aswell.... not to mention the other ingredients...

but now that i think about it, it wasn't me the one who bought that stuff. i mean, i was on holyday, so i obviously didn't wanna spend my time in supermarkets or markets... they were the ones who bought the ingredients i was supposed to deal with.... and everytime i complained they used to tell me "what are u expecting? to find basil plants here in uk?"

damn bastards :D i guess they were just too lazy to pay attention to what they were buying then :))
Click to expand...

Haha then you've been painted a bad picture of us by some lazy people and the image has stuck with you :LOL:

Nevermind, now you can stop telling everyone how uncultured the English are :P:P:P

The Scottish on the otherhand......................
 
Jumbo_ said:
Haha then you've been painted a bad picture of us by some lazy people and the image has stuck with you :LOL:
Click to expand...

:D fair enough. point taken.

anyhow it's not like i thought england has no food culture, of course. every country has its own food culture. and it's not like there's a good or a bad food tradition either.
cooking it's an expression of art, so there's no such thing as an objective "ranking".
there might be some healthier or some more wide-ranging food culture, but in the end, it's mostly a matter of personal taste. :))
 
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