Buying vs. Making Lunch – What should I cook?!
September 5, 2012 
4 Comments
Ye Gods, I am a bad morning person. I like to sleep as late as I can (on work mornings, this is) and get ready for work in the shortest time possible. By the time I roll into the work car park I’m generally awake, but the whole process of thumping, stumbling and clawing my way around my house will have been done in something spookily reminiscent of actual, deep, dream-laden sleep. So, unsurprisingly perhaps, preparing lunch in the morning is a complete and utter non-starter for me.
This, by the way, should BE my lunchbox!
But the thing with buying lunch, whether I drive to the local shop or brave the (questionable) goods of the daily sandwich van, is that is gets expensive. Really fast. £3-5 a day works out to about £1,000 a year! Ouch! So, I need to get on top of preparing food in bulk and in advance, so that it’s simple to grab in the morning, and cheap to produce. Plus, let’s be honest, it will taste better anyway!
I think making something at the weekend, divvying it out into bags and pots and then freezing it would be a good idea, as then I can defrost it overnight and just grab the pot in my befuzzled state in the morning. Similarly, salads that can be thrown together the night before have to be a good idea too. I could even keep a selection of ingredients in the fridge (couscous, dried fruit, yoghurt, meat, veg) that I can literally just thrown haphazardly into a pot as I head out the door. Sandwiches are, stupidly, beyond my morning capabilities, so we won’t be having any of those!
Ideas include:
- Soup
- Stews
- Lasagne
- Curries (get better as time passes too!)
- Salads (tuna, chicken, roast veg?)
Does anyone else have any ideas? Anything that has worked well for you?
Make a sandwich the night before?
Sandwiches prepared the night before always taste old and awful though
I make a point of preparing at least two evening meals that will work as leftovers that my husband can just heat up in the microwave. Risotto, pasta, and casseroles all work really well in that respect. Good luck with it!
I think leftovers is definitely going to be the way to go! Now to plan bigger meals!