UKC

hello.

it's about time I started to get my life in order and bring lunch in rather than humouring the paltry selection of sandwich emporia in Huddersford... so...

having the attention span of a gnat as I do, I get bored with sandwich fillings easily, so I'm looking to you people for interesting sandwich combinations or other good packed lunch ideas.

No dahl please, as the only one I like is my friend Roger's and he won't give me the recipe

any thoughts?

(oh, and I guess some of these might come in handy as crag lunches as well as work lunches - see how I get a climbing element into the thread...)

In reply to CJD:

oops, that should be dhal.

but I guess you all already knew that.

In reply to CJD:

Any thoughts?
I think you should torture Roger until he DOES give you the recipe!

In reply to CJD:

Pasta - good thick (home-made) tomato and bacon/salami sauce, stir into pasta with cheese, eat cold (or microwave if you have to).

Couscous - keeps for days. Make up a bit pot with peppers, lemon juice, and mint for dinner, have the leftovers for lunch next day.

In reply to Richard:

both good ideas - we already sometimes do that with pasta as RD makes a cracking pasta sauce.

keep 'em coming!

In reply to CJD:

Couscous with veg etc always a winner or todays fave home made lumpy thick soup with crunchy bread rolls!

In reply to CJD:

Not quite so good, but nice for a change: if you bake potatoes for dinner, do an extra one, and microwave it at work. Take a pot of whatever fillings you want.

Home-made coleslaw is dead easy and cheap, and much nicer than shop-bought stuff, too.

In reply to CJD:

My favourite sandwich filling is watercress, brie and cranberry sauce instead of butter.

My second favourite filling replaces the watercress with sliced pear.


[caveat: these are my favourite fillings when Jon is being my packed lunch beatch. My favourite filling when *I'm* making the sandwiches is fresh air]

In reply to CJD:

Cheese and Piccalilli sarnies are my favourite sanwhich combination - on my wifes home made bread (not easy to get hold of!).

Good pork pies also, in fact any kind of pie (game is good, as is chicken and bacon, bacon and cheese, caulliflower and bacon and cheese etc...) or pie style lunch is good - pasties etc. If you make a batch they are simple and easy to make.

In reply to CJD:
Soup (either in a thermos or microved) and home-made herb rolls. Making your own bread makes a huge difference to sandwiches as well.

In reply to CJD:

I tend to prepare large batches of filling in one go, freeze some and use the rest over the following few days.

Currently, my favourite is grilled chicken mixed with red pesto, courgettes and peppers all in a fat bagette with salad and a squeeze of lemon.

Ciabatta stuffed with goats cheese, anchovies, tomatos and basil is a winner too.

Tuna, spring onion, cucuber, pepper, whole grain mustard, mayo and salad.

Panda and shredded siberian tiger with mango chutney....mmmmmmmmmm

In reply to Cú Chullain:

ooo, that chicken one sounds ace...

thanks for the thoughts everyone, some cracking ideas!

In reply to CJD: cigar and double espresso, what more do you need?

In reply to sloper:

um... I find that double espressos don't work so well on the ol' stomach...

though cigars are a handy size for transportation.

In reply to CJD:

Try philladelphia(sp) salad, sage and onion turkey slices and roast pepper chutney. Just incredible.

In reply to CJD:

If you donr have a microwave handy, a wide necked flask will keep the likes of pasta, sausages and homemade chilli warm till lunch...?

I like to freshly bake a baguette (use the part baked ones from the supermarket, take 10 mins in the oven whilst youre having a shower) in the morning and fill that, especially good with Brie and bacon, the brie ooozes nicely with the warm bread...

I also love to make bacon sausages and onion, fried in worcester sauce, stuffed in a pitta/wrap with a little mayo and salad

A wrap spread with mayo and cranberry, mixed leaves, roasted chicken and generously seasoned is rather good...

In reply to Anni:

...and what time in the morning do you get up to prepare all that then???

In reply to Cú Chullain:

Left overs stuffed in a flask is easy-microwave for 3 mins-put in flask.

Baking bread from a part baked baguette - pop in oven, leave there whilst you have a shower, take out, get dressed etc whilst bread cooling, make into delicious sarnie.

Wraps take 2 mins to throw together...

In reply to CJD: Cheese and tomato sandwiches with hellmans and dijon mustard.
I could send you some homemade quiche but i want to eat it myself so I'm not going to.

Avoid anything to do with couscous, it's really really horrible.

In reply to CJD:

Do you have a micrrowave at work?

In reply to graeme jackson:

nonsense, cous cous is lovely!

again, thanks for the suggestions folks - though I'm trying to avoid things like brie and bacon as they're a bit fatty and I'm trying to stop being a fat knacker...

In reply to Mick's Daughter @ Work:

yes

In reply to CJD: leftover roast chicken and roast potatoes from the night before. Took some out with me yesterday on a bike ride and t'were delicious.

In reply to Anni:

I think your showers take longer then mine....my oven takes about 20 mins to heat up!!

My morning:

6.30: Alarm
6.31: Turn TV on and watch news, decide whether Natasha Kaplinkski looks like a cat or not

6.40: Shower and shave

6.50: Get dressed

7.00: Get in car and drive to work

7.25: Eat bannana on M3

7.40: Get to work

7.41: Go to kitchen, make large cup of tea and peanut butter on toast

7.50: Log on to Rock Talk

In reply to sloper: at about lunchtime on my very first day of real work, my boss (an IT sales manager from Canvey Island) said to me "Well I don't normally eat lunch, I just have a few pints so do you fancy coming to the pub?"

In reply to CJD:

Well it's really boring but I cook pasta at home and then nuke it at work for lunch.

In reply to Nic's Bloke: oooh, sounds nice, when did you cook that then?

I usually chop up a big tupperware full of salad stuff (can do this in time it take kettle to boil in the mornings), plus something to beef it up such as small tin of beans (not baked, mixed are good or borlotti) or chick peas, cous cous, leftover spuds (today), leftover pasta or leftover brown rice and then have a little pot of whatever salad dressing takes my fancy with it.
Healthy, tasty, easy and doesn't make you so full you're sleepy in the afternoon.

In reply to Cú Chullain:
6.31: Turn TV on and watch news, decide whether Natasha Kaplinkski looks like a cat or not

I went to university with her brother. Nice bloke.

In reply to Mick's Daughter @ Work:

hmm, not bad idea, but I think I'd prefer it cold. I've got a bit of a mental block about microwaves. good thoughts though.

In reply to Nicola Seal:

that sounds like exactly the sort of thing I should be doing.

right then...

In reply to Nicola Seal:

was found lurking in freezer :S

Will cook something nice for you this weekend, little bit of super on friday I think!

In reply to Nicola Seal:

Ps can u pop a penguin or wagon wheel in my Tupperware tub?

In reply to CJD:

2 wholemeal pittas, little pile of homemade hummous (freezes well in little pots) lovely salad of whatever's lying around, olives, pear, avocado, cherry tomatoes, spinach.... and a quarter of a lemon to go over everything.

Today I had beans on toast cos I'm grumpy and hungover.

In reply to Cú Chullain:

Lol, nope, I just turn the oven up and cook it quick...

I take about 10 mins in the shower so its usually done by then

In reply to Alsion Bnod:

I have a fear of hummous ever since I had to make three huge vats of it. that, and all the exceptionally affected girls at art school used to eat it as if they'd invented it.

I've tried it since and quite like it, but can't ever quite get over that feeling that it's fundamentally just garlic flavoured wallpaper paste.

In reply to CJD:


Put some coriander in it, then it tastes of garlic and coriander flavoured wallpaper paste.

In reply to CJD:

thanks for all the ideas everyone.

today I have an avocado salad sandwich (with sundried tomato) on granary and *my* do I feel wholesome.

In reply to CJD: Jay's got a great cookbook from the works of somewhere like that on salads.

step 1 night before work open book at main course salads, start at the beginning of the chapter and work through one recipe a day.
step 2 chop up ingredients and place in his and hers lunchboxes, dressing in a small screw top jam jar
step 3 put the lot in the fridge
step 4 wake up 10 minutes before you need to leave for work
step 5 Look smug at lunchtime while you devour fresh meal while others eat soggy sandwiches and canteen crap.

Personal favourites are

smoked trout with rye, emmental and watercress
Greek salad
Chickpea salad with sliced radishes and honey chicken
tomata and onion with balsamic dressing and a hunk of bread to mop it up.
Hummous and Guacamole with crunchy veg and oatcakes to dip.

In reply to Jon Greengrass:

good thoughts. I've been inspecting the salads sections of some of my cookbooks, and that sounds like a good idea. I have a very nice recipe for mango couscous that will have to be wheeled out soon.

In reply to CJD:

Ooo, pass it on, could you Clare?