Hey Guys,
Sorry if there's a thread on this already, I looked back a few pages and couldnt find anything similar...
I am trying to find ideas to make for DH lunches for work.
They have a microwave at work so he can reheat things.
He is getting sick of sandwhiches - which I cant blame him.
Sometimes he takes the microwave meals, but if they arent on special they add up very fast.
I am trying to find new things that I can make him to take to work that I can make the night before, or preferably in bulk on a Sunday night or what not.
This week I am trying to make him simple pasta with a pasta sauce (Alfredo, Carbonara etc)
Any ideas would be much appreciated, but I dont want to be spending $25 and up on ingredients for the week or else I can just go buy a weeks frozen meals.
Any ideas??
I could only come up with a potato bake or something...
When my DH was working in the city, we got and cooked just enough for dinner each night for one more serving. That was then put in his lunch box and he took that every day. He didnt really mind having the same thing the next day as he always ate the left overs the next day on the weekends anyway.
Leftovers? I try and make a bit extra and he takes a tupperware container the next day, or from the freezer.
Cup of soups? (if that's not enough on it's own, maybe a bread roll to dunk?)
Fruit?
Savoury muffins (like cheese and bacon ones, I think I got my recipe from BB even!)
I cook enough for an extra 2 meals so that DH always has lunch and I always have lunch, we actually save a lot of money by doing this. But for some ideas:
I make stirfry, just brown some chicken, add a pack of frozen stir fry vegies some sweet chilli sauce or whatever sauce you like some garlic, then I add some hokkien noodles, I freeze this and DH says it taste fine when he reheats it.
homemade sausage rolls, they freeze fine, they reheat ok but they are not crusty after being microwaved but they still taste ok
pasta like you said.
really the best way to do it is make extra for tea so he has leftovers. if I think of anything else I will post it.
Most weekends I cook a stew, a soup and a lasagne or similar to freeze and eat over the weekend.
So there ends up being portioned stews soups and lasagnes, pasta bakes, quiches, in there so he can grab them out and take them. (Or so I can use them when I cant be bothered cooking now that it is me and DD by ourselves for 2 weeks at a time lol)
Curried sausages and Devilled sausages are easy and cheap to do too so are always favs here.
Also tuna pie or pasta bakes when the big cans are on sale
I cook *huge* amounts, and dish out serving sizes in takeaway containers, then freeze. I also do the same with rice and often pasta (both just plain). I make sure the rice and pasta is all separated before freezing. The day before, I put the containers needed in the fridge, and in the morning I tip them into a bigger container together. (Bigger container so he can stir it when its heated without spilling it) Because I make so much and freeze it, he doesn't have to have the same thing for several days in a row.
I do this with all the casseroles/stews/curries I make and bolognese. I also pack some bread for him to mop up with, and homemade cake or muffins. Aldi chocolate chip muesli bars and a bottle of made up cordial.
The containers I use I got from the reject shop, and I think they are great. 2 for $2.50 (for the two sizes I use) and they are made in Australia!
I buy the tins of stews when they are super cheap and keep them as a backup, or when he camps out.
I hope that helps. If you have a slow cooker, you could set that off a couple of times per week and get a big stock pile.
Note with freezing, if you don't have a huge amount of takeaway or other suitable containers, decant the food in to whatever containers you have, and once frozen, you can take the blocks of food out and put them into big freezer bags. Squeeze out as much air as possible, tie up and label.
You need probably 10 plastic containers with lids, so you can do a cook up, freeze and forget ... In my DH lunch bag, I have a plastic plate, small bottle of tomato sauce/ little salt and peppers, and an ol' Knife and Fork and a spoon, I know this sounds corny and I think I need a baby desperatly, but I also have a little packet of wipes .. (lol) I have everything seperated in snap lock bags, so they dont spill, as he has god knows what else in his bag ...
I dont stress hugely about variety with hot lunches during the week, as I say to DH, it's like a production line, and I will mix dinner up, to be more varied ..
Winter Time;
Curried Sausages -
Pies
Pasta Bake's
Rice Bake
A tin of Spagetti or Baked Beans, with Bread to toast, (that's a slack day) I love mushrooms on toast
I bake a tray of muffins each sunday, freeze individually wrapped
Sometimes I make Pizza's from Muffins, topped with Strass/Capsicum/Tomato Paste and Cheese, cook them the night before, wrap them in foil
Or I buy a plain or topped BIG Pizza Base, and top that, with extra vegies/meat, and divide it, for those days you feel like a yummy lunch
I just bought the el cheapo containers, and froze heaps of stuff, b/c my DH has a tendancy to leave his container at work, or in his lunch bag unwashed, and they get a little smelly
I always ask DH what the other guys bring, and he says all of the above, and left over meals from the night before. I try and give him all the carbohydrate rich foods for "smoko", and more vegie based meals for dinner
Oh and I bought him a $10.00 sandwich press, you know the ones, where you butter the bread on the outside, fill it, and close the lid, it was from coles, so if he leaves it at work, its no biggie...
you can pop an egg in, and you have toasted egg sandwiches ..
with my xh I used to do lunches for him when he was doing a 12 hour shift at work - so not only lunches I had to do snacks as well.
Lunches:
pretty much anything that we had for dinner the night before, I also used to do up things like macaroni cheese, lasagne, stir fry, steak & veges, tuna pasta bake, etc & package them for re-heating in takeaway food containers.
For the snacks, I used to do three or four different batches of bikkies on a sunday and package them up. Or cheese & crackers (I used to slice up cheese into thin blocks for him & he'd take some crackers from home), he also used to take those small tins of tuna.
I'd also give him an iced coffee, plus coffee makings in the cooler bag.
ooh yeah - I freeze most things in old jars - jam jars, Kan Tong jars whatever - DH HATES reheating plastic, and the jars are easier for him to eat out of on the go
Just remember not to overfill them - you need to leave room for the food to expand as it freezes or it will break
Wouldloveabubba; you don't sound over the top, I do similar things for my Man. He bought a set of cooler bags last year, and has one which is the perfect size for his day. Except for a drink, its too small to have all his food and a bottle. But he hardly takes a drink anymore, and has other bags instead. I also put things like a few panadol and nurofen, cutlery, serviettes, throat lollies (when he was teaching, he'd have a couple of packets every day!), fudge, and sometimes a banana (though he hardly ever eats fruit).
I would also make a muesli shake or something like that, but I need to ask if it will get drunk first! (Milk, dry muesli, banana- frozen, honey, malt, wheatgerm, whatever you like)
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Lunches for DH
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