Sandwiches, Lunches & Light Meals

I love the Sweet Potato & Spinach Frittata that Beth? posted in the Simple & Cheap thread! :) Except I now use plain potato instead of sweet potato; I also add some bacon and sometimes mushroom & capsicum as well! :)

Mine is very similar to yours Christy, I also pop in pumpkin and sundried tomatoes and hence more eggs. Also some parmansen cheese.

Hello Lovelies!

Ok, so DH and I are going on a cycling picnic this weekend (weather permitting) and I need food ideas. Normally I would pre-cook some chicken wingettes and drumettes to take plus rolls, butter and some salad. But I'm not too keen on the whole chicken/listeria/pregnancy thing and I've gone off salad at the moment. So any ideas would be greatly appreciated. I HATE sandwhiches and there won't be a BBQ.

Thanks!
MG :)

P.S. Got dessert covered with fudge and/or cupcakes.

What about mini quiches, or a cold fritatta?

Or do a antipasta thing without the deli meats. Sundried tomatoes, grilled capsicum & antichokes, olives, hard cheese. With some turkish bread and hummis - yummy!

For picnics I always cook up sausages (baked in the oven) before we go, wrap them in a few layers of foil, and then just eat them warm/cold with bread rolls. And we always take plain hard-boiled eggs too..........

Yummy ladies! Thanks! Sherie, I love the idea of quiche! I asked DH what he wants and his face lit up at quiche! So I guess I'm amakin' quiche tomorrow!

Good luck with the quiches and have a great weekend.

NEVER thought I'd be asking this question LOL. Always vowed I'd never pack my husband's lunch.. but there ya go.. I'm asking.

Any ideas what I can prepare & pack for him? He likes hot meals (another reason I don't wanna do it.. and we've had these fights over me not preparing 2 meals each day on the weekends LOL). Anyway.. I'm thinking prepare a big batch of chunky soup and freeze it in portions.. or .. I dunno.. this is where I need suggestions?

He's not a sandwich guy - which is ok.. coz that would mean doing it each day! At least meals I can freeze :D

Please don't reply telling me I should make him make his own lunch. LOL. I'm being a good little wife and trying to save money. Now that he has to catch a train & tram to work.. the travel costs to work are way UP.. so we can save by packing lunch.

Thanks in advance guys!

Do you have a slow cooker ? When i use mine any leftovers go in small containers and into the freezer and my DH takes them to work the next day. I think i have a weeks worth of food for him at the monent.

Doing the soup sounds like a good idea. Will he eat salads ?

Ivana, my Dh is the same with sandwiches - he hates them. Because he needs his lunch packed nearly every day, I will buy some cold BBQ chicken or cold deli meat (ham, bologna etc) or even a left over roast and just put it in a container with a bit of a salad and some dressing in a little container he can put on later. I have also done the soup/casserole too and just make extra for him to take or spaghetti bol works well too. Or potato bake. Occasionally I will cook a chicken schnitzel and make a chicken burger for him or cut up some left over roast meat (pork, lamb chicken whatever) and make up some gravy and mix the meat in with the gravy and put it in a container with a buttered bread roll and Dh heats up the meat and gravy and puts it on the roll. You could also do chicken wing/legs, either marinated or plain and just have them cold. The possibilities are endless really.

I usualy make extra dinner and put that into containers in the freezer. You know things like, shepherds pie, casseroles, lasagne, curries etc. These freeze well and are easily heated up in the microwave. I assume he access to one as you mentioned freezing. With the warmer weather coming cold meats and salads will be good if he will eat them, Ben won't so I've got no luck there, lol.

Man, I wish ALan would eat something besides Sandwiches!!!

Everday he has a vegitmite sandwich, yoghurt, muesli bar, piece of fruit and a Can of Drink. I don't even bother with his lunch!!! He makes it himself.

Maybe I should make him read this post :p

ok! well im the queen of making dh's lunch for him :)

Chunky soup or minestrone is great for these winter months! On a saturday I put a HUGE pot of something on and let it cook all day then freeze it.

My Dh has taken to liking meat pies this week. SO he buys them frozen and heats them up at work. He also likes to take a flask with hot dogs cooked in them and have some rolls.

Curries, stews, soups, casseroles, stir frys are great to freeze like bec said and taste yum when reheated.

good luck and let us know how you go :)

Thanks.. am going shopping this arvo so will pick up some extra to make a big batch of something!

mmmm shepherds pie. Might make that tonight :) Might get a big soup going too.

I do have a slow cooker.. but haven't delved into a lot of recipes just yet. And I'm not keeping up with the SC thread very well these days. Must pop in there again.

He does eat salad.. and the cold chicken & salad idea is a good one! Can cut up the salad the night before. Might wait a month or so on that one when it warms up a bit. He loves his soups and things so I'll do that while it's still cold.

sounds great ivana! Check out the slow cooker recipe thread. Make a huge batch in there to freeze. no effort at all :) good luck

Ivana my Dh always takes his own lunch tyo work but he does actually throw it together himself!
Being Asian it has to contain rice, so he has a chunk of rice, then adds stuff like marinated pork spare ribs, or chicken wings, drumsticks, casseroles, stews, noodles, he will cook his own chicken gizzard & eggplant chilli something or other (I wont eat anything containg inners of animals!)
If we have left over lasagne he will have that without rice, sometimes on a Sunday afternoon he'll cook up a big pot of fried noodles with prawns, eggs, veggies etc & add a chicken wing...

He has never bought lunch & it does save money, I too always take my lunch, which is asalad sanga's or bread that I toast at work & then top with avocado & sweet chilli tuna (OMG it's so yummy!) But I also will take in some of what DH has prepared!!!

God Luck, I hope he appreciates it!

The Slow cooker is great, I never use less than 2 kgs of meat at a time & make uup huge curries etc with cheap meats & have it 2 nights in a row & then freeze the rest for a week or so times & Dh has some for lunch it goes a long way!!!!

I too am one who makes larger portions & freezes dinners etc for DH. Anything in the SC gets at least 3 extra lunches for the freezer. I make double size pastas for lunches too. If I do a roast chook, I pull off a leg & wing for DH for lunch with a salad.... so all ideas already given ;) Goodluck!

Ivana - u definately have to get back into the s/c thread!!!!!!!!!! There's some fab recipes in that which make enough for lunches the next day :)

I pack DH's esky every day and it's usually just leftovers from dinner the night before, but I recently did a huge batch of frozen meals which I've been popping in there instead. I also make muffins and freeze those too so he can have them for morning tea.

I sometimes make a salsa from corn kernnels, tomatoe and Avacado and put some crackers in with it for DH to have a healthy "nachos" - you can also do it with a 4 bean mix.

There is chicken drummets and wingettes pre-cooked and added to the lunch box.

If I'm really lazy I give him pre-packed salad packs from the supermarket.

You can buy pasta for one Dolmio Pasta packs that you cook in the microwave. I'll often give these and one of the accompaning sauces to DH for lunch OR tuna flakes and tomato or corn kernnels so he can make a nice salad.

Salad rolls are a hit with DH - lettuce, ham, beetroot, grated carrots, cheese, tomato. Yummy!

I also make "antipesto" for DH. I put some salami, olives, sundried tomatoes and a little dip with some crackers into a container.

Leftovers when I'm organised enough to make extra.

I often make fresh salad for DH as well. Salad leaves, tomato, carrot, cucumber, red onion, cheese, boiled eggs, olives, chicken. Whatever I can find.

HTH.

MG :)

I used to make my DH lunch before pregnancy fatigue took over - now it's hard enough to do my own before work! I did sandwiches (he can eat what he's given), pasta and ham/cheese/tuna, herbs and cucumber and tomato in squares, or rice with vege bacon/tuna, peas, sweetcorn and herbs. He has no re-heat facility at work though.

DH often gets to take leftovers (hmm, and heats them in a microwave, so why is frozen soup out? - should have thought of that before!) in winter, usually SC leftovers and that makes his office jealous. Apparently. But the porcupine balls leftovers go down the best. Also if I do extra potato bakes then he takes those in as leftovers too, they can be eaten chilled from the fridge.

Making lunch the night before is best, as I said, I used to do mornings but am just too tired now!

Well.. I did a lamb casserole in the SC yesterday.. cooked up rice to have with it.. packed it all in containers.. and he forgot to take it this morning! grrr. Will probably take a bit of effort to get it into his morning rush routine. LOL.

I'm doing a noodle stirfry tonight.. so there'll be leftovers of that too. Can you freeze noodles? I know you can freeze fried rice, but noodles?

yeah you can. Try and get the noodles covered in liquid or sauce though. Otherwise they can dry out and go yuck ;)

cool. thanks :)

Oh that's good to know Danni coz I've been leaving noodles out of my frozen stuff in case they went yuck, I'll give it a go now :)

Hi, just wanting some idea's on sandwiches that can be made then frozen, so they still taste good when they are defrosted???

I have never thought of freezing sandwiches before, but I suppose peanut butter & jelly would work if you were that way inclined ;)

I bulk buy our bread and freeze it.....it defrosts fine. I would have thought some fillings would make a frozen sandwich soggy....I guess it's a trial and error thing though.

I grew up on frozen sandwiches. My mother made lunches for four every sunday afternoon with fresh bread from the markets. The sandwiches did tend to get a bit boring as they were devoid of salad.

Our stock standards were:
roast pork with apple chutney
ham with mustard
chicken/turkey with cranberry sauce (better still, left over roast chook).
lamb and fruit chutney
salami with tomato chutney
cheese (brother always had cheese and chutney)
devon & tomato sauce (other brother had this for a year!)
vegemite
vegemite & cheese

and that was about it.

Basically any deli meat and chutney/sauce combination doesn't defrost into a mushy mess. Be scant with the sauce though.

We never ever had any success with any fresh salad or vegetable ingredients.

Oh and her other secret was two layers of gladwrap on everything!

You would probably just leave them in the lunch box and they would defrost in time for lunch. I use frozen bread, but not frozen sandwiches.

Sherie is right, you just put them in your lunchbox and they are thawed out by lunchtime at room temp.

Sherie - when using frozen bread, does that get around the salad problem?

Yep just pop them in the lunch box and they defrost by lunchtime - I lived on these during school :)

my friend suggested it to me, as she freezes made up sandwhiches each week and just puts them in the kids lunchbox each day, she said it saves her heaps of time. Because its just for Ashlea's lunch for kinder 3 times a week the salad thing isnt a real problem cause she usually sticks to ham and cheese or chicken or peanut butter or honey. She can't take peanutbutter to school but i didnt know what honey would be like when it defrosts??

My mum used to do this when i was in primary school. I absolutely hated it. I couldn't eat them, they tasted weird and just yuck, which is probably why i can't even eat a fresh sandwich anymore!

Tegan - I think this is what double gladwrap helps fix. Otherwise they just taste like the freezer. Know what you mean though.. I only like freshly made ones now.

So everyone what did you have for lunch today?

I had a bowl of strawberries & because I had no grown up yoghurt I stol one of Zander's kids ones LOL! Very yummy :D

Ooh and yesterday I had this delicious pumpkin salad from the shops I think it had pumpkin, baby spinach, chick peas, spanish onion & I think it may have been italian dressing. I am definately going to try & recreate it!

Sarah do you have Debra Hay's off the shelf cookbook?? There is a pumpkin/cous cous/ spinach salad there... I can imagine the flavours working wekk with chick peas & spanish onion.

I had a toasted tuna & salad sandwich... and some biccies

Veggie pikelets and cucumber and watermelon chunks............

Ooooh Christy no I don't, do you?? Do you wanna post it for me when you have a minute? I'll be your best frieeeeend. Hehe, sorry weird mood over here, can you tell!