can anyone come up with any interesting packed lunches. i am getting bored with sandwiches and a piece of fruit

I usually have lettuce and cucumber along with some form of meat - either prawns, chicken, ham..even a small pizza!

Tesco does a kids pepperoni pizza for about 45p thats 250 cals - about the same as a chicken breast but far far tastier!! feels like having a treat as eating pizza but its still not too bad

I take it in a sandwich tub and leave it in the car - in this weather its kept colder than if I had it inside with me and means I have to walk out to the car at dinner time.

Other than that maybe throw together a stir fry the night before - veg, some noodles & a bit of sauce like sweet chilli (make sure you have some mints for afterwards!) or sweet and sour.

I know other people recommend soup but I dont find it filling, I have to bite on something for my stomach to feel full for any length of time!! But might be worth a try for you.

Wraps instead of sandwiches - less bread, more interesting! I use tortilla / burrito wraps from the supermarket.

Make up a fruit salad the night before - strawberries, pineapple chunks, clementines etc... Personally, the more colour the better! Not too messy, either as it's all pre-peeled.

Oat cakes with paté / spread.

Nuts / dates - you can snack on these in the afternoon if you don't finish them at lunchtime ;)

Hope that helps! This is a good post, as I think a lot of people get bored of sandwiches in packed lunches... Hopefully other people will add their suggestions

Like Kayleigh, I find that left over stir fry works really well -- particularly fond of cold prawn, noodle and veg stir fry with sweet n' sour sauce!

Sandwiches do tend to be convenient (if boring); can you ring the changes with different types of bread? (Eg. wraps like Ellie suggested, pitta breads -- which freeze well, or bagels?)

Pasta salad is also good: cook 50-60g pasta twists, leave them to go cold, then add raw chopped celery, pepper, mushroom, prawns and light thousand island dressing.

I've got a few ideas -- thought mostly sandwiches, I'm afraid -- on my site at http://www.theofficediet.com/articles/lunch/ as well as some suggestions of good shop-bought options. And a recipe for Waldorf salad (a favourite of mine!) at http://www.theofficediet.com/recipes/waldorf-salad /

Ali

I've got a microwave at work and love to bring in sweet potatoes and have them micro-baked with a bit of low-fat soft cheese.

In fact it's what I'm having today - yum!

Couscous with roasted veg is quick and easy to make and good hot or cold!

I have been taking in home made soup to work in a flask (its easy - dry fry a chopped slice of bacon - then bung in salt reduced stock cube, dried herbs and water and any other veg you have handy - I find a few brussel sprouts definately add to the taste) - liquidise and keep in the fridge. Reheat with a bit of skimmed milk to make it nice and creamy. Sometimes I bring in granary or wholemeal bread to have with it but I tend to try to stay off bread during the day - some types make my tummy swell if you know what i mean!

If I bring in sarnies - they call to me and I end up eating them by 11 and then fight against going out and buying a shop sarnie (which is bad from a budget point of view and an overload of calories!). Eating soup at 11 is not really a go-er... A couple of rice cakes usually keep me going in the meantime until lunch along with loads of water.

I dont like the texture of cold pasta.

A nicoise salad works well for me - cold cooked green beans, 1/2 tin tuna (in brine), quartered boiled egg, tomatoes, 4 cold boiled new potatoes, small handful black olives, rocket if you've got it, good grinding of black pepper and 2 teaspoons of french dressing. It's good with cold chicken instead of tune, and you can bulk it out with some crackers or a slice of bread. Followed on by some fruit (chopped up fresh pineapple in a small container is really good at the moment), keeps me going for a few hours and tastes a damn sight better than a soggy sarnie!
Best wishes,
Vivien

egg and potato salad with a very small amount of salad cream.
tuna and pesto pasta salad

Mash up an avacado in the morning and mix with lots of lemon juice and a bit of chilli oil and have it on bread or toast at lunchtime. I put it in a little pot and put slices of tomato or cucumber on top to stop it going brown.

Cook lamb shanks instead of a roast on a Sunday --- you can leave them cooking and go out for a walk or something and come back to a lovely dinner. I brown them in a frying pan, and then stick them in a casserole dish in the oven with carrots, onions, fennel, potatoes, a tin of tomatoes and enough stock to cover for a couple of hours. Put in a tin of butter beans, or some lentils near the end. You're then left with loads of the veg and juice which is full of flavour and makes a really tasty soup to take in for lunch.

Butter beans mixed with cherry tomatoes, tuna, and a huge pile of rocket.

Legumes (chick peas, kidney beans, butter beans, green beans, etc) make great salads with rocket or shredded lettuce and the usual salad ingredients.

Legumes are high in protein and fibre and are low GI so leave you feeling full for longer. There are so many different type that you should not get too bored.

Also most of the supermarkets will have canned bean salads which are generally OK for quick lunches but watch out for added sugar and salt which they add for palatability.