Help Required! Jazz up my lunch!

TrixiBuG

TrixiBuG

TrixiBuG

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Joined
24 Aug 2011
Posts
1,994
Location
Manchester UK
I thought this would be a good idea for a long running thread. Add what you have (ingredients wise) for your lunch and which supermarkets etc are within your reach - maybe even a budget if you have one - and let the La Cuisine folks jazz up your otherwise mundane and boring lunch

Okay, so I have - for my lunch today:

  • Wholewheat Pitta Breads
  • Wafer thin Chicken Slices
  • Iceberg Lettuce

I have a Sainsburys and a Tesco on the door step of work

What can I add to this pitta to make it more exciting but keep it low fat (< this is important!)?
 
Before you get completely jumped on by certain people it's probably worth mentioning that low fat isn't always the best way to lose weight/be healthy. Dietary fat does not equal body fat and all that.

What you may want to do is to dump the bread part (or reduce it massively) and then use the kcal you've saved to add something more interesting.

Something not too expensive and really nice would be:

Cook some chicken the night before (or in bulk a few days before). Chicken thighs are cheap and flavoursome. Stick some spices on, cook, cool, cut up and add to your salad. Much nicer than wafer thin chicken.

Make the salad more interesting with tomatoes, peppers, etc. Some thin slices of fresh chilli can be nice too.

Add some kind of sauce - small amount of humous is good. It's high in fat and energy but it won't break your kcal bank if you're not bothering with the bread.
 
I keep a bottle of extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar at work, with salt and pepper mill.

Instead of buying a ready made Salad, I get the ingredients on the day.

Bag of salad
Sliced ham or Tuna

That's lunch sometimes. No bread at all. You can always get a jar of olives and leave it at the fridge and put a few in to add some texture and twang to the salad.
 
Doing a roast chicken on Sunday night and using that chicken for the week is a damned good way to save some cash too. A whole chicken is like 4quid? And that meat could last you, say 3 days. Use different things to go with it each time...
I love BBQing meat around this time of year and summer and taking that too as it's a bit different from just griddled stuff.

Good things that are filling are things like grated carrot and cabbage and stuff, as well as going a long way!Don't buy it ready grated, just grate 1 carrot, which would last about 2 days! Add some fresh coriander to the pitta, it'll jazz it right up too.
 
I would keep the wholemeal pitta, we all need carbs and it'll provide you with nice slow release energy throughout the day.

I 100% agree on the chicken. Use real chicken, whether its a whole one, breasts or thighs. The packet stuff is rank! And overcooked.

Buy a mixed crunchy salad bag to save any hassle, or your iceberg. Chop up some peppers and red onion nice and thin and take them to work in a wee zip lock or Tupperware. Stuff your chicken pieces and salad into your pitta. You could heat the chicken and or pitta back up in the microwave if you have one if that's your thing.

Then dress with whatever you fancy. Balsamic dressing, personally I think a yogurt dressing would be nice on this, especially if you added paprika or chilli to your chicken when cooking. Make this up and add it to the salad the night before too.

A lot of hassle compared to buying a pre made sandwich from the shelf. However it tastes better, better for you and has no added rubbish and its all quality stuff and fresh. It's worth the trouble if you ask me.
 
Ahhh,,,guys and gals :)

Thanks for your replies. I normally have a home made soup (with no bread) but I forgot to get one out of the freezer last night so I just grabbed what ever I had - the pittas, packet chicken and lettuce.

I love the salad ideas etc, but I was just after some ideas in, using the ingredients that I had, how to jazz it up a little :)

In the end I went for some caramelised onion humous (low cal) and throw that on top of the chicken and lettuce (which had carrot and peppers in it too)

I probably wasnt clear :(
 
Not a lot you can do to jazz up iceberg lettuce. I'd have grabbed some hummus but it's fairly high fat.
 
Buchanan0204 said:
So you want a recipe on how to make a decent tomato sauce for pasta?
Click to expand...

Nope if you read the OP its basic ingredients and she asked what to add to jazz them up. so,I shall give an example so pasta cooked then add tuna whizz up timned tomatoes with mixed herbs mix all together, add a bit of grated cheese and chilli flakes on top for and extra kick. ok now you see what we were trying to do?
 
Mrs Seabiscuit said:
Nope if you read the OP its basic ingredients and she asked what to add to jazz them up. so,I shall give an example so pasta cooked then add tuna whizz up timned tomatoes with mixed herbs mix all together, add a bit of grated cheese and chilli flakes on top for and extra kick. ok now you see what we were trying to do?
Click to expand...

^ this! Yay!! Glad someone else has got the idea :)
 
I've been having wraps for lunches recently and they seem to be staving off the hunger and not piling on the pounds. Ideas that I've been rolling with:

Pastrami, jalapeño hoummus and rocket.
Tuna mayo and sweet corn with salad
Ham, sweet chilli hoummus and salad
Any of the above with chargrilled pepper and onions

No cheese and lots of salad seems to be doing the trick for the waist. If only I could dump the chocolate bar!
 
Mrs Seabiscuit said:
Nope if you read the OP its basic ingredients and she asked what to add to jazz them up. so,I shall give an example so pasta cooked then add tuna whizz up timned tomatoes with mixed herbs mix all together, add a bit of grated cheese and chilli flakes on top for and extra kick. ok now you see what we were trying to do?
Click to expand...

I got that. What else are you going to do with chopped tomatoes to accompany pasta. It's obviously going to be a pasta sauce. Hence I asked if you wanted a recipe on a tomato pasta sauce? Which is all you can do with your ingredients.

The idea would work a lot better if it wasn't blatantly obvious what to do and you could make a few things in different ways with the chosen ingredients. Like how ready steady cook used to do it.

P.S. you should always cook your tomatoes when making pasta sauce, they'll be disgusting otherwise, very bitter and not sweet at all. Raw tomatoes blitzed up will be disgusting.

Try sweating down an onion and garlic, adding the tomatoes and reduce for half an hour until thick and gloopy. Add some fresh basil and a chilli if you like or flakes.

Then add your pasta to the sauce and mix through.
 
Buchanan0204 said:
P.S. you should always cook your tomatoes when making pasta sauce, they'll be disgusting otherwise, very bitter and not sweet at all. Raw tomatoes blitzed up will be disgusting.

.
Click to expand...
What a rude post! also if you use nice tasty tomatoes they are perfectly fine blitzed up raw if you use cheap ones then yes they are horrible. Also Trixi is asking what to add to ingredients she already has not make a sauce actually.
 
Mrs Seabiscuit said:
Roasted tomatoes with melty mozzarella for a start.:mad::mad:
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I'm not sure if you'll get great results roasting a tin of chopped tomatoes.

His post wasn't particularly well-worded though I didn't take it as being as rude as you have done. Some of his points are valid - mostly the general cooking tips.
 
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