Chosing what to have for lunches is always a dilemma in our house. I tend to do my grocery shopping online ( at Tesco - because i find the quality of the food is really good, and there is none of that 3 unavailable and 10 substitutes business, like one particular popular supermarket.)
So most times it's a case of what's on offer that week!
Sometimes its the Richmond Meatfree back bacon that is on offer. Great tasting veggie bacon this is - 2 mins either side, shallow fried in a bit of sunflower oil, in the frying pan. Dry off the oil with kitchen roll. Then grab a brown bun or some wholemeal bread, butter it, add a layer of butterhead lettuce or whatever lettuce you have available, thinly slice up some tomatoes and off you go! This bacon is by far the best on the market. You can smell it upstairs when it is cooking so they tell me so you can never just have a sneaky one - be warned... yum!
Sometimes it's the hummous that is on offer. There are quite a selection of hummous's believe it or not - original, red pepper, sweet chilli, carmelised onion, jalepeno, morrocan inspired to name but a few. Grab the wholemeal bread, thinly spread on your chosen hummous, then, add a slice of lettuce, sliced red onion, sliced tomato, sliced cucumber. Done. Got to be red onion though, better taste.
Sometimes it's feta salad sandwiches made the same way as above - but, with the feta that was left over from the previous night's spicy pasta so there is no waste.
Sometimes it's Ploughmans sandwiches made with sandwich pickle. The shop bought ones involve just pickle, lettuce,tomato, slice of cheese and a tiny bit of mayo with the butter.
Our Ploughman's sandwich involves a thin layer of pickle (usually Branston Small Chunk), spread on the wholemeal bread, then lettuce, cucumber, tomato and red onion as above then some sliced cheese. Usually this is made with Cheddar, but if we have Red Leicester in or Double Gloucester then on it goes instead. Lia my daughter tried the Double Gloucester cheese for the first time the other day - you guessed it - it was on offer - and she said "This is 'banging' it's better than Cheddar." Surely not? but it does certainly give Cheddar a run for it's money! If you have never tried Double Gloucester cheese by the way do put it on your bucket list! Our own crumbly Lancashire cheese is good too, though i always prefer this on toast with halved cherry tomatoes.
We have a large pot of chives growing in the garden, (chives are so easy to grow with no effort involved whatsoever). You can trim a few of them and also add them to a sandwich or salad dish. Feta salad in a cereal bowl makes a nice lunch too, with shredded lettuce, chopped cherry or plum tomatoes, chopped cucumber, chopped red onion, a few olives a few pieces of feta or salad cheese, a drizzling of olive oil and perhaps a splash of cider vinegar on top too to finish - well tasty.. Eat this with a slice of wholemeal bread or wholemeal bun, and if you have some radish or watercress or rocket throw that in the dish too.
Chilli cheese on toast is always a lunchtime favourite too. Involving toasting one side of your bread, then adding butter or margarine, then adding cheese, some tiny sliced green chilli bits and some cherry tomatoes and then back under the grill again until golden.
I also like shop bought falafels on wholemeal pitta bread, with shredded lettuce, some cherry or plum tomatoes halved -usually 3 of these, some cucumber cut into small chunks, and a little chopped red onion. Then put the falafels under the grill for 2 mins or so to warm them, the pitta bread goes under grill too (but only for a minute or two to warm them otherwise they go hard). Then add a little smear of Tzatziki dip on the top. These are really good. The best pitta bread was the wholemeal warburtons i thought but the basic wholemeal ones are ok too.
Then there is always toasties, remember the Breville where the hot tomato pieces burnt your lip if you weren't careful! We found a microwave toastie online and tried it out. We were pleasantly suprised. Easy clean with a cloth in the sink too as the 4 pieces of it come apart. Microwave 2 mins one side, turn it over, then just one minute on the other side - Done!
There is also Quorn and Richmond varieties of chicken/ham/turkey etc style slices that you can make a sandwich with as above. Primula, and other in a tube spreads, like Tartex mushroom, herb, original or spicy are also available for sandwiches too.
Then there is always the cupboard staples like beans on toast, spaghetti on toast, jacket potato. Chip teacake with salt, vinegar and a squirt of tomato ketchup (classic student lunch this - and always a treat for a change!)
Hoping we have given you some great ideas.
Here is our video trying out the Microwave toastie maker for ourselves, if you haven't seen it . Enjoy your lunch...! And if you want to try the microwave toastie maker yourself you can get it from Amazon here
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