Office menu: how to cook lunches for the week ahead and make your life easier

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Practical tips that will help you eat economically and satisfyingly at work, proven yourself.

Why take lunches with you

You save money

Even if you cook for lunch the same as the nearest canteen, it will cost you less. At the very least, you will not have to pay for the services of a waiter and a dishwasher, or invest in the salary of an accountant and the general director of a cafe.

You know exactly what you eat

There will be no food you are allergic to or stale ingredients in a self-prepared dish. You can also be sure that the vegetables were washed well and that the oil was only used once.

Well, or you will know that the dish contains stale kefir, and you did not wash the cucumbers, but this will be your choice.

You can make your meal healthier

The business lunch is designed for the average consumer, and the chef is not interested in the fact that you do not cook in oil and try to eat more vegetables. The composition of the homemade dish can be adjusted.

You control the calorie content of the dish

In theory, any cafe on demand should demonstrate the composition and calorie content of the dish. In practice, you can kill your entire lunch hour looking for information that is "somewhere in the consumer's corner." The calorie content of a homemade meal is easy to calculate.

Lunch takes less time

Eating a lunch from a container takes a matter of minutes. And then you can go for a walk or go about your business. A trip to a cafe takes up much more precious free time.

Homemade food tastes better

People are divided into two types: some praise homemade food with the words "like in a restaurant", others mark restaurant dishes with the words "delicious at home". If you are a second person and cook well, then business lunches may simply not be up to your level.

How to make food preparation easier for the week

Make a menu

Obviously, making one dish and eating it all week is easier and more profitable than five meals. For this strategy to work, you need to have a good refrigerator that keeps food taste and freshness throughout the week.

Those who are not looking for easy ways will have to think about the menu. For example, you will spend much less time at the stove if you prepare a base for dishes on the weekend, and on weekdays you will only add additional ingredients to it so that there is something new every day.

Choose the right meals

An ideal office meal has several qualities:

• Almost does not smell - colleagues will not thank you for the fish and borscht aromas that have pervaded the office.
• Has a dense consistency - you hardly dreamed of pouring soup or gravy on important documents.
• Easy and quick to prepare.
• Does not lose flavor after heating.

Buy groceries in advance

On weekends, you have time to go shopping without haste and fatigue and buy groceries according to the list.

Menu for the week: personal experience

In the short term, it is difficult to figure out how homemade meals will affect health and weight compared to business lunches. But you can check how this will affect the wallet, which I did.

To provide myself with meals for the whole week, I bought:

• 3 chicken breast fillets (purchased by weight);
• 1 long cucumber;
• 1 head of cabbage;
• 200 g champignons;
• 1 can of sour cream;
• 1 pack of funchose.

The rest of the products were at my place, otherwise I would have to additionally buy:

• rice;
• sunflower oil;
• rice vinegar;
• soy sauce;
• eggs;
• flour;
• salt and spices.

Theoretically, if your goal is to dine as cheaply as possible, you can get by with a smaller set.

At the heart of my menu are two dishes: grilled chicken and cabbage fried with mushrooms. They can be cooked at the same time on Sunday, or you can put off frying the cabbage until Monday. So on Monday I cook all the chicken and on Tuesday all the cabbage.

Monday: grilled chicken and salad

Ingredients:

• 3 chicken breast fillets;
• 1 tablespoon of soy sauce
• 200 g of cabbage;
• ½ cucumber;
• 1 tablespoon sour cream.

Preparation

Cut the chicken fillet into long thin strips and marinate in soy sauce (can be mixed with water). If you have time, leave the meat to soak for a while and then fry it. I use an electric grill, but a regular skillet will work. This meat will be one of the basics for the menu of the week.

For Monday lunch, set aside nearly half of your cooked chicken in a container. The second container will contain salad. For him, chop the cabbage, cut the cucumber, stir, season with sour cream.

Save the rest of the grilled chicken for Wednesday and Friday.

Tuesday: cabbage fried with mushrooms

Ingredients:

• 500 g of cabbage;
• 150 g of mushrooms;
• 1 teaspoon of sunflower oil.

Preparation

Chop mushrooms, chop cabbage, fry in oil. This dish can be easily transformed into a stew - just cover the pan with a lid in the process.

For Tuesday lunch, place ⅔ of cooked cabbage in a container. A piece of bread will not be superfluous, since the dish will turn out to be not very high in calories.

Leftover cabbage will come in handy on Thursday.

Wednesday: chicken with rice and mushroom sauce

Ingredients:

• ½ chicken leftover;
• 50 g dry rice;
• 50 g of mushrooms;
• 1 heaped tablespoon of sour cream.

Preparation

Cut the chicken into small pieces. Boil the rice. Cut the mushrooms and fry (you can add sunflower oil), when they turn golden, add sour cream and heat.

Put rice, chicken in a container, pour it all with mushroom sauce.

Thursday: jellied pie

Ingredients:

• leftover fried cabbage;
• 1 egg;
• 2 tablespoons sour cream;
• 50 g flour.

Preparation

Combine egg, sour cream and flour. Put the cabbage in a silicone mold, fill it with the flour mixture. You may need to spread the cabbage with a fork to keep the filling evenly in the pie.

Bake at 200 ° C for about 30 minutes.

Friday: chicken with funchose

Ingredients:

• leftover chicken;
• 40 g dry funchose;
• ¼ cucumber;
• rice vinegar to taste.

Preparation

Prepare funchoza in the way indicated on the package. In my case, it must be poured with boiling water for 8 minutes. Cut the chicken and cucumber into pieces. Mix the ingredients.

The dish can be eaten hot or cold. If eaten cold, rice vinegar can be added at any time, including at home. If you want to warm up, it is better to take vinegar with you and season the noodles before use.

What is the bottom line

I spent 414 rubles on food for cooking dinners, and I still had a quarter of a cucumber, some cabbage and funchose for four servings. In more detail, then I gave:

• 80 rubles per chicken;
• 60 rubles for a cucumber;
• 55 rubles for a fork of cabbage;
• 57 rubles for mushrooms;
• 53 rubles for a can of sour cream;
• 109 rubles for a pack of funchose.

If I were buying business lunches, I would spend about 1,000 rubles in five days. Even taking into account the products that I already had at home, I managed to save at least 500 rubles, since I only needed a few tablespoons of oil, vinegar, rice, flour and just one egg. So, without fanaticism, you can save 2,000 rubles a month or 24,000 rubles a year.