Lunch: the dieter’s nemesis

Lunch is tricky if you work away from home. It’s a difficult meal anyway, to be honest - I never really know what to have or how much to have. Where I work, there are more soup bars, sushi bars, noodle bars, sandwich places and sit-down cafes than you can shake a stick at, but the portions are huge and excess fat lurks everywhere. NEVER, for example, let the girl behind the cafe counter put butter on your baked potato for you, unless you want to spend your lunch hour wading knee-deep in said butter to find your potato.

(Does anyone else find the thought of wading knee-deep in melted butter profoundly sexually arousing?)

(What? I like butter.)

Takeaway sandwiches are always bigger than they need to be, the bread/filling ratio is always high (or low? Whatever. More bread than filling, that’s what I mean) and generally bulked out with mayonnaise or cheap spread. Plus, they cost a fortune. A sandwich, a drink, a yogurt and a couple of pieces of fruit will set you back between £4.50 and £8.

No wonder we’re always hungry. And strapped for cash.

I appreciate that the whole browniegate thing earlier in the week has somewhat dented my credibility as a healthy eater. But I am about to redeem myself. Follow me past the “read more” tag, my friends, for a couple of simple, tasty, filling recipes that are both reasonably priced and nicer than anything you could buy.

It’s important to get lunch right. I don’t subscribe to this weird dieting theory that BEING HUNGRY IS BAD or that you should spend the day frantically shovelling low-fat “treats” down your neck to ward off the UNSPEAKABLE HORROR THAT IS FEELING A BIT PECKISH. I think it’s good to come to your meals feeling hungryish because you appreciate them that much more and you feel that you deserve them, but at the same time the journey from lunch to dinner is long and lonely. You need a lunch that’s on your side.

So. Up there you can see a photo of my lunchbox. You’re probably wondering what I’ve got in there, aren’t you? Yes you are. Okay I shall tell you. With recipes. ANYONE CAN DO THESE. And they are delicious.

The Pink box contains half a grilled chicken beyti, which is chicken minced with chilli, herbs and garlic and barbecued over charcoal. Okay, okay, I didn’t cook this one. However, I did watch the chef at the local Turkish restaurant make it from scratch, and the ingredients are all fresh so it’s fine, okay? Okay. The kebab is huge, and comes with Turkish bread, salad and yogurt and garlic sauce. I cut the bread and the kebab in half and ate half with the salad and some of the sauce for supper, saving the rest for lunch. The little blue container holds the rest of the sauce it came with, and the wedge of lemon is for squeezing over.

The Green box contains home-made tabbouleh. Oooh, I love tabbouleh. And it’s healthy. And it takes about twenty minutes tops to make. Here’s how you make it:

Put 3 tablespoons of bulghur wheat in a bowl and cover it with boiling water. Leave it until the water is mostly absorbed and the bulghur is light and fluffy, which takes 10-20 minutes. (Don’t bother putting it on the hob, it isn’t any quicker.) Drain any excess water from the bulghur. Chop a shitload of fresh parsley (seriously, because a big bunch of parsley still only chops down to about a handful) or mint. If you don’t have fresh herbs, and frankly I generally don’t, bung a teaspoon of dried parsley or mint in. Yes. It’s true. I have used dried herbs in the past, and I am not ashamed, and I fully intend to do it again.

Add a tomato, diced very small. I tend to discard most of the seeds but it’s your call, really. Squeeze in the juice of a lemon, or to taste - I find that you don’t necessarily need all of it. And I know what I said about dried herbs but please use freshly squeezed lemon juice because bottled really is rubbish.

Drizzle in some olive oil, not too much, add salt and pepper to taste, and - if you’re that type - shake in a few drops of chilli sauce. I use West Indian Pepper Sauce, which isn’t very authentically Middle Eastern but beefs it up nicely. Give the tabbouleh a stir, put it in the fridge or put it in your lunchbox, and be blown away by how much better it is a couple of hours later when the flavours have developed.

The Orange box contains home-made three bean salad. Oooh, I love three-bean salad.

Drain three tins of beans (yes that’s right I said TINS. If you want to spend twenty four hours soaking dried beans and boiling them and all that then be my guest, but for me dried beans are filed under “life too short”.) I like them to be different colours or patterns, because that’s how I roll.

Finely chop one jumbo spring onion or 3 normal ones and 1 stick of celery; stir them into the beans; squeeze in a bit of lemon juice or slosh in a bit of wine vinegar if you like it better; drizzle in some olive oil, and finally add salt and pepper to taste. Fabulous, and even better if you’re sufficiently organised to make it the night before.

But do not underestimate the importance of the Blue Box, which is the snack box. The biscuits are a pack of five Nairns fruit and mixed spice oatcakes. They have no flour in them, just oats, and are low-GI, and no I do not eat all five of them. Not often. Well, not always. SHUT UP. Also in the blue box: fresh blueberries, dried cranberries and walnuts. This is for that half past four moment where your blood sugar nosedives and you have to be restrained from eating your bewildered room-mate (not like that!!!).

I accompany this box of delights with a few pieces of fruit and lots of herbal tea.

I also have some sachets of miso soup. I don’t like it very much - who in their right mind would? No one. NO ONE - but if I’m working late and I’ve run out of fruit it sometimes foxes my body into thinking it’s had something savoury. Actually, if you don’t want to talk about lunch in the comments, feel free to explain to me exactly how miso soup isn’t just Japanese Cup-A-Soup. Cheers.

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You are probably wondering where the fabulous bento box-style lunchbox comes from. It’s a Laptop Lunch Box, designed to promote healthy eating for children. Mine came with a little booklet about healthy eating, cutlery (as you can see), a drink bottle and a rather natty little carry case that looks like a miniature laptop bag. If you live in the UK you can order them for you and/or your children here.

I bought one just after Christmas, and love mine so much that I kidnapped Wendy under cover of darkness and made her buy one too.