Lunches for Work

SOME TOP TIPS FOR WEEKDAY LUNCH BOXES:
1. Make extra portions of dinner dishes with leftover used for lunch.
2. Purchase containers and flasks for lunch on the go.
3. Use up leftovers from the fridge in tasty soups and salads, things like shredded chicken add a great bit of protein.
4. Have your store cupboard well stocked with ingredients which are close to hand and can be transformed into simple lunch box meals.
5. Use cheap ingredients like pasta, cous cous, bulgur wheat to bulk up lunch box meals.

RECIPES
LEFTOVER CHICKEN AND SWEETCORN SOUP
This super tasty soup has become a classic in our house, it was always requested on sick days home from school. I always find sweetcorn lends a warm and comforting taste to soups and its bright colour puts a smile on my face. Try not to skimp on ingredients for this one, it tastes best when you use the best ingredients – homemade stock and fresh ginger are a must!
Serves 4
Ingredients
Leftovers of half a roast chicken, shredded
1 litre/2 pints of homemade chicken stock
2 x 400g tins sweetcorn
1 tablespoon of sunflower oil
1 large thumb-sized piece of ginger, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 tablespoon of soy sauce
1 tablespoon of rice wine vinegar
1 teaspoon of sesame oil
2 eggs lightly beaten
4 spring onions, finely sliced, diagonally
The Method
In a large pot with a little oil, fry the garlic and ginger for about 3 minutes, add the corn and cook for a further 3 minutes.
Add a little bit of the chicken stock and, with a hand blender, blitz the mixture until it becomes smooth.
Add the rest of the chicken stock, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar and sesame oil. Bring to the boil, and simmer for 10 minutes.
Beat the eggs in a pyrex jug, which will make it easy for you to trickle them into the soup
Reduce the heat and while the soup is still simmering, stir it continuously in a figure of eight motion and gently trickle in the beaten egg a little bit at a time to form thin strands.
Add the chicken shreds and stir through. Serve with a generous garnish of spring onions.

FRAGRANT THAI CHICKEN STEW
This is very similar to a Thai green curry but it's a lot lighter in terms of spices, sticking mainly with the fresh ingredients like ginger and lemongrass. I use Kaffir lime leaves here, which some supermarkets carry in the herb section, Asian markets are also bound to have them. Improvise with finely grated zest of lime. If you haven't used lemongrass before it's a fantastic little ingredient which is responsible for giving this dish that wonderful light and fragrant flavour. To prepare, slice off the woody ends and the root, you should be left with about 2-3 inches. If you don't have a food processor, just chop the paste ingredients until they're as fine as you can get them.
Ingredients
8 chicken thighs, boneless and skinned, sliced in half
1 tablespoon of sunflower oil
A good grind of black pepper
3 large thumb sized pieces of ginger, peeled and roughly sliced
A small handful of kaffir lime leaves, or zest of 2 limes
3 garlic cloves
1 red chilli, deseeded
3 stalks of lemongrass
1 x 400g tin of coconut milk
2 tablespoons of fish sauce
A large handful of coriander, roughly chopped
6 spring onions, finely sliced
To serve:
240g of basmati rice
The Method
In small handblender blitz the ginger, lime leaves, garlic, red chilli and lemon grass until finely chopped.
Heat a frying pan over a high heat and add a little sunflower oil.
Season the chicken pieces and brown off in the pan until you have a nice golden colour on either side.
Remove the chicken pieces from the pan and place on plate with some kitchen paper.
Pour the remaining oil and scrape any crispy bits into a medium sized high sided pot and place over a medium high heat.
Add in the blitzed ingredients and stir-fry for 2-3 minutes until the they release lots of great fragrant smells!
Add the chicken back in along with the coconut milk and fish sauce.
Cook over a gentle heat for 10 minutes until the sauce has reduced a little and the chicken is thoroughly cooked through.
While the chicken is bubbling away, get the rice on. Rice can get people a little panicked but the easiest way to think about it is that it is 1 part rice to 2 parts cold water. What I do is measure the rice in a glass and then use the glass to pour in the water, that way it’s easy to see the volume you need to add.
Add the rice and water to a pot, cover with a lid and simmer over a medium heat for about 15 minutes or according to the instructions on the packet.
Serve the chicken over the rice and give a generous sprinkle of spring onions and coriander.
Devour the dinner!

STRAWBERRIES WITH HOMEMADE GRANOLA, HONEY AND YOGHURT
Makes enough for 6-8 servings
One of my favourite ways to serve homemade granola is with some fresh strawberries, some natural yoghurt and a nice drizzle of honey. Add whatever nuts, seeds, or dried fruit you like...
Ingredients
250g/9oz jumbo oats
100g/4oz of pumpkin seeds
125g/41⁄2oz raisins
3 tablespoons of maple syrup
1 teaspoon of cinnamon powder
1⁄4 teaspoon of salt
The Method
Combine all the dry ingredients apart from the raisins in a large mixing bowl, drizzle over the maple syrup and mix through. Empty the contents onto a large baking tray and spread out evenly.
Toast in the oven for approximately 20 minutes at 180°C/350°/Gas Mark 4, but keep an eye on it as ovens vary – you are looking for the oats to just turn a light golden brown. Give them a mix halfway through the cooking time and add in the raisins. Allow to cool before you transfer to an airtight container. The granola should last up to two weeks, if you don’t eat it all before then!
Serve with some organic yoghurt, strawberries and a drizzle of honey.

HEALTHY SINGAPORE NOODLES
Serves 2
Singapore noodles are a standard Chinese restaurant dish, but making them at home is so easy and it also means you can monitor what’s going in to them, adding whatever healthy vegetables you feel like. The addition of curry powder to this dish not only brings a new flavour to it, but it coats the noodles and gives a great texture to every bite.
Ingredients
3 cloves of garlic, minced
A thumb sized piece of ginger, grated
1 tablespoon of oyster sauce
2 tablespoons of soy sauce
2 chicken breasts, sliced into thin strips
100g of rice vermicelli noodles
2 tablespoons of sunflower oil
2 celery sticks, finely sliced
1 carrot, finely sliced
4 spring onions
1 tablespoon of Asian curry powder
1 teaspoon of sesame oil
A good handful of bean spr
The Method
Marinate the chicken with the garlic, ginger, 1 tablespoon of soy sauce and oyster sauce. Cover and place in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
Soak the noodles in a bowl of boiling water for 6 minutes or until soft. Drain and set aside.
Heat a wok over a high heat and add the oil to coat. Add the chicken and stir fry for 3-4 minutes.
Add the celery, carrot and spring onion, and stir fry for 2 minutes. Add the curry powder and toss through for another 2 minutes.
Add the noodles and bean sprouts and a drop of sesame oil to taste. Toss everything together using kitchen tongs until it’s combined.
Serve straight away.

PEANUT BUTTER SNICKER SQUARES
This snickers recipe makes delicious squares which are miles better and totally different than the commercial bars you can buy in the shops, way more chewy, crunchy and chocolatey and totally worth it! We used 100g of white chocolate and 100g of milk chocolate when we made these and swirled the two together to get a super marbled effect to make our squares a little unique.
Ingredients
200g of smooth peanut butter
100g of caster sugar
200ml of golden syrup
100g Special K flakes
100g coconut flakes
1 teaspoon vanilla sugar
200g of chocolate
The Method
Place the chocolate in a bowl over a small simmering saucepan of water and allow to melt gently.
In another saucepan, over a gentle heat, melt together the peanut butter, sugar, and golden syrup until runny and smooth.
In a large mixing bowl, toss the Special K flakes, flaked coconut, and vanilla sugar until combined.
Pour the peanut butter mixture over the dry ingredients and using a wooden spoon stir until everything is nicely combined. Turn the mixture out into a 2 inch deep baking dish and spread out evenly pressing down with the back of the spoon.
Pour over the melted chocolate and place in the fridge for a few hours until firm.