Lunch ideas please!

[AmandaGeorge]

Hello everyone

I've been vegetarian for about 30 years and I'm allergic to dairy too on top of being disabled.  I was blue-lighted to hospital on Christmas Day 2002 and came out of the hospitals Neurology ward in mid-March 2003 as obese.  In the last 16 years I've reduced my weight from being obese to being 8kg overweight.  The Neuro advised me to take a multi-vitamin and calcium supplement (because of the dairy allergy) every day which I've usually done pretty well with taking.  I also take an Iron supplement (because of being a long-term vegetarian) and Vitamin B12 on the recommendation of my GP.  I've also been prescribed 5mg of Folic Acid because my most recent blood test showed that I was low on it and because it's the second time it's been tested as low, I'm on it for the forseeable future.

My husband is clinically obese and very much a meat-eater but we have very few veggies in our daily diet - it's usually rice and pasta as our staples.

Our diet used to be 2 take-aways a day, everyday, for about 2-3 years but that has significantly improved recently and we have already turned our meals to a lot healthier than they were back then.  I'm "not allowed near anything hot" because I'm so unstable on my feet and even hot drinks have to be made, brought into the living room and put onto the table for me, same with food.

We are making a determined effort to have more veggies in our diets now, but our vastly different likes and dietary requirements make it hard to make one meal for both of us.  I like all fruits and veggies, but my hubby doesn't like the taste of mushrooms, peppers, raw carrots, cucumber, celery and the squashes but I love all of those!

We need to start off very quick and easy, just while the hubby builds up confidence and motivation.  We had home-made potato wedges yesterday (Friday) and stuffed butternut squash was a treat meal for me last year.  We just need some easy recipes for things that take a couple of minutes preparation tops and can then just be put in the oven for a maximum of half an hour, then dished up and eaten.

Don't suppose anyone has got any ideas have they?  Pretty please?

TIA!

Amanda (and Steve - my hubby and carer)

[WendyB]

I eat a lot of salads. But I add different things daily. Eggs one day, Pepperoni the next

I just try to change it in one way or the other

[WendyB]

Maybe add a low cal treat?

Sometimes we have trader joes egg rollls. They are not bad calorie  wise

[AmandaGeorge]

Thank you @WendyB !  I used to love salads, especially in hot weather, but Steve just doesn't feel full when he has salad, unless there is something more bulky with it.  Pepperoni is a potential and so are eggs - I'd completely forgotten about that!  I'll add some to the shopping now, before I forget.  OK, got eggs, pepperoni, butternut squash and baking potato's on the order now so hopefully it'll encourage us to eat more fresh food next week!

[WendyB]

Also beans. Black, kidney, garbanzo. These also make it more filling

[AmandaGeorge]

Thank you... I'll add some to next week's shopping!

[RodrigoMFitbit]

Hello @AmandaGeorge and @WendyB. 

Thanks for sharing @WendyB, I agree on the salad varying some ingredients. Garbanzo definitely helps. On the following link you will find my post with two recipes for tasty salads. 

Meal Prep Ideas - click here. 

The amount of protein (chicken, tuna) is up to you. Please let me know if you tried them. 

Greetings.