Meal ideas needed please.

Former Member

Well I'm back to the wards next week, 4 days (so weekdays and weekends) or 3 nights on a children's surgical ward, and I was wondering if you guys could help me with some meal ideas that I can take with me.

I need all brekkie/lunch/tea ideas which are: filling, convenient to make and to be consumed quickly! (no oven at hospital and I'll be eating breakfast on the bus!)), cheap and low fat/low calorie.

I've managed to put on a whopping 8lb since I last checked (bad me!!) so I'm trying to be extra good by taking in my own food, plus it'll be FAR cheaper than eating at the canteen.

Only thing is, my ideas list is exhausted after "tuna and sweetcorn" rolls - not very exciting eh? Also, I'm rather fussy, I don't like tomatos, mushrooms, red meat (unless in like shepherds pie) etc. I need stuff I can make, and then heat up at work the next day.

Hopefully exercise levels will increase with me being on my feet all day on the wards, but I also need food for energy to keep me going when I do 14 hour shifts too!

Thanks a million if any of you can help Tis rather a lot of criteria there!

Former Member

For breakfast what about fruit...I used to take tinned pineapple rings and just keep them in the a tupawear box in the fridge fridge during my night shift. Also muller rice pudding do tril sized small pots which are filling and small enough to chuck in your bag.

For lunches/dinners how about cup-a-soups with a couple of slices of nimble/weight wthcers bread, oat cakes and something like hummous or even egg mayo, tuna mayo to put on top. Roast veg (onions, sweet potato, peppers, mushrooms) with couscous cook the veg in some balsamic vinigar to add a bit more flavour.

Pasta salads, potato salads, wraps, veg dippers and hummous, homw mdae soup! You can get flasks or liquid containers cheap from Asda, Tesco and Wilkinsons and you can make enough to last a few days

I'm sure others will come up with better ideas but thats all I can think of for now

Former Member

You're a gem, thanks for starting me off with some inspiration!

(What are nights like btw?!)

Former Member

Nights arent my favourite but there okay. The only problem I find is that I can't sleep the day of my night shift and then the day after I only get about 4 hours sleep at the most...which is a pain if I have another night shift that night. You get between 1.5-2 hour breaks where alot of nurses have a quick sleep. I don't though as I always wake up really grumpy! Hopefully you have a nice mentor who let's you leave an hour or so early. On my last placement they never let me go early so I just tended not to have my last 1.5 hour break and go at half 5 instead of 8am

Former Member

I've started to work nights and found it a bit hard to cram veg into my routine as I can't eat in the mornings and only like a light meal for lunch. I found quick and easy pasta or rice (wholegrain of course) dishes to be a great convenience, things like Puttanesca, Tomato and Basil sauce, this recipe is epic, basically anything that takes thirty minutes or less to cook and can be crammed into Tupperware. I also realised that if I boil pasta or rice in a steamer I can steam veg simultaneously for more time saving, Tupperware cramming, nutritional goodness.

You could try cooking vats of things like stews, Beef Bourguignon, Coq Au Van, Bolognese etc on your days off as they can be left to cook after initial preparation and survive a freeze really well. Soups are also great, nothing beats a large flask of broccoli and stilton soup with loads of bread.

Pot noodles are pretty good too.