The industrial sandwich market is a huge culprit in creating unrecyclable food a packaging & waste. Recent studies show that it is calculated to be the CO2 equivalent of 8.6 million cars per year (CO2 is a gas that is produced and is released into our environment when food and packaging goes through its decomposing process).
In the UK 1 in 8 people will eat the same lunch everyday for years due to lack of confidence, awareness and a belief that purchasing pre-packed sandwiches are convenient. A lot of ‘shop brought’ sandwiches aren’t as good for us as they seem when it comes to nutritional information displayed on the packaging. Many of the packaged sandwiches will have 6g of salt, which is the equivalent to women’s recommended daily intake, as well as other nasties like ‘saturated’ fats. Even some of the ‘healthy’ branded sandwiches will still have lots of calories. By the time you eat your sandwich it will be 4 days old! Would you eat a 4-day old sandwich at home?
Whilst more and more packaging is bio degradable it still takes a substantial amount of time to degrade. And as for plastic packaging used for sandwiches, wraps, salad pots etc. they produce water droplets – next time you buy one of these have a look for any condensation which makes the item sweat and soggy.
An example of cost saving when making your own lunch versus buying:
If you make lunch 3 days a week versus buying that’s an average saving of £320 per year per person.
Buying a meal ‘DEAL’ will save you approximately 50pence.
My Agenda Is To:
- Raise awareness when buying packed lunches from our supermarkets, local shops.
- Share ideas for packed lunches
- Discuss good ingredients versus bad (including foods that can boost our energy/productivity/alertness etc.)
- How to plan for lunches without it being a time burden
- Quick and easy homemade packed lunches – an interactive exploration of how to make easy, healthy, and low-cost packed lunches.
- Key learnings and takeaways
- Q&A
A Very Quick and Simple Tasty Lunch – The Non Nando’s Chicken Wrap:
- Heat a tortilla in the microwave for 30 seconds
- Turn over, add grated or sliced cheese and cooked chicken slices (or meat free for a vegetarian options)
- Place back in the microwave and heat for another 30 seconds
- In the mean time chop any salad items you want to add and mix some mayonnaise with some hot sauce
- Take your tortilla out of the microwave, load up, wrap, enjoy – this can either be eaten hot or cold
This cost’s approximately £1.50 as opposed to over £7
Now you have some ideas to make some changes to your daily lunch ideas but also for you bank balance to. Planning is key here, I’d love to hear how you’re going to make even one change this week to your daily routine. Leave me a comment below…
About The Author
It is my mission to help give people of all circumstances the confidence to make their food their way. Taking people on a journey of food inspiration and creativity that will also save time, money, and minimal effort. To work with employees in any sector. Using training packages to educate on “good” foods that give us the energy we need to be fully productive, good wellbeing, saving money and being ethical.
I am unlike many other food businesses available. The market is saturated with cookbooks, internet recipes, meal kits, cooking programs. All of these will teach people how to REPLICATE. In terms of value, you will learn how to copy a recipe. I however will provide versatile ways to save money through your food shop, reduce food waste and make a variety of meals that suit your palette. For example, I provide a recipe card for a tomato-based sauce which can be used for Soup, Chilli, Mexican, Pasta, Pizza, Curry and much more.
I have 15 years’ experience working with various companies as an operational expert, helping businesses improve performance, productivity, efficiency, quality, customer, and people satisfaction and drive down costs. I apply these skills and techniques to my approach in food planning and cooking.
Simplicib.co.uk Mob: 07542 829039
Working with various education streams to further embed essential food skills