WORKING LUNCH

I have made my lunch for work for the past year and it has really made a huge difference to my bank account.

Previous lunch spend £5 a day at least. Roughly £1100 a year!

Making your lunch everyday means you could afford these contemporary classics by the end of the year:



  


I only started making my own soups a year ago and my boyfriend and I love how long they last. One soup can keep us going for dinner and then 2 days of lunches afterwards.

  










Mushroom soup (serves 4) (via The Hairy Bikers at BBC Food)
This is one of the simplest soups I have made, and is nice and thick: perfect for winter.

Ingredients:

• 25g butter
• 1 large onion
• 1 medium leek
• 1 green pepper (although I leave this out)
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 300g button or chestnut mushrooms, grated (I prefer to slice and then blend at the end)
• 2 tbsp plain flour
• 450ml vegetable stock
• 450ml milk
• 1 tbsp chopped parsley
• salt and pepper
• Handful of grated parmesan (this is an extra I add)

1. Melt the butter in a pan and gently sweat the onion, pepper, leek and garlic until they start to soften.
2. Increase the heat and add the mushrooms. When the mushrooms are cookedm stir in the flour and cook for one minute. Remove the pan from the heat and add the stock a little at a time.
3. Once all the stock is added, return the pan to the heat, bring to the boil, reduce and simmer for a few minutes. Pour in the milk and bring to a simmer. Stir in the parsley and season to taste. Stir in the grated parmesan. I then blend at this point with a hand blender.
4. Ladle into bowls and serve with bread.

For soups, I cannot get by without my hand blender. I use this Sainsbury's one, only £13.99.