Hi.

I really need some helpful ideas for my girlfriend for things to eat. She is currently working and living in a restaurant (owned by marco piere white) and only has evening meals provided. These normally consist of fish and chips and are hardly healthy. She never has lunch when she is working (they dont give them breaks)and the problem is compounded by the fact she cant eat wheat (although more recently she has been) but this makes her ill.
Its got to the point where i am worried about her health and need a solution. I cant cook her any meals (as i dont have a kitchen) so they need to be things she can eat while working, or in a 2 minute break that are easy to prepare beforehand without a kitchen, healthy and wheat free. Oh she does have a kettle in her room.

So far i have:

raw carrots
green beans
nuts
seeds
dried fruit
fresh fruit

any other ideas?

thanks guys

mushrooms
chorizo
peppers
onion
rocket
tuna

chopped up and mixed together with a dash of olive oil and balsamic

Do you have a microwave, get some noodles and sauce.

Have a fridge? Cereal if so.

Wheat free bread, then sandwiches. My mum doesn’t eat wheat either, and its fairly common, so there’s loads of info on the internet.

Sprouts. Great, healthy snack food. Available from health food shops or grow your own in a jam jar.
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Like this

Not this

Bag of watercress.
Pink grapefruit.
peppered smoked mackerel fillets.
Balsamic dressing.

mix all the above up in a bowl.

Most nutritional bases covered, no cooking, tastes great.

She never has lunch when she is working (they dont give them breaks)

are there not laws against that? TJ to the thread!

Buy her a microwave oven for christmas?

only has evening meals provided. These normally consist of fish and chips and are hardly healthy.

She lives in a restaurant that only serves fish and chips?!

just thought, have a look at graze.com – I’m a huge fan – lunch box delivered by the postman – mine arrives every Friday without fail.

Anyone who wants to try it can use this code to get a sample for free – 8CB2R1B3

Tin of tuna in sunflower oil. open & drain, mix it up, add vinegar and some hot pepper sauce. Eat out of tin. Yum! chopped banana and dates/prunes mixed with yohurt for pud. eat from pot. yum!

Dunno if Marco would approve!

yeah they arent what the restaurant serve either! they arent allowed to use the kitchen, for what reason i dont know.

I have brought up with her so many times that legally they have to have breaks, but in the current climate it seems to be if you dont like it then leave. We cant afford to do that at the moment.

This is only upto christmas then we are getting a house together, but a nice idea.

When you say she can’t eat wheat, do you mean that she has Coeliac disease? Has she been tested and diagnosed by a Dr or is it a self diagnosis? The only reason I mention it is that if she has a true wheat (gluten) intolerance she’s going to need to be really strict with her diet. Even contamination from food prepared on the same surface as bread etc could present a problem. If it’s gluten (which is in wheat and lots of other things) that’s the problem then it could be hidden in lots of things (lots of prepared sauces, beer, lager, lots of prepared meals etc). The biggest problem with Coeliac disease is that if you don’t adhere to the diet, you may not have symptoms but it massively increases your risk of gut malignancy – this risk is normalised by following a strict gluten free diet.
Anyway, back on topic – she could have rice, potatoes, fruits, veg. You can make gluten free bread (if you’re diagnosed with coeliac disease you can even have it free on prescription) using gluten free flour, but don’t share a breadmaker with ordinary flour otherwise it will be contaminated.
Beware of cereals – most will either contain wheat or will have been exposed to contamination with wheat during manufacture. Some people with gluten intolerance can have oats.
I would urge her to get properly diagnosed if not already done so and if she has been properly diagnosed, she’d have access to a dietician and membership of coeliac UK who would provide her with much more info than you would ever get on here (no disrespect to any contributors). DON’T go to a health food shop for diagnosis. It’ll either be wrong or she’ll be told that she has a yeast problem or a lactose intolerance (nobody ever comes away being told they’re normal).
It’s said that Coeliac disease is massively underdiagnosed in the UK (incidence varies from country to country) – current estimates are that around 1 in 90 people have it, many have no symptoms, those that do are mostly “vague” symptoms, but if a proper diet isn’t achieved then they run a really high risk of malignancy and a thing called lymphoma, which you don’t want, trust me.
Oh and if you don’t have wheat in your diet already but you’ve not been properly tested, you’ve got to reintroduce wheat into your diet for the tests to work.

PS if you have true wheat intolerance, you can’t eat chips either if they’re cooked in the same fat that was used to fry battered fish (because of contamination from the batter). OK if chips cooked separately though

its purely wheat, and not a gluten intolerance. We think its to do with the new genetically modified versions of wheat, because if we make bread with something like spelt or any traditional flour she has no issues with it.

She has been diagnosed with it, and her mum suffers from the same. It gives her eczema and just generally makes he lathargic.

Anyway thats off the point, thanks for those suggestions tinners, but they require cooking!

pot noodles

roll and crisps

Cerviche.

Chop some raw firm-fleshed fish (I’ve also used Salmon with some success) into 1″ chunks, and marinate in juice of 2 limes, couple of chopped chillis, splash of soy sauce, and a bit of salt and pepper.
It “cooks” in the citric acid. Make it the night before and it’ll be ready for lunch the next day.

Sandwiches? (with your home-made bread)

9 Bars, available in most supermarkets.

http://www.9-bar.co.uk/

How have you made the Spelt bread? Do you have a breadmaker? If so, can’t she have sandwiches made from this? If not, they are a great investment.