You probably know this already; but coffee & Coke are diuretics, so not only are they not as helpful as water, but they can actually make you *more* dehydrated. I believe this is also true of fruit juice, but at least that has some nutritional content as well :-) I do pretty well with water during the week (because the bottle sits on my desk at work), but very badly at weekends.
Lunches: if you have access to a microwave, curry & rice is good (curry can be made in bulk, rice can't really[0] but if you eat breakfast, it can be put on the stove & left alone while you have breakfast, & then packed up). In general, if you *do* manage to make proper food the night before, make double & take the leftovers in for lunch - I quite often do this, as well. Baked potatoes are good with a lot of things (inc chilli & leftover pasta sauce), & you can do them in the oven the previous night & then warm them up in the microwave - they go a bit strangely wrinkly, but still taste nice.
Rice salad is another nice one, but sadly see below - you can't really do it in bulk. Bean salad (pick your bean, add peppers, carrots, onion, fresh coriander, lemon/lime juice, oil, etc) is nice, as is pasta salad.
Hmm. Maybe you could try chopping up lots of veg (peppers, carrots, onions, mushrooms, anything else you fancy), & then mixing them separately with a bunch of different things (beans/pasta/rice/potatoes) & different seasonings, & then you'd have different stuff for the duration of the week but you could make it all at once. Actually, I might try that myself :-)
I know you said not-sandwiches, but I will comment that refried beans, rocket, & sour cream is Very Nice, not too faffy, & *I* think it's exciting :-) And refried beans will keep in the fridge for bloody ages, so you can make it once then have it once a week or something & it won't become too repetitive. Rocket won't, but hey, you can eat that out of the packet, mmm lovely rocket. I don't know about sour cream. Vegan cream cheese, which is what I use instead, keeps forever, as well. Actually, I find that rocket generally makes sandwiches more exciting with minimal faff - it also goes well with hummous (OK, that's probably not exciting) & carrot&lentil pate (with salsa as well is even better). Carrot&lentil stuff also keeps for ages; recipes for both on Kake's website.
Mmmm food. Hungry now.
[0] I happily eat several-day-old rice, but Pete & Marna are convinced that this will give me food poisoning. Hasn't yet, mind. I have a reasonably tough stomach; I probably wouldn't recommend eating rice more than a day or so old, & it *has* to live in the fridge.
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Lunches: if you have access to a microwave, curry & rice is good (curry can be made in bulk, rice can't really[0] but if you eat breakfast, it can be put on the stove & left alone while you have breakfast, & then packed up). In general, if you *do* manage to make proper food the night before, make double & take the leftovers in for lunch - I quite often do this, as well. Baked potatoes are good with a lot of things (inc chilli & leftover pasta sauce), & you can do them in the oven the previous night & then warm them up in the microwave - they go a bit strangely wrinkly, but still taste nice.
Rice salad is another nice one, but sadly see below - you can't really do it in bulk. Bean salad (pick your bean, add peppers, carrots, onion, fresh coriander, lemon/lime juice, oil, etc) is nice, as is pasta salad.
Hmm. Maybe you could try chopping up lots of veg (peppers, carrots, onions, mushrooms, anything else you fancy), & then mixing them separately with a bunch of different things (beans/pasta/rice/potatoes) & different seasonings, & then you'd have different stuff for the duration of the week but you could make it all at once. Actually, I might try that myself :-)
I know you said not-sandwiches, but I will comment that refried beans, rocket, & sour cream is Very Nice, not too faffy, & *I* think it's exciting :-) And refried beans will keep in the fridge for bloody ages, so you can make it once then have it once a week or something & it won't become too repetitive. Rocket won't, but hey, you can eat that out of the packet, mmm lovely rocket. I don't know about sour cream. Vegan cream cheese, which is what I use instead, keeps forever, as well. Actually, I find that rocket generally makes sandwiches more exciting with minimal faff - it also goes well with hummous (OK, that's probably not exciting) & carrot&lentil pate (with salsa as well is even better). Carrot&lentil stuff also keeps for ages; recipes for both on Kake's website.
Mmmm food. Hungry now.
[0] I happily eat several-day-old rice, but Pete & Marna are convinced that this will give me food poisoning. Hasn't yet, mind. I have a reasonably tough stomach; I probably wouldn't recommend eating rice more than a day or so old, & it *has* to live in the fridge.