Introduction

I am a British expat woman living in Oman. Previously very career driven and always busy, I am now getting used to a slower pace of life having recently moved to Muscat with my husband and not yet found paid employment for myself. I settled into expat life in Muscat very easily and into my new "job" as a housewife (for the time being...). Then ramadan came along and cafes and restaurants closed during the daytime. We were told that during ramadan all the non-fasting expats bring packed lunches in to work to surreptitiously eat in a small room in the office provided for that purpose. I quickly saw an opportunity for bringing a little more focus into my life and to re-light the old spark from my previous career in the food industry. My hubbie at the same time decided he needed to lose a few pounds so I decided to focus all my energies into devising interesting and healthy packed lunches for him to take to work each day (and making enough for me to enjoy at home every day too!). As neither of us are natural salad eaters and both of us are easily drawn to snacking, I had to come up with something a little more interesting and filling than a simple lettuce salad each day and yet healthier and more inspiring than the classic bread sandwich (we have far too much gluten in our diets as it is so I'm trying to eradicate it from the lunchtime meal).

So the challenge I have set for myself is to go through the whole month of ramadan making healthy inspiring lunches creating a balanced varied diet without once repeating a lunch and without making a single bread sandwich. Every day I will blog about what I have made and will try to publish photographs of each lunchbox to serve as a useful reminder for when I need inspiration for tasty and healthy packed lunches in the future. Hopefully it may also be a useful blog for anyone else looking for inspiration beyond the simple sandwich.