I thought I would start a new thread instead of mudding up some of the other threads that are already going.
My dilemna is one that I am sure a lot of us face, and I am seriously looking for help.
My girl and I just decided that we would like to start brown bagging it to work. Our goal is to do this at least 3 times a week, maybe more if things go right. We are both really bad about eating out, and we are trying to not do this so much. We have cut down extremly on our dinner eating out, but lunch seems to be really tough.
I am wanting to give this a serious go, but I get bored really easily with food and need some help. From a work standpoint, we do have a refrigerator and microwave. We both have really cool lunch bags and a few reusable ice packs, so for the most part almost anything is able to be carried to work.
I will admit that I am really bad at microwaving things and do have somewhat of a fear of whatever container I pack food in will melt. So if you have some great hot food ideas please let me know how you would heat and pack them. :)
I am pretty much open on trying anything that won't eat me first so... I come to my wonderful friends looking for some help. (Today was day 1 of this adventure, and I can already tell I need all the help I can get)
I like to bring salad. One container for the lettuce and other veggies, and one for the dressing. If I want crutons or something like that, they may go in a seperate container as well.
Sandwiches are easy too. Get some interesting bread, lunch meat, and some mustard or horseradish sauce and you have a tasty, easy-to-make sandwich. Can throw some lettuce and/or tomatoes on it as well, if you want to take more time.
Hot food...
I like soup. Bring a bowl and a can of soup and microwave at work. No melting containers to worry about. Boxed Thai/Chineese food is something else I like. Another one to bring a bowl for that is tasty is the various Indian foods from Trader Joe's.
There's also always the frozen TV dinner type lunches, hot pockets, and stuff like that as well.
That's all I can think of at the moment. Hope it helps. :)
My new thing is making veggie sandwiches. At home, I pack the ingredients: bread in one bag, sliced tomato and onion in another, and lettuce and alfalfa sprouts in a 3rd. I bring a container of hummus. I assemble the sandwich at work, because if I do it ahead of time, the tomatos and hummus make the bread all soggy. So I eat that, and I usually bring some fruit or cheese and crackers to go with it.
In a pinch, there are a few of the Smart Ones frozen meals that are pretty good. They aren't the best, but they're nice to have in the freezer in case you really don't have time to make a lunch that day.
Good luck on the new venture! It'll save you a lot of dough, I'm sure!
Simple finger foods:
baby carrots (which, of course, aren't "baby" carrots at all, but whatever)
celery sticks
cherry tomatoes
olives
assorted cut up veggies
grapes
banana
apple slices (a quick dip in a bowl of lemon juice will keep them from turning brown)
raisins
cheese
pepperoni
crackers or a roll
Pick three or four things from the list, toss in a small container of salad dressing or dip for the veggies, maybe a fruit dip or some peanut butter for the fruit, a little mustard for the crackers and cheese if you'd like, and you're good to go. You can take something like this for lunch two or three times a week and never get tired of it because you can always change the combinations of foods. You'd be surprising how filling it can be.
Bon appetit!
One good idea is to make pasta salads the night before and pre-pack them in tupperwares in the fridge so you can just grab them in the morning. I like to do a BIG batch of noodles (I prefer the three color rotini for most things). Then I make dinner (something spaghetti-ish, or chicken parmesan, or whatever) with part of the noodles. After dinner, I use the other part of the noodles to make a few salads which can be eaten later in the week.
My favorite cold pasta salads to make: tuna noodle salad, krab olive salad (recipe posted in the R/F cookbook thread), Tony's "funky" salad (Tony's my fellow.. he likes noodles, chicken, tomatoes, grated Parmesan and red wine or raspberry vinaigrette tossed together).
Warm ones: ham/broccoli/noodles & cheese casserole, mom's potluck casserole (that's ground meat, mixed veggies, noodles, and cheese sauce), pasta primavera (with lots and lots of veggies, sometimes chicken and/or shrimp)
Can you tell I like noodles? :)
I like things like egg salad, tuna salad and with crackers and some fruit.And if i want something hot i will heat at home and put it in a thermos container so no heating is needed. I'm not so sure about heating in plastic anymore.
They have these nifty things now called Soup at Hand. It comes in a microwavable container so all you have to do is follow the instructions and no melting. The container is ment to make the soup drinkable. I've tried it and it worked well, but I'd probably go the bring a bowl route though so that you can get tasier soups that have bigger chunks of food in it. You'll feel fuller longer that way.
Due to my dietary requirements (3 stints in my heart since March), I have to watch what I eat for trans-fats, cholesterol, sodium etc.. I look for lunch meats (mostly turkey in some form). I make a couple of sandwiches and bring them, and a pepsi for lunch daily. Yeah, it gets boring sometimes, but when you compare the whole $10.00 for a meal at Murphy's Deli (located in my building) to the $1.50 to bring my lunch daily... guess what wins?
I'm big on bringing leftovers from the night before. I can usually eat whatever we cook twice before getting tired of it. I buy plastic 3 compartment lunch containers at the dollar store and also have a plate and fork in my draw at work.
Set one day a week, or month depending on how much of what you want to cook. Make big batches of soup, chili, curry, or whatever you like to eat. Make a bunch of single servings in ziplock, and toss them in the freezer. If you toss 'em in the fridge at work they should come out of the bag easy enough. Microwave in a microwave safe bowl, and enjoy. If you make three or four different thigns, you can just grab a random bad each day, and have a little variety.
Those kid meals... lunchables and the like are on my list when I am in a hurry.
I grab those, a couple of snack bars for my breaks and I am good for the day
When I am not sort on time, I just go with the traditional sammich. Just one, made the night before anda bag of chips and a snack bar type thing for munchies
(I really don't eat much for the size I am lol)
I have also done things like:
Get a melon baller and various fruits and make a weeks worth of fruit salad.
Salads, I usually assemble everything but the dressing the night before
Soups, kept in a microwave safe container until I'm ready to heat them. Campbells and other complanies make some just for that purpose.
I dont really like leftovers for lunch, for some reason that just isnt my thing... dunno why
*rumcakes are always great for deserts too*
Grilled Chicken Breast strips(Usually leftovers from home), they can either be cut up for salad, or left whole for puttign in a sandwich, they work really nice in wraps,
Hard Boiled eggs
Cucumber spears soaked in vinegar overnight.
Mozzeralla string cheese, wrap in pepperoni & Thin sliced ham.
Plain Yogurt, drizzeled with Hunny, add fruit or granola
Hummus & triscuts
I know what you mean about gettign bored, I fall into the same rut.
One thing I do is bake a big meatloaf and potatoes on Sunday and then use the leftovers for lunch all week. Roast beef, ham, chicken, etc are all good cold or reheated in the microwave. Pasta is something else you can make on Sunday and eat the rest of the week for lunch. You don't really get tired of them because you can fix them in different ways all week, sandwitch one day, reheat another, etc.
I keep a box a cereal and a carton of milk at work (with bowl and spoon of course). Then I go out for lunch. I think I'm doing something wrong.
LOL Sterling, you might be on to something there!
When I was pregnant, I kept a BIG bucket (the largest size container they sell at wal-mart) of vanilla yogurt in the fridge at work. I kept a bag of frozen mixed berries (also a la wal-mart) in the freezer. I would eat the two combined with my lunch, or make a cup first thing in the morning and nibble on it until lunch. When I had the spare change, I'd pick up a box of granola too... it is SO good sprinkled over fruit and yogurt! And making your own is SOOOOOOO much cheaper than paying a buck a piece for them at McDonald's!
Thank you all so much for the ideas. Would love to hear more as people pass this way. I have so far used a couple of them, and I so far my lunches have been really good. Today, is a homemade steak sandwich as the main course. :)
A Hot meal for work or dinner somthing hot that you can heat up It`s call enichlada loaf,
This is so simple Here is how to make it
cook ,fry hamber meat up in pan put it to the side
mix one can of enchilada sauce and one can of cream of mushroom sauce in a bowl
take tortilas and cut them in to quaters or just tear them
pour a layer of the sauce you made and layer the tortillas on top of the sauce in the pan
now meat, a layer of that
cheese, a layer of that
keep layering till you fill the pan, it does not have to be a large pan just one that fits you need
put in the oven till the cheese melts and sauce is hot
take it out, let it cool and put into a dish that you can take to work and heat up the next day
this will feed both of you very well, you can take a small salad along with it and poss. bread.
hope this helps and that you like it. My husbands and friends love this