At the grand old age of 35 I’m still figuring out how to be an adult, and I think I’m learning that all of adulthood is probably faking it…One thing I wish someone had warned me of is that one of the hardest parts will be feeding yourself. Plan food, buy food, cook food, eat food, clean up after food, and repeat over and over forever.
A challenge I’ve had for years is… I just don’t know what to pack for lunch at the office. I struggle to get going in the morning, and some things, if packed the night before, get soggy. I often end up throwing a yogurt in my bag along with a scoop of this soup recipe in tupperware. Then I keep a box of dry cereal under my desk for if I’m still hungry. PBJ and an apple work their way in there from time to time as well.
Homies, what do you pack for lunch?
Share your lunch bag with us in the comments!
I do eat a lot of leftovers for lunch (it just takes some trial and error to figure out what reheats well), and I would also say, don’t put too much pressure on yourself to make ‘a meal’ for lunch every day. I like to hard boil a bunch of eggs on Sunday, slice up a bunch of veggies, and keep big containers of stuff like yogurt and crackers/pita chips/hummus on hand. I have a bento-box-style lunch box so I can put a little something in each section and it doesn’t need to ‘go together’.
Lately I’ve also been into mason jar salads, again with a lot of pre-chopping and pre-shredding/crumbling of cheese. Yes, it tastes the same as in a regular container but the fact that it looks really adorable makes me excited about eating it even if I have the same kind three days in a row.
Lol you are not alone. This is why i make my overnight oats in a jar, in layers. The prettiness!
I make stir fry kinda thing and put it into individual containers and freeze it:
*~3 cups rice to whatever the right amount of water is, put in casserole dish and cover with aluminum foil. CAREFULLY place dish into oven without splashing water out. Bake at 350F for 45 minutes to an hour (I start checking on it ever 5-10 minutes after the 45 minute mark – watch out for steam burns)
*While rice is cooking, throw some chicken breasts/thighs/whatever into the oven to roast.
*Pull the rice and chicken out of the oven when they’re done and let cool for a bit. Set a timer so you don’t forget to come back and check on them. I want to say about 20 minutes should do it?
*Grab a can or two of beans and drain/rinse them – I use cannelini beans but any kind should work – and a big package of frozen peas-and-carrots. Set aside till the oven stuff is cooled off.
*I tend to mix everything in the casserole dish. Shred the chicken by hand and mix everything together.
*Divide out into containers. Add asian ginger dressing (or italian dressing or whatever you want).
Alternate lunch ideas: mix oats and some cut up fruit into yogurt the night before. By lunch time (or breakfast time) the oats should be soft.
Not a packed lunch, but I hate making sandwiches so I will frequently buy a 12″ sub and eat 6″ one day and 6″ the next day. I bring apples from home so that helps round things out.
A former coworker brought a thing of individual cheese slices and lunchmeat to work and kept it in the fridge, then he had a loaf of bread at his desk. There were probably condiment in the fridge too. He just made his sandwiches at work which somehow sounds less soul-crushing than making them in the morning before the coffee has kicked in.
Check out the book Top 100 Recipes for a Healthy Lunchbox by Nicola Gaimes. It’s from the UK, so you might find some of the recipes off-putting (looking at you sandwiches that call for herring or sardines) but it could give you some ideas. I know personally I hate leftovers or eating the same thing every day.
Man I hear you on the whole “time devoted to food” thing. I like cooking but if I have to do it every day I get a little.. feisty.
I love a hot lunch and fortunately I also love leftovers. When I used to bring my lunch, it had to be really easy in the morning – throw stuff into a bag type of easy. No chopping or spreading or assembling – nothing like that.
So I would make a big something over the weekend – casserole, pot of soup, spaghetti, etc – and the leftovers became my lunch. I prefer steamed vegetables over salads anyway so I would prepare those as well. Add a piece of fruit and I was done.
Depending on the refrigerator situation, I have also brought the entire “something” to work : all the leftover soup, lasagna, etc. But you need a small group and a big refrigerator for that! Can’t be the one hogging the frig.
Sometimes I would store frozen food at work (again, depending on the refrigerator situation) but generally speaking heating frozen food gives me the sads. It’s the meal I never look forward to. If I know there’s a TV dinner or a frozen burrito waiting for me, I’m much more likely to go out to eat.
Late to the party, but…
A couple years ago, I started a thing I call Slow Cooker Sunday, & despite taking some weekends off from sheer laziness, it’s kind of a regular occurrence. I’d been gifted a couple of cookbooks with slow cooker sections, & since I’d never used one much, I made it my mission to explore it. The great thing about my slow cooker is that while it’s not huge, we always have leftovers.
I think the primary question is, do you like/prefer hot lunches or cold lunches, or do you not care either way? & secondary, what helps you feel full?
My advice particularly is soup, tho just about every recipe I’ve tried has been good as leftover lunch. I tend to prefer hot soups, but there are tons of cold soup recipes available. Chicken noodle soup, beef noodle soup, turkey soup, veggie soup, bean soups, several ramen styles, pho, minestrone, & chickpea & kale soup are some of the ones I’ve gotten pretty good at. I don’t have links for soups unfortunately, because most of those are family &/or friends recipes, but I can share upon request (or else this already too-long comment would be even longer). All you have to do is make sure you put the leftovers in whatever heatable container you want to use the next day, & that might mean using a few different containers. I like to have either a bag of crackers, chips, or carrot sticks to go with the leftovers for some crunch. Part of feeling full for me is to 1) have something with protein in it & 2) have something crunchy. & I have to say, meals with bell peppers in them tend to reheat poorly because they tend to get squishy, but that’s my own experience.
If you have something like sandwiches, make them at your place of work so they don’t get soggy, especially if your location already has a toaster. Bringing the constituent parts takes up a bit more space, but it’s worthwhile, particularly if it’s later in the week & those leftovers are running out. Have no qualms about taking a cooler in, especially if fridge space is limited or nonexistent.
I’ve worked in places with no or unusual heating spaces (as in engine room cooking), as well as those with microwaves & ovens, so I’ve managed to run the gamut of working with what I have available to varying degrees of success. Sometimes the cold can of beanie weenie is amazing & the most tasty thing available. There was one evening in which my husband’s pre-made tuna-stuffed rice balls (onigiri) with a couple of dill pickles were the most amazing, dreamy thing I’d ever tasted (cold, delicious supper).
Agreed on the crunchy must have…even if it’s triscuits broken into my soup. Texture variation is huge for me. Other crunchy add – ons: tortilla strips for salads, roasted chick peas, roasted soybeans, fresh veggies, etc.
I am a vegetarian and work in a tourist area where food options are expensive to begin with, and vegetarian food options are limited (i.e. the beach, where it’s all seafood all the time) so packing my lunch is a must. I’m on my feet all day and during the busy season I work 10-hour days, so I have to make sure I get a satisfying lunch with enough protein to get me through my shift. Luckily I have access to a fridge and a microwave!
One thing I do is make up a few days’ worth of rice&beans/stir fry on sunday afternoon. I have a rice cooker and I throw in 2 cups (uncooked) brown rice – then I do laundry or whatever for an hour until it’s done. Mix in some beans or tofu, veggies, and seasonings, and I have a good 3 days worth of lunches covered. I do variations of add-ins so I don’t get too bored, and most are pretty low-effort:
can of black or pinto beans, can of corn, shredded cheese, salsa
cannellini beans, spinach, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, parmesan, italian seasoning
stir-fried tempeh & zucchini with teriyaki sauce
tofu, frozen peas, curry seasoning, dollop of plain yogurt
Leftovers or pb&j fill in the gaps. With the pb&j I always try to bring a little something fresh to have with it, like baby carrots or an apple. Lately it’s been applesauce and some cheese cubes.
First I want to start by saying, if you don’t have access to a fridge, get one of these: https://www.amazon.com/PackIt-Freezable-Velcro-Closure-Floral/dp/B00NKKP86S/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1474295802&sr=8-3&keywords=Freezable+lunch+box. I don’t and I need something that will stay cool in my hot car while I’m sitting through 6 hours of classes and this does the trick. As for meal options, I normally do a salad or a wrap and some snacks to go with. Some of the variations I’ve tried are:
Southwestern Turkey Wrap (romaine, tomato, pepper jack, black beans, salsa and guac)
Sesame Turkey Salad (Romaine, shredded carrots, sesame seeds or cashews, cukes, sesame vinegarette)
Caprese Salad (sliced mozzarella, tomato, basil, romaine and simply dressed tomato vinegarette)
As far as snacks, I normally do sliced apples with chocolate PB2, carrots and guac, or Greek yogurt with chopped chocolate toasted almonds….Hope this helps!
I make some things on Sunday that help. I pack breakfast too, because I’d rather eat at work than get up earlier to eat at home. I make a big veggie-filled bacon frittata on Sunday and eat it for breakfast all week, with berries and mango prepped in another container.
For lunch, I tend to have salads (after a heavy breakfast). Just throw in some greens, feta, grapes, pre-sliced apples, nuts, etc, pack an avo, and voila! Last night I also chopped up chicken breast and sauteed it with spices for a taco, made another taco for lunch today, and put some of the chicken in my salad. There is more at home for dinner tonight.
I’m also big on snacks. Cheese and crackers, hummus and apples, sweets…try to mix it up, even with staples (I change the veggies in my frittata and salads, for example. Changing the cheese in your salad can make a big difference too.)
I make the prep easy by buying pre-grated cheese, pre-sliced apples, etc., whenever possible, then make the cleanup part of the “fun.” It REALLY helps to like your kitchen counters, utensils, have a sunny window to work near too. I’ve experienced dark kitchens and it’s totally uninspiring. Take-out in bed was my life.
Being a lazy person who also is a neat freak (terrible combination), I tend to cook dinners that are good leftovers for lunches (less mess in the kitchen!) When I was single, one batch of homemade lasagna would last me over a week! I’d also get romaine lettuce salads and bring that to work everyday with the lasagna (NOTE: when bringing salads, always bring the dressing separate, otherwise sogginess). However now that I’m married with a husband who eats a ton, I still gravitate towards foods that pack well. Stews, casseroles, homemade pizzas, and lasagnas are all good options. A trick to keep sandwiches non soggy is to build it at work, or leave the tomatoes at home. You can easily have the sliced tomatoes (or whatever else is making it soggy) and add it right before you eat it. I haven’t tried these yet, but if you’re short on time in the evenings, homemade burritos apparently freeze well, then you just throw one into your bag and heat it up at work! Good luck!
I too have serious issues feeding myself (and I’m also in my mid-30’s). We have a cafeteria at work, but it’s been closed for months due to internal issues. Though my skin is liking the lack of greasy fries and burgers in my diet, my high metabolism isn’t liking it at all. Because I choose not to live on microwaved food most of my at-work nibblies are cold (sadly).
I’m a grazer, so I eat all day. I therefore need to pack a LOT for work.
To save time, I’ve interspersed packing my lunch in with my morning routine.
While my bagel is toasting for instance, I’m cutting up the fruit that’ll be my morning snack (I buy it in already cut-up spears, I just make it smaller. More expensive? Yes. But significantly more convenient)
I also make a special tea every day to drink while at work (a home remedy for acne). While the water is warming up to a boil I peel and slice up carrot sticks (it literally takes just the amount of time that water needs to boil). I tried baby carrots for a while, but they’re prone to getting slimy, so I just make carrot sticks fresh every day.
It’s easy to find pockets of time where you’re waiting for things to happen. (Coffee to brew, eggs to cook, whatever) that time can be used to do other things.
That all said, here’s my food menu for work:
Morning snack – 2 cups of cut up fruit (typically watermelon and cantaloupe)
A yogurt smoothy
Lunch – carrot sticks and sugar snap peas
Plus anything else I can forage from the fridge (leftovers mostly; yes, they’ll need to be nuked, but I don’t grab such things every day; it’s usually just the veggies)
Afternoon snack – tortilla chips (which I keep at work) with a single-serving cup of guacamole (yeah healthy calories!!)
An apple (I eat them whole typically because I’m weird)
I also tend to keep trail mix and/or beef jerky at work for nomming if I’ve made it through all my food and still want more (<- fast metabolism)
Hope that helps!! 🙂
This might not work in all offices, but my co-workers and I share snacks. There are only 8 of us, but it reminds me of being college roommates. In our work fridge, or kitchen cabinets we label everything with either the person’s name, or “Fair Game (FG for short)”. Most of us don’t have kids, so buying for just yourself feels wasteful and it’s hard to eat the same snack over and over again. It’s nice, because if someone brings hummus, someone else will bring crackers the next day.
Not sure if anyone has mentioned this yet, but I make sure to treat myself to ONE day per week of ordering takeout or going out of the office for lunch. This helps with the variety.
I make a batch of soup in the crockpot (all the vegetables left in the fridge from the week before plus a lentil-based soup mix), a batch of spinach, bacon and egg “quiche” (literally all those ingredients mixed together and baked in the oven), boil a bunch of eggs, chop some veges and buy hummus (because enough cooking already) and stuff it all in containers. About 2 hours work on Sunday night for breakfast and lunch at work all week with some fruit from the market and a couple bags of nuts. I take it all to work on Monday and keep it in the freezer there so I don’t have to brain and pack a lunch at 6am everyday. You’d think I;d get bored with pretty much the same lunch everyday but a. it tastes nice and b. I hardly notice what I’m eating between meetings anyway.
Lunch at the office is the WORST! Here is the only thing that works for me. I am also not a morning person. I literally wish morning was just not a part of the day! But sigh- morning will always come and my lunch will never be prepared on its own. So the best thing for me is to do it all on Sunday afternoon. I do my grocery shopping and buy a bag of frozen veggies and some chicken breast. I grill about 4 chicken breasts and slice them up. Then I combine that with the frozen veggies in a tuperware and stick in the freezer. Whala! Homemade frozen meals that are super duper cheap and healthy!! Oh- another great one is make a batch of 6 eggs and turkey sausage then use whole wheat tortillas to make burritos. That should make 8-10 burritos. Boom! Home made frozen burritos that taste sooooo good you would think you got em at the taco stand! My coworkers have lately been jealous of my meals- JEALOUS!!! Before I did this- I suffered. Now- I thrive. It will change you I promise!!!
All of these ideas are GREAT and are making me think I need to step my game up! But, I too am a grazer. We have access to a fridge and microwave at my workplace, but I rarely use it because it’s all the way on the other side of the building and I am usually short on time. So, I will occasionally bring a lunch box with a cheese stick and baby carrots. One big thing for me is beverages–I drink American Clear soda water (at Walmart…cheaper than La Croix and tastes better–still no sugar.) And I always have tea. Green tea or mint. My main thing I do, though, that keeps me full– oatmeal with protein powder. I just put old fashioned oats in a tupperware container, and 1/4-1/2 scoop of Quest protein powder (this I just keep at work)…use our hot water spigot, stir and there’s a filling, not too unhealthy, easy midday pick-me-up. Almonds and raisins are another one of my go-tos for an afternoon treat.
Honestly my life got a whole lot better when I just started doing high protein shakes or meal replacement bars. Okay hear me out. I used to have so many problems figuring out what I was going to do for lunch that by the time I got home for dinner I was decision fatigued and generally would chose something unhealthy. I’ve been trying to lose weight and I’m also a doctor Who just finished her training I was working with our metabolic clinic physician. Who noted that it’s OK to have just a protein bar or protein shake for lunch even for the rest your life. The key is high protein my whey powder has 20G of protein in a scoop. Plus my high-protein so I milk makes me feel like I’m having a milkshake for lunch. And sent is the protein in the fiber that makes us feel full and I don’t feel hungry either. Saves me time money and most importantly stress.
Margarette
I second everyone’s thoughts on leftovers! My husband and I cook for them at this point and when cleaning up, I pack them into glass containers portioned for lunch so in the morning they are grab and go. The glass is easy to microwave and clean and doesn’t pick up stains from tomatoes as plastic can. Since fall is coming around, we are aiming for batches of turkey chili, 2 hours of cooking (mostly letting it cook down) results in 3 lunches for each of us. Yes, I fill up the fridge with small containers but it saves having to dish it up in the morning. Also if you have fridge space at work, bring in the big soup/chili/casserole container and dish out a portion each day.
If you don’t have a fridge, cold packs and good lunch boxes make everything better. We do a lot of salads in the summer, bake up a chicken/steak and when breaking it down at night, put the meat over greens, cheese, and nuts. Then dressing into tiny side containers and lunch is done. The more I do at night, the less stress in the morning and the more likely I am to bring lunch.
Probably not the healthiest or the cheapest, but I always buy frozen lunches (DEVOUR is the best) or personalized pizzas. I also buy a bag of mini bags of chips, that way I don’t have to worry about putting them in sandwich bags. I also bring little snacks with me, cheese crackers, chewy bars, etc. Super lazy because I hardly fix anything for lunch ever, but I hate mornings so whatever. 🙂