Lunch Ideas (trying to stay away from sandwich meat)
frankfighter
Posts: 25 Member
I am looking to get something that is easy to make at night that has at least 30-40 grams of protein in it and tastes good to warm up at work. I am allowing myself 500-600 calories for lunch and I want the sodium intake to be low. Any ideas would be very much appreciated. I'm sure there are a million posts like this, but I wanted to make a post 
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Replies
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Roast a chicken. Make wraps and sandwiches.7
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Slow cook a roast beef (with an onion and mushrooms). I've been eating slices of roast beef for lunch with a vegetable - cole slaw or salad but it works well with peas and lots of others. I melt a slice of cheese on it. Satisfies me for hours and is less than 400 calories.13
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Tuna, hard boiled eggs. Mason jar salads are awesome with chickpeas or black beans for protein9
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Hummus and veggies and a couple hard boiled eggs.7
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Not fish. Microwaving fish in the office break room is grounds for termination of employment and possibly your life.73
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Alluminati wrote: »Not fish. Microwaving fish in the office break room is grounds for termination of employment and possibly your life.
Hahahaha I know right! That goes for hard boiled eggs as well8 -
I eat tuna, in a lavash wrap every day. Quick and easy.2
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I'm following this because I'm always looking for more lunch recipes!
I typically bring a cabbage stew with ground beef (I posted the recipe a while back, but you could search for it or I can send it to you). It's pretty much cabbage cooked up with some other veggies and lean ground beef. There is tomato purée which has some sodium, but you can always tweak it with alternatives! You can eat a lot of it because the veggies comprise most of it. My servings vary depending on the ingredients I put in (I weigh it and tweak the recipe each time). It's been 285 calories before and it was 249 when I made it last week (I had slightly less veggies and a half pound less meat
which I assume is why it was lower)
I have also made beef stew without the potatoes to cut down on calories and carbs.
Tomorrow, I'm bringing some shredded taco chicken and I'm going to top it with some cheese. I like doing shredded beef sometimes too. You can always eat the tortilla or shell, but I would rather save the calories for more meat or more of something else!
I used to make a really good white beans and sausage in the crock pot with tomato sauce, but it's got a lot of sodium and a lot of calories ! Super good though to reheat for lunch.
Lasagna also reheats very well - you can use zucchini noodles to cut down on calories so you can have a bigger portion and be generous with the meat content.
Those are my go to lunch/meal prep foods. If more come to me, I'll come back!
Good luck!7 -
I just bring leftovers of what ever I had for dinner the night before - stir fry, curry, chicken and veg etc. Makes life easy as you just cook a bit extra. Every time I cook I throw a portion or two in the freezer so I always have a bit of variety6
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I also cook extra food at dinner so I can meal prep for a few days. Baked chicken breast (skinless/boneless) is easy to make (35 min at 375F) and you can mix up the flavors with the seasonings--so many options! Any Mrs. Dash is good (and salt-free). But my go-to is either sprinkling with Italian seasoning (basil, oregano, rosemary, thyme) or covering in salsa and throwing in the oven. I actually prefer to eat chicken cold the next day. I'll put it on a bed of spinach (the Italian seasoning tastes great with some feta cheese added too). And then whatever fruit, veggie, and/or grain I have available to hit my calorie goal. It's easy to bake some sweet potatoes with the chicken.
Stir-fry makes great leftovers too. Nothin' better than meat, veggies, and brown rice. You can make it low-sodium by using liquid aminos instead of soy sauce.
When in a pinch, I'll bring cottage cheese for lunch as my protein (24g per cup!), but I don't know if the low-sodium version is low enough for you. You would also need some calorie-heavy carbs (bread/grains, most likely) to reach your 500-600 calorie target. My lunch target is lower, so I'll just eat an apple or banana with my cup of cottage cheese.5 -
I love to grill a big batch of chicken tenderlions at the beginning of the week. I'll heat up about three and put them on top of a salad or eat with some steamed veggies and some hot sauce. I usually find packs of them marked down and will throw them in the freezer and pull out as I need it. I can get around 3 lbs chicken tenderlions (around 8.00) for about the same price of pound or so of deli meat. I can also control the seasonings and the amount of sodium which is a plus.
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I make a lot of soups and stews, it's great because I can make a pot on the weekend and freeze it in portions to throw in the microwave.4
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Slow cook a roast beef (with an onion and mushrooms). I've been eating slices of roast beef for lunch with a vegetable - cole slaw or salad but it works well with peas and lots of others. I melt a slice of cheese on it. Satisfies me for hours and is less than 400 calories.
This!
I love roast beef but I am turned off by the amount of sodium that comes in deli style cuts. I will be turning on my slow cooker and making it happen this weekend. Thanks for the tip! 2 -
Alluminati wrote: »Not fish. Microwaving fish in the office break room is grounds for termination of employment and possibly your life.
AMEN
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All really good ideas though0
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I love to grill a big batch of chicken tenderlions at the beginning of the week. I'll heat up about three and put them on top of a salad or eat with some steamed veggies and some hot sauce. I usually find packs of them marked down and will throw them in the freezer and pull out as I need it. I can get around 3 lbs chicken tenderlions (around 8.00) for about the same price of pound or so of deli meat. I can also control the seasonings and the amount of sodium which is a plus.
Been there and done it... MAMA got it right1 -
My standard lunch is
3.5 ounce chocolate bar
4 banana 4cup spinach smoothie
Whatever we had for dinner the night before0 -
Chicken breast, broccoli or asparagus, brown rice and quinoa... all of that heats up nice in the microwave. I typically use a ziploc bag to heat veggies in the microwave as it steam cooks them. Throw on some lemon juice and seasoning and voila!1
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Just throwing this out if you ever do want lunch meat - Butterball has a lower sodium turkey deli slices available. It's 210mg per serving last I saw which is less than half and sometimes only 1/3 sodium of other brands. It's in the already packaged area. Not sure if deli counter also has it. Read packages because some is still higher sodium.
I don't eat much sandwich meat just because there is so much salt in most brands, so so much, that all of it tastes like ham. Salty ham. Very disappointing flavor. There is almost no flavor difference between turkey, chicken and roast beast with all that salt.
I cook my own meat and either slice or shred it (easier for chicken breast) to use on sandwiches.1 -
I know this is an old thread, but I'm really, really struggling with high-protein lunches for my desk job. I have essentially no free time. My work hours are well over 40 per week, commute is about 3 hours per day. I also have chronic pain issues, so intensive cooking like weekend meal prep is out (too painful).
It seems like all these options are extremely time-consuming, flavorless (looking at you, white meat chicken that is doubtless laden with antibiotics!), or both. I'm not a vegetarian (vegetarian food takes ESPECIALLY long to cook), but I don't eat meat raised with antibiotics because I'm severely allergic to penicillin so I don't dare expose myself to antibiotics and risk getting drug-resistant infections at some point.
Does anyone have ideas that are FAST, rich in protein, good for thyroid disease (so no goitrogens like raw crucifers or raw spinach), and have lots of flavor? It's maddening that eating tuna at work is grounds for summary execution. Want to eat more fresh fruits/vegetables too, but the logistics can be so hard.
Signed,
Hungry road warrior with Hashimoto's7 -
Lentils and black beans can be a good alternative to antibiotic laden meat. squash and bean stews. we have a vegan in our office, she is always giving me great ideas for meatless days.
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Lentils and black beans are very tasty, but fall firmly into the "take hours to cook" category. Same for winter squash, especially if combined with beans. (SO often the case with vegetarian food!)2
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IHateMyThyroid wrote: »Lentils and black beans are very tasty, but fall firmly into the "take hours to cook" category. Same for winter squash, especially if combined with beans. (SO often the case with vegetarian food!)
Get a pressure cooker. Literally can cook lentils and black beans in 10 mins, and almost any sort of bean in under 15 if you leave it the night before in water.3 -
frankfighter wrote: »I am looking to get something that is easy to make at night that has at least 30-40 grams of protein in it and tastes good to warm up at work. I am allowing myself 500-600 calories for lunch and I want the sodium intake to be low. Any ideas would be very much appreciated. I'm sure there are a million posts like this, but I wanted to make a post
•Slow cooker/pressure cooker stuff like stews, roasts, soups usually have enough moisture to re-heat well.
•If going the boneless/skinless chicken route, you're better off cooking them in liquid (in the slow cooker for instance) and topping them with a sauce (gravy isn't too bad for calories).
•If cooking skinless chicken or pork chops on the stove, make sure you don't overcook them.
•Stuff usually fares better if reheating from just the fridge than freezer (the longer microwave time needed for frozen stuff can dry out some portions of the food that heat up faster).
It's easy to quickly sear and then toss an entire half pork loin/club pack of chicken breasts/etc in the slow cooker, add some broth (bouillion + water) and wine. A few hours later, just grab the meat out with slotted spoon/tongs and optionally make some gravy with the leftover liquid and toss in a covered bowl/container in the fridge for the next few days (and/or into freezer bag(s) in the freezer for later than that).3 -
I bring leftovers, usually, and pack my husband either a bean burrito or an egg salad sandwich.2
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boil a whole chicken and the meat falls off the bone, mix it with some homemade bbq sauce or other sauce and throw it on a sandwhich. Better than lunchmeat.2
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Alluminati wrote: »Not fish. Microwaving fish in the office break room is grounds for termination of employment and possibly your life.
A valid point - although I do find that salmon is great to eat cold on a salad (or whatever) - I cook up a big slab at the beginning of the week and incorporate it in various ways throughout the week.2 -
Soup. I love to put a bunch of veggies in the pot, cook with minimal water, add pepper and when it is all done, blend it smooth. So good when reheated and you can add spices for taste. I like to bring healthy crackers or carrott sticks to dip in it too.1
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I like to make lentils for a good protein source. I throw some onion and carrot and curry in there, or other spices and veggies. It reheats well and is good with some flat bread or crackers.0
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frankfighter wrote: »Alluminati wrote: »Not fish. Microwaving fish in the office break room is grounds for termination of employment and possibly your life.
Hahahaha I know right! That goes for hard boiled eggs as well
Every morning my co-worker busts out her hard boiled eggs. Smells the place up. I'd like to stash an open can of tuna in her car where she won't be able to find it. 😆2
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