Bringing lunch to work...

Balaru

Hi there - just started a new job yesterday. There's not actually a "lunch room" but a dining room table in a large open area. In about six months I'll be going to a new location which hopefully will have a lunch area. In the meantime, looking for easy lunch ideas to bring from home.

We ate out tonight because my daughter was supposed to cook but she worked too and didn't time it right. It would have been too late by the time we cooked.

Adjusting to the new hours I am exhausted. Hubby and DD are taking up the slack and cooking the dinners. Of course DD just started a new job about a month ago so she's still adjusting too.

I'm sure we will adjust in a couple of weeks. In the meantime any no-brainer easy lunches to bring would be great! I think I'll bring a salad tomorrow or get one from Subway.

Alatariel75

I batch cook and freeze lunches in takeaway containers. My current go-to dishes are:

Spinach and Ricotta cannelloni
Chicken veggie soup
Turkey and black bean chilli
Minestrone
Taco soup
Chickpea and squash curry

All but the cannelloni are easy 'chuck in a pot and forget' cooks which take me all of 15 minutes to prepare on a Sunday, then I leave it to cook, then ladle them out. Sometimes I won't have much time and will only make one and have the same thing every lunch, other times I'll make 3 or 4 different dishes, so I can just grab what I feel like in the morning.

jvtchong

I take left overs from previous dinners (stir fry and pasta's mostly) or make big batches of sandwich filling (egg salad, rosemary chicken salad) that I add to sandwiches, wraps or salads.

kschramm7

I'm bringing a taco salad for lunch tomorrow. I make a lot of regular green salads and top with grilled chicken, wraps with chicken with buffalo sauce, light ranch, lettuce, tomato, onion, or cold cuts on a wrap. When we make turkey burgers, I try to make several extra and freeze individually so I can grab one and some frozen veggies for lunch.

Tuna is also a great option, and when all else fails, there are frozen dinners.

I've packed my lunch nearly every day for 20 months now. Once you get used to doing it, it's not so bad.

OldAssDude

I usually bring a ziplock bag with some cerial mixed with a handful of nuts & seeds. I munch on that throughout the morning. I bring a lean cuisine (or similar meal) for lunch. I spend my lunch hour jogging/power walking, and eat my lunch while I'm working at my desk. After work I usually do another jog/power walk before dinner.

Hope this helps.

Queenmunchy

Alatariel75 wrote: »

I batch cook and freeze lunches in takeaway containers. My current go-to dishes are:

Spinach and Ricotta cannelloni
Chicken veggie soup
Turkey and black bean chilli
Minestrone
Taco soup
Chickpea and squash curry

All but the cannelloni are easy 'chuck in a pot and forget' cooks which take me all of 15 minutes to prepare on a Sunday, then I leave it to cook, then ladle them out. Sometimes I won't have much time and will only make one and have the same thing every lunch, other times I'll make 3 or 4 different dishes, so I can just grab what I feel like in the morning.

Same!

elisa123gal

I bought some nice pyrex containers to pack my lunch. I love packing a lunch.. you can eat tasty stuff and keep right on track. I have a big round container where i make a salad with cucumber, tomato, green pepper, radish, and feta. Then i have another square large container..in which I will transfer a lean cuisine and add frozen vegetables on the side to microwave (no plastic container) I have a small container where I put my face yogurt with cinnamon..and then i pack about 2 ounces of chicken breast. And all that keeps me fed throughout my day and as I head to the gym after work.

MaybeLed

Most days I have a variation of what I had for dinner the lunch next day, like last night I had salad with ribs and coleslaw, for lunch I had the same salad and coleslaw (prepped at the same time as dinner) with a salmon fillet cooked in the oven at the same time as the ribs.

At the weekend (when the freezer is low) I cook soup, and freeze it in individual portion bags bags, so if my normal plan doesn't work out (we go out, forget to get enough, thought we had stuff we didn't etc.) I just grab a portion of soup out of the freezer.

ETA: it works well as my OH and I are on slightly different schedules there's always something to just microwave, and soups and stocks are a great way to use up any leftover veg and bits left over from the week

MonkeyMel21

I have a few different variances. I try to keep one or two Amy's frozen meals in the freezer (that's the only brand of frozen meals I actually enjoy eating, between 380 and 480 cal's). Each week I try to buy two pre-made salads from the grocery store. They come complete with a fork even and they're all between 240 and 350 cal's, also they're delicious. Or I bring leftovers.

We also get food brought in most Wednesdays and on the odd occasion I'll eat out or get Jimmy John's delivered to the office.

Raptor2763

Usually, on Sundays, I cook lunch and dinner for the entire week. Each day, I pack a lunch and dinner into my insulated lunchbox and I'm good to go. DON'T forget to put a cold pack into your lunchbox - lest your food spoil in the meantime

hlltwin

I have always brought lunch because it's more convenient. Presently, I've been bringing wraps (small fajita sized tortillas) with a salad (chicken, egg, tuna, ham) or lunch meat (chicken, turkey) or, when I'm in the mood for it, peanut butter along with some sort of trail mix. I rarely reheat meals because the microwave we have here is prickly. As Raptor2763 said - insulated lunch box and ice pack to keep everything chilled.

I also pack a couple of light snacks to eat during the day when I need a pick me up. I only have a half hour for lunch and usually spend twenty minutes of it briskly walking on the Plaza. I also walk on my two fifteens.

A lot of my co-workers bring lunch (usually frozen dinners that they heat and eat) because we have a large refrigerator in the office. As you have found, we don't have a lunch area. We have a central area where the refrigerator and coffee pot are beside a large table. We don't use the table except for office parties though.

Most everyone eats at their desk. I don't because I'm the secretary and if I tried to eat at my desk, I'd never eat for the work I'm given. I have to leave for my breaks (I actually really think it's good for your mental health to differentiate work time and alone time, take a physical break away from your work sapce).

daniip_la

My lunches are either leftovers or tuna, usually. On the rare occasion that I don't have time to fix anything, I keep 230kcal tuna lunch kits at my desk so I can have lunch available.

tuckerrj

I take yogurt, cottage cheese, fresh fruit & vegetables and a healthy sandwich along with a bottled green tea. With a slightly larger cooler/lunch bag, I can take 'cool packs' and don't even need to use the (nasty!) work refrigerator.

GYATagain

I spend a couple of hours on the weekend prepping for lunches and some dinners. I have FitPacks to pack in. And leak proof glass containers when I want to heat things up. Prep the chicken by cutting into strips and grilling or crockpotting & shredding. I cut up fixings for salads and put in mason jars (I don't like the already mixed mason jar salads - taste yucky to me). I can just throw salads together really quick each morning. Hard boil a dozen eggs to grab. Always have avocado, bananas, carrots/celery, containers of weighed peanut butter, mason jars of yogurt with fruit. Then I mix it up by using whatever leftovers from night before and put together at night. Baked chicken Fajitas (my fav), Spicy cabbage soup, Taco Soup, Roasted veggies. Since my husband and I don't do sandwiches, we have gotten creative in our foods. Prep 100 calorie bags of skinny pop, nut crackers, hummus..... okay I am going to quit, since it could go on and on and on. It seriously takes me maybe 3 minutes to grab and go and I am always in the office by 6:30 a.m. Took a few months to get comfortable with all of this - 3 years later, it is just Life.

k8mcminn

I use these boxes
https://www.amazon.com/Smart-Portables-Container-Configurable-Compartments/dp/B017AJS63G/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1472220868&sr=8-5&keywords=plastic+lunch+box
to pack my lunch after dinner each night. I put salad in the big portion and the smaller portions hold 100 gms of chicken, cottage cheese etc and fruit.
My husband and I also cook together and have some quick basic recipes that can be made in 30 minutes or less for the hectic nights. Tasty and delicious and keeps us from ordering out.

kshama2001

Dinner leftovers
Sandwich
Batch cook on weekends

kshama2001

k8mcminn wrote: »

I use these boxes
https://www.amazon.com/Smart-Portables-Container-Configurable-Compartments/dp/B017AJS63G/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1472220868&sr=8-5&keywords=plastic+lunch+box
to pack my lunch after dinner each night. I put salad in the big portion and the smaller portions hold 100 gms of chicken, cottage cheese etc and fruit.
My husband and I also cook together and have some quick basic recipes that can be made in 30 minutes or less for the hectic nights. Tasty and delicious and keeps us from ordering out.

Ya, I don't feel like putting much effort into cooking tonight and am going to have spaghetti with frozen meatballs with jarred sauce. Going back and forth between broccoli and swiss chard for the green.

VioletRojo

My lunches are one of three things:

1. left overs from last night's dinner
2. salad with lots of veggies and 100-120 grams of meat or chicken
3. I make a box sort of like Starbuck's Bistro boxes. They usually contain a sliced a sliced apple, almond butter, 100-120 grams of chicken/meat, maybe some cheese, maybe a muesli bread, maybe some carrots. You get the picture.

bshrom

I cook maybe 2 times a week. I choose whatever few meals I am hungry for that week, and cook them in bulk. Then I measure and portion everything out into Tupperware containers. I love cooking this way, my meals are always ready to just grab and go. This prevents me from making poor food choices and keeps me on track all week, even at work and on the go.

jdhcm2006

For lunch, I'll pack a protein bar and peanut butter and ritz crackers or those microwavable chef boyardee bowls and peanut butter and ritz crackers. That's what I'm doing now. It will change one day once I get sick of that.

enterdanger

I also take leftovers, but I tend to batch cook my proteins so that I have leftovers. Like, why make 1 NY strip on the grill when I can make 3 and eat strip all week. I just season with only salt and pepper so I can add seasonings right before I eat it to make it work. So far this week I've had steak on salad with arugula, blue cheese, and cucumbers, steak fajitas, steak sandwich, and steak and egg burrito. lol. Cooking chicken tonight cause I am now tired of steak.

I don't like to pre cook whole meals and eat the same meal over and over since I get bored and end up going out for lunch, but I like to pre cook staples. So meats, eggs, grains....then I'll just keep using them in different preparations. I don't do like a huge batch of cooking on Sundays either. I just make a ton when cooking regularly. So, if we are having quinoa with dinner I'll make enough we can eat it for dinner and I can add it to at least 3 meals during the week.

RachelElser

do you like Salads? These are great.

http://www.organizeyourselfskinny.com/2014/03/17/the-ultimate-mason-jar-salad-tutorial-and-recipe-round-up/

https://www.buzzfeed.com/carolynkylstra/mason-jar-salads?utm_term=.kcxGpAdNL#.paKWK2aAr

questionfear

I do dinner leftovers. I also try to whip up a batch of egg salad, chicken salad, baked tofu, etc., so if I don't have leftovers it's fairly easy to create a sandwich or salad on the fly.

stealthq

Sandwiches, hard boiled eggs, yogurt, cottage cheese, raw fruit and veg, microwave steamables vegetable packs, tuna lunch packs from the grocery store, any of the frozen dinner meals, soups, etc

eta: normally I have leftovers or a portion of the meals I batch cook in my pressure cooker. One recipe usually makes ~10 meals.

caoceanlover

I'm not sure where you live, but I keep a few Bistro Bowl salads in the fridge to grab and go in case I don't have time to make something. I pair them with a yogurt and a piece of fruit and it makes a great quickie lunch. If I have time, I take leftovers from the night before or cook a big batch of something on Sunday. I also like tuna salad served on lettuce.

http://www.readypac.com/our-brands/bistro/

gothchiq

I'm always short on time, so it's always the same lunch at work. 1/2 cup individual serving of low cal cottage cheese *or* one ounce of cheddar, a banana or apple, baby carrots, and PB&J made with only 1 tbsp peanut butter rather than 2. I take one item out of there every like 3 hours and eat it to keep my blood sugar stable, except the fruit and the cottage cheese/cheddar have to be at the same time because I am not supposed to eat a carb without a protein (sugar spikes and crashes otherwise.) Oddly enough I don't even LIKE bananas; it's just that they are cheap and portable. I don't *hate* them, they're just.... a cheap source of unrefined carbs, vitamin C, and potassium. IDGAF any more lol, I just eat the stupid banana then enjoy the cheese and then a cup of coffee. If I ever start making good money, I am going to throw all the bananas out the window into the woods! XD

gothchiq

.... and then I will get invaded by 'possums or something. We live out in the country now.

puffbrat

I usually take a salad: spinach, shredded carrot, shredded zucchini, grape tomatoes, nuts, croutons or won-ton strips, and 1 tablespoon salad dressing. I have a to-go salad container it all fits into and I can use as the bowl to eat out of. It also came with a plastic fork and knife that clip into the container, but I have metal silverware I keep at work.

Sandwiches can be easy. Chicken or tuna salad with bread or crackers and fruit and/or veggies. You could also put together a container with cheese, protein like deli meat, nuts, fruits and veggies.

I have 3 freezer packs so I can stick one in my lunch bag and keep it at my desk.

cwolfman13

My wife and I often make double of whatever we're making for dinner so that we can take it for lunch. We also batch cook things like quinoa, pinto beans, sweet potatoes, etc on Sunday so that we have those things for the week.

If we don't do that, I usually take a salad or a sandwich. Lately things have been a little nutty and I've been grabbing lunch out more often than usual..usually either Wendy's or Subway...at Wendy's I usually the the Mediterranean Chicken Salad and a sour cream and chive baked potato...Subway I just get whatever sandwich I feel like.

KareninLux

I am flat out at work most days and often work right through lunch... I generally eat the same foods normally for breakfast and lunch during the week:

0630 breakfast - 50g whole wheat toast with either PB and honey or PB and a banana. Coffee w cream
1030 two hard boiled eggs
1400 125g greek yogurt OR an apple OR 20 almonds
1600 nescafe cappucino (packet) OR diet coke

1830 - supper - my main meal whcih my husband cooks.

Boring, I know but it works for me. Food is not in focus during the day.

rosebarnalice

My morning routine is to start the coffee; start sauteeing some mushrooms and onions for an omelette, and then pull out a cutting board and unload the veggie/produce drawer in the fridge.

I keep plenty of lettuce, spinach, shredded cabbage, and shredded broccoli on hand at all times--plus usually tomatoes, cukes, radishes, and peppers. This makes the base of a big lunch salad, to which I'll add leftover protein from dinner the night before or tunafish.

About the time the coffee pot has finished brewing, lunch is packed and breakfast is ready!