Ideas for packed lunches/dinners

elphie754

I work 12 hour shifts- usually early afternoon, through the night. I have to bring my own food because I have a really severe gluten allergy. I have been packing things like Greek yogurt and salad but have found that if it is not eaten within the first six or so hours, it gets warm. I have a small cooler but there is no option for refrigeration or heating up (I work in an ambulance).

Anyone have any ideas of what other types of things I could pack for lunch/dinner/snacks? (Anything with wheat, barley, oat- even gluten free, and gluten are not options).

jquijas

I'm not real knowledgeable on the gluten free stuff, so if I say something that doesn't work it is because I didn't know. My first thought is tuna out of the can, I used to keep a can opener at work and I would eat it right out of the can, does not need to be refrigerated. If you could do nuts, they would be good, protein powder can be mixed with water at anytime. Chicken precooked would be good, cold or not.

lisalsd1

canned tuna, peanut/almond butter sandwich (would have to find gluten free option for the bread), nuts, seeds, "homemade trail mix" (I combine pumpkin seeds,almonds, raisins), protein bars; all don't need refrigeration

You can also freeze things, put them in your lunch bag, and they will defrost. I pack frozen peas in my kids' lunches to keep the rest of the food cool, and the peas will defrost by lunch.

WBB55

If you pack things into nice clean containers using nice clean utensils, I've eaten all of these things 6-8 hours after I packed them away. I typically don't put my lunch in the work fridge because it's a nasty place. Just put any of these in the fridge the night before, so the entire lunch pail is cold. Then keep it out of the sun.

individually wrapped mozzarella cheese sticks
dried fruit
most fruit
cut up raw vegies like carrots, celery and sweet red peppers
chunked-up deli meat
chuncked-up cooked chicken breast
"Cold spaghetti" salad made from spiral-ized zucchini and basil tomato sauce (search for something like the Joyce Chen Vegetable Spiral Slicer)

And finally:
Greek yogurt with FROZEN berries added to it just before you leave in the morning will stay cold 6-8 hours with the rest of the above packed into an insulated lunch pail. And the berries will thaw by lunch time.

elphie754

I am not a big fan of tuna- in fact the smell of it makes me gag.

I have been doing chicken with greens, which seems to be working. Unfortunately it can also get boring which is what I worry about.

It is nearly I possible for me to keep it out of the sun. I can't really control where we are parked. I have tried cheese sticks in the past and they just seem to get soft and gross.

katieca123

I'm a student who will be on campus for 8 hours with no real lunch break starting pretty soon, so I will remember to look at this again for ideas.

ksolksol

I've discovered the individual serving size tubs of hummus. That with veggies or gluten-free crackers. I keep it refrigerated because I can, but I can't imagine it would hurt to leave it out a few hours.

elphie754

I have actually never had humus before lol. I will look for it the next time I go grocery shopping and try it out.

stephgas

i've used a soft sided cooler for years and pop a small ice pack in there. it's helped keep many things cool for hours and hours. also, you can always freeze a small bottle of water and keep it in there to drink later in your shift.

i also used to bring like trail mixes, with coconut chips, sesame stix, pretzels, nuts (not sure which you can have). protein shakes and bars are easy to transport and don't need to be kept cool either.

elphie754

Sesame sticks and pretzels are definitely out. They do have gluten free pretzels but they do not taste right to me. I also try not to bring things I would eat with bare hands (and typically wear gloves to eat).

michikade

I take things like cherry size tomatoes, carrots, bell pepper slices, etc as snacks with me, along with pre measured bags of nuts and usually a bar of some type - I know larabar makes gluten free bars.

I know it's a "bare hand" food but an apple is a pretty easy, lasts all day snack.

If you have an ice pack of some kind in your lunch pail (or frozen bottle of water) you can take hard boiled eggs and left overs (I always have grilled chicken on hand, for example).

elphie754

Unfortunately I am kind of a really picky eater, which combined with the allergy does not help lol. I personally hate eggs. Just something about them makes me nauseated when ever I eat them (but cooking with them does not bother me).

An apple I could do, but would likely cut it up so I could eat it with a fork. Also just easier since there is the chance meal time gets interrupted and storing a half eaten apple would be hard.

I will look into larabars but even things labeled "gluten free" I tend to be cautious about because they typically contain "gluten free oat" which causes me to react. I'm allergic to oat itself, not just the gluten component.

Lelah77

I would invest in a better ice pack or a more "cooler"-like lunch pail.

I recently bought some larger gel based ice packs to use in my daughter's lunch box for camp (she goes to an outdoor wilderness camp, so it has to survive all day in the heat.) I bought them at the supermarket for about $3.50 each. They measure 6"x7" or so. One day it was over 90 all day and when I picked her up at the end of the 8 hour day, the ice pack was still about 40% frozen and her leftover yogurt was still cold.

I would encourage you to try hummus, salsa, and peanut butter which all come in "snack-pack" individually portioned sizes. They are shelf stable and portable. You can take them day after day in your lunch pail until you actually crack into it and eat. All 3 are great with a variety of veggies and fruits.

Oh, and if you pre-cut your apples or pears, you can soak them in a cold salt-water bath briefly after you cut them and they won't brown!!

WBB55

When I said keep it out of the sun, I meant keep the lunch pail out of direct rays of the sunlight, of course the car will have sun on it. It's daytime, right?

What do you WANT to eat that you feel you can't? Maybe that would help us tailor our answers better. Everyone wants to help.

snovej

I use a thermos for things that I want to stay cool. They have the ones that are rated for 8 hours or so. Just put the opened thermos in the freezer for 10 minutes or so before putting your cold food in it and it will stay cold all day!

elphie754

I have square cooler packs, but will look into getting more gel based packs since they can conform around things.

As to what do I want to eat- I'm not entirely sure. When I used to work my food choices were terrible. I would eat chips and soda and crap all shift long. This is my first time returning to work in over 8 months, and kind of lost in what choices I should bring. As for it being day-not always. My shifts run either afternoon into the overnight, or over night into the morning. Not trying to be difficult, just unsure.

WBB55

I use a thermos for things that I want to stay cool. They have the ones that are rated for 8 hours or so. Just put the opened thermos in the freezer for 10 minutes or so before putting your cold food in it and it will stay cold all day!

^^I like this idea. Gonna do it this weekend with my 8 hour thermos, just to see how it goes and how long it'll keep my lunch cold!

WBB55

I have square cooler packs, but will look into getting more gel based packs since they can conform around things.

As to what do I want to eat- I'm not entirely sure. When I used to work my food choices were terrible. I would eat chips and soda and crap all shift long. This is my first time returning to work in over 8 months, and kind of lost in what choices I should bring. As for it being day-not always. My shifts run either afternoon into the overnight, or over night into the morning. Not trying to be difficult, just unsure.

Just asking again to make sure you saw part of my post. So you can or cannot bring cut up vegetables? Not leafy ones, they wilt. But crunchier ones, like carrots, celery, sweet pepper, asparagus, etc...

elphie754

I can, but in the past I have found that just plain veggies tend to fill me up, but don't give me much energy, which is why I prefer fruit to veggies.

Today I brought premade chicken with lettuce/tomatoes, Greek yogurt and soy milk, which seemed to keep me energized. I just worry I will get bored of eating similar things all the time.

WBB55

Well that's where the packages of hummus or peanut butter come in. You dip them in the prepackaged peanut butter or pate or whatever. That way you're getting more calories.

mom2_4gr8kids

For heating things up... Can you use a convenience store microwave? I managed one in my life before kids, and we had cops and EMT's use our microwave sometimes.

michikade

I'm really trying to think of other things that may work for you.

Perhaps there are some items that some of the Paleo folks adhere to that would work for good snacks and meals that'd last longer -- Paleo is gluten free because wheat / grain processing started after the paleolithic time. I'm sure some of the suggestions would be things we've said - fruits, veggies, nuts - but there may be some other things I can't think of off the top of my head - maybe like jerkies (probably homemade jerky, though, so you could control what goes into it) too if you're into that sort of thing.

I threw out Larabar before because of its gluten free status, but actually not everyone likes dates or chewy bars so that may be a to your taste thing. The ones I've had before were peanut butter chocolate chip and the ingredients are dates, peanuts, semisweet chocolate morsels and sea salt. They have others without the date binder too. I'm sure there are other lower calorie ones out there but I'm 99% sure you would be able to eat those if you needed to or wanted something a little later in the day that didn't require any kind of cooling.

RodaRose

Buy yourself an insulated cooler bag and ice pack:
http://www.zappos.com/insulated-lunch-bags

When I add two very cold water bottles, the lunch can last three or four hours in the trunk of my car in the hot FL sun.

Choose foods that can handle a little warmth: cheese sticks,, canned soups, most fruit, dried fruit, nuts, containers of applesauce, . . . .cooked vegetables
I bring beans to lunch. My favorites are garbanzo beans.

Regarding GF:
My husband and I eat baked potatoes, rice, sweet potatoes,

I second the Larabars. They are handy and 1000% GF. There are various flavors. Some contain only fruit and nuts.

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Re the heat: Unless you live in FL, the weather will be more reasonable in five weeks . . .so we are only looking at a five week period in which the heat is a major factor for storing lunch.