Boring Lunchbox

SheCantWeight

I've been eating the same turkey on sandwich thins for 2 weeks now. It's only 150 calories so I compliment it with pretzels and a banana most days and sometimes almonds or cracker chips with different fruit. But the turkey, chicken, fill in the blank deli meat on bread is just getting boring. Anyone have any suggestions for an easy-to-make lunchbox-friendly meal for a picky eater?

tlcAK

tuna?

stanvoodoo

Without heating something up like say leftovers maybe you could do the sandwich on a low carb tortilla as a wrap or a bagel thin? How about flat bread?

Maybe a salad with the deli meat and low cal dressing with fruit and veggies for a change?

Good luck!

JessicaJune

Homemade chicken salad with lowfat mayo, diced apples and almonds. Good for you and yummy!

Kristin111365

Add lots of veggies to the sandwich to give it some crunch. cucumber peppers pickles anything that is fun. Also try a wrap with a lowfat tortilla. it will spice it up.

misscfe

That is what I have been eating too. Except I do use tuna sometimes (sometimes use wheat crackers instead of bread with the tuna). I always have a hard time making a healthy lunch to take to work. Do you have access to a fridge and/or microwave when you pack your lunch?

Instead of using mayo or leaving it dry I use the 100 cal guacamole packs. You can make 5 or more sandwiches with one of those packs so it is very little cal and gives it flavor.

countrygirl_717

I'm assuming you aren't able to heat up your lunch??
Here's some ideas of things I've tried in the past that are not in need of a microwave:
Egg salad sandwich (either just whites or with yolks)
Egg salad and tuna sandwich
spinach/lettuce salad with tuna or baked chicken put on it (you can cook a bunch of chicken ahead of time)
chicken breast (with a light bbq sauce to dip them in if you wish)
chicken wrap (baked chicken slices wrapped in a tortilla with peppers/onions/lowfat cheese/dressing/ of your choice

Other things to put on the side:
cottage cheese
yogurt
greek yogurt(my fave is fage) with bear naked granola mixed in
veggies & dip (I make my dip with plain fage yogurt and flavored ranch spice packets mixed in - waaaay yummy)
natural applesauce
quaker chocolate rice cakes with natural pb on top

jenlayport

try fat free cottage cheese (so good and packed w/ protein!) with berries and granola for lunch. I eat it all the time.... its so healthy and very filling!

Onesnap

Careful deli meats have a TON of sodium and it's not a good idea to eat them daily.

I would suggest adding a sandwich of hummus and veggies to alternate.

TeaBea

Homemade chicken salad with lowfat mayo, diced apples and almonds. Good for you and yummy!

Thanks for this post. I love tuna salad with green apples & red peppers - yum!

Could you put soup in a thermos?

PlanetVelma

I always suggest to people to check Hungry Girls website & cookbooks -she has some great ideas for BIG salads - she does use a lot of processed stuff but you can always substitute stuff (just make sure you re-calculate the calorie content).

Today my lunch consists of the following:

Tuna (w/ mustard & olives) on a bagel thin & loads of lettuce (you could also make lettuce wraps w/ the tuna)
Carrot sticks
Jello Choc Temptations

I also have an apple w/ almond butter for my PM snack.

I also will bring leftovers from home, i've made my own lunch meat (after making a whole chicken), sometimes I'll make a "fish bowl" which is leftover salmon, 1/2 cup of peas and 1/2 cup of homemade lemon couscous all in one container. That is my FAVORITE lunch this month. LOL

The possiblities are endless!

kerriknox

If you have time the evening before these are great sandwich alternatives......

Option 1 Salad roll
julienne carrots and cucumbers
boil whole wheat vermicelli noodles for 1 minute, drain and set aside.
Cook and dice up a chicken breast (or use leftovers)

dampen a rice wrapper and lay it on a plate. Place veggies, small helping of noodles and a small helping of chicken in the wrap and roll it up. As it dries it will stick together. Eat it cold, dipped in a low fat peanut sauce. Sometimes I even substitute the noodles with mixed greens. Super yummy!

Option 2 Summer roll
julienne carrots and cucumbers
slice a avocado
Cook and slice some shrimp

Do the same as above but use a chilli dip instead of peanut sauce.

If you haven't used rice wrappers before it'll maybe take one or two for you to get the hang of wrapping but it is surprisingly easy.

JMCade

I use whole wheat tortillas or whole grain pita pockets with lunchmeat, some lettuce, ranch dressing, and feta cheese. Yum!

jennarandhayes

I was having exactly the same feelings this week, so I made little picnic lunches that seemed like so much food, reminded me that summer is almost here, and were really good. They contained: hummus with raw asparagus and red pepper, crackers with either babybel light or laughing cow light, fresh fruit- raspberries, blueberries, strawberries and grapes, and some fruit-on-the-bottom yogurt.

cammons

I make egg salad with one whole egg and one egg white (add a little FF mayo and mustard) and eat it on/in half a green pepper or on cucumber slices.

In a pinch I keep oatmeal in my desk to have for days I forget my own food.

christine24t

- Bagged salad in a whole-wheat tortilla/wrap, add dressing when you're ready to eat
- craisins/raisins
- carrots
- laughing cow cheese
- peanut butter and banana on sandwich thins
- try adding new condiments to your turkey: mustard (very low cal), tobasco, soft avocado mashed on it
- cut up pineapple, strawberries, melon that you precut the night before - doesn't necessarily have to be refrigerated.
- mini salads in tubberware containers(my mom used to do romaine, strawberries, pecans and feta and let me choose what dressing i wanted)

JessicaJune

Anything with the name ---salad at the end of it is delicious! I like making my own because 99% of premade salads are SO high in fat and sodium. Do you have WaWa there? They actually have a fantastic low fat chicken salad on a whole grain bun and it's only 6g of fat.