Brown Bag Lunch Ideas

I do! Usually last night's leftovers, or a lean cuisine, or a sandwich, yogurt and fresh veggies! I have access to a fridge and micro, so it's pretty easy for me. You can always pack a cold pack in your cooler if you have something that you need to keep cold!

I usually prepare my lunches, but I allow for one day a week where I'm maybe meeting a friend, or treat myself to a sandwich from the shop down the road.

At the weekends, I usually make a big soup or stew - there's usually lots of vegetables needing used up, or if I've roasted a chicken I'll use the bones to make stock. I might add a tin of beans for extra protein, and plenty of flavourings - garlic, chilli, herbs. It's never the same recipe each week! I'll put this into individual portion tubs and keep in the freezer.

I'f I'm cooking somehting like risotto during the week, I'll make extra - into an individual tub in the freezer.

For salads, I take the raw ingredients with me to work, but don't chop them up until I'm ready to eat them. They stay fresher that way. I keep a jar of dressing in the office fridge.

I usually prepare my lunches, but I allow for one day a week where I'm maybe meeting a friend, or treat myself to a sandwich from the shop down the road.

At the weekends, I usually make a big soup or stew - there's usually lots of vegetables needing used up, or if I've roasted a chicken I'll use the bones to make stock. I might add a tin of beans for extra protein, and plenty of flavourings - garlic, chilli, herbs. It's never the same recipe each week! I'll put this into individual portion tubs and keep in the freezer.

I'f I'm cooking somehting like risotto during the week, I'll make extra - into an individual tub in the freezer.

For salads, I take the raw ingredients with me to work, but don't chop them up until I'm ready to eat them. They stay fresher that way. I keep a jar of dressing in the office fridge.

Can you cook for me?

I bring my lunch every day. Always a salad and usually a sandwich or just wheat bread to go with it. I like the Arnolds Sandwich Thins. Only 100 calories for the whole thing. I make egg salad or tuna salad with light mayo. I eat at my desk between 11:30 and 12:30 and then take a walk over my official lunch hour of 12:30-1:30. I bring cut up fruit as well and usually a 100 calorie salty snack of some sort. Right now, I'm into the Wheat Thins Crunch Stix-Chipotle.

I've been bringing my lunch for the last 3 years - that's one of the major changes I knew I'd have to make in order to lose weight. The restaurant and fast food lunches favored by my coworkers run 2000-3000 calories every day!! Not to mention insane levels of sodium and fats. ::sigh::

It's been kind of a progression for me. I started out bringing Healthy Choice and Lean Cuisine meals. They really helped reconfigure my sense of proper portion size. But I eventually ditched them due to sodium levels and concerns about the toxins in the plastic food trays. Not to mention the waste.

Now I cook up a variety of meats every few weeks, slice and bag them in proper portion sizes (usually 2-4 oz) using my kitchen scale, and freeze any that I won't be using within a day. I mostly use Mrs Dash salt-free seasonings and some other herbs, spices, and various peppers. I do not add salt to anything.

I'm not so good about prepping veggies (okay I admit I'm BAD about it) so I do indulge in frozen veggie products. Green Giant and Birds Eye make great small serving size packets of tasty veggies. I just grab one of those and heat them up in my glassware instead of their plastic steamer bags. Add meat of choice and I have a fast easy low-cal, low fat, low sodium lunch that I can really enjoy. Sometimes I steam fresh green beans in the micro instead of the frozen veggies. I like them a lot too.

I usually do either the Lean Cusine steamer bag or the Healthy Choice steamer meals. Have it with mixed greens, lo-cal / low fat dressing and I throw in some crunchy vegetable like cucumber or bell pepper. The sodium is quite high in some of those meals, but in general I do not salt much of anything so for me its not a problem, and I (well, my husband) cooks fresh meals at home for dinner so that is the extent of the processed foods that I really eat. Lately I have been packing lunch at night. I will pack it same-day if its a sandwich though so it doesn't get soggy. We have a microwave, refrigerator, toaster oven, toaster AND a small george foreman grill here that someone generously donated so there's no excuses for me! I have seen people full on cooking steaks up in here and I have even made a quesadilla one time...but I haven't had the time to be that adventurous as of late! Every now and then I like to make a tuna-pasta salad with all kinds of diced veggies in there and low fat mayo, have that with a small bowl of soup...yum.