"Brown Bag" Ideas?

Do you food prep? It can really help a great deal in making the right choices. I usually do my food prep on Sundays and it takes a couple of hours. I end up making 2-3 days worth of meals.

I normally cook chicken breasts, roast some vegetables like squash, zucchini, red and orange bell peppers and onions together, and make a batch of brown rice and roast some sweet potatoes. Those are my staples. Once everything is cooked, you just portion it out into containers. I normally do about 4-5 oz of protein, 1 cup of the veggies, and 1/3 cup brown rice or 1/2 cup sweet potato.

I know it may sound boring eating the same thing every day, but you can also throw in another protein to prep like ground turkey meat or turkey chili. Then alternate turkey chili with chicken and brown rice with sweet potato. I store them in my fridge and in the morning, just grab what I need and go.

Depending on your calorie intake, you could probably eat more or less.

I also prep my snacks. I usually have 2 snacks - light string cheese with a piece of fruit and 1/2 cup plain nonfat greek yogurt with some strawberries or pineapple.

Good luck to you!

Tuna (you can get it in the pouch so you can eat it with crackers or right out of the packet without worrying about a can!), string cheese, veggies and hummus, cottage cheese. I have been bringing a lot of turkey/chicken sausage to work, they have so many good flavors now, and you can heat it up with a side of vegetables. You can also cook eggs in muffin tins with bacon and veggies and cheese and make little egg muffins to bring! If you crave a sandwich you can bring a low calorie wrap and fill it at work so it doesn't get soggy through out the day maybe. Good luck!!

Bringing my lunch to work has been a great tool for managing my calorie intake.

I'm the type of person who is cool eating the same thing day in and day out. I've been packing the same lunch for the most part of a year now. I bring enough food to have a snack at 10:30ish and then lunch towards 1:00PM so I am not so hungry when I get home.

My staples are:

1. Morningstar Garden Veggie Patties (Microwavable veggie burger)
2. Some kind of yogurt (I like the 90 cal Greek yogurt)
3. A piece of fruit (I like apples)
4. A protein bar (<200 calories)
5. A Clif Kidz bar (<150 calories)
6. 10-15 almonds

I also will have two cups of coffee, each with 2 tablespoons of half in half in them. Again the only thing above that needs any prep is the veggie burger

When I do bring a sandwich to work, I keep the bread separate from the meat and condiments. This makes it so that it doesn't get soggy in my cooler. I have a little bread shaped crayola Tupperware thing that we got for my kids at the grocery store. It's perfect for keeping my bread from getting smashed or nasty

All in all this leaves me plenty of calories for dinner when I get home. My wife and I put a lot of variety and nutrition into those dinners and it's been working really well!

successgal1 wrote: »

Its perfectly ok to bring your sandwich preparations to work in separate containers and assemble at lunch time.

I do this a lot; some deli, slice of cheese, a "bread spread" like Laughing Cow or some avocado and whatever bread I'm using.

dbkyser wrote: »

Looking for healthy lunch and snack ideas to get me through the 11 hour days at work. I have learned to enjoy whole wheat bread but not into soggy sandwiches.
This makes healthy sandwiches a little more challenging.

Keep sandwich fixings separately, at least the parts that cause sogginess. I sometimes work really long days...even all-nighters. Those are the nights that I usually don't do so well because I get hungry and there is only unhealthy stuff in the dining room. If you know you are going to be working 11 hours on a particular day, pack A LOT of extra food. Things that fit into your plan.

Do you have a refrigerator and a microwave at work? I do, and those have been a huge factor in what I choose.

My M-F breakfast at the office is a bowl of steel cut oats (reheated), with 2T half and half, and 1/2 cup blueberries.

For lunch, I have a 2-3 portions of snap peas, 1/2 - 1 portion cherry tomatoes, an apple, and, according to my mood and needs, a wasa cracker with hummus or cream cheese, a couple of oz. of deli turkey, and an ounce of cheese.

For me, the real key has been portion control and advance prep. I have a digital food scale at home, and when I make the oatmeal I portion it out into three equal servings. I buy a 1/2 pound block of cheese and cut it into 8 1oz portions. I buy lunch meat and portion out my 2oz portions. I go through a lot of snack size baggies.

I have been known to bring leftovers from the night before, as well, but that makes for a higher calorie count at lunch than I usually go for.

I have those lunchblox containers for packing my dh's lunch! We have the salad size and the sandwich size. Any sealed container works pretty much the same though as long as you food fits.

I often send leftovers for dh's lunch.
Sandwiches are okay... just don't put things that will make the bread soggy on in advance or put a barrier (meat, cheese, spinach/lettuce) between that item and the bread. Try a wrap with a tortilla or do a lettuce wrap for something different.
Whole fruit
Raw vegetables
Cheese, cottage cheese
Yogurt
Hardboiled egg, deviled egg, omelet
Granola bar, trail mix
Rice ball
Put dressings, sauces or condiments in a seperate small container and add when you are ready to eat.

My dh appreciates a certain amount of non-perishable stuff so if he doesn't finish it he can save it for later or the next day. Fruit or a granola bar or trail mix is good for that.