mikemusky44 wrote: »

My wife comes home for lunch and we eat together. Unfortunately, she has only has 1/2 hour for her lunch break. With both of us trying to cook and eat at the same time, I think a lunch croc would be a great way for me to heat up the food before she gets home and we will have more time to eat together. Any suggestions on lunch recipes?

NS Sloppy Joe mix - added onions, green & red bell peppers, and a little salsa.
NS Loaded Mashed Potato - with celery, turkey, onions and peppers
NS chicken Noodle soup - added some Tyson grilled chicken strips (pf), 1/2 can sliced carrots, onions & celery. It was delicious and very filling. Even though it wasn't one of the "add water" lunches I did add a little extra water as it looked dry when I started.
NS Three Cheese Chicken & Pasta (with water filled to the line), a cup of frozen broccoli, 1/4 cup frozen onions, 5 grape tomatoes, and added frozen Tyson chicken strips (fully cooked) as my PF. After about an hour and a half I added a wedge of LC Garlic & Herb, then waited about 45 more minutes to eat. This was ridiculously filling and delicious.
NS Mac & Cheese - added about 4 oz of water, 1/2 cup of diced tomatos with green chiles, 1/2 cup mushrooms (canned that I drained and rinsed) and 1/2 cup black beans as my smart carb and some cooked turkey burgers as a leftover PF. I put it on about 4:45 pm before I left for 5:00 mass and ended up eating it about 6:45 or so which means it cooked for about 2 hours. It was perfect!! The noodles were not mushy at all and it was totally delish!!!
NS Red Beans & Rice - 1/2 cup of low sodium beef broth. I also added 1/2 cup of canned petite diced tomatoes (no salt added) and the only other veggie I had in the house was frozen green beans so I tossed some of those in too. I also added a few dashes of tabasco sauce.
NS Hickory Smoked Burger - added a bit of low sodium broth, put in the burger and dumped diced onion on top. I let the patty stay in the crock for 2 hours. The results were super yummy!
NS Mexican Tortilla Soup - with the seasoning packet, added some frozen stir fry veggie blend (sugar snap peas, carrots, onions and mushrooms), frozen pepper strips, 2 oz chicken breast, a little no sodium Mexican spice blend, and the lunch cup full of water. It was DELISH!
NS Mac 'n Cheese - with mushrooms, frozen broccoli, 2 oz. chicken breast, and an LC wedge
NS Three Cheese Chicken - added fresh zucchini, carrots chicken breast, and cilantro. I also used chicken broth in place of the water. I filled the cup to the fill line with the chicken stock. Let it cook for about a hour and half.
NS - Cheddar Broccoli Rice lunch cup (water to the fill line) with: chopped onions, a couple of frozen asparagus stalks snapped into small pieces, a half a can of drained chicken, and added spices and some pepper
NS Chicken Noodle soup - added raw carrots and celery
NS Multigrain Pilaf - added a frozen blend of onion and bell pepper and also added some broccoli and some shrimp as my PF.
NS - Loaded Potato - add a slice of Pre-Cooked Bacon @ 20 calories for the slice. Or I may add 1 1/2 as that should still fit as a limited extra. The Real bacon enhances the flavor for my taste buds. I tried Bacon Bits first and they did not do as good a job as the real bacon. The Next one I do I may try with a slice of Canadian bacon or a PF of Canadian Bacon diced into the crock. I like Ham and Potatoes.
NS Mexican Tortilla soup - added chicken breast (PF) and Rotel. Can also add Laughing cow
NS Meatball dinner - added some onions, pepper and mushrooms and put it all on a hot dog bun
NS Tortellini lunch entree - sliced crimini mushrooms, broccoli slaw, little LS chicken broth, 2T sauerkraut (sp), 1 wedge laughing cow. I put them into the crock pot in that order so that the mushrooms and broccoli slaw cooked hottest. The slaw needs the extra time to cook enough for me.
NS Fettuccini Alfredo - added some left over green beans, some water chestnuts, fresh broccoli, a wedge of LC cheese & 4oz of cooked shrimp (my lunch PF).
NS Mexican Style Tortilla Soup - added frozen peppers and onions, diced tomatoes, chicken broth, a tad of leftover taco meat (pf), and a chipotle laughing cow wedge(pf)
NS Multigrain Pilaf - with frozen onions and peppers, chicken broth, chipotle Laughing cow, and just about a tbsp. of left over taco meat with homemade taco seasoning
NS Cheddar Broccoli Rice cup (lunch) - with veggies and chicken (I use broccoli & cauliflower and precooked roasted chicken
NS Cheesy Potatoes - with green beans, peppers and vegetable broth is the bomb!
NS Mexican-Style Tortilla Soup - add the amount of water listed on the cup (to fill line), 1/2 cup of diced tomatoes (drained), cooked chicken (2oz), 1 cup raw broccoli and 1 cup raw cauliflower and cook until all vegetable is tender (1 1/2 to 2 hours).
NS Chicken Parmesan Pasta - with half water, half low sodium chicken broth. added some garlic, Italian seasoning and red pepper flakes and 1/4 cup Brussels sprouts.
NS Fettuccini Alfredo - with mushrooms and turkey (I used Perdue Carving Board Turkey)
NS Fettucini cup lunch - with the water and a 3-oz can of tuna.
NS Black Beans and Rice Lunch Cup - with Carrots, Canned Tomatoes, Chicken Broth, Onions, Red Bell Pepper, Chili Powder, Cumin, in the pot and cooked for a couple of hours.
NS Mexican Tortilla Soup - with a can of diced tomatoes (with juice), 3oz of canned chicken (with water), and half a zucchini chopped. I didn't even add any extra water because the juice of the tomatoes, the water from the chicken and from the zucchini as it cooked was enough.
NS Italian Wedding soup - with either kale or spinach, mushrooms and cooked ground turkey. I usually cook the kale or spinach in a cup or bowl in the microwave first and then cut up with scissors while still in the cup or bowl. Put the cut greens, mushrooms, turkey, and soup in the warmer. Makes a very thick soup/stew.
NS Beans and Ham soup - with WF BBQ sauce, chopped FF hot dog and some chopped onions. Delicious!
Baked apple in a crockpot - I decided to make my SC in it to add to my dessert. Since the crockpot only warms, I cut up an apple in chunks, added some Torani sugar-free caramel syrup (about 1-2T) and a couple dashes of cinnamon. After a couple hours, it smelled heavenly! When it was done it was perfect with a spiced "sauce". I added that to a NS frozen carrot cake and it truly felt like I was cheating, but it was just a SC and a NS dessert.
Stuffed Pepper - i stuffed the pepper with the red rice and beans lunch pouch with hot sauce and a little WW shredded Mexican cheese.
i poured a mix of canned tomato, onions, mushrooms and celery on top and around the pepper. i did steam the pepper a bit before cooking since i was afraid that since it was not submerged in a liquid like most other soups that it wouldn't cook the pepper right.
Tips & Techniques:

• Tip: Kernel Seasonings, flavors are: Ranch, Buffalo Wing, Bacon Cheddar, Milk Chocolate Caramel, Nacho Cheddar & Butter. The calories range 2-5 calories for 1/4 tsp:
Garlic Parmesan one in my Turkey Bacon Rigatoni
White Cheddar in my Fettuccini Alfredo

• Tip: Do a Google search for Dr. McDougall's food (I can't post a link). They have lots of dry cup lunches & shelf stable liquid soups in boxes. Many of them fit the NS stats & several are low sodium, if that's something you keep an eye on. I love their Tomato Basil Pasta & Minestrone cups...& their Split Pea soup. You can also find these on Amazon & on the Vitacost site.

• I start my lunch crock about 5-6 hours before lunchtime and I add hot (almost boiling) water from our hot water fountain spigot at work, and almost always raw cauliflower & raw zucchini along with whatever NS lunch I'm having, and everything does cook by lunchtime. Carrots can be a little bit hard still and sometimes I nuke them for a minute or two before adding if I am goig to use them; otherwise I do all my veggies raw and they cook just fine. I also add water almost to the crockpot fill line regardless of how much water NS says to add, and I do this for the canned NS lunches too, not just the dry cup ones and i end up with a stew/soup like concoction that I really like.

• The Mac n cheese and mashed potato items take less than an hour. If you add frozen veggies to rice dish it takes about 2 hours. But I have forgotten them for 3 or 4 hours and it doesn't hurt or burn the dish. It is like putting it on warm to hold for when you are ready.

• I have used the Kirkland (Costco) canned Chicken with it and added a little bit of the juice from the can along with the chicken. It works out that each can has 3.5 servings. A serving is 2 oz., 1 gram fat, 45 Mg Cholesterol, 270 Mg Sodium, 13 Grams Protein and 4% Vitamin C, 2% of Calcium and Iron. I think of it as fairly decent and easy. I also use it to make a Chicken salad.

• I will marinate some chicken breasts (normally in the Balsalmic dressing from Nutrisystem - it's a great marinade but I don't like it as a dressing, and I use about 1 packet per 3 breasts.) on Saturday, then Sunday I will grill them all up, chop them, and measure them out in 2 oz packages. Then, to each package I will add 1 cup to 1.5 cups of my favorite frozen veggies - normally 1/4 cup edamame/corn succotash (counts as my afternoon SC), some asparagus stir fry, chopped broccoli, and chopped spinach. I usually end up making about 12 packets, which are then super easy to just dump into the lunch crock in the morning. I use the same mix for everything

Nightingale2200 wrote: »

You are very welcome.

Nightingale2200 wrote: »

You are welcome, perrychristina97, PeggyS925 and tobefitJen. I don't see a print icon here. You can copy/paste this info in a Word Document and save. That's what I did.

Nightingale2200 wrote: »

16 oz might be too small, Beach949RN. The lunch crock (warmer) I have is 20 oz and perfect size for the NS food and adding veggies.