Easy Blue-collar Lunches?

i buy pita pockets for my husband and fill with chicken salad, tuna salad, whatever! you can even put chicken breast and some salad stuff in a pita pocket ~ plus I give him chips, fruit, granola bar ~ and of course an ice pack ~ Good Luck!

Never underestimate fruit for a snack - carbs and lots of water. Watermelon, cantaloupe, grapes have a lot of water in them and chilled are great for a hot day. Buy them pre-cut and just keep in a lunch bag with an icepack.

Make your tuna or chicken salad with greek yogurt instead of mayo. It keeps better. pitas and wraps are good. bread in sandwiches tend to get soggy in a cooler. (yes I live in Texas). like CurvyToFit said, fruit. Watermelon and other choices are good to freeze the night before.
I also make a mash out of cannellini beans with garlic powder, salt, pepper, oregano, and basil. It is high in protein but not heavy feeling when it gets warm outside. Use it for burritos or put on toast. Stuff like sliced raw veg. tomatoes, cucumbers, avacados are good "cool" choices. Nuts are good too. no refrigeration needed. Hope this helps you have some ideas.

To answer your question as many others have:
fruit like bananas and apples are easy to grab and go.
other fruits like berries etc just cut up and bag.
dried fruit and or nuts.
greek yogurt ( I like the 100 calorie ones)
Pita pockets/sandwich thins/ low cal wraps with whatever veggies you like and some hummus.
hard boiled eggs
peanut butter and banana sandwich/wrap.
baby carrots/ mini peppers, cucumbers
string cheese

My work has neither a fridge nor a microwave, although I don't work out in the heat or anything.

I've been making chicken hummus wraps (chicken, hummus of your choice (I use pesto hummus) + veggies of your choice, wrap it all up) and taking along a protein bar or something I've baked (e.g. scone, muffin), perhaps some fruit too/instead.

Another option is a thermos - I have one that is more bowl than cup shaped and I can heat up some leftovers and keep it hot in there for lunch as well. I like to make casseroles specifically to take leftovers for lunches.

Beef Jerky

_Valhalla_ wrote: »

Thank you all for replying. All good suggestions and I will try all of them. As far as snacks go, I don't really time for snacks. I work on septic systems and my hands usually have dirt or are otherwise dirty from "stuff". This nutrition change is new for me. I've been working out for almost a year. I figure I need to get my food in check too.

I would go with the "portable lunches" since you don't really want to be touching your food ~ pita pockets and wraps can be wrapped in tinfoil so you don't have to touch the food ~ bananas ~ granola bars

place containers of your favorite yogurt in the freezer the night and grab when you pack your lunch, they will be thawed or mostly thawed by lunch time. Plus they'll help keep other food cooler. If you pick the ones with the fruit on the bottom you might want to give it a good shake and freeze upside down so that some of the fruit stuff actually gets to the rest of the yogurt. If it still semi-frozen when you eat it, you might not be able to stir it. You might also think twice about the yogurts with mix-ins or the ones with the tapered container (Yoplait?) for the same logic.

Freezing changes the taste of the yogurt, so you might not like the same flavor frozen as you would normally. I have found a couple of flavors that I only like frozen (bought a multi-pack, didn't really like it the normal tried freezing to avoid wasting food, liked it better)

For regular food I would have said much of the same food as the people above me listed.