On the Go Lunches

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canonink8
canonink8 Posts: 1 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Hi everybody!

I spend hours looking up doable lunch ideas for my husband and myself, but I am still having trouble finding something that will work. Hoping you will be able to help!

Ideally, I would like to spend Sunday prepping lunches for the week that my husband or I can just grab on our way out. It needs to be something we can eat cold and something that has protein and veggies to tie us over! I'm especially interested in your salad ideas (details, please! Do you store it with the dressing on it? Is a mason jar tough to eat out of?) and wrap ideas. I found some pretty elaborate and expensive recipes through google searching, but these recipes just aren't sustainable, or end up being a lot of work for a mediocre taste.

To sum - what inexpensive, healthy lunches do you make for yourself that don't require a microwave? How do you make it last in the fridge for a week? i know this question gets asked a lot, so I appreciate your help!

Replies

  • Kullerva
    Kullerva Posts: 1,114 Member
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    My lunch virtually every day (I work in an office):

    Peanut butter wrap on Flatout Multigrain original flatbread (yum!)
    100 cal. yogurt (Chobani or Yoplait)
    Cheese stick (50 calories; great for a snack)
    Peach (in season)

    Variations to the wrap:
    Flatout Light Italian with ham & swiss
    Flatout Original with rice/lentils and cheese, or leftovers from dinner

    Neither of these require a microwave, but they taste better heated. The peanut butter one is very much grab-and-go.

    Snack variations:
    Apples (when peaches are out of season)
    Rice cake popped snacks (100 calories each; great for sweet cravings)

    I don't eat salad, sorry. I did make the wrap with swiss cheese and spinach once, and it was wonderful.
  • MonkeyMel21
    MonkeyMel21 Posts: 2,395 Member
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    I buy these little pre made salads from the grocery store. They have several different varieties, all around 250-300 calories with protein. If I'm a little extra hungry then I'll have some hummus and crackers/veggies with it but usually just the salad. I'm sure you could make them yourself, I'm just lazy af. And yes, separate the dressing and anything that you don't want wet and mushy.
  • FitRoberta
    FitRoberta Posts: 73 Member
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    Mason jar salads look adorable (dressing in the bottom with hard veggies/protein, so lettuce on top stays fresh) but I do find them hard to eat. A decent, meal-sized salad is packed tightly into a pint jar, and the ingredients don't move when you shake it. The salad never really gets tossed. Packing it in a larger jar with room for shaking would be unwieldy and heavy. So I pack salads basically old-school, in larger metal or plastic containers, with dressing in a tiny separate container. Exception: kale salads get better the longer the dressing is on them.

    I combine salads with dinner leftovers for my work lunches, not sure if that is an option for you. I do have access to a microwave at work, though I often eat leftovers cold/at room temperature.

    I pack all of this in an insulated lunch bag. More to carry, but keeps things pretty chilled.

    Good luck!

  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
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    FitRoberta wrote: »
    Mason jar salads look adorable (dressing in the bottom with hard veggies/protein, so lettuce on top stays fresh) but I do find them hard to eat. A decent, meal-sized salad is packed tightly into a pint jar, and the ingredients don't move when you shake it. The salad never really gets tossed. Packing it in a larger jar with room for shaking would be unwieldy and heavy. So I pack salads basically old-school, in larger metal or plastic containers, with dressing in a tiny separate container. Exception: kale salads get better the longer the dressing is on them.

    I combine salads with dinner leftovers for my work lunches, not sure if that is an option for you. I do have access to a microwave at work, though I often eat leftovers cold/at room temperature.

    I pack all of this in an insulated lunch bag. More to carry, but keeps things pretty chilled.

    Good luck!

    I wondered about the mason jars salads..........

    I grill chicken on Sunday, then cut up & portion into zip-lock baggies (store in the freezer). So many options with this.

    For salads that stand up - lettuce choice matters. Forget iceberg it won't last very long. Romaine lettuce holds up well. Tubs of spring mix or 50/50 mix are great. I can just reach in there and grab what I need (daily). If you want to store a weeks worth of measured add-ins: snack size ziplock bags work well for nuts, cheese, craisins, or croutons.

    I like the "salad bowls" that have the small dressing container attached.

  • rbfdac
    rbfdac Posts: 1,057 Member
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    MonkeyMel21 wrote: »
    I buy these little pre made salads from the grocery store. They have several different varieties, all around 250-300 calories with protein. If I'm a little extra hungry then I'll have some hummus and crackers/veggies with it but usually just the salad. I'm sure you could make them yourself, I'm just lazy af. And yes, separate the dressing and anything that you don't want wet and mushy.

    This is me. Traveling husband and twenty month old. I eat the prepackaged all the time. They don't have enough protein for me, so I always eat something else with them- tofu, chickpeas, veggie burger, etc.
  • cmtigger
    cmtigger Posts: 1,450 Member
    edited October 2015
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    When I prep salads ahead of time, I usually use food saver containers. They have an attachment for the vacuum sealer that seals the containers (you can get one for jars too). But I prefer the containers because there is no need to dump into a new container.

    I also really like trader Joe's prepackaged salads. Or I bring yogurt, usually with a combination of random things to eat also, like baby carrots, crackers, hard boiled eggs (they last for a week), etc.
  • alcole2008
    alcole2008 Posts: 15 Member
    edited October 2015
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    I do the mason jar salads as well during the week often. I store paper plates in my desk at work so I can dump the salad onto the plate and eat it that way. Usually my salads look like this;

    Balsamic Vinagrette
    Cucumbers
    tomatoes
    chopped broccoli
    black beans
    Spring mix or Romain/Spinach mix
    Cheese (sometimes)
    Chow mein noodles (sometimes if it fits and I'm wanting a little extra crunch that day).
  • tcaley4
    tcaley4 Posts: 416 Member
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    Check out this thread on using Bento boxes. The entire concept of bento is exactly what you describe. This thread is long, but there is a great discussion and includes pictures of lunches people are fixing.

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10043413/using-bento-boxes-for-lunches/p1
  • kiittenforever
    kiittenforever Posts: 479 Member
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    A salad kit that comes with all the ingredients..throw half of it together in a container and shake it around.
  • LastingChanges
    LastingChanges Posts: 390 Member
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    For everyone that is doing the mason jar salads.. Do the salads including lettuce keep fresh for the whole week M-F ? I am always scared of vegetables spoiling, I usually only prep salads for 3 days, but would be great if I could do for the whole week. Love the mason jar idea but scared of opening it on Friday and finding spoiled veggies.
  • cmtigger
    cmtigger Posts: 1,450 Member
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    LastingChanges wrote: »
    For everyone that is doing the mason jar salads.. Do the salads including lettuce keep fresh for the whole week M-F ? I am always scared of vegetables spoiling, I usually only prep salads for 3 days, but would be great if I could do for the whole week. Love the mason jar idea but scared of opening it on Friday and finding spoiled veggies.

    I've found that if I seal them with my food saver, they do.

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