Work Lunches

I cook all of my lunches for the following work week every Sunday and then either freeze and refrigerate them. This has proven to be both economical and time-friendly. This week my lunches consist of a mixture of rice, chili, ground beef, and a few vegetables. Each is about 600 calories per serving and cost about $2.

I have leftovers if there are any. Most of the time I take a salad with grilled chicken or tuna, marinated lima beans/chick peas, carrot sticks, boiled egg. I have a to go salad tote that works wonders (see image). I'm bad at portioning so putting my green mix on the bottom, adding the other stuff in the top section and the dressing in the container works great. If I do have to go out for lunch I usually pick a grilled chicken salad or instead of going through a drive through I will go to the Real Food Market and make a salad from the fresh salad bar.

mommamia30189 wrote: »

So many people have leftovers! I barely have enough time in the day to cook dinner. I mean how does everyone that works, work all day, I get home at 6pm- then workout by 6:30-8 - by then its too late to cook a meal so i usually just eat something like a baked potato or a fruit cup. My main eating is at lunch. Its hard to come home-workout-then cook dinner-and get ready for work the next day. I usually pack my lunch in the morning before work, apples, yogurt, and some baked chicken that i make batches of on Sunday.

It takes about 20 minutes to grill some kind of meat, poultry, or fish and saute some veggies and make some quinoa or brown rice or something...you're already cooking it so making double doesn't take any longer. I don't do big exotic recipes for weeknight meals...KISS.

I also don't spend 90 minutes every night working out...at most it's 45 - 60 a couple days per week in the gym and usually a 30 - 60 minute ride most weekdays. I also usually eat dinner around 8:30/9 so even if I did finish working out by 8, there's plenty of time to make a simple meal.

Do you have access to a microwave? I spend part of my Sunday making a variety of freezer meals, sometimes things like chicken Parmesan with veggies added veggies to the sauce, chicken curries (w/tons of veggies), chili and soup (tons of veggies). I calculate the calories for every serving and put the inventory on the fridge for logging purposes. If I do this every weekend, making 1-2 recipes, then I can easily have something different every day of a given week. Those meals are usually around 200-300 calories, and so I grab that, along with some raw veggies (carrots, baby peppers, or snap peas) and a fruit or sometimes yogurt (depending on calories in the main course). You can even make batches of brown rice and freeze a 1/3 cup serving to go along with the saucy meals. The average cost of my lunches, on non-yogurt days, is about $2 (the yogurt I like is almost $1 a container). I love the warm meals and having something raw to much on after I inhaling them makes them very satisfying meals.

Soup here.
Made at the weekend and into 400g freezer bags. Take one out of the freezer and keep in the fridge for next morning. Six mins in the microwave in the morning and straight into a Thermos flask.
Still hot at lunch time.

I have to prioritize the cooking over any kind of workout, because I've got kids relying on me to feed them and our budget absolutely does not sustain eating out or convenience food. If we're going to eat healthy meals on our budget, they need to be cooked. I get in my activity walking to work or at lunch.

When you find you have to do it, you figure out how you can. Yeah, others will probably point and judge for prioritizing the food thing over the gym, but life is full of choices and right now that's the better one for my situation.

I grill chicken on Sundays, make a bit pot of chili (160 calories per 8 oz serving), and get some lean cuisines to pull from if I am a little pressed for time in the morning. Black beans to fill in gaps where I need calories to help hold me over. I HATE to have to come home and spend an hour cooking dinner. So, I aim to have stuff in the fridge that we can pull together a quick 30 min meal from the stuff that I have prepped.

In my family we value dinner and the time to be together. So, a big lunch is out of question for me. That's all the better. I get to eat light, plain foods such as boiled eggs, breakfast cereal, nuts, Carl Jr sides, 6" Subway, which are all easy to pack or purchase within walking distance, and save a ton of time and calories.