Lunch box prep ideas

GertieLouTackett
GertieLouTackett Posts: 5 Member
edited November 24 in Recipes
I want to start doing meal prep for my work week for breakfast, lunch, and snacks (usually around 100-200 cals) but while doing research I keep finding people doing the same meal for the entire week. I get bored with the same thing over and over which leads me to visit the cafeteria. Does anyone have any lunch box/bowl recipes that are around 300-400 cals and same for breakfast? I am sensitive to artificial sweeteners so I stay away from them to prevent a friendly visit to the ER :wink: Any suggestions though is so very welcome.

Replies

  • dklibert
    dklibert Posts: 1,196 Member
    The Domestic Geek has tons of meal prep on her YouTube channel. She just did this video: https://youtube.com/watch?v=mWHIHCg587s I am going to try a few just as soon as I can get to the store.

    Also I have seen someone divide a sheet pan with foil and cook chicken 3 different ways so their meal prep had variety. I will try to remember where I saw it.

    Other great meal preppers: Fit Couple Cooks, Fit Men Cook, Mind over Munch and FlavCity with Bobby Parrish.

    Another way to pack meals. https://soupspiceeverythingnice.blogspot.com/p/masonables.html
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
    I rotate 3 breakfasts............

    I make a batch of steel cut oats in the crockpot. Swap out some of the water for milk (bumps up the protein) and add cinnamon. Store in fridge and re-heat at work, adding fruit of choice (bananas this week). Peanut butter or peanut butter powder are good add-ins too.

    Greek yogurt with berries, high fiber cereal and chopped nuts. Vanilla Greek yogurt with peanut butter powder & Grapenuts.....yum (need to add to grocery list).

    Homemade egg McMuffins. I bake 9 eggs + 9 egg whites in a 9" square dish. Cut into squares. High fiber English muffin & 2 % cheese. I store egg squares in ziplock baggies in the freezer, then place in the fridge to thaw the night before.
  • fitoverfortymom
    fitoverfortymom Posts: 3,452 Member
    I do tend to eat boring/same for my breakfast/lunch for a week, but I change it up each week. It helps when you make something really, really yummy.

    This week it is roasted red pepper tomato gouda bisque and grilled chicken breast for lunch. Last week was a quinoa salad with paprika roasted chicken thighs. I make stuff in big batches on Sunday and package for easy lunchbox loading for hubby and me.

    Breakfast I tend not to switch up too often, because I get on a kick with certain foods. For a while it was waffles, then pancakes, then cottage cheese/fruit with toast.

    It's hard to pack something different each day unless you do leftovers from the night before, because that's a lot of ingredients!
  • rsimons0133
    rsimons0133 Posts: 15 Member
    I cut up berries and put in small containers in freezer. Currently I have some blueberries, strawberries, and blackberries. One day I add to oatmeal, another to cottage cheese, and one day to yogurt. This can change your berries and your “base” daily. Hard boil some eggs to grab and go.

    I do the same thing with veggies all separate containers. Some days I grab them all for a salad, other days I stir fry. Some days I eat them as a snack and not as a meal.

    This works for me. All the foods that I like, in different meal forms.
  • ritzvin
    ritzvin Posts: 2,860 Member
    Stuff keeps pretty long in the freezer...you can always prep a new batch of something before the old batch you are getting bored of is gone, and circulate those back in later when you are in the mood for it again.

    For the most part, I do a pot of soup and eat that until near the end .. it does get boring by the last 2-ish servings, and I have to freeze these for a later date.

    Alternatively, I do random frozen veggies and random baggie of previously cooked and portioned meat. Some things are relatively easy to do for a little bit of variety...you can throw a whole half pork loin or a club pack of chicken in the instapot - then when done cooking, do something like mix 1/3 into chicken salad, another third into pulled pork/chicken with BBQ sauce, another 1/3 in chunks with some other sauce or alone,.. I weigh into baggies I can grab and take to work to be mix-and-matched with nuked frozen veggies and/or miscellaneous other sides. (easier than doing 3 pans of some meat dish from scratch).

    Breakfast has been greek yogurt + some portion of a food bar everyday for ages. There is a somewhat decent flavor variety out there of both. I did buy the large tubs of greek yogurt and make my own flavor for a while, but I did get bored of that. Upon realizing the price difference for the small flavored ones was pretty small (9 cents more per pint if memory serves), I started buying those pretty much exclusively. (and yes, people do sometimes look at you a little funny when you are stuffing >14 little yogurt tubs in a shoulder shopping bag). (I also recently re-discovered Aldi while shopping for a recent potluck... those mini greek yogurts are 69 cents there, and they have a store brand of the Fiber One protein and fiber-added food bars.. I used to avoid that store because it is the mecca of amazing gourmet junk food at really cheap prices..like seriously: you are met with a wall of amazing Belgian chocolate bars at ~$2 the instant you walk in the door).

  • rsimons0133
    rsimons0133 Posts: 15 Member
    wow that's a great idea....
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    I have 3 or 4 different breakfasts. Lunch is usually leftovers from the previous evening's meal...if not, a sandwich and salad or something. Sometimes my wife will batch cook some chicken for the week, but I can really only do that maybe a couple of days out of the week or I get bored.
  • Teresa502
    Teresa502 Posts: 1,869 Member
    A really easy lunch/dinner go to when I'm short on time and haven't prepped anything, is to steam a bag of veggies and add a can of chicken.
  • shandy82165
    shandy82165 Posts: 184 Member
    I sometimes double my dinner and bring the leftovers for lunch the next day.
  • GertieLouTackett
    GertieLouTackett Posts: 5 Member
    These are great ideas! Thank you everyone. We are HUGE foodies (which is why I need to start back watching my weight) so it's really difficult for me to choke down the same meals day after day. I am definitely going to try several of these above.
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