Help me out, DU'ers--what can I bring for lunch if I don't bring sandwiches? nt

[raccoon]

[MissHoneychurch]

1. Salad

or yoghurt, fruits, veggies ....

[Tobin S.]

2. Frozen dinners if you have access to a microwave.

[Rabrrrrrr]

3. Soup. Rice balls. Stir Fry.Fruit and veggies. Salad (but don't put dressing on until you eat).

Or just a bag of Cheetos, though now that I eat more healthy than I did 20 years ago, that's not such a good lunch. Fucking tasty, though.

[kentauros]

5. TreeHugger's "Weekday Vegetarian" has some tasty recipes

http://www.treehugger.com/tag/Weekday%20Vegetarian

Although I've often made a meal out of homemade guacamole and chips :9

[hippywife]

15. Thanx!

I bookmarked that link. Appreciate it. :)

[Gormy Cuss]

4. Leftovers and fresh fruit.

If you have refrigeration and a microwave available, anything but stinky food is good for lunch.
A piece of fruit is portable and make a nice "dessert" with lunch.

Another idea is to also pack a small container of crunchy vegetables (carrots, celery, broccoli, cauliflower.)

[Chan790]

19. Can I quote you on the "stinky" foods.

I work with a staff of Mexicans and Salvadorians at the bank (I'm honestly the only employee for whom Spanish is a second language rather than a first.) and one of my branch coworkers (and I have no idea which) keeps leaving half-eaten bowls of posole and menudo in the sink...for days.

Do you have any idea what 3 day old room-temperature hominy and tripe soup smells like?

[Gormy Cuss]

20. Ugh. No garlic, no tripe, no day-old tuna.

That's just not right.

[elana i am]

6. what is your objective?

cheap? easy? healthy?

i can give you an idea that's easy and relatively healthy. cheap, not so much.

for the last few years of my last job before i got laid off, i had to work through lunch a lot so i ate at my desk. i needed quick and easy without having to microwave or refrigerate.

a good snack throughout the day is lightly salted or unsalted nuts. the carbs and protein in nuts are good energy boosters throughout the day without having to drink sugar or caffeine.

instead of having one big lunch in the middle of the day i would have a handful of nuts mid-morning, a V8 and an apple or a banana at lunch and another handful of nuts in the mid-afternoon.

it was not the cheapest, but it was easy and i was never sluggish in the afternoon.

a great and relatively healthy salad would be a modified greek salad. i like cucumbers, bell peppers, tomatoes, onions and feta cheese with red wine vinegar, olive oil and black pepper. i'd leave off the calamata olives though because of the salt content. it was a salad that would keep well in my insulated lunch bag and didn't require me going to heck and back to the refrigerator in the lunchroom. i could also make a big batch that would last a few days instead of lettuce that wilts when dressing gets on it.

[realisticphish]

7. fried rice

quick, easy, tasty, and relatively healthy if you use as little oil as possible

[Sugarcoated]

8. Make a nice pasta salad

lots of veggies, some cheese ham and salami chunks, black olives, sundried tomatoes, italian dressing. Yum!

[MissHoneychurch]

10. Now I'm hungry

damn, that sounds yummy ... :9

[Sugarcoated]

12. I wish I could make a big bowl and share

:) Love to cook!

[Fleshdancer]

9. bento boxes!!!!

Bento was one of the best things about living in Japan. This site has a ton of great ideas including non-Asian inspired bento, vegan bento, and traditional bento: http://justbento.com/

Another idea is tex-mex. If I've learned anything about living in Texas it's this: if you're hungry and in a hurry, place a protein (chicken, beef, tofu, etc) in a flour tortilla, add beans and/or spicy salsa, and wrap it up. It's quick, easy, and pretty good. Cheese, of course, will make it better. :) It reheats well and it's easy to carry when wrapped in aluminum foil.

[distantearlywarning]

25. Second the bento box idea. n/t

[LaurenG]

11. Humus and raw vegetables or soup. nt

[Kali]

13. tacos and burritos

cold chicken, ribs, steak
salads
any kind of hot foods in an insulated container or if you have a microwave you are good to go with any kind of leftovers - stews, casseroles

[grasswire]

14. cottage cheese, triscuits, and V-8

yum yum

[Generic Brad]

16. Omusubi

Rice balls wrapped in seaweed filled with wonderful things like miso pork, candied seaweed, sour plums, etc.

[pitohui]

17. cold fried chicken

i make a mean oven-fried chicken that is really good cold, i often pack it for lunch when i'm going someplace

[Arugula Latte]

18. White bean dip w/ veggies and/or crackers

In a blender or food processor mix a can of cannellini or other white beans with minced garlic or garlic powder, squeeze of lemon juice, green onions, herb of choice such as basil or cilantro, salt and pepper to taste. Eat with sliced vegetables or some sort of bread or cracker. :9

[Rochester]

21. Canned soup

When I take canned soup to work, I take condensed Campbell's, and I take a bowl and a thermos full of hot water (boiled before I leave the house.) Then, at lunchtime, I pour the soup and most of the hot water into the bowl, both diluting the soup to the proper concentration and heating it at the same time. Very handy for job sites where there is either no microwave or a long line to use one.
I deliberately pour more water than required in to dilute, and then pour the excess back into the empty can. That is to get it a little hotter than it would otherwise be, and also dilutes it more than normal; when diluted according to the instructions it's still a little too salty/greasy for my taste.
Then when I'm done, I can use the little bit of leftover water in the thermos to rinse out the bowl.

[jobycom]

22. Breakfast tacos.

They aren't just for breakfast anymore. Which means, really, that they ought to change the name to something more representative of what they really are, like taco sugar, or maybe just tacos. Or maybe "The Taco formerly known as Breakfast."

[Jamastiene]

23. Nuts, cans of soup, ramen noodles (if you have a microwave)

Trail mix is good (something like chex mix). If you like meat, buy some beef jerky or make it. If you have access to a food dehydrator, just about any vegetable you like can be dried and eaten as a "chip." If my food dehydrator hadn't got burned up in the fire, I would be making some serious banana chips this summer to munch on this fall. Banana chips are to-die-for, especially homemade ones. Can you tell I am craving some banana chips right now?

[wickerwoman]

24. I like grain-based salads.

Chop up a bunch of veggies, add couscous or some other grain, lots of cheese, maybe some eggs, chickpeas or other protein, some salad dressing or just oil and lemon juice. I make a huge batch and it usually lasts four or five days.

[MiddleFingerMom]

26. Beer. n/t

[rurallib]

31. in the handy 40 ounce glass bottle!

[cwydro]

27. Baked potatoes.

Can be cooked ahead of time and just reheated. Bring yummy toppings in small containers.

Spaghetti...easy to reheat, don't forget the cheese.

Barbecue, make it the day before.

Meat loaf...I make it in tiny little mini loaf pans and have a whole loaf for lunch (mini loaf)

Pasta primavera///cooked pasta with sauteed veggies and cheese sprinkled over.

Baked beans.

I hate processed food and try to make good stuff to take for lunch every day. I work long hours so I have to plan in advance.

Salad wraps...just take the fixin's and make them right there.

[sinkingfeeling]

28. Anything left over from the night before that can be either reheated or eaten cold.

[triguy46]

29. Cold fried chicken. Cold pizza. Cold burrito. $10 bill and eat out.

[hippywife]

30. Core out a tomato

and stuff it with either tuna salad or salmon salad, make a cream cheese spread with garlic, pimentos, green peppers, corn, etc and spread in a tortilla, roll it up and cut into pinwheels, cheese or peanut butter on crackers, peanut butter on graham crackers, cream cheese or peanut butter on celery.

[hibbing]

32. Double baked stuffed potato

Hi,
Just made one tonight for lunch tomorrow. Get a big baking potato, nuke it, cut out an oval of the top, scoop out most of the potato, mash, mix in whatever, or layer potatoes and fillings back into potato shell, warm it up in the nuker at work. Mine for tomorrow has some cheese, green onions, and French's French Fried Onion Rings (the things that go on the classic green bean casserole). Something different, cheap, filling, relatively healthy depending on what you put in it, and warms you up in winter.


Peace