Carry with you to work lunch ideas?
 

I am SO BORED with salads and chicken for lunch most days. What do you take with you for lunch? Anyone have any great dressing ideas, too? I could sure use some creativity for lunch. I'm tempted not to pack lunch, but I KNOW that would spell disaster, so I'm not giving in!

I always cook 4 portions of my dinner meal (dinner for my partner and I, and lunch the next day for us both). We just tupperware up the portions. Not only do we have a healthy, on-plan lunch with no extra cooking effort, but my days are better balanced because my lunch and dinner are about the same calorically.

I would NEVER be able to pack a lunch every day without this!

Buy (or make) different types of soup. I love soup for lunch, be mindful about the spups that you choose though you want non creamy and relatively low in calories. A can of chicken vegetable soup might have 190 calories per serving with 2-2.5 servings in a can. I like healthy choice and progresso the best yummy yummy, and I switch up the type of soup that I buy. If you make soup bring in a bit for lunch and save the rest for dinner.

I do the leftover thing too, but sometimes I just don't want to repeat or DH eats it before it gets packed up. Lol.

Sometimes I'll take salads, but more often than not I'll make a wrap in a ww tortilla or make something to stick in a ww pita.

I actually just made my lunch for tomorrow. I cut a ww pita in half and stuffed it with 1 cup of fresh spinach. Then I put 1/2c of garbanzo beans in a small tupperware container with 1T of vinegarette dressing. I'll put the beans in the pita at lunch tomorrow. I keep them separate so nothing gets soggy.

Some other ideas:

~tuna salad with whole grain crackers and raw veggie sticks
~plain yogurt with fruit, chopped nuts and sweetener of choice (I like a little maple syrup)
~grain salad (quinoa, bulgur, leftover rice, etc. tossed with cooked veggies and/or dried fruit and dressing)
~antipasto finger foods in small portions (1 oz of cheese, a few olives, whole grain crackers, artichoke hearts, other veggies, etc.)

Soup is always good too this time of year. I don't take it very often though because our thermos has been used for coffee so much that things put into it taste like coffee. :D

I bring a bunch of stuff to work with me. I like to eat often, so I pack lots of food. I would absolutely not make it without all of my "supplies".

Some things I bring:

-raw string beans, baby carrots, grape tomatoes. Great for munching. You can take along a little container of salsa, for dipping if you like.
-clemintines
-lady apples
-cucumber salad, israeli salad and/or red cabbage slaw in containters. I make a bunch of this at a time either early in the morning or the previous night.
-frozen (it partially thaws by the time I eat it) fat free/sugar free yogurt to which I add 1/4 cup of Fiber One cereal
-A cut up salad with romaine, red onions, bell peppers, tomatoes, kirbys, mushrooms. I add in a can of tuna, which I keep in a small container. I also keep separately in a container some balsamic vinegar to dress it with. I assemble it at work.
-I just tried the Wasa Crisps and they're pretty good. You can eat this with tuna and veggies.

(I'm not on maintenance yet, but I wanted to offer a suggestion anyway)

Like was previously mentioned, wraps are a favorite one of mine, and I eat a lot of sandwiches and salads.

I also just started taking sushi in my lunch - it's great because I can put whatever I want in it so there's an endless range of possibilities. The only concern is that if you use a lot of soy sauce you'll be getting a lot of salt, but I make it with flavorful enough fillings that I don't need soy sauce. I also find making sushi strangely satisfying for some reason; it's just a lot of fun.

Most often I take leftovers like Mandalinn, or frozen soups that I make in big batches like Tavinni.

I keep a stash of frozen entrees, like Lean Cuisine, around and will occasionally grab one of those, sometimes a can of soup or lower fat chili, although the sodium content of these is pretty high. I also like to do sandwiches, peanut butter or turkey, on lower calorie whole grain breads.

No matter the entree, I also take at least one piece of fruit and some veggies, like baby carrots and sometimes hummus, and an individual container of yogurt. Often I'll throw a can of V8 in as well. I usually take a semi-healthy treat, like a couple pieces of Dove dark chocolate, or a granola or energy bar (read labels carefully), so I don't go crazy with the vending machine.

This gives me a decent lunch and a couple of snacks throughout the day.

Anne

I think that the best investment I've made to help in my weight loss has been a mini fridge for my office. We don't have an office kitchen or anything, so there was nowhere to keep food cold. My fridge only cost about $35 at Walmart, and it's worked for over 3 years now. I can stuff it full of sliced veggies and yogurt and dinner leftovers and everything else "good" without worrying about it spoiling. Plus, I can keep a bottle of salad dressing so that I don't have to worry about transporting that.

I eat two snacks in addition to lunch while I'm at work. I'll have snack #1 around 10am, lunch around 12:30pm, and snack #2 around 3pm. Here's today's menu:

Snack #1: 1 cup slices strawberries and blueberries, 1 container FF yogurt
Lunch: Turkey sandwich on an English muffin, baby carrots, sliced apple with cinnamon
Snack #2: 3 Wasa light crackers, 1 wedge Laughing Cow cheese, SF Jello pudding cup

I'll also bring in Boca burgers and soups (homemade or canned) a lot.

I really like to eat sandwiches and never get tired of them. For bread, I eat whole wheat bread, rye, whole wheat pita bread, flatbread, or tortillas. I eat a variety of lean turkey, ham, chicken, tuna, salmon, homemade light egg salad, or chicken salad. I use different kinds of mustard, hummus, and other healthy spreads. I put lettuce, pickles, banana peppers, jalapenos, roasted red peppers, alfalfa sprouts, or other veggies for crunch.

I always bring cut up veggies or a salad to eat with the sandwich. Sometimes I made a light dip w/ light sour cream and herbs, or something like that. I always bring fruit, yogurt/string cheese, and sometimes raw nuts for a later afternoon snack.

Occasionally I will eat dinner leftovers. I also always keep Lean Cuisines or Kashi frozen entrees, and healthy snacks at work in case of emergency, so I'm not tempted to go to the store and buy junk if I forget my lunch or am extra hungry. If I have to grab something out I try to get a subway sandwich.

Soup, soup, soup! Bf and I take turns making a big batch of soup (packed with veggies, protein and usually a grain) each week which we freeze in individual containers. I love it. There are a million different ways of making soup (though we have our favorites) so it doesn't get boring. I usually bring a salad along as well, and keep string cheese and yogurt and peanut butter in the fridge at work.

I've been making a lot of soups lately, so leftover soup with a yogurt and some fruit has been my lunch for the past month or so. Before that, it was salad, but like you, I'm up to HERE with salads! Hopefully warmer weather will put me back to wanting salads. I try to stay away from sandwiches because the bread triggers a carb craving for me and I seek additional sources of carbs the rest of the day.

I also take leftovers from dinner 90% of the time. After DH and I finish eating, we pack the leftovers directly into single-serving containers so it's easy to grab one for lunch. If I don't have leftovers, it's either Lean Cuisine, a salad, or a sandwich usually. In any case, in addition to my lunch I always being two pieces of fruit and a yogurt cup for my snacks throughout the day.

I do all of the above. Lately I've been on a bean burrito kick. I have a high fiber low(ish) calorie, ww tortilla, 1/2 c ff refried beans, salsa, lf sour cream, and if I have one, avocado. It fills me up. I also keep a week's worth of yogurt at work, along with a jar of salsa, some sour cream, individual containers of fruit and applesauce, graham crackers and dark chocolate. Lately I've been too busy to take a full lunch hour, and having everything there and needing little prep is a big help. We do have a fridge and microwave so that helps. :)

Yesterday I took a light Flatout wrap, spread it with an ounce of Neuchatel, then added deli turkey breast, some mixed spring green, a few chopped olives and some red onion slices. It was delicious!

Here are some sandwich ideas from a thread at the 100 Lb. Club. Can't remember who wrote it--sorry about that.

• Turkey, avocado, hummus: 2 oz turkey breast, 1 oz sliced cucumber, 2 tbsp hummus (I use Trader Joe's eggplant hummus which has 20 calores per tbsp), 1/4 sliced avocado, alfalfa sprouts or micro greens, and dijon mustard on your favorite bread.
• Salmon, apricot, and cucumber: 1/2 lemon and dill salmon in a pouch (or half a can of salmon) mixed with 2 tbsp non-fat cream cheese, 1 tbsp non-fat yogurt, 1 diced apricot (I sometimes broil it for a few minutes before dicing it to bring out the sweetness) and some grated lime zest. Spread this on your favorite bread with arugula or lettuce, 1 oz sliced cucumber, and dijon mustard. You can also make this sandwich with turkey or ham, just leave the salmon out of the spread.
• Egg and salmon salad: Hardboil four eggs and discard the yolks from three of them. Dice remaining egg whites and egg, then mix with 1.5 tbsp low fat ricotta, 1.5 tbsp nonfat yogurt, 1 tsp dijon mustard, 1 tsp chives, and 1 can salmon. This makes enough for two sandwiches.
• Tuscan tuna salad: 1/4 cup finely chopped fennel bulb, 1/4 cup finely chopped onion, 2 oz roasted red pepper (from a jar), 1/4 cup snipped fresh basil, 2 tbsp capers, 2 tbsp lemon juice, 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar, 2 tbsp dijon mustard, and 2 pouches meskite grilled tuna (or two cans tuna). This makes enough for 4 sandwiches.
• Roasted eggplant and chicken pitas: 2 oz grilled chicken breast strips, 3 oz diced roasted eggplant (I buy fresh eggplant and roast it in my toaster oven with a little meskite seasoning), 2 oz halved cherry tomatoes, arugula, sea salt, ground pepper, and 1 oz goat cheese (I use Trader Joe's lite chevre which is 35 calories per ounce). Mix together and serve in whole wheat pitas. Makes enough for one pita/sandwich. For transport, I would mix everything together except the arugula and store it in a tupperware container. Then I would add the arugula and stuff it into the pita halves just before eating it. Otherwise I think the arugula will wilt and the pita will get soggy.
few other items I thought of that I add to sandwiches to keep them interesting:
- grilled onions and/or red peppers (I just spray a pan with a small amount of olive oil and saute them in that until they are limp)
- sun-dried tomatoes (I get the dried kind that you reconstitute with water)
- hummus
- exotic greens (arugula, baby spinach, mustard greens, alfalfa, micro greens, etc.)--these will also hold up better for transport than regular lettuce

Tuna and hummus pitas: Another pita idea is 1 can tuna (or 1 pouch meskite grilled tuna) with 4 tbsp hummus, roasted eggplant, thinly sliced cucumber and diced tomato (or salsa). This makes enough for two pitas. Again, I would pack the filling in a tupperware container and fill the pita just before eating it.

Gosh, Sheila, these sound delicious. :drool: I'm printing these off. My DH eats sandwiches most days, and I'm sure he'd be glad of a change of pace too. THanks.