I eat leftovers. I pack them as I am cleaning up for dinner. I actually plan meals to plan leftovers for lunch. I also keep a few frozen option available for times leftovers do not work. Something like soup I made and froze. Or Tj chicken burritos .

I work at home now, but when I worked outside of the home I often found it effective (and fun) to pack a variety of fresh food for myself that was pretty low calorie and healthy, and allow myself to buy an item "worth" a certain allotted amount of calories.

So, I'd pack some combination of raw veggies, a piece of fruit, some yogurt, nuts, pita chips/hummus, dry cereal, a green salad, you get the picture.

Then I'd know I have about 250 calories to fill in if I want more. And I'd get myself a frap, or a small turkey sandwich, or a crusty roll, or some fresh soup, or hell - a candy bar. Sometimes I just wasn't hungry for more.

This worked for me because I'm a snacker and prefer lots of little things spread out to one big one, and because I generally know the calories in most things because in college I was nutty about that sort of thing and never really forget the calorie counts.

Salad with baked chicken breast (bake a whole bunch on Sunday night), arugula, carrots, red onion, radishes, celery, mushrooms, grape tomatoes, sometimes avocado or edamame.

My DH and I prepare our salads at night after dinner. Just grab and go in the morning.

Anonymous wrote:Any salad container recs?

Rubbermaid LunchBlox. LOVE them! Just packed my salad for lunch at work tomorrow in one. I have lettuce, carrots, and mushrooms in the big bottom compartment and feta and chickpeas in the tray. Dressing is in the tiny dressing container.

http://www.rubbermaid.com/category/pages/productdetail.aspx?Prod_ID=RP092026

My firm has a cafeteria with a decent salad bar, sandwich bar, and usually at least a few healthy veggie sides. At this point I've accepted that I'd rather pay $6/day and eat something healthy than bring food from home - I always start out packing lunches with the best of intentions, then get lazy and end up eating convenience foods for barely less $ and way less nutrition.
I rotate through salads (chickpeas, egg, or tofu for protein), veggie and hummus wraps, and the occasional vegetarian hot entree or soup option. When I'm having a SET ALL OF THE THINGS ON FIRE day, the sweet potato fries call to me.

Any salad container recs?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I started bringing lunch to save time at the office so I can get out on time. I buy prewashed lettuce, and toss all sorts of things - whatever's around, really - into a salad: leftover chicken or steak or fish from dinner; leftover veggies from dinner (spinach, broccoli,corn, avocado, etc); chunks or shreds of cheese; olives from the olive bar; nuts; hard boiled eggs; you name it. It takes about 5 mins to assemble the salad - I do it when I'm cleaning up from dinner so already have a dirty cutting board and most of the stuff out. I make my own dressing in a bottle that lasts for a week. There's enough variety with what I put in that i'm pretty happy with this lunch about 3 days a week.

Does the salad taste ok pre assembled the night before? Another thought is to bring the ingredients to work and assemble there.

I'm this pp. I keep the dressing separate; otherwise, keeps great with 2 tips I forgot to add: I put the 'goodies' on the bottom and then top with lettuce - not sure if this makes a difference but lettuce keeps better dry so at least this way the lettuce isn't soaking in whatever water escapes from the other veggies. and, if bringing avocado, I leave it wrapped up (usually have a 1/2 with pit, having used other half at dinner) and add in at the last minute so it doesn't brown. add dressing and shake at desk.

I think salads keep fine, just pack any dressing separately.

My easy lunches:

peanut butter on wholewheat
hummus on whole wheat
baby carrots
fruit
hardboiled eggs
leftovers

leftovers (I often specifically plan for lunch leftovers)
sturdy salads (current fave: kale, apple, walnut, cranberries, goat cheese with vinaigrette). I can prep this Sunday and eat it most of the week bc the kale is so much sturdier. Alternately, I can forget it and leave it in the bottom of the produce drawer for a week, and it will still be good.
Quinoa salad with beans, veg, leftover cubed meat, etc.
Sometimes I will do a ploughman's lunch: hard boiled egg, roll, cheese, apple.
hummus, pita, tzaziki, feta, olives

snacks: fruit (grapes are good bc the juice doesn't get everywhere, and you can step away in the middle if needed), cheese cubes, yogurt with or without fruit. handful of nuts and dried fruit.

Tip for those with access to a microwave: Whenever you make a ginormous pot of something, or don't think you can eat all the leftovers (soup, chili, stew, anything that will freeze well) make a single serving container and put it in the freezer. On those "OMG I didn't prep any lunch" days I just grab one out of the freezer and let it sit un-refrigerated for a bit. Microwave it back up and enjoy a home cooked meal.

Anonymous wrote:I started bringing lunch to save time at the office so I can get out on time. I buy prewashed lettuce, and toss all sorts of things - whatever's around, really - into a salad: leftover chicken or steak or fish from dinner; leftover veggies from dinner (spinach, broccoli,corn, avocado, etc); chunks or shreds of cheese; olives from the olive bar; nuts; hard boiled eggs; you name it. It takes about 5 mins to assemble the salad - I do it when I'm cleaning up from dinner so already have a dirty cutting board and most of the stuff out. I make my own dressing in a bottle that lasts for a week. There's enough variety with what I put in that i'm pretty happy with this lunch about 3 days a week.

Does the salad taste ok pre assembled the night before? Another thought is to bring the ingredients to work and assemble there.

Frozen lunches, oatmeal packets, snack on raisins, pretzels, and nuts. Keep lemon in fridge to have with tea or water.

I started bringing lunch to save time at the office so I can get out on time. I buy prewashed lettuce, and toss all sorts of things - whatever's around, really - into a salad: leftover chicken or steak or fish from dinner; leftover veggies from dinner (spinach, broccoli,corn, avocado, etc); chunks or shreds of cheese; olives from the olive bar; nuts; hard boiled eggs; you name it. It takes about 5 mins to assemble the salad - I do it when I'm cleaning up from dinner so already have a dirty cutting board and most of the stuff out. I make my own dressing in a bottle that lasts for a week. There's enough variety with what I put in that i'm pretty happy with this lunch about 3 days a week.

I eat out most days. I don't enjoy eating in my car and can't always keep a lunch fresh.