It's time for me to ask for help again from my fellow co-workers, hot on the heels of the Music to enter data by thread. The temp assignment I'll be on for the next couple of weeks is in a cool office with cool co-workers and it's only a five-minute drive from my place. The only drawback is that there's only two choices for lunch that are within walking distance: One is a fancy bakery, and the other is a 7-Eleven. So I'm thinking about packing my own lunch since finances are also playing a part. But I'm sick of tuna sandwiches, and I'm not hepped up either about making yet another meat-and-cheese sandwich for lunch that day. I know there are other ways to do it. I'm thinking of this one guy I knew from a job who looked like he was having Sunday dinner at his desk some days. I know there's a lot more that can be done, but I'm the type that could burn water and I need some help with this. So I'd appreciate some suggestions on how to pack along a good healthy lunch (and feel free to put the emphasis on healthy). How does everyone else out there pack along their own lunches? What do you recommend for a newbie like me? Thanks.
Unless you work in a salt mine, or similar place with no access to a fridge and microwave, there's no reason why you can't eat at work what you normally eat at home. The important thing is to prep and cook everything the night before. Make a big pot of rice, cook pasta with sauce on the side, grill chicken breasts or other meat of choice, steam some veggies, roast yams or russet potatoes, hard boil a couple of eggs, portion out a handful of granola or roasted unsalted nuts, buy pre-bagged greens and make a salad, etc. If you cook up enough of everything at once, you'll have several days' worth of lunches - maybe dinners, too. A Foreman grill really comes in handy when cooking meat, and a Crockpot is indispensible for liquidy things that need to simmer for a long period of time, such as stews or chilis. If any of this tickles your fancy, let me know, and I can rattle off a few easy recipes. Anyway, stick what you plan to eat for the day in several Tupperware containers and/or plastic baggies, and leave it in the fridge at work until it's time to heat and eat. Voila, instant healthy meal.
Nobody's ever going to go hungry on my account. Rice: The basic formula for cooking rice is two parts water to one part rice. Put the rice and the water into a pot, bring to a boil uncovered, then put the lid on and turn the heat down to low, and simmer for awhile. White rice should be done simmering in 15-20 minutes, brown rice takes 45-50, and black rice (yes, this exists, it's quite sticky and almost licorice-y in flavor) takes over an hour. You can get fancy with this and cook the rice with stock instead of water, or add some chopped fresh veggies and a clove or two of finely minced garlic to the rice just when it's reached the boiling stage - this will not only cook the veggies, but infuse the rice with their flavor. Pasta: Easy. Bring water to a rolling boil, add about a teaspoon of salt, and dump your pasta in. Test pasta about a minute before the time the package says it takes to cook. Meat: Having been vegan for the last 4 or so years, I'm not real good with meat, but nobody I've made steak or chicken for has keeled over yet, so... this is the best way I know to cook meat, short of a Foreman grill. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Slightly more if your oven runs cold. Meanwhile, spray some nonstick cooking spray (such as Pam) in a nonstick frying pan, and wait for the pan to get very hot. When it has, put the meat in the pan, and sear the outside of it on both sides - shouldn't take more than 2 minutes per side. Then put the seared, partially cooked meat on a baking sheet, and bake it in the hot oven for 8-10 minutes to finish it off. This keeps the meat extraordinarily moist and tender. You can get fancy with marinades once you've mastered not giving yourself salmonella, grasshoppa. Hard boiled eggs: Boil some water to the "tiny bubbles" stage, and gently (GENTLY!) lower the eggs into the pan, never letting the water boil hard. Cook for 16-18 minutes, and plunge into cold water to immediately stop their cooking, and slow oxidizing - ever seen a green gray yolk? Also, putting an unlit matchstick in the water before boiling to prevent the egg white from oozing out, should one crack in boiling. It's probably not a good idea to cook more than a couple of days worth at once, unless you like oxidized yolks. Baked potatoes: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Wash russet potatoes (these are the ones that look like Mr. Potato Head) thoroughly, and cut off any "eyes". Dry them, and poke then all over with the tines of a fork so that gas can escape while they're cooking. Lighly coat them with oil, or spray them with nonstick cooking spray so that they don't stick to your baking sheet, and bake for 50 minutes to an hour. If you cook more than 4 large-ish potatoes at once, you may have to extend the cooking time due to the laws of heat displacement. Crockpot stuff: There's a million different things you can make in a Crockpot, from stews, to jambalaya, to slow-cooked, marinated meat that falls off the bone. This is my jambalaya recipe, and this is a bunch of links to other Crockpot cookery recipes. It's so easy - you just chuck a bunch of stuff in there, turn the knob to "on", and let it do its thing for 6-8 hours. Salads: Okay, unless you have no hands, it's really hard to screw up a salad. Just dump a bunch of greens in a bowl, dress it with something, and voila, you've got salad. Here are just a few ideas - romaine, mango, bean sprout, and chicken breast salad; watermelon, fresh mint, feta, black olive, and red onions steeped in lime juice salad; your basic bagged field greens plus cubes of tofu and water-packed mozzarella; a pasta salad with cold pasta and gado-gado sauce (see below); spinach, chopped red and yellow bell peppers, white mushrooms, broccoli florets, and sesame seeds; etc. Use your imagination! Gado-Gado: My mother claims this is an old family recipe, but since we don't have a drop of Asian in us, I doubt it. It has 4 ingredients - water, garlic, ginger root, and peanut butter. Peel the garlic and ginger, finely mince it up, and put into a small saucepan with about 1/3 cup of water just barely at the boiling point. Let it cook slowly for a few minutes, then add a couple of tablespoons of peanut butter, which will be diluted and turn creamy from the water. (Natural peanut butter is better here than something like Skippy or Jif, by the way.) Cook on low for a couple more minutes so that all of the flavors amalgamate, and pour on pasta, rice, meat, or anything else you can think of. My sister even uses it as a condiment in sandwiches sometimes.
During my high-school days, Trader Joe's was a life saver from the cafeteria line, so were leftovers from certain nights.
Go with the salad option. It's fun. Really. Different types of lettuce, spinach, etc. Make different pasta salads. Use different cheeses, dressings, turkey, chicken, whatever you want.
I get pretty busy (and lazy!) during the week, so I like to cook a big mess of something on Sunday and then put it in little tupperware containers for the rest of the week. Last night I made brown rice (see Ceebs' post above), black beans (from a can, 2 minutes in the microwave), and then I sauteed some sugar snap peas, mushrooms, carrots and onions in teriyaki sauce. So now I have many yummy lunch meals - brown rice and beans or brown rice and veggies. I need to figure out how to use the steamer part of my rice cooker, though. I'm scared of technology, what can I say? Ceebs, good stuff you listed above!
ham ham is the best deli meat in the world. ever. not only does it taste good but it comes in MANY varieties such as smoked, honey, regular, polish, etc. ham also makes a killer sandwich. if i were you i would invest in some ham. take a couple of slices, three if you're daring. place them on bread. go crazy, pick whatever kind you like. a little mustard, yellow or sPicY, some lettuce... and voila. HAM SANDWICH. i know you'll love it. it's super sweet... because ham rocks.
Re: ham Stan: Yeah. And you know? I think I learned something today, it doesn't matter if you're Christian or Jewish or Atheist or Hindu. Christmas still is about one very important thing: Cartman: Yeah, ham. Stan: No not ham, you fat ************!
Ditto. Sundays I usually find time to cook for Monday-Wednesday, then on Tuesday or Wednesday for the rest of the week. I have a 72 hour rule though, that's as long as it can stay in the fridge. This week it's pork chop / mixed vegetables, then all chicken for Wednesday (soccer day), then chicken / vegetables for the rest.
Well I am going to try packing my own lunch several times this week. I'm going the usual easy route and making sandwiches. Tonight I just made a roast beef, turkey, and swiss sandwich. To accompany it I will also be including some chips and some cookies and a can of Vanilla Coke. We'll see how tomorrow goes.
Nescessity is the mother of invention. Everything I know about packing lunch, I learned from working with bodybuilders in a gym. In other words, people who need to eat in a strictly healthy, regimented way. And I assume that tcmahoney doesn't want to start pounding tuna shakes...
Does the place have a microwave?? Some of the frozen dinners are pretty good these days and you can get them on sale pretty often. One of those, pack a salad, and a piece of fruit is a good lunch. Grilled chicken on top of a salad is good. Leftover pizza can't be beat. Crockpot stuff is real easy, how about some chicken, some salsa, sweet peppers, and onions and cook it for 6 hours or so. Then you can make fajitas with it or just put it on salad.
It's ALL about the leftovers.... Don't forget to pack fruit,crudites,or yogurt for snacks.You won't need as big a lunch and it's better for you.
I just grilled four burgers, five pieces of Italian (turkey) sausage, five pork chops and three chicken breasts. We ate two of the burgers for dinner. I cut up one of the chicken breasts for salds (and bought a bag of salad when I bought all the meat. Freeze. Then, pull something out in the morning and nuke it at work. We always have a bag of pretzels so I'll take a sandwich baggie full of them for my "side dish." Just remember that when you cook for dinner, always cook extra and freeze it. Almost anything freezes. Monsterwife always cooks up three or four times the chili we need. Same with mac and cheese. Plus, like Go said, some of the frozen things are awesome when you get them on sale.
let me reiterate... Ham. it's one stop lunch shopping. (clears throat) Hattah's Ode to Ham part I Ham cannot be beat It's versitile and did i mention, super sweet baked, honeyed, smoked or cured No meal is complete without its help! Chop it, slice it, dice it and chunks, it'd be tasty even if it came in lumps. So do not despair! When in doubt choose ham.
Ham & BBQ is best. ham and cheese... WITH BBQ beef on top... oh my... that was good... i am a kitchen ninja!
Two words - Baked Potatoes Very cheap, very versatile, very filling, and reasonably healthy. Cook it in the oven the night before - do not microware as it will be horrible when you reheat it the next day. Toppings include: shredded cheese and sliced mushrooms, tuna and tomato mayonnaise (mix up tuna, diced tomatoes, mayo, pepper and lemon juice). Those two are the cheapest but you can add other stuff eg. chicken salad, shrimp cocktail ect. Also pasta. Make a huge pot of pasta sauce in one go and divide into portions to freeze. Bolognaise sauce is easy - ground beef, chopped onions, tinned tomotoes, garlic, mushrooms, beef boullion cube and maybe a bit of basil for flavour. Cook noodles the night before. Thinner noodles are better reheated than thick shaped noodles. I also went through a stage of making batches of pies (savoury kind like chicken and mushroom, ham and cheese sometimes even Cornish pasties) I take in hot food sometimes, or join the sandwich brigade on other days but usually go for the laziness of eating at Subway across the street.