Looking for Ideas for Packed Lunches

We love rollups. Tortillas with creamcheese, lunchmeat, and veggies rolled up. The cream cheese makes them super rich. No heating necessary.

Hi Leilani,

There are a lot of good ideas here. I would suggest that whatever you make for dinner, make extra and use this for the following days lunches. As you're preparing dinner, cut up extra cucumber, celery, carrots etc.(including salad) and put in baggies. I also hard boil a dozen eggs as I'm making dinner and throw this in our lunches. I always buy frozen chicken tenderloins and make a bunch at once, drizzled with olive oil and various seasonings. I then, cut a few up and put pasta sauce or pesto sauce with Parmesan cheese added on top (stored in a one serving tupperware), this is yummy! Also, in a small tupperware, I add a small amount of cottage cheese and add cut up fruit (whatever's in season) and if I don't have any fruit I cut up tomatoes with a drizzle of olive oil, garlic salt and Parmesan cheese. Pita sandwiches are also great and less calories than bread. To every lunch you should have fruit or veggies or both.

Wraps are great and thermos with soups and chili is also very good. I've been making lunch for years and it sure saves tons of money. Best of luck to you!

We used to make sandwiches on French rolls, split down the middle, and piled with lunch meat and a slice of cheese. (Mayo or Miracle whip, plus mustard.)
We would wrap them in plastic wrap, and include a piece of fruit or a cup of applesauce or fruit cup.
Sometimes we make a huge pot of spaghetti and bring leftovers for lunch during the week.
Hope this helps.
B.

My teens pack lunches and they take left over heated dinner in a Thermos almost everyday. You can layer chicken, rice, veggies and so on. Soup, pasta salad, casseroles are all possible. It is great because I take care of 2 meals when I cook dinner. We measure out the amount needed when we clean up from dinner and put it in a microwave safe bowl, so it is ready to heat in the morning. Their friends are always eager to see what they have. Yummy and inexpensive.

We also buy individual salads from Trader Joes for about 2 meals per week. They are usually under $4 each, which is much less than eating out and far more nutritious. Some have pasta, so they are more filling for a man. Sandwiches with grilled veggies and turkey, etc. are a real treat. Pack a vinagrette dressing in a small plastic container and drizzle on before you eat.

We have a formula: fruit, veggie, dry snack, main meal and a water bottle. The formula helps on busy mornings and makes it easier to shop because I make sure to buy all the categories. We have the dry snack, fruit and veggie all ready the night before. Again, Trader Joes has healthy dry snacks.

I'm getting hungry! Happy eating!

N.

Happy eating!

Making your own subway sandwiches always fills a man up, they do have thermos that keep soup piping hot, some chili in it, mac & cheese , denty moores stew, left over chicken why not make a chicken salad sandwich the next day, same with meat loaf, peanut butter and cellery works for me, peanuts to help curve the hunger, cup of soups easy to make add hot water, send with him a small salt & pepper shaker to keep in the desk, or brief case, a salad, chef salad, pasta salads, chips & salsa, pickles chips, the list goes on and on, be creative, spend extra time at grocery store to scan the shelfs, shop at trader joes they have lots of lunch stuff already pre packaged. Bristle farms does to.

Enjoy

Have you tryed looking into Kraft Kitchen.com they have alot of different ideas fixing lunches. I have tryed them for my kids,and for my selftheir great.

If you're looking for ready made lunches, you can find them, but there will lots of salt, fat and other junk. My assumption is that you want healthier choices that taste good. Buy Tongol tuna and dress it up with dill weed, or dijonaisse dressing; try veggie slices that taste more like lunch meat but are hight protein zero fat (Yves makes a great one). Add bell pepper slices for a vegetable and low-fat chips. Take yogurt and put organic trail mix in it for a filling snack. Leftovers can make great additions to salads (salmon, even taco filing). You can carry all of these in a insulated sack (I have a big one for under $10.00 from Target) with a cold pack. Good luck!

We have just recently discovered making wraps. We make tuna wraps with tons of veggies (lettuce, tomato, sprouts, avocado, shredded carrots) and a sprinkle of cheese. Very good.

Pasta salads with chicken or tuna or turkey chunks are good. As well as are quinoa salads. I also like salad items wrapped in a rice spring roll wrapper with dressing (peanut is good, but others are good too).

The nice thing about these kinds of meals are that you make one round for everyone. If the kids like those things, then they can have some too. Anything that I can do for everyone at once means its quick and easy for me.

We've been testing tons of healthy, affordable and portable lunch recipes for the past 2 weeks. Check out the website as we will be posting more everyday for the next month or so!-www.weelicious.com

sushi with chicken instead of fish.... great at room temp..

I make the asian rice, then make rice balls by covering them with seaweed with pieces of chicken inside or whatever meat you prefer...

I pack all four of us lunches everyday. The lunches I pack are very boring but cheap and effective.
Peanut butter sandwiches, one fruit, and a small bag of chips. In baggies that we all bring back home to reuse. The chip bags get used a couple times before they are too greasy.
The brown bags come back home too for reuse.
Oh, and juice packs for the kids and the husband and I can can fetch our own water. :)

Leilani,

Warm:
pretty much anything... We pack our leftovers from dinner and have that for lunch which means cooking 2 meals in one when making dinner...

Cold:
--sandwiches (range from turkey, ham, egg, tuna, chicken, spam, potato, etc.)
--salads (range from fruit, egg, pasta mix, vegetable, etc)
--Some people even like cold pizza.
--cold macaroni salad

Also check the following website for ideas: Kraftfoods.com. You can enter lets say 3 ingredients and it makes you a receipe.

Good luck.

~C. B.

SH posted great sites...at lunchinabox, go to their links page, and you'll find many more links to many more ideas.

This one lists a bunch of lunch ideas:

http://www.geocities.com/ficbot/lunchbox/entree.htm

Just make sure to keep "hot foods hot" and "cold foods cold." Freeze bottles of water, use for icepack and drink. Am a big fan of thermos - soup, chili, stew. Trick is fill thermos with boiling water first, then empty and add food. It won't cool down.

Have brownbagged my entire adult life, including college. Save tons of money.

Remember the McD's salad shakers? My kids & I still use them all the time. We found them at the 99 cent store. Pick a bag of your favorite already chopped salad, add cucumbers, any other veges you want. Favorite add ins include pre-cooked chicken, chopped & frozen (thaws by lunchtime), bacon bits, toasted sunflower & almond seeds, chopped "chicken dinos". I usually keep the tomatoes as the last ingredient. You can add to change the flavors like mandarin oranges or crunchy noodles. Add a Thomas's whole-wheat bagel - it has 10g of protein!!!
I also freeze PB & J's by the 1/2 dozens so they are ready to go.
Personally, I like the Lean Ole burritos from costco

Hi Leilani... you have a "Hawaiian" name!

Well,here in Hawaii, we make "bento box" lunches. It's origins are from Japan... but modernized for today's world and Moms.

Here are some GREAT links:
http://www.laptoplunches.com/
http://www.lunchboxes.com/bento.html
http://lunchinabox.net/
http://www.naturemoms.com/blog/2007/04/16/laptop-lunches/

Good luck!
Susan