Favorite meal prep lunches to bring to work

Cafe Society
1

I started a new job this week, and am in the office every day. It’s pretty inconvenient to leave, so most of the time I need to bring lunch with me.

This weekend I cooked a few chicken breasts and made a pasta salad with lots of random stuff in it from the fridge (olives, feta, fresh dill, pickled onions, bell pepper, kale), and had that with a few extras for lunch.

This weekend I’m planning to make roasted broccoli and tofu, and peanut-dressed soba noodle.

What are your favorite “make in advance” meals to bring to work? I’m hoping to collect ideas that aren’t too complicated to make, that will last reasonably in the fridge for 4 days, and that are good cold or reheated with a microwave.

2

Sorry - no help here. When I commuted regularly it was PBJ every day for 25 years.

3

Heh. I’m sure I will quickly regress to that same option after the excitement of a new routine wears off. PBJ is truly a superfood that takes almost zero effort.

4

My suggestions are going to be limited help because I generally am uncomfortable with foods (especially high fat foods,. not that your suggestions are high in those) sitting in a fridge to be eaten that long after. Sure, it’s generally safe, but For Me, 3 days is pretty much the tops. Second, and again, my situation, at my previous job, there was a major deficiency in microwaves, so getting an option to reheat food sufficiently was pretty much a given - so mine were generally all room temp safe (and could be kept at a desk with an chill pack, because a TON of food takers).

Okay, enough complaints, on to suggestions.

Simple mixed greens (no dressing) with a reusable small bottle of homemade dressing (soy-miso-ginger or equally homemade honey mustard vinegar blend) to be applied When serving, to accompany a nice can of boneless skinless sardines. The sardines added a lot of staying power, and were bulletproof in terms of long term storage, and keeping everything apart until the last minute made for better longer-term fridge storage.

Second was very similar in layout to your upcoming plan, Trader Joe’s wheat udon noodles, easy tandoori chicken thighs (thighs marinated in greek-style yogurt, lemon juice, salt, Penzy’s tandoori spice for at least 2 hours, then air fryer broiled for 20ish minutes), with a small bottle of hot sauce, once again mixed at the table as it were.

Last is a bit more work, and again, 3 days MAX, but I really like making homemade onigiri, which is pretty easy if you spend $12-15 to buy a mold. Vinegared sushi rice in a pot, stuff in mold, make a filling out of whatever you like (fridge safe simple picked veggies, teriyaki salmon, lox trim, nearly anything that you sufficiently dry to be honest), gentle pressure to keep it all together, wrap partially or fully in nori sheets or strips, and store for no more than 3 days (best within 48 hours though). Bring a small bottle of soy or ponzu and it’s glorious.

5

I’ve been making a Caribbean rice in coconut milk with beans lately. A cup of rice, a can of chickpeas or kidney beans, can coconut milk, a fat sprig of thyme and a thumb of ginger, grated. Use plenty of garlic and onion.

Also gandules, pigeon peas, in rice. I’ve been doing it Puerto Rican with smoked sausage and ham, olives and orange from Goya sazon achiote.

Grilled zucchini planks is one of my longtime favorites. A wash, cut into 5-6 planks each, season and grill to desired tenderness. Awesome with sesame oil. Ditto asparagus, the season is coming up.

If I make pasta, I try to stick to small shapes since they’re easier to portion cold, stir when reheating, etc. Ditalini is A+.

I keep a big serving spoon at my office and just scoop some pasta or the rice from a large tuppertainer each day that’s hopefully empty by Friday night. We have enough of a kitchen at work that I can do dishes so I have brought steel utensils and glassware & porcelain bowls and stuff. My employer provides disposables but I hardly ever use any of it (besides napkins).

6

Also want to recommend sardines, for many reasons. Once a week chop raw veg: green cabbage, purple cabbage, red bell peppers, celery, carrots, green or red onion, whatever. Habanero or other spicy pepper as desired. Daily, take a scoop of the “slaw” in a zip-lock to work. Keep at work: toasted almonds, toasted sunflower seeds, rice vinegar, sesame oil.

Assemble daily: seeds and nuts on top of slaw, sprinkle of sesame oil and rice vinegar, top with sardines. Out of this world.

Downside: sardines stink up the joint. The empty can in the garbage stinks up the joint. Sardines are way more pleasant to eat than to smell, apparently.

7

I use a Ninja Speedi. Right now I have in my freezer seven servings of pasta in meat sauce with Italian beef meatballs (from Costco). This weekend, I hope to add some servings of red beans and rice with hot links, so I don’t eat the same thing every day. Later, I hope to make some jambalaya, then perhaps a curried couscous and roasted cauliflower salad.

I’ve also sometimes prepared ratatouille and four-bean salad as side dishes.

When I get home from work in the mornings, I take a frozen entree and put it in the sink so it will be thawed and ready for my next shift.

8

I was using these:

Which, if I was careful I could close the foil top over most of the oil, and put back in the carboard box, then toss in the trash. Far less smell escaped that way. And honestly, in the multicultural workplace, one persons delectable smell is one person’s hated odor. So someone is always going to be upset it seems.

Still, it’s a non-zero issue, and each workplace may write it’s own rules.

9

My wife and I regularly make stews soups casseroles and chili at home to eat all week. They are easy meals to reheat and transport. Filing and easy to heat. Add a banana and an apple if needed for a snack.

I brought in a mini fridge into my cube, which was a fantastic help. With that I had the option to make sandwiches at work.

10

Sandwiches were always my go-to, with the occasional serving of leftovers from the night before. But for me, lunch was just a break in the middle of my work day, so it wasn’t so much what I ate as a chance to get away from my desk. And with sandwiches, I could go outside if the weather allowed and get a little fresh air - no need to jostle for the microwave.

11

That sounds delicious… here’s a random online recipe of a similar set of ingredients. Absolutely the sort of thing I and my spouse like to eat.

I love sardines, but yeah, I’d probably avoid opening tinned fish here, as I don’t really have proper kitchen space to rinse things out/off.

Onigiri is a fun idea.

This is all helpful. I’m so used to just preparing something on the spot with a fully stocked kitchen/pantry, getting my head around getting food ready in advance is a fun challenge.

12

I work in kiosk and so no way to heat things up nor really use utensils.
My stock lunch is a roll-up made with a tortilla, then spread with hummus and a few slices of turkey pepperoni and chopped celery with lettuce. I make them two at a time and keep one in the fridge for the next day. With an apple and a cup of water you have an easy portable lunch.
The other standby is to buy pre-roasted turkey breast at krogers in the deli dept. Slice on bread with lettuce and some mayo. I always take a piece of fruit like a plum or KIwi or an apple. You can eat lunch for a week on one of those.

13

I buy some things at Trader Joe’s and throw them altogether.
For example some Balela, some pulled chicken salsa verde, maybe some beets and whatever else I have laying around or feel like tossing in.

14

Yes but I forgot to mention a critical ingredient and it’s absent from the one you posted: allspice. About 10-20 allspice berries plus the generous fresh thyme are the herbs with ginger and coconut milk throughout. In case you didn’t know, Jamaicans call allspice pimento.

15

My work lunch game changed after The Perfect Sandwich Era.

Had to brown bag it so I spent considerable time and effort crafting my ideal sandwich. Not just some fancy spreads or top shelf deli meats, no. I made the bread from scratch, locally found or farmed the ideal greens, tried many different foreign sauces, copied and adapted unusual things I’d see on tv cooking shows. It was always different, usually great, and a repeatable reward you can do for yourself.

I worked at many menial restaurant jobs in my youth and even at fast food places the food we ate for work lunch was good because we crafted it for us specifically. So I just did that with quality ingredients.

16

When I was still working, lunch was often a small portion of whatever I’d made for dinner the night before.

Other lunches were dead-simple things like an apple + snack size piece of cheddar cheese + handful of almonds, or a yogurt parfait (plain or vanilla yogurt + granola + fresh fruit). I’d also do tuna + crackers and a piece of fruit. I’d get those individual sized pouches of tuna and a box of crackers and leave those at work so there was always something there to eat if I was too rushed to put anything together in the morning.