Suggestions for packed lunch?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Every morning when I wake up I have to make a packed lunch for work because I’m on a really tight budget. If I didn’t restrict myself to a packed lunch I could easily end up blowing ridiculous sums of money on lunch each month. So I wake up and dash around the house getting ready for work and I only ever have enough time to slap together a couple of sandwiches and maybe grab a piece of fruit as a mid-afternoon snack. This means that my lunch consists of pretty much the same thing - two cheese sandwiches on white toast with low-fat mayo. They are reasonably filling, reasonably tasty and reasonably cheap, but oh so boring. The bread is the cheapest store generic white sliced I can possibly find, the cheese slices are usually mild cheddar or sometimes edam, and if I have a couple of extra minutes in the morning I might add a few slices of tomato and a sprinkling of black pepper and/or oregano just to liven things up a little. I realise that sliced cheese probably isn’t the healthiest thing I could be eating for lunch five days a week, but it’s the fastest and most hassle-free vegetarian option I could think of.

I really need some suggestions here, because while the responsible, penny-pinching side of me is satisfied that I’m doing all I can to stick to a budget, the food-loving sensualist in me is weeping inconsolably…

Please note that I really don’t have time to prepare anything the night before, and anything I eat for lunch therefore has to be FAST, FILLING, TASTY, CHEAP and NUTRITIOUS. I’m looking to just slap something together and run.

What are my options?

2

Peanut butter.

Depending on the extent of your vegetarianism, egg salad (I boil a half dozen eggs and mix it all up at once, so it’s enough for a week).

3

Egg Salad occurred to me, but that needs to be prepared the night before and probably contains way too much mayo to be healthy.

As for Peanut Butter, I tend to prefer savoury lunches over sweet, but it would be do-able in a pinch.

4

if you want to get away from sandwiches, you could boil up some pasta the night before and make yourself a batch of tuna or chicken pasta. Will last a few days in the fridge, so one night’s cooking will take care of3 or so days lunches.

5

Beans.

Mashed cooked pinto beans would be do-able in a burrito (add some lettuce, tomato, salsa, sour cream, cooked rice, avacado…the options are nearly endless). A package of flour tortillas should be much more than the bread. Or you could add some cheese to the beans and use it as a dip.

A can of drained black eyed peas, a can of drained corn, combined with some chopped green or purple onion, a bit of red pepper, black pepper and balsamic vinegar can easily serve up to 4-5 servings, and is fine if it sits for a couple of days. (I also add cilantro because I love it, but you could add basil, oregano, etc.)

Your best bet though is to make your lunch the night before. If I try and wait the morning of, not only do I not have enough time to make lunch, but quite frankly, NOTHING sounds good.

6

I like wraps as opposed to the regular old sandwich. Lettuce (I buy the bagged kind to save time and because I like the extra veggies), a bit of cheese, dressing, whatever you like. If you’ve got access to a frig at work you can even keep all the ingredients there and assemble in the break room. I can usually feed myself for a couple of weeks on one bag of lettuce, one bag of tortillas, a bottle of dressing, and a bag of shredded cheese (I do put other stuff on mine too sometimes.)

7

At school, we have to satisfy pupils who would like to eat crisps, chocolate and … crisps.

We have had some success with:

sandwich
piece of fruit
bag of raisins or nuts
nutrition bar
drink (usually water)

8

Your options will increase significantly if you can prepare something ahead of time. But that doesn’t necessarily mean the night before. Can you cook a big batch of chili or make a lasagne or something on Sunday? And a not-so-gourmet option would be to buy some frozen microwavable entrees that you can heat in a microwave (if you have access to one) at work. Some of them are relatively inexpensive and would at least break up the monotany and get you some veggies in your diet from time to time. (hint - check the ethnic aisles for some cheap vegetarian heat and eats or rice noodle soups.)

If you really want to prepare something that morning, try making a wrap, using hummus, use veggies and sprouts, or make a salad. Make sure you prepare everything for use after you get it home from the store. That way, you can just take a spoonful of this, a handful of that, and sprinkling of the other thing - slap it together and be out the door without any knives, cutting boards, etc.

9

I agree with phall0106, who asks you to reconsider your rejection of making lunch the night before. I make my lunch, on average, four days a week, and doing the night before is much more pleasant. (I mean, it’s going to take however long it takes, whether you do it the night before or the morning of.) At least for me, it makes me much more willing to think about what I’m putting together, instead of rushing to the finish line.

I’m not a vegetarian, so I don’t have many veggie-specific suggestions. But here are a few tips:

  • I would highly recommending splurging on some good buns (from a bakery, even if it’s the one contained within your grocery store). They make a world of difference, and are much more filling. You can mix it up – baguettes, portuguese rolls, sourdough, whole-grain, etc. Don’t view bread as merely a condiment-and-cheese-delivery vehicle. It’s an ingredient.
  • I like spicy things, so I put jalapenos on most sandwiches I make.
  • Cilantro is a surprisingly good sandwich additive too.
  • Diversify your condiments, especially in the absence of meat. I keep a couple kinds of mustard, as well as mayo.
  • Get a big bag of your favorite chips or pretzels, and transfer some into a small zip-lock bag each day. (Don’t buy the snack-size bags if you’re interested in frugality.) You can re-use the bag.
  • Buy a hunk of your favorite good cheese and take a few small pieces of it with you for lunch. While not cheap, you don’t need much to give your lunch some needed spark.
  • Dried fruits make a nice side item as well. I sometimes buy snack-sized boxes of yogurt-covered raisins and throw them in my lunchbox.
10

You don’t need to make egg salad. Boil some eggs on the weekend and pop them into the fridge. Make sliced egg sandwiches with mayo - they taste just as good as egg salad. You can even take buttered bread with mayo and s&p on it to work and take the egg and then assemble there.

Do you like tuna or salmon? You can mix up some with mayo in the morning or the night before and store it in the fridge. If you want, add raisins, a bit of curry powder, chopped fruit (to the tuna, anyway), celery, onion - you don’t need to chop tons of veg for one sandwich.

You can also chop up some ingredients like celery and onions on the weekend and store them in the fridge in baggies so you can just take some out to put in salads or sandwiches. You can also wash and cut (tear, whichever) lettuce, dry it, and keep it in a plastic bag or a plastic container in the fridge, too. Then all you need for a salad is a couple other vegies; you can slice or chop some tomato or cucumber or whatever else you like in the morning and toss them as salad.

Avocado and sweet onion is nice or just avocado. Take your bread & mayo to work in a sandwich box and take the avocado and a sharp knife. Assemble the sandwich just before you eat it.

Wraps are good, too. One of my favourites is pepper strips and herb & garlic cream cheese. The other day, I sliced some spinach really thin and added it and it was delicious. Vary veggies as you like. I don’t usually put tomato in anything in the morning; I slice the tomato, pepper it, and carry it separately in a plastic container so it won’t make my sandwich soggy. You could also use carrot strips, celery, etc. The cream cheese adds some protein and lovely flavour.

Rice or pasta salads. Boil the rice or pasta the night before, drain, and store in the fridge. If you already have chopped vegies in the fridge, you’ve got your salad 3/4 done.

There’s always the classic: peanut butter.

If raisin bread isn’t too expensive for your budget, raisin bread, cream cheese, and apples is tasty. You can also have pb on raisin bread, for a change.

Waldorf salad; chopped celery, apple, walnuts, and mayo. If you already have celery chopped and walnut pieces, all you have to do is chop the apple and add (which you can do at work).

You can do out-of-the-ordinary things, too. I have often taken a package of instant oatmeal and made it. You’ll need to take a little container of milk with you; I actually like it a lot with vanilla soy milk. You can take some fruit to add, too. Or take some cold cereal in a plastic container and a container of milk - maybe a banana or some berries to add.

You could also make a soup on the weekend and then nuke some in a ceramic cup at work - or, if you don’t have a microwave at work, invest in a themos and heat it up in the morning and take it in the thermos. That gives you tons of variety since there’s an infinite number of soups.

Hope this helps!

11

Er? :confused:

I wouldn’t assume that when someone says vegetarian, they mean pescatarian.

12

Yoghurt is good, and it’s always on sale. Add some fruit, nuts and/or cereal for a healthy, cheap, quick parfait.

I’ve always wanted to write a cookbook of cheap, easy, healthy, fast recipes.

13

I make up a week’s worth on Sunday afternoon, and keep it in a bowl in the fridge. For six eggs, I use about a tablespoon of mayo and a tablespoon of prepared mustard, perhaps a bit less.

Peanut butter isn’t too sweet if you skip the jam.

14

Get a wide mouthed thermos. Take leftovers, soup, risotto, pasta, fried rice.

Mix a block of firm tofu with mayo or sour cream, celery, onion, mustard, and whatever else you like. Fake egg salad. Also good made with tempeh instead and mixed with pasta, hot or cold.

Bake a quiche on the weekend.

Make your sandwiches well in advance and put a whole pile of them, wrapped, in the freezer. Pack them in the morning and they will be thawed by lunchtime.

Chop a tomato and a cucumber. Add lettuce and whatever dressing you like and toss. Keep this in the fridge. In the morning, spead a pita or bread with hummous. (If you are on a very limited budget you can always make hummous, it isn’t hard). Put the salad in there.

I could go on. But the problem is organizational, as every mom who packs lunches has learned the hard way.

15

Different brands of vegetarian, I guess. My stepmom called herself vegetarian but ate fish. I know other vegetarians, too, who are ‘no meat’ vegetarians but will eat seafood and fish. I guess nobody gave them the memo that said they should call themselves ‘pescatarians’ :stuck_out_tongue:

16

Yes yes, we’ve had this debate on the board before. I have no idea why on earth you (general you) would call yourself a VEGetarian when you’re willing to eat fish FLESH. All that does is muddy the waters and have vegetarians who don’t eat any animal meat at all get the frustration of people saying, “oh you said you were a vegetarian, so I made sure that everything has fish instead of beef or chicken!”

17

Hard boiled eggs and cottage cheese.

18

The etymological argument only gets you so far, though. Eggs and milk, for instance, are animal products and not vegetable matter, but most VEGetarians do eat them. It’s a matter of usage, not logic, to say that VEGetarians may eat animal products but not animal flesh.

Ultimately, it’s just an unclear word, methinks.

19

It is unclear, yes, but there’s a commonly used word (vegan) for those who eat no animal products whatsoever.

But honestly, if I told someone I was a vegetarian and they assumed I was vegan, I’d much prefer that to them assuming I still ate animal flesh. IMO, it’s better to err on the side of a stricter definition of the term than a possible (probably likely) wrong “looser” definition.

20

Unless they physically try to pry your mouth open and shove stuff you don’t want to eat down it, why is it a problem?