Healthy Portable Lunch?

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suziquzie

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I need help! DH is tired of sandwiches, hummus, carrots, crackers, cheese, yogurt, apples, cereal and jello cups. He takes his breakfast and lunch to work with him, he drives a truck. He has a very small fridge / cooler in there. Neither of us can think of much else that is portable that isn't junk food or the same old stuff I mentioned above. It doesn't have to be UBER healthy, just not Pop Tarts and potato chips!
 
How about a pasta salad? That can be served cold or warm. I like green curry prawns when they are cold with lettuce. Caesar salad with chicken? Quiche? Goats cheese and leek tart? Thermos of soup of his choice? I don't mind a cold beef sausage with aioli for brekky every so often. Crumbed chicken legs. How about pita bread instead of sandwiches? Rice salad? Fish cakes with a dipping sauce? Tuna and mayo lettuce cup wraps (but let him put the mix in the cups himself otherwise they go soggy). Beef jerky for snacking? Cheese bread? Fruit bread for brekky?
 
Wow you're up late!!

He won't eat fish or seafood. Cuts out ALOT of ideas doesn't it? No tomatoes, I think that's it. Oh yeah, and he's tired of bagels too.
Imagine that!?!
 
I know!!!! Gotta get up in four hours and haven't gone to bed yet!!!! Have a hole in the head where my brain must have oozed out!!!LOL;)

You're crazy woman! Trying to function on less than 6 hours sleep makes me cry. I hope you don't have anything important you're gettin' up for!!!

I think too I will try to make a granola mix, he could try soup. It's hard for him to eat 'cuz he's always driving and can't really stop to eat. That's why this is so difficult, anything with utensils gets hard to eat for him.
 
He doesn't need a spoon for soup. Just pour it into a cup from the thermos and then he can drink it like coffee, but slower for any chewy bits. If he is anything like the truckies I know (and have on occasion been enamoured with! LOL), one hand only is used to drive and the other is doing just about everything else - lighting a ciggie, having a chat on the phone, eating, drinking, reading his manifest... He only needs to pause long enough to fill a mug and stick the lid back on.

Use pita bread then to house things in cos that's pocket bread. You can load that up with salad and the pita bread doesn't interfere with the taste like standard bread.
 
I need help! DH is tired of sandwiches, hummus, carrots, crackers, cheese, yogurt, apples, cereal and jello cups. He takes his breakfast and lunch to work with him, he drives a truck. He has a very small fridge / cooler in there. Neither of us can think of much else that is portable that isn't junk food or the same old stuff I mentioned above. It doesn't have to be UBER healthy, just not Pop Tarts and potato chips!

Hi. Maybe he just needs some new, stronger flavors, for lunch, at least. Pita bread is a good idea, since you can fill it, wrap it in wax paper, and eat it with one hand. Some possible fillings:

- grilled chicken, pork or lamb, cubed, mixed with shredded lettuce, diced green pepper and onion, and tzatziki (Greek cucumber-yogurt sauce)
- same fillings with basil pesto instead of tzatziki
- ditto with an Asian-inspired sauce - ready-made sweet and sour sauce, etc.
- maybe offer a different fresh fruit each day of the week - apple, banana, grapes, cherries, peaches, oranges, etc.
- take an idea from the fast food industry - one has chicken strips cut into the size of large French fries, with a dipping sauce - BBQ, honey mustard, ranch, etc.

HTH.
 
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Pasta salads are a great idea, as already mentioned above. Also, mega-salads with beans, such as chickpeas (garbanzos), plus canned or frozen corn kernels, sliced olives, red onion, (I usually add tomatoes, but I think you said he doesn't like them), chopped peppers, cucumber, cubed cheeses, assorted vegetables of choice... If you can find some of those quart plastic containers used for soup from Chinese take-outs, they're perfect to store the salads.
Instead of just fruit, a fruit salad - more interesting and colorful. Homemade muffins for breakfast or a snack.
 
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Don't know how much he can use a fork or spoon, but peanut butter noodles are terrific cold.

Chicken thighs, or fingers, or drumsticks with a honey mustard, or some sorta sauce, sounds good cold.

Meatballs with a spaghetti or other dipping suace. Only takes a toothpick to eat.

Make a wrap with a flour tortilla, shredded lettuce, some bean sprouts, julienned chicken and some hoisin sauce.

Just a few ideas off the top of my head. Good luck.
 
I say start making creamed soups put in thermos; he can drink one from the cup with out spoon or stopping. You can make any soup and just put it thru a blender. Like that he can have plenty of variety. It's really hard to come up with anything but a sandwich to eat on the go. Outside of sandwiches, sandwich wraps, which could be really good, and soup in a cup I don't know what to recommend.
 
-sandwich wraps are a good idea, with chicken or any fillings using tortillas or pita bread, then you can wrap some foil around them and they can be eaten pretty easily with one hand.

-hardboiled eggs peeled

-good quality meal replacement bars or cereal bars

-meatballs ( I like them cold also)

All I can think of right now. Didn't realize how difficult it is to eat that way and trying to avoid the obvious junky things like chips and candy bars.
 
how about giving a shot at bringing salads and you can just put them in disposable containers or inside a tupperware. try a potato salad or egg salad for breakfast loaded with carbohydrates to provide energy for the day. for lunch, a salad with greens and a healthy tuna sandwich will be nice. you can separate the dressing of the salad so as not to make the greens mushy. try as well boiled cauliflower and broccoli with a ranch dressing. i find this very yummy:)
 
How about using one of those hot dog machine things where you stick the long bread roll on the metal prong and it creates a hole and toasts it a bit. (It's the effect I am chasing really so how you get there doesn't really matter.) Then you can pack it full of whatever - cold meatloaf, chicken, salad, cheese and fruit - and then it is all contained in a holder for him that he can eat with one hand. You can do it with just about any roll but small or long would be best. You could even try layering different fillings (like in a club sandwich) through the roll, and he will always be surprised with it cos he won't know what is in the bottom until he gets there! Of course don't make it too exciting for him - we want him to concentrate on the road and not the bottom of the roll!!!LOL
 
See you said it!! I think he should just not eat! Then he could lose his 50 trucker pounds and I don't have to worry about his 1 handed driving skills!!!

Salads are a good idea, I can make those ahead. I can't really make anything in the morning, he leaves by 3 am lately. I went back to bed today Bilby, that's why I'm getting here so late! :sleep:
 
I got up before 6am, did my chores, had breakfast and went and laid down for two hours before going out to lunch! There is no way I would have been able to drive if I hadn't! Think I'll have to program my laptop to auto-switch off at midnight!!

Buckleys of stopping a truckie driving with only one hand on the wheel for a least part of the journey. You got to worry about the times when neither hand is on the wheel and they steer with their thighs!! (and when you are the passenger in said truck and the brakes aren't in the best of condition....don't close your eyes!!LOL)
 
Fortunately he's learned his lesson with the no handed driving. The hard way. He reached to far too get a bottle of soda once and rolled a whole semi loaded with food for Asian restaurants... I didn't see it, he was in Missouri but I guess the top of the trailer peeled open and there was food all over the hiway. He'd have died if not for the seatbelt. Stupid boy. Almost orphaned our 1st kid and I while I was pregnant. He is required to use at least one hand now at all times. Like I said. He should just stop eating.
 
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