How you can manage to pack lunch for work everyday

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aberfold

Assistant Cook
Joined
Oct 16, 2014
Messages
29
Location
Scarborough
Do you have somebody at work, who would bring their lunch from home and there will always be some people surrounding them and say: “wooo….. what are you having today? You made this?? That looks good!!!!”
And if you ask them: “Where is your lunch?”
Then you would hear the same answer over and over again: “Oh, I didn’t do my grocery last night. Oh… I was too tired after work to cook anything. Oh I'm too lazy.” Sounds familiar, anyone?
Eventually you probably give up asking them, because it would be like playing a recorded tape.

For example. at my workplace all my colleagues in my department have the same job title, we work the same number of hours each day, we almost share the same travelling time to work (whether on a train, bus or car), we all have errands to run, we all have family priorities… however, there will always be those who manages to cook and come to work with lunches and those who spend first 15 minutes of their lunch break figuring out what to grab for lunch.

Here is 3-step process how you can pack your lunches every day and feel great about it:

#1 Step: Starch & protein & veggie combo
The night before you get to pick one item of each category. For veggie, it could be some leftover steamed vegetables or pre-washed salad mix. For protein, you can choose roasted chicken breast, baked tofu or some kind of bean salad. For starch, pack some rice, a slice of pita, rice crackers… or whatever available in the fridge. :yum:

#2 Step: Prep ahead & enjoy your buffet
The secret is that you don't have to cook 90% of those food that night! But everything else are already cooked ahead or bought ready to eat: roasted chicken breasts and baked tofu can be made every Sunday; Make your own salad dressing in a jar to be used for a week on salads and rice. Speaking of salad, you can make your own favorite salads like bean or leafy salads. For leafy, you cut and wash a head of lettuce, spin it to dry and keep the lettuce inside the spinner in the fridge. This is a key trick to keep greens lasts for a week to use. Everything else is grab and go: yogurt, pita bread, rice crackers….etc That’s you need for a buffet night, just mix and match your starch-protein-veggie combo for an office lunch.

#3 Step: Fall in love in leftovers
If the night before you made fried noodles, pasta, pizza, stew, chili…. Pack them to go for next day or maybe the day after, so its not too boring eating the same meal twice. Aside from prep ahead meals above, last night’s leftovers are super handy as a hot lunch idea for next day.

What's your biggest hurdle that stops you from packing lunch every day? What’s your favorite lunch idea?
 

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I think you may be being a little judgmental of people who don't (or can't) cook or otherwise live by the same standards you do.

Personally, I love to cook. But I don't always bring food into the office when I work there. Sometimes I go out with colleagues, or have lunch at a restaurant (we have a nice salad place close by), because it's nice to get out of the office. ;)
 
To the OP, I can cook for 50 people without a blink. s the matter of fact part of my volunteering I do it at least 45 or so Fridays out of the year. i cook plenty of food on Sundays for family to last for 2-3 days. However i have the hardest time making my lunch. And I have to bring the lunch, because I cannot go to store to pick something quick and there are no restaurants anywhere around the place I work where I could go for lunch. For me there is no other option but lunch. Maybe you should move in with us for a week and teach me how to make lunch. What you describe sounds great, but I doubt I can follow the advice. Considering that I am at work from 9 till 7:30, it makes it so much harder because I have to bring not just lunch but dinner also, otherwise i am stuck eating really late when I get home. Some people just have it harder than the others.
 
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Aberfold, I'm wondering if you have shared this 3 step process with your co-workers?
For myself, when I was in the working arena, I was asked and payed by the way, to make lunch for anywhere from 4-10 people each day. We all took our lunch break at the same time and made our own restaurant I suppose you could say; we enjoyed each others company not talking about work but other things in life. It was very nice and I made a coupla extra bucks too.
 
I take for lunch whatever my wife throws at me. It can be 3 day old leftovers, whatever. They're usually never a balanced meal. ..... reason why I take my own green juice to work everyday. Yes, I'm still doing the green juice thing and I smell and feel great.
 
I haven't worked for almost 8 years now, but when I did, my mainstay was the sandwich. I was easily able to get all of the OP's groups in a single sandwich. I'd make the body of it at home, put lettuce, tomato, green pepper, etc in a baggie and assemble it at lunchtime. If there were leftovers in the fridge, I'd often take them instead.

I never saw any real need to jump through those nutritional hoops to get a decent lunch meal anyway. Lunch is more of a stopgap between a good breakfast and a nice dinner, so I wasn't all that worried about perfectly balanced nutrition.
 
Its not rocket science to bring leftovers to work.

I guess I don't understand the point of the OP ....

It is kinda weird. All three of the OP's posts on DC were also posted on her blog, which appears to have been started at about the same time as she joined here. I don't understand the point of doing both.
 
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Personally, I love to cook. But I don't always bring food into the office when I work there. Sometimes I go out with colleagues, or have lunch at a restaurant (we have a nice salad place close by), because it's nice to get out of the office. ;)

I agree, Steve, it's definitely nice to have different cuisines every day. Where I work, there are 5 huge food courts within 10 minutes walk. It's definitely a treat! Sometimes we go out with colleagues to celebrate bdays. Most of the time, I bring food... otherwise i'd go broke :(
 
To the OP, I can cook for 50 people without a blink. s the matter of fact part of my volunteering I do it at least 45 or so Fridays out of the year. i cook plenty of food on Sundays for family to last for 2-3 days. However i have the hardest time making my lunch. And I have to bring the lunch, because I cannot go to store to pick something quick and there are no restaurants anywhere around the place I work where I could go for lunch. For me there is no other option but lunch. Maybe you should move in with us for a week and teach me how to make lunch. What you describe sounds great, but I doubt I can follow the advice. Considering that I am at work from 9 till 7:30, it makes it so much harder because I have to bring not just lunch but dinner also, otherwise i am stuck eating really late when I get home. Some people just have it harder than the others.

I can soooooo relate to you, CharlieD. My husband works a 14hr shift, so I have to pack both lunches and dinners for him. Plus, his office is located in no-man's land.... no restaurants, no malls around.
LUNCHES: What I do to accommodate this is preping everything on Sunday. To get started, you can try to roast some chicken breasts, cook some pasta or rice and have some salads or vegetables in the fridge.
DINNERS: I pack the leftovers from last night for work next day.
 
Aberfold, I'm wondering if you have shared this 3 step process with your co-workers?
... It was very nice and I made a coupla extra bucks too.

Kaneohegirlinaz, that's an awesome advice! My husband was suggesting the same... I thought he was joking! I should get started on this!
 
GG, it's just about sharing good discussions and helpful tips with DC community. Not everyone is aware of my blog and visits it every day.

Okay. It just comes across a little strange because you haven't been here long enough to get to know us, yet you're giving us cooking and planning advice as if we're the non-cooks who seem to be the targets for your blog. Most of us who post regularly have been cooking for decades.

Your enthusiasm is admirable, but it's a good idea to know your audience :)
 
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Okay. It just comes across a little strange because you haven't been here long enough to get to know us, yet you're giving us cooking and planning advice as if we're the non-cooks who seem to be the targets for your blog. Most of us who post regularly have been cooking for decades.

Your enthusiasm is admirable, but it's a good idea to know your audience :)

I agree
 
No, what is the point of cross-posting?

Not to go too far off topic, but this person is doing what's called SEO
Search Engine Optimization
I'm not a fan, the forums that I belong to discourage this practice, and I agree,
Read some threads and get a feel for your new Community before you dive in head first, don't you think? I'm just sayin' :online2lo
 
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