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Hi everyone!
I'm going to try to start saving money by packing my lunches but I need some ideas. So far I just have 3 days worth of small side salads with a few grilled chicken strips, cherry tomatoes and dressing packed with a side of pasta salad. What would be a good entree?
If anyone has some good recipes/tips/ideas to share that would be awesome! Most days I am not home for 8 to 10 hours so I'm probably going to pack lunches, snacks, and dinners, so any new ideas to add variety would be totally appreciated!
If you have access to a refrigerator at work you could have just about anything. I work 12 hour days so I usually take my lunch/dinner to work with me. Some ideas for snacks would be fruit, veggie sticks, yogurt, etc. For meals, I've had everything from soup to spaghetti to chicken stir-fry. Tuna is also an idea if you eat it.
peanut butter with apple slices or crackers, make egg, tuna or chicken salad and have it on the side with fresh veggies, crackers or as a sandwhich. Fresh fruit like blueberries, strawberries, banana, peaches ect... pack a yogurt and some granola, soups, leftovers from last nights dinner, cheese cubes, PB and Jelly sandwhiches.
I make mini quiche in big muffin tins. Fill them with whatever sounds good to you. My favorites lately are arugula, smoked salmon and goat cheese or caramelized onions, chicken and smoked mozzarella, or tomatoes, broccoli rabe and italian sausage. They freeze well and can be eaten when I'm too busy to take a real lunch. I also make yogurt and fruit smoothies to take with me on long days.
Hi everyone!
I'm going to try to start saving money by packing my lunches but I need some ideas. So far I just have 3 days worth of small side salads with a few grilled chicken strips, cherry tomatoes and dressing packed with a side of pasta salad. What would be a good entree?
Just throw more chicken on your salad.
If you cook dinner, double it and take the second helping for lunch the next day.
Fry up several pounds of hamburger on the weekend, bag in 1 cup servings and freeze. Lunch - big bed of lettuce, shredded cheese, a few olives, a few tortilla chips, nuke the meat, throw on top and cover with salsa. Instant taco salad.
Or cook several hamburger patties on the weekend, wrap and freeze. Throw one in your lunch and it's defrosted by lunch time. Or bake up a bunch of chicken legs or thighs. Or pork chops.
Cook up some chili or stew or soup on the weekend, pack individual servings, and freeze. Grab and go.
I make a "Clean Out The Refrigerator" Dish ...
10 eggs
whatever meat is in the fridge
whatever vegetable is in the fridge
whatever cheese is in the fridge
Mix it all together, pour into a greased rectangle casserole dish (about 8 x 12), sprinkle with red pepper flakes, and bake for about 30 minutes at 350. Cut into 6 pieces, wrap and freeze. Endless combinations - my only "Ick" failure was leftover pepperoni slices - red grease all over and through-out
One of the famous tuna companies packages an individual package of tuna which easily tears open. I keep these in the refrigerator all the time so I can pack them in a lunch. I just add these to a salad when I get ready to eat or take crackers and eat the tuna on crackers for lunch. Also take a piece of fruit or a fruit cup and voila you have a good and healthy lunch!
Those tuna pouches are great for sack lunches! I also like to buy bulk nuts to take a small bag each day to snack on.
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Invest in a good thermos and you can take your own coffee, cocoa or soups.
I buy a bunch of fruit/berries and then take out tupperware and then chop up the fruit and distribute into tupperwares. Then I have a fresh fruit cup for every day.
Sometimes I make a big batch of lentils with green beans, bell pepper, other veggies...or a thick veggie soup...again, distribute in various tupperwares - one for each day of the week.
I love hummus - you can eat with veggies or with pita chips.
String cheese.
For my 'main course,' I will either pack a nice sandwich or whatever is leftover from dinner the night before.
This is what I eat all day long at work. It's not just the one meal. I don't get a lunch hour or a coffee break or whatever, so I just snack all day on this stuff.
I make an oatmeal kit -- in the Gladware I have the dry rolled oats, 1/2 cup, with a big pinch of mixed dried berries (cran, rasp, blue), and tucked in with that is a Ziploc sandwich bag with the cooking liquid, a heaping tablespoon of orange-juice concentrate added to a 1-cup measure, then filled to the top with water. Mix them all together, nuke for 1 minute, stir and eat.
Or fix a few burritos.
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