Sack Lunches?

[Joel Merrill]

I've been eating cold sack lunches for almost 50 years. I'm getting a little tired of them. Now that I have stopped growing taller but am still growing wider, I'm looking for things besides Twinkies and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to put in my lunch. I need some ideas for some easy, healthy, low calorie things to put in my lunch. They still need to taste reasonably good and satisfy my hunger.

Thanks, Joel :fav03

[Barb Bouldrey]

You can pack a nice salad in one container and lite dressing in another and have a great salad. Do you have a microwave at work? Take leftovers and heat them up.

Or use the short, widemouth thermos and take hot soup, leftover casseroles, a piece of baked chicken or something like that in as thermos. Fill the thermos with boiling water and let it set while you heat up food in the microwave at home. Empty the water, put in the heated food and go to work.

Barb

[Mark Bolerjack]

I used to take a sandwich - 2 slices of bread, mayo (Miracle Whip) on each slice and one package of the thin sliced meat, chicken or turkey. Add sliced tomatoes or cucumbers on the side. It help me a lot when I was losing weight.

[BobHunt]

We take lunches every day, and there is one item that is really refreshing! The grocery store here has small containers of jello, like strawberry parfait, and if kept cool, is really great in lunches! You can also find so many micro wave lunches in a can or freezer box that are low in fat content.

[Gerald Spear]

Always good;

sardines, vienna sausages, potted meat, beans and franks, sm. can of tuna, all can be eaten out of the container with a few crackers and a good cold cola, topped off with a moon pie.

[Marg Webb]

You can pack a nice salad in one container and lite dressing in another and have a great salad. Do you have a microwave at work? Take leftovers and heat them up.

Or use the short, widemouth thermos and take hot soup, leftover casseroles, a piece of baked chicken or something like that in as thermos. Fill the thermos with boiling water and let it set while you heat up food in the microwave at home. Empty the water, put in the heated food and go to work.

Barb

Barb. they must have thrown the pattern away when you were born.
There are very few that can come up with such great answers on so many things.
I am sure your congregation is very dependent on you.
I tried to think of something great, but nothing happened.:)
If there is no microwave there Joel, why not purchase a small one. Take up a collection.

[Rosalie Ross]

I agree Joel...Happy is the home with One cat! Anyway.. do you fix your own lunches? John loves those peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and you can vary a little if there is a microwave nearby..with a cup-o-soup, or try some cheese slices on whole wheat bread, but the use the good block cheese. Dessert..try newmans fig newtons..in health-food isle. Happy eating. Rosalie

[David Cash]

I always pack two full cheese sandwiches (two slices of bread, two presliced slices of American cheese, lettuce and no salad dressing) a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, an apple (or occasionally a banana) and some kind of commercial cookie. (Unless I can get my hands on homemade cookies.) Sometimes when I'm working hard or there are extras in the cupboard I'll throw in some other kind of snack type desert. Probably not the healthiest, but I do use a high fiber multi grain bread.

By lunchtime, I'm usually too hungry to care about the cold, boring routine, and I'm too stingy to buy one of the hot lunches that are available on the same street as my workplace.

My problem is coming up with a better way to stay awake driving home than eating candy. (Yes, I know about coffee, but don't consider it a better way.)

David Cash

[Dana Grant]

Well, if you are trying to watch your "figure," Joel, what about buying several different veggies and cutting them up and storing them in a tupperware container. Then when it's time to make your lunch, grab several and put in a smaller container to take to work.

Put some veggie dip in a small closed container and you can have veggies and dip for lunch! Take along some different types of cheese.

One of my favorite lunches is broccoli, bell pepper, cauliflower, carrots, celery pieces dipped in veggie dip -- YUMMY!!!

Along with that I eat provolone or baby swiss cheese. Sometimes I eat celery with peanutbutter or cream cheese with my lunch.

It is YUMMY -- and quick and easy to fix.

Just a thought.

[Dana Grant]

Another idea I have for lunch......

I buy deli turkey and cheese all the time.

I put out a slice of turkey, a piece of cheese, and put a tomato and a dill pickle (the snack size of pickle) in the middle, spread on some mayonnaise, and roll the whole thing. I am not allowed to eat bread, so this is a "sandwich" for me -- but they are delicious. I sometimes roll the whole thing in a large leaf of purple cabbage. Gives it some crunch. I will take two of those rolled "sandwiches" to work with me at night when I go to the hospital. I eat that plus a small cup of sugar-free jello and a diet Dr. Pepper -- hits the spot!!

[Joel Merrill]

There are microwaves available at work but there is usually a long line. I always eat in my shop anyway, it's quieter. We aren't allowed to bring our own microwave.

Soup isn't very filling. I'm usually hungry 5 minutes after I eat it. I REALLY do need to lose some weight, a lot of weight. I put on more this year than I have the last few years put together. :gen02 I have to stay away from all you can eat restaurants and quit eating big meals before I go to bed. I work nights and I am hungry when I get home. My doctor told me to stay away from all fast food restaurants. I don't even like the smell of fried food anymore.

I do all of my own cooking and make my own lunches. It's a form of slow suicide.

I read labels religiously. I especially have to watch my fat and cholesterol. There aren't many healthy sandwich meats to chose from. Our local grocery store has a ham salad that I just love but it is very unhealthy. I ate turkey or chicken breast for a very long time, now I am sick of them. I also ate turkey ham for a while. Then I went to cotto salami for a while. Peanut butter is way too fattening. I like Healthy Choice 7 grain bread. This summer I quit bringing sandwiches and started bringing snack bars. Most have whole grains and are fairly healthy if you don't eat too many. In order to get satisfied as much as I would if I ate a sandwich, I was eating several of them at a time. That's too many calories. So then I started carrying swiss cheese or farmer cheese sandwiches. I've decided not to keep eating the same thing until I am sick of it so this week I switched and bought cotto salami again.

Sometimes I bring sardines or kipper snacks but my co-workers complain of the smell. :rolleyes: I have tried bringing little bags of veggies before but they weren't very filling. I think I will try that again though. This time I don't think I am going to lose weight unless I go hungry so I guess I'm going to have to get used to it :basic04 I usually also bring a banana and a couple small boxes of raisins. I eat one during first break. I also bring a caffeine free diet Mountain Dew and a small can of grapefruit juice this time of year. In the hot summer time I bring Gatorade.

I've been looking through the grocery store for new ideas of things to bring. The store is full of things that taste good but are bad for you. I might try bringing some small cans of tuna. I'm not overly fond of cold tuna. I bought some Quaker Rice Cakes once. If your eyes were closed, you couldn't tell the difference between those and Styrofoam packaging peanuts. The same goes for Grape Nuts and Kitty Litter. The only difference is the price.

I bought a tread mill but I am remodeling the dining room and living room and all horizontal surfaces have stuff piled on it.

Joel :fun14

[Dana Grant]

Oh Joel, you have made me chuckle! I know lunches can be a pain, picking out just the right thing to have......but it sounds like you have had a variety of foods for lunch -- you'll just have to choose a few healthy things and rotate them so you won't get bored.........and just watch the calories and fat content -- you can do this!! You can do this!!

[Marsha Lynn]

I have tried bringing little bags of veggies before but they weren't very filling. I think I will try that again though.

How about adding a one-slice, thinly-spread PB&J sandwich to your veggies? I find that I need some kind of bread for a lunch to be filling, but I don't necessarily need a full sandwich. Tuna salad in a pita pocket is another choice.

PB&J is comfort food for me. It makes me feel connected to home, like I may be out in the cold, cruel world, but this PB&J sandwich ties me back to home and hearth.

Marsha