Today’s question is from Vicki:
I commute to my college and need some ideas easy, cheap, and healthful ideas for me to bring for sack lunches. I don’t have access to a fridge/freezer or microwave. Also I’m getting bored of PB&J and lunch meat wraps. Any suggestions? -Vicki
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Allrecipes.com has lots of ideas. I like homemade granola bars. Or, with the “thermos idea” you could take milk/yogurt in a thermos, and granola in a bowl w/ lid, and have granola. Or you could throw in fruit with the milk or yogurt and make it more like a parfait.
If you like coffee, I make this drink, with milk, 1 ice cube (for shaking), coffee grounds, chocolate powder, and sugar, put it in a glass PB jar with lid and shake. some times I add protein powder too. You could put it in a thermos too, to keep it cold.
With all the ideas for thermoses, If you don’t already have one It might be worth investing in! 🙂
You can make your own tuna-to-go packs with tuna salad and crackers, or if you’re not a tuna fan, make chicken, turkey, ham or egg salad.
Bean sprouts are cheap and easy to make on your own, filling, and very nutritious. Easy how-to video is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-1V4vtV8Yo
Carrots and other raw veggies (with or without homemade hummus)
Banana or other fruit
Bean salads (best with an insulated lunchbag, but they tend to do fine without refrigeration until lunch). I don’t really have recipes for these, just cook up some beans (black and small red are my favorite) and throw in whatever else sounds good–diced tomatoes, avocado, rice or other grains, red onion, garlic, herbs/spices, salsa.
Salad with lots of veggies. You can buy those individual packs of salad dressings. Just leave out the boiled eggs or cheese. You can put a freezer pack in the bottom of your lunch bag and that will keep cold for a little while. Also muffins, nuts, granola bars, tofu sandwiches. Hope this helps a little. Good luck 🙂
I found a nice quinoa salad over at Queen Bee Coupons. Quinoa is very quick and easy to make (and really good for you). I eat it plan or over some lettuce. This is a nice warm weather lunch.
this is a series on my blog for cheap, quick lunches. not all are portable but some are. 🙂 http://thepajamachef.com/category/10-minute-lunches/
i also like to make “overnight oats” for lunch… equal parts yogurt, milk, and raw oats. then add your favorite sweetner, fruit, nuts, etc., stir, & refrigerate overnight. cold oats sound weird but are really refreshing!
One of my favorites that my mom used to pack me when I was a kid was cream cheese on date-nut bread. Keep it up with college. Time will pass and you will finish. Good luck!
Here’s my link for an article i wrote on easy and quick lunchtime ideas. Enjoy!
http://dearlydomestic.com/blogs/index.php/2011/09/27/works-4-me-wednesday-lunch-ideas-for-kids?blog=10
I don’t usually comment but I thought I would throw in my two cents. I’m a graduate student and work two jobs in addition to being married and having four pets so I don’t have the time or money to make elaborate lunches. I’m boring and I eat the same thing every day. Right now my combo is hummus, pita chips, and carrots. I buy my groceries at Trader Joe’s. I get a large tub of hummus for $4 (you can make your own and we sometimes do), two bags of pita chips for $4 total (they are small-ish), and a bag of organic baby carrots for less than $2. Throw in some extra leftover veggies and you have a great lunch for about $2 a day. It requires no preparation and you can store it in a lunch box with a freezer pack (or get a lunch box like the one I have that you can store in the freezer). Hope this helps!
My high school son does this: he’ll pour boiling water in a thermos, then add uncooked ramen, seal it up, and by lunchtime, he has nicely cooked ramen (and it still hot too). To make it healthier, you could add chopped veggies and chicken. You could add any cooked meal or left over dinner to a thermos – heat it before adding to the thermos (spaghetti, rice bowl, stew, casserole, etc) and have a nice hot lunch!
I wrote a blog post about healthy lunches and included hundreds of menu ideas. http://thesuburbanjungle.blogspot.com/2010/09/how-to-pack-healthy-school-lunch.html
You can scroll down through the post straight to the menu if you like.
When I was in college, I used to roast a chicken or turkey. Then I would place the meat in aluminum foil or sandwich bags in average lunch portions and pop it into the freezer. In the morning I would grab one and throw it in my backpack. By the time lunch came around it was defrosted and ready to eat. Paired with some fresh fruit or cut up veggies, I had the perfect healthy lunch.
Yes, we do the same with beef roast.
Thanks for so many great ideas! I am a substitute teacher and will not bring home a paycheck during the summer months so I’m looking for quick, easy, on-the-go lunches for my two daughters and I that aren’t fast food. Cheaper and healthier!
I did a post on healthy snacks, almost all of which would travel well (and some would certainly be great for meals). Hope this helps: http://balancedplatter.com/almond-joy-recipe-healthy-alternatives-for-snacks/
I am not a sandwich person, so I like to come up with all kinds of different things..my favorite right now is Avocado Rolls, toss 1 cup chopped watercress with 1 julienned carrot, 10 mint leaves and 1/2 of a mashed avocado – season with some salt and roll in 1 halved cabbage leaf. I also do apples with peanut butter or tahini. I just try to think fresh & healthy !!
Healthy muffins and trail mix are a few other ideas for snack type lunches.
Two of my (& kids’) favorites are yogurt tubes- I freeze them and it helps keep lunch cool, and cold leftover pizza slices. Talk about easy!
Had the same problem with my kids lunches. The solution – we changed PB&J to PB & Nutella. The think it is fabulous to be eating chocolate for lunch every day!
I used to do 3 day festival events where I couldn’t leave my booth long enough to eat. I would take cottage cheese with pears or cantaloupe, a half gallon of gazpacho, carrot and celery sticks with dill dip. I would freeze a quart container and put the food in my insulated lunch bag and the ice “cube” on top. It would last 3 days if kept out of the sun, plus I had good home water to drink as the ice melted.
Here’s a whole blog post on adult lunch food. Maybe not ALL the ideas will work for you, but hopefully you’ll find something useful 🙂
http://www.cookingupasale.blogspot.com/2012/03/readers-request-lunch-food-for.html
I love snack-y type foods for lunch!
-Fruits/veggies
-Peanut Butter crackers
-Crackers, sausage, cheese
-Baked potato! (I microwave it in the morning, add butter and seasonings, and then wrap it up tight in foil)
-Salad or pasta salad
-Soup (in a thermos)
My college has a few common microwaves around campus for people to use. Popcorn makes a great snack!
I pack my girls lunch every day, so we like alot of variety. We also do the “snack” lunch, warm left overs in a thermos, traditional sandwiches, etc. But one of the girls favorites is breakfast lunch: mini whole wheat bagels with cream cheese (and homemade jam for the youngest daughter), hard boiled eggs, fruit salad and a cheese stick (cause the girls both love cheese!). I also bake and freeze all sorts of muffins to put in their lunches as their “dessert”.
This is a very good lunch that will survive the day without refrigeration and does not need to be reheated: http://www.mambosprouts.com/recipes/side-dishes/moroccan-style-quinoa/
What about muffins or “breakfast cookies”? I have seen recipes online for healthy versions.
I love mini sandwiches – you could cut your bread into 4 smaller squares and put a different filling in each: PBJ, meat & cheese, cucumber & salmon, cream cheese & pineapple, etc. You can also do any sandwich filling in a wrap.
Southern caviar (http://www.food.com/recipe/southern-caviar-386559) and tortilla chips, or it is also good on salads.
Buy different kinds of fruit and make a fruit salad. Frozen grapes also work well to keep everything else cold until lunch.
I like what another person wrote about snacky type items – I have done this. Cereal bars, granola, trail mix, crackers, nuts, raisins, etc. Get a few big bags or canisters and portion it out. Target has some great trail mixes in canisters. Or you can make your own trail mix or Chex mix.
More on the thermos thought: if you have time in the morning to heat up soup/leftover chili, etc., you can pour boiling water into your thermos, then pour it out and put the heated-up food in there and seal the thermos. The food should stay warm until lunchtime (at least that’s what my kiddo tells me…).
Even without a microwave you can use a small thermos to take soup, smoothies, even hot dogs or chicken nuggets. To warm the thermos pour hot (boiling if possible) water in them, let sit for 10 minutes, empty out and fill with piping hot liquid (or whatever else you want warm).
I like to pack hotdogs every now and then for my daughter. I just heat a beverage thermos with boiling water, empty and refill with boiling water. I put a hotdog in the water as she goes out the door. By the time she eats lunch the hot dog has cooled enough where she can get it out, but not too much to wear it’s cold. Some colleges have a “cafe” area where there are ketchup/mustard etc, which may be one less thing you have to pack.
I would say you definitely need to get an insulated lunch bag! It will totally open up what you can take! Wraps can be a nice change from sandwiches and you can fill them with veggies, turkey, ham, cheese, hummus or whatever you like. Cheese and crackers is another favorite of mine, celery and peanut butter or apples and peanut butter or apples and cheese. I’m also a huge fan of rice cakes with peanut butter. Nuts are always a good snack with some dried cherries.
My favorite lunch when I don’t know what else to make (I never get tired of this cause it’s so yummy!):
Pack an avocado and a knife, a slice of good bread, a bit of sea salt, some sprouts (I grow my own which is a super easy kids project) and maybe some slices of radishes. Come lunchtime, just slice your avocado, slather it on the bread, sprinke with sprouts, radishes and sea salt and enjoy! Delicious!!!
Pasta salads
Bean/lentil/chickpea salads
Sandwiches with cheese, vegetables, roasted veggies, hummus
“Snacky” lunches with crackers/tortilla, cheese, pieces of lunch meats, olives, vegs/dip or vegs/hummus, homemade fruit salad or “fruit cups”
Soup in a mini Thermos
Leftover oven-roasted vegetables and tofu
My daughter takes quesadillas in her thermos and it’s still warm at lunch, She also really likes small slices of pizza (in the thermos) and a fruit cup or mac and cheese (in the thermos) with a side of turkey wrapped pickles. She’s 6 what can I say? LOL
hummus and pita and/or veggies
hard boiled eggs
celery stickes with peanut butter and raisins (ants on a log!)
cheese and crackers, and maybe a meat like pepperoni
oil-based pasta salad with veggies and meat or tuna
tomato, mozzarella and basil stacks, topped with balsamic vinaigrette
fruit salad
apples and peanut butter or almond butter, or Nutella
bagel with butter
bruchetta or olive tapanade and crostini, packed separately
try expanding your sandwich options as well:
cold leftover meatloaf with ketchup
PB and banana and/or honey, instead of the usual jelly
Nutella and banana
cream cheese and jelly
grilled veggies with balsamic vinegar
instead of using bread, wrap your sandwich filling in lettuce leaves
an insulated lunchbox or cooler will expand your options, especially as the weather warms up:
tuna salad or chicken salad stuffed into a hollowed out tomato or pepper
any mayo-based pasta salad
veggies and dip or Ranch dressing
cottage cheese and fruit
yogurt
smoothie (blend at home and just shake before drinking)
guacamole and chips or crackers
leftover Chinese food egg rolls (they’re awesome cold)
Thanks, Kate !! I was scrolling through all the Comments, jotting down idea-after-idea for my high-school vegetarian son – and there you go and CONDENSE IT ALL for me 😀
I love hard boiled eggs and they are a great source of nutrients and protein for energy. Another idea is making homemade breads like banana bread, zucchini bread, etc. you can add flax seed to make it healthier or you can add chocolate chips to your zucchini bread for a special treat.
Oh and yogurt, fruit and granola. Packed separately and assembled at lunchtime is a great lunch or side. My son loves taking 2 hard boiled eggs and veggies and crackers. My kids will attest to how great it is to open a thermos of hot macaroni and cheese at lunch.
I am going to second the snacks lunch. Yet, think bento box lunch like the Japanese do. I worked with a Japanese company and their lunches were amazing. You don’t have to be as artistic but you can make it fun. Just compile it all into one container…the ziploc ones are fine. Get a protein, grain, fruit, veggie, dairy, and snack and compile. There are a multitude of blogs out there that give you ideas. If you are going to be out all day you can even easily make two of them. Put them in your lunchbox with an ice pack and you are good to go.
I like to look at what I would love to BUY for lunch and try to replicate. I love those Starbucks lunch box things, but at 5 bucks a pop they are out of my everyday budget. I can easily replicate many of them. The hummus, chicken strips, pita, carrots and cucumber box is easy to put together, and with an ice pack really holds up well. All of them can be found on the Starbucks website and you can look at the ingredients to replicate them. I could probably even do the lettuce wraps or the Asian noodles, but have so far just been replicating the protein plate, fruit and cheese plate and the hummus and chicken one. Get a couple reusable divided dish things and an insulated bag and some ice packs and the possibilities are near endless.
Love this idea! Thanks!
crackers and cheese, salad with the dressing separate, egg salad/tuna sandwiches, hot meals in a thermos! 🙂 Hummus with veggies for a big dipping party. Tons of great ideas here!
I had a similar situation when I was in grad school. I got a wide mouth thermos and a long spoon (I believe it was an ice tea spoon). My FAVORITE thermos dinner was in layers with a few meatballs on the bottom (made in a big batch on the weekend) a baked potato with a little butter in the middle, and broccoli/cheese on top.
In the warmer months, I’d make a pasta salad with fresh veggies, italian dressing, and chunks of frozen chicken. The chicken would defrost during the day, and help keep the salad cool.
Cold chicken and cheese quesadillas. Suddenly Salad with or without chicken.
When I was In college, I froze Gogurt tubes and they defrosted in time for lunch. Clementines are super healthy and easy to peel. Plus they are in season and cheap now. Hommus, crackers, and carrot sticks are also a favorite lunch item for me. None of these would constitute a real lunch with the “normal” components, but together they are healthy, filling, and budget friendly. Good luck!
There are several brands of tube yogurt now (including organic). My kids love them frozen.
I had this issue when working as an in-home counselor; ended up being in the car A LOT with a different schedule each day. Some good options my co-therapist and I came up with: buy the tuna (could do the salmon too) in the flat sealed packages rather than canned (avoid bpa too), and either get mayo packets or put some in a glass container with salt/pepper/dill/whatever and when you are ready to eat, mix with tuna, eat with crackers like Triscuits. Hummus and pretzels or crackers/pita chips. Applesauce cups and apples/bananas, they don’t need to be cold. Packet of instant oatmeal in a glass pyrex bowl w/cover; if your college has a hot water spout available in the cafeteria, just use that, or bring thermos w/hot water to make it. Make a big yogurt smoothie with fruit and put in a thermos. Basically pack and plan so that if you have a couple cold things, you can eat them first and then eat the stuff that’s OK at room temperature later. Bring bags of nuts, cereal, raisins, other dried fruit like apples and apricots, carrot sticks. Good luck!
This website has TONS of great ideas compiled:
http://easylunchboxes.smugmug.com/The-Best-Lunchbox-System/Yummy-Lunch-Ideas/10136835_YSuyb#!i=696914291&k=YxmUd
I just posted this to my blog a few days ago – I hope it is ok to post the link – I never know if there is a rule against it – but it is about how we make lunches healthy and for about $1 each =-)
duh – forgot the link – haha http://sandiegodealsandsteals.com/2012/04/14/fruit-cup-convience-items-cheaper-you/
Kipper Snacks (canned Herring) on rye crackers. We like the crown prince brand by the tuna and the wasa rye crackers…. maybe it is the Finnish blood in me!
Be warned that if you take these for lunch you should plan on not talking to anyone for the rest of the day because you’ll reek of fish…we’re not talking tuna breath…oh no…much worse. My family loves kipper snacks, tho. They just smell horrific.
One of my favorite things is to use leftover rotisserie chicken and mix it with crisp sweet corn, diced green chilis, black bean, a little sour cream, shredded cheese, and a little taco seasoning. I used corn chips and dipped the mixture. This was originally a quesadilla filling, I had some leftover, and I didn’t want tortillas again.. I was going to school with no access to a fridge and just kept it in a cooler bag with my bottle of frozen water. By the time I was ready for lunch, my water had melted enough to drink (mostly) and my food was still cool.
Think thermus ideas, like what you can keep really hot in a thermus you can cook before you leave and it will still be hot when you are ready to eat it. The stanley brand one is excellent! Soups, or even hotdogs in boiling water, or bring cooked noodles and pour on the heated meat sauce from thermus, or anything like that. Hope that helps!
i second the salads, or depending on what you like.. pasta salad is yummy. I also like cold left overs. And granola bars.
Pasta salad—start with pasta, then add veggies, cheese or meat cubes, dressing. I used to have this for lunch all the time! It’s really good at room temperature.
I had a friend who dipped apple slices in peanut butter at lunchtime. It looked yummy!
I like to make baked potatoes in my crockpot overnight (wrapped in aluminum foil) then I take them out in the morning, they are steaming hot. I keep them in the foil and usually wrap them in a cloth napkin and keep in an insulated lunch bag. I take a little container of butter and sour cream. The potatoes are still very warm at lunch.
I love that idea!
I love that idea! I never thought of making baked potatoes in my crock pot.
What a great idea! What temp do you put them on and do you think it could be done with sweet potatoes?
I’ve never heard of baking potatoes in your crock pot. Do you need to add water?
I just discovered cooking baked potatoes in the crockpot a few weeks ago! It is so easy! Here is the original link I found it from (on pinterest): http://realmomkitchen.com/7995/crock-pot-baked-potatoes/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+realmomkitchen%2FJNcN+%28Real+Mom+Kitchen%29
I don’t wrap mine in foil though! I just spray the crockpot and potatoes with Canola Oil Pam and sprinkled them with salt! They turn out great!
FABULOUS IDEA!! I am going to try this with potatoes and sweet potatoes tonight!
Emerald Breakfast on the Go’s are GREAT…they are individually packaged, and you can store them in your desk…there’s a bunch of different varities to try
I’m excited to read everyone’s responses to this. I could use some new ideas for my husband’s lunchbox. 🙂 One of my favorites is hummus, carrots, cucumbers, and pita chips. Sometimes. I’ll add a hard boiled egg, some cheese, or grapes on the side too. It doesn’t take a lot for a meal like that to fill us up!
You could always pack a small cooler, too, for salads or snacky type things that you weren’t comfortable with leaving unrefrigerated. I did that when I was teaching and didn’t have a fridge in my room to keep my snacks cool.
A good thermos would be great for soups, stews, beans, chili, even spaghetti, and other foods that you would want to eat hot/warm.
You can actually put pasta in one, hot water, seal up, and it will ‘cook’ and if you could have a second thermos, you could fill it with tomato sauce, cream sauce, or even chilled veggies with dressing and then dump over your pasta.
A bowl of granola, and milk from a thermos.
Baked potatoes would stay warm in a thermos too.
My parents have their own business and work together. They bought a small charcoal grill to cook lunch on 🙂
Things I have put in my kids’ thermos: all kids of soups and chilis, spaghetti, chicken fettuccine, mac and cheese, creamy taco (serve with chips), sloppy joe mix (serve with bun), burrito/taco stuffing (serve with tortillas), meatballs, meatloaf (cut into slices) and chicken fried rice. All left over from a previous night’s meal.
I also make hot rice in a thermos! Preheat the thermos, and bring your water and rice to a boil in a pot on the stove. The put it into the thermos. By lunch the rice is cooked. It works well with any kind of white rice and with the “minute” brown rice. It takes all of 3-5 minutes in the morning.
I was going to suggest a thermos as well. But these suggestions are more indepth than mine. In high school my sister and I would like to bring our lunches. We would pour hot water in a thermos to get it hot. Then pour out the water and put in the soup or food we were going to eat for lunch. It stayed pretty warm that way 🙂
That’s what I meant by “preheating” it!
what about pita and hummus. Also if you have access to a microwave you can do soups, the single serving mac and cheese or you can make pasta salad and to keep it cold freeze a bottle of water over night and put it in your lunch box with the salad.
Black bean and corn salad is a favorite of ours. It’s packed with veggies and protein. I also like to make yogurt parfaits in a mason jar. I layer frozen fruit with yogurt and take some granola in a separate container.
I always loved taking a frozen yogurt on the go with me. By the time lunch came around it had melted some but was still a great delicious consistency and most importantly cold still. Fruits and veggies are always a pretty easy portable snack too. Good luck!
Walmart sells salad bowls (found in the tupperware section) that have a separate container for dressing, a tray for toppings that also serves as a freezer pack, and the actual bowl that goes underneath. It lets you pack a nice salad that will stay cold for a longer period of time and will keep your other items from sitting and getting soggy.
Meat, cheese, and crackers are always good (think Lunchables – except make it yourself).
We have those containers and love them (though they came from different stores).
Salads, cottage cheese, cheese & crackers and fruit salad are my suggestions.
Wrap leftover bits of steak or chicken with some rice, beans, cheese in a homemade burrito. Fancy it up if you like with whatever you have in the fridge. I send these with my weird kid who doesn’t like sandwiches or any “kid food” (this kid eats salmon for breakfast).
Also, even if you don’t have a fridge, you can get an insulated lunch box and take an ice pack! That’ll help expand your possibilities.
I like chicken and cheese quesadillas with salsa, chicken salad (canned chicken, mayo, and pickle relish) on crackers, grilled chicken on a salad, refried beans with cheese (sometime with some leftover beef mixed in), and a lot of times I just eat leftovers from the night before. All it takes is some planning and prep work the night before, and you can have really yummy lunches that will keep you full until dinner. A lot of foods you can freeze overnight then take out in the morning and it will be defrosted by lunch without having to use an ice pack.
Sometimes I pack a variety of “snacky” things. Here are some ideas:
Carrots, pepper strips, celery & hummus
mixed nuts and dried fruit
whole-wheat crackers and cheese (I like the Aldi version of Triscuits)
apple slices and peanut butter
salad in a container with dressing packed separately
sliced oranges
ham slices and cheese not on a sandwich
yogurt
leftover homemade pizza
Have you ever had Japanese style rice balls? Cook rice (either white or brown, short grain is best because it’s stickier), season it with a bit vinegar and sugar. Vinegar helps slow down bacteria growth. Put some rice in your palm, put some “stuffing” on rice, ladel a bit more rice to cover “stuffing”, then shape it to a ball. “Stuffing” is up to your liking, eg. canned tuna, cooked and cooled spianch, Furikake (seasoned seaweed powder with eggs or fish or sesame seed), cooked ground meat, beans etc. You can wrap the whole rice ball with a big strip of nori (seaweed).
Research on ideas of Japanese bento food. They pack their lunch and keep it room temp.
Umm, these sound really good!
The 100daysofrealfood.com has some great ideas too
I like those Ziplock divided containers…and then make a salad in the main compartment, (take a separate thing for dressing), bag of popcorn, and cheese and crackers.
I also like to do like crackers, cheese, meat, nuts and dried cranberries with baby carrots.
Try to vary your breads….make some homemade pita bread or look for artesian breads on the mark down shelf. Open faced ham and cheese sandwiches with tomato can be good.
You can also do those salads in a jar with beans, meat or cheese on them!