Learn me: healthy lunch stuff

Synopsis: I've become quite a bit more mindful of what I eat, and I've ran into a bit of a roadblock when it comes to my lunch. I work construction, and I have a small cooler that I eat out of. Usually contains one sandwich, some sodas, some sort of chips, a snack cake, and an apple.

Today I replaced the soda with water, the chips with some granola bars, and the snack cake with some yogurt, and I think I did pretty well, except for the sandwich.

I've heard that sandwich meat is bad for you, and I'm all for something else, but I don't have any way to cook at the job, we usually just eat in the van.

Anyone got an suggestions on what I can take with me that is heathy, but not tofu?

Everything is bad for you, if you eat too much of it. I would stick with the sandwich meats, personally. Gotsta have some protein! All of the other changes are fantastic. Maybe add a fruit?
Edit: D'oh! I see the apple in there now.

I take lunches to work every week, where I at least have a microwave to heat healthy soups.

But once a week I do the tuna lunch thing. Tuna salad, crackers, peaches in water, and a cookie. Fairly filling and I think healthy, for about $2.50 total.

A low fat and low salt luncheon meat isn't bad. Some other things you could put in the sandwich:

• Cooked chicken
• Avocados
• Hummus
• Make it a quesadilla with refried beans and cheese on a tortilla

Someone I'm sure will correct me if I'm wrong, but getting someone to slice you some deli meat is way better than the prepackaged stuff, right? And then, turkey or chicken is better for you than roast beef or ham.

I really need to start making my own salads, too.

Two hard boiled eggs and a small salad.

Pasta salad

Salmon out of a can

Chicken/tuna/salmon salad on a bun

Granola bars are probably better than chips, but I bet some aren't.

Your fruits and vegetables should outnumber everything else.

For the sandwich, keep your wet/cold items in a separate tupperware container: Lettuce, cucumber, sprouts, etc.. Carrots hold up well out of refrigeration.

Fruit is good, too. Bananas are easy, and stonefruit is in season right now: Peaches, nectarines, plums, pluots, and cherries. As the supply gets a lot heavier in the market over the next few weeks, the pricing will continue to get a lot better.

humus, humus, humus and PB&J

Dave beat me to it. When I worked construction, I used to make hummus sandwiches. In the winter, I would also bring a baked potato or two. I'd microwave them for five minutes each during breakfast and then wrap them on foil. They'd still be nice and warm at lunch time. Scrub the skins before you cook them and eat them like an apple. Warm meals are awesome when it's 12 degrees out.

BoostedBrandon wrote: Synopsis: I've become quite a bit more mindful of what I eat, and I've ran into a bit of a roadblock when it comes to my lunch. I work construction, and I have a small cooler that I eat out of. Usually contains one sandwich, some sodas, some sort of chips, a snack cake, and an apple. Today I replaced the soda with water, the chips with some granola bars, and the snack cake with some yogurt, and I think I did pretty well, except for the sandwich. I've heard that sandwich meat is bad for you, and I'm all for something else, but I don't have any way to cook at the job, we usually just eat in the van. Anyone got an suggestions on what I can take with me that is heathy, but not tofu?

Reconsider the granola bars, and look to see what's in the yogurt. Both probably have quite a bit of sugar.

You could do a lot worse than sandwich on whole grain bread that's not been smothered in mayo. As for the lunch meats, eh. At some point meats cure with nitrites could pose a problem, but if you find lean meats with minimal fillers you're on the right track.

Racer1ab wrote: Someone I'm sure will correct me if I'm wrong, but getting someone to slice you some deli meat is way better than the prepackaged stuff, right? And then, turkey or chicken is better for you than roast beef or ham.

Deli-sliced meats can often be just as bad as the prepackaged stuff. Figure out what's in them both and go from there.

But here "bad" is a relative term. If your sliced lean chicken isn't perfect it's still better than a snack cake.

Pb&j on quality bread with lots of P and a little J goes a long way.

Sardines! They're health food in a can, and everybody loves the smell!

Hard boiled eggs is a good idea for healthy protein.

I ate a ton of peanut butter and jelly in school, then went the next 20 years without eating one. I've come back around to having one once in a while on whole wheat bread. Pretty tasty.

cheap chicken salad: buy a rotisserie chicken at the store, bring home and chill in fridge, chop up all the chicken, throw out the skin and bones, add 2 stalks celery, 1 green apple, all chopped up, add light or fat free mayo, and black pepper to taste. should make enough to last you a week for lunch. just go to target or whatever and get some small tupperware containers to pack the chicken salad in daily, assemble at lunch time.

i dont know if its all that healthy but its pretty berkeleying tasty. and easy.

other than that i have definately substituted vegetables and fruit for chips and other junk lately. try juice or gatorate instead of soda. umm thats all i got.

Keep your sandwich, however, don't use sandwich meat.

On Sunday morning, throw some chicken breasts in a marinade, then grill/bake them later on that day. Slice up your grilled chicken to use for sandwich meat instead of the store bought crap.

It will be healthier AND taste much better whilst being cheaper.

Chili.

Woody wrote: Chili.

Another good one.

The wife and I have about a dozen or so recipes we fall back on for lunches so we can eat healthier and save money.

Weird. I think there was a similar thread a while back.

I stopped eating lunch to make calorie-allowance for afternoon beers. Not the healthiest choice, but I lerves me a 4:30 buzz. Feels like I'm sticking it to the man.

Anyway,

Tuna salad IN an avocado is the E36 M3 if you're into that kind of thing...or just tuna salad.

I also tried the "snack" plan for a bit, which worked out really well. Mixed nuts, cottage cheese, and grapefruit were my go-to's.

Cottage cheese is badass if you like it. Low calories, high in protein, low fat (if you buy the lowfat stuff.)

Disclaimer: I am not a nutritionist, and it shows.

I work a desk job and naturally when I started the desk job after retiring from the military and leaving the flight line I put on some weight. Went from about 180 to 225 in a couple years. Breakfast was a bagel or cinnamon toast and lunch was sandwich and chips. Several years ago when I got pegged with high cholesterol and hypertension I cut out the chips and switched to fruit during lunch and breakfast was lighter, usually yogurt and sometimes a biscuit. Lost some weight, down to 200 and maintained that for several years. Some changes in diet over the years but formula remained the same. Like switching to lean pockets at lunch. About 6 months ago I got nailed as being pre-diabetic. Doc told me if I changed my diet I can avoid the medicine. Breakfast is now oatmeal and lunch is a lean cuisine meal with dinner being either a salad w/chicken or steak or chicken with veggies or a lean steak with veggies. Smaller portions which took a while to get used too, was hungry all the time for a few weeks. Now down to 180 again. Blood sugar level is now normal so avoiding medicine and blood pressure went down some but still not where it should be but just recently found out why. Doc scheduled an ultrasound of my internals and diagnosis is shrinking renal arteries into my kidneys. In the process of scheduling with a specialist but don't know how that is fixed. Gotta do some research and call my mom (retired RN) and daughter-in-law (physician assistant) and get it straight before I see the specialist.

What kind of bread with the sandwich, there is lower carb bread out there. Smaller portions of what you already eat. It's actually surprising how much fat and calories are in granola bars. In-between meals I have peanut butter crackers (malt crackers) if I get hungry. For me it's the sugar level and carbs (which turn into sugar) that I have to watch but I feel better now, more energy.

There are thin sliced breads these days that are quite a bit lower in calories, carbs, etc. I always liked a thick slice of bread, but I don't miss it with the thin slices, and it's half the calories.

I have been bringing turkey or peanut butter sandwiches. I don't have access to a place to keep anything bigger than that or to heat anything up so as bad as sandwiches may be they are a lot better than the pizza and burger diet that got me where I am and a bit cheaper as well.

Thanks for all the input guys.

The sandwiches are on white, but I get loaves of whole wheat occasionally from my MIL, so I'll switch to that.

The yogurt is light, and the sandwich meat is packaged hillshire farm pastrami. I'll look into deli sliced stuff next time.

also, WTH is hummus?

WTH is hummus?

I feel like I should send you a sympathy card or something.

Hummus is crushed chickpeas and a little olive oil and garlic maybe and other seasonings. Good on pita bread, which is commonly how you find it served. You can find it in the cooler in most larger grocery stores, and if you find yourself liking it I think it's easy to make.

I like peanuts as a snack, and sometimes when I think to do it, slices of green pepper. But I'm at a desk and I have a fridge handy and you have to keep peppers cool, but it sounds like you might be alright there.

To save money and have a half-decent meal, I've been making bread at home and cutting it up into decent sized chunks and freezing one or two pieces each into a bag and throwing bags of bread in the freezer. By the time lunch rolls around it's nicely thawed and ready to have with soup. I buy the canned stuff, I may try making my own and freezing that as well but it looks like more hassle. Probably healthier there and no BPA concerns.

As I'm getting older I find myself not minding iced tea. The pre-packaged stuff can have a lot of sweeteners but home-made may be another route around drinking pop.

If you have cholesterol problems, beware of eating too many eggs, I have this issue and I love the stupid things.

BoostedBrandon wrote: I've heard that sandwich meat is bad for you, and I'm all for something else, but I don't have any way to cook at the job, we usually just eat in the van.

Costco has oven roasted chicken lunch meat that is pretty good and doesnt have anything particularly bad for you in it.