Ideas for inexpensive relatively healthy lunches?

[Bren's Mom]

I just remembered one other suggestion...

I take a 'picky' plate; several pieces of rolled up lunch meat, several chunks of cheese, some crackers, sliced apple or some berries, mini carrots or other raw veggies. And a little bit of ranch or whatever dip. (Honey mustard works also.)

 

[Darcy03231]

I make big pots of homemade soup and then freeze them in individual size containers. I take them out of the freezer the night before and they're thawed and ready to heat by lunch the next day. Add a salad, some fruit or bread and it makes a nice lunch.

 

[Tazicket]

What awesome ideas! I knew you guys would come through! Any other ideas?

 

[Pigeon]

Hummus is great and can be flavored with all sorts of things--lemon, herbs, sun dried tomato, roasted red pepper, pesto, etc. I make my own starting with dried chick peas, so it is extremely inexpensive. It is a bit of a pain to do, but I make a huge batch starting with 2 lb of dried chickpeas which I cook in the crockpot. I then freeze it in lunch-sized portions.

 

[carissanboys]

I just remembered one other suggestion...

I take a 'picky' plate; several pieces of rolled up lunch meat, several chunks of cheese, some crackers, sliced apple or some berries, mini carrots or other raw veggies. And a little bit of ranch or whatever dip. (Honey mustard works also.)

Are you from PA? My in-laws refer to a "picky" plate and they live in PA

 

[OnourwaytoWDW]

I tend to be a picky plate person too!
Or whatever is over from the night before. I have even cut my portions to ensure I'll have lunch for the next day.
I LOVE ham and cream cheese roll ups. I'll have those with some other veggie and then a fruit.
We are also big crock pot people. It ALWAYS makes loads of food!

 

[branv]

Believe it or not, chili dogs

A few years back DH was diagnosed as borderline diabetic. We went through the whole nutrition classes to teach us about what to eat/not eat. One of the meals we found, and the nutritionist gave us the thumbs up on as being well within DH's allowable carb/fat/etc. was turkey chili dogs.

Two hotdog buns, 2 turkey hot dogs, 4 tbsp low fat chili, and just a sprinkling of reduced fat cheddar cheese. All the mustard he wanted. I thought for sure DH would turn his nose up at it since he's used to all-beef hotdogs, but he gobbled it right up! He had a side salad as well to give him veggies.

Personally, though I know it's not low in carbs, I like to have pasta or cous cous salad for lunch. Small amount is very filling. For the pasta I mix corkscrew pasta with tuna and italian dressing (if I have it, some fresh veggies like broccoli, edamame, etc). For the couscous, I mix in a smidge of greek salad dressing, feta, green onions, and if I have it, fresh basil or mint. The latter is good cold or warmed up. I usually make up a bunch, have it as a warm side item for dinner, and as a cold main entree for lunch.

 

[Tazicket]

Believe it or not, chili dogs

A few years back DH was diagnosed as borderline diabetic. We went through the whole nutrition classes to teach us about what to eat/not eat. One of the meals we found, and the nutritionist gave us the thumbs up on as being well within DH's allowable carb/fat/etc. was turkey chili dogs.

Two hotdog buns, 2 turkey hot dogs, 4 tbsp low fat chili, and just a sprinkling of reduced fat cheddar cheese. All the mustard he wanted. I thought for sure DH would turn his nose up at it since he's used to all-beef hotdogs, but he gobbled it right up! He had a side salad as well to give him veggies.

Personally, though I now it's not low in carbs, I like to have pasta or cous cous salad for lunch. Small amount is very filling. For the pasta I mix corkscrew pasta with tuna and italian dressing (if I have it, some fresh veggies like broccoli, edamame, etc). For the couscous, I mix in a smidge of greek salad dressing, feta, green onions, and if I have it, fresh basil or mint. The latter is good cold or warmed up. I usually make up a bunch, have it as a warm side item for dinner, and as a cold main entree for lunch.

Cool! Chili dogs!

The salad sounds good, too.

 

[eacatwork]

So do you keep them all frozen and then microwave it all together at lunch?

Aack! Sorry...didn't see that you'd asked me a question until I just jumped back online after work. I keep the chicken and rice together in microwave containers in the fridge (if I make everything on Sunday, it keeps until Friday) and then each morning, I toss in the serving of frozen veggies. I keep the container in the fridge at work. The veggies do thaw, but they're still fine. And then yes, I nuke the container for 3-4 minutes to reheat everything.

 

[bookgirl]

I make a serving of brown rice or a mixture of brown/white (store brand). I use water with some soysauce, and pepper. Then after it's done cooking I add a can of chicken breast (or you could do tuna but I don't like fish) and chop up some leftover veggies to mix together and eat with crackers (fat free saltines or whole wheat Ritz or Triscits). It's very inexpensive and very low calorie. It's also very tasty. If I feel like living wild I throw some Parmasean cheese on top.

 

[pjlla]

Eggs are a fairly inexpensive source of protein. Egg salad and crackers is nice, as is hardboiled eggs and some salt to dip them in. I second (or third) the hummus idea.... I usually throw some hummus (garlic..yum) and baby carrots and celery sticks and green pepper strips into some containers for a quick lunch.

I also enjoy cottage cheese and pineapple.... keep them separate until ready to eat. I occasionally will bring cold cereal and fruit and buy milk at work (school), but since cereal tends to be pretty expensive, I only do that when there is nothing else in the house. ........................P

 

[Tazicket]

Aack! Sorry...didn't see that you'd asked me a question until I just jumped back online after work. I keep the chicken and rice together in microwave containers in the fridge (if I make everything on Sunday, it keeps until Friday) and then each morning, I toss in the serving of frozen veggies. I keep the container in the fridge at work. The veggies do thaw, but they're still fine. And then yes, I nuke the container for 3-4 minutes to reheat everything.

Ahh! Thank you!

 

[Imzadi]

Personally, though I know it's not low in carbs, I like to have pasta or cous cous salad for lunch. Small amount is very filling. For the pasta I mix corkscrew pasta with tuna and italian dressing (if I have it, some fresh veggies like broccoli, edamame, etc).

Instead of regular pastas, use: Barilla Plus Pasta.

It is the ONLY pasta I eat now. Barilla Plus is made with chick peas & other high protein, fiber & Omega 3 ingredients. Yet it tastes like regular pasta. It does NOT taste like boiled cardboard the way "whole wheat" pastas do. You do have to cook it a bit longer than regular pasta. It is a better choice for anyone who would still like to eat pasta, but not all the carbs. And the extra fiber & Omega 3's are an added healthy bonus.

You can check the chart for the ratio of protein, fiber & Omega 3's vs. other foods:
Barilla Plus pasta. It is more expensive than regular pasta, but in exchange for buying/adding less of other protein foods, it's probably still less expensive - and more heart healthy & filling.

As a great protein replacement, you can actually use less meats or beans in a dish. You can add cooked chicken to the Rotini (corkscrew) pasta & salad greens to make a chicken pasta salad. The same with a can of tuna.

If you make a simple tomato spaghetti sauce, you can still know you are getting a lot of protein, without making a more expensive meat sauce. Or you can make a pasta primavera (pasta & veggies) drizzled with olive oil, garlic, S&P, and still get a good amount of protein. Same for a nice fresh pesto sauce.

... but since cereal tends to be pretty expensive,

Rite Aid seems to have a sale every couple of weeks on Kellogg's or Post cereals. Also, if you are into couponing, and you live in an area that doubles coupons, you can get cereals nearly free!

.

 

[gower525]

I sometimes eat breakfast cereal for lunch. I put the cereal in a tupperware bowl and some milk in a small bottle and I'm good to go. I only have 20 minutes at lunch (I'm a teacher), so whatever I have I have to be able to prepare and eat within that time frame. I often avoid hot things because there are 10 of us trying to use 2 microwaves in that 20 minutes.

That's funny. I am a teacher and I eat store brand frosted mini-wheats for lunch at school each day! It is easy, cheap, and quick! I just keep my skim milk in the lounge fridge and bring my box of cereal, bowl, and spoon.

This Summer I have been on a low fat diet and have also been looking for quick and easy lunches. Last week I bought a big bag of frozen chicken tenders. I boiled all the chicken, shredded it up, added BBQ sauce and kept in a container in the fridge. Each day, I toasted a bun and heated up enough to fill it up.

 

[gower525]

Oh , I forgot to add that any sandwich is better on the George Foreman!

 

[Tazicket]

Oh , I forgot to add that any sandwich is better on the George Foreman!

No kidding! If only I could bring mine to work....

 

[phorsenuf]

Sometimes I like to cook up a big batch of roasted vegetables. Toss some asparagus, zucchini, red peppers, onions and garlic in some olive oil, roast in a 450 oven for about 15-20 minutes. Good stuff!

 

[girli565]

No kidding! If only I could bring mine to work....

Well you could Foreman it at home and then just nuke it for 30 seconds and it's as good as new!

 

[mjbaby]

I've been really getting into the idea of bento (check out http://www.cookingcute.com - it's awesome!). My son will be starting first grade in the fall and we've been talking about what kinds of things he would like to have for lunch. He's not much for sandwiches but does have a nice, diverse palate and he'll eat just about anything I put in front of him.

So I brought up the bento idea of something that presents a variety in a fun kind of way. I doubt I'll ever go to the lengths as seen in Cooking Cute, but she provides some great starting points. So far we're thinking of things like:

- hot dogs with ketchup or mustard for dipping
- in-season fruit, cut if large to save time, possibly with yogurt for dipping
- cheese and crackers
- rice balls (great info on bento sites -basically, you pack cooked rice together with meat and/or veggies inside to make a hand-held "meal"
- roll-ups/burritos/wraps of veggies and leftover meats
- leftovers such as stir fry or curry made into "dumplings", wrapped in dumpling wrappers
- leftover meat and veggies made into crustless "quiches" (easy transporting and eating as compared to traditional quiche
- pitas with hummus, plain yogurt, salsa, or baba ganouj
- mini-pizzas (with veggie topping)

I just ordered a few little bento supplies off ebay (cute little sauce bottles, dividers, silicon "side dish" cups) and I think other than that we'll just use our normal gladware lunch containers and his regular old thermal lunch case.

 

[Imzadi]

I've been really getting into the idea of bento (check out http://www.cookingcute.com - it's awesome!).

I just ordered a few little bento supplies off ebay (cute little sauce bottles, dividers, silicon "side dish" cups) and I think other than that we'll just use our normal gladware lunch containers and his regular old thermal lunch case.

When you click on the link for Bento at the bottom of the link you supplied, it brings up a whole list of cute boxes that OP made. I really like the one below. It really does fit into a cute lunch box.

I can see going to the dollar store & maybe finding little compartmental containers in the stationary aisle (like for pens, paper clips, etc.) that would work inside a Gladware lunch container.

.