I often get asked, how do I become a lunch packer?
I hope running through the previously published posts of recipes, photos and ideas to distill my thoughts on packed lunch ideas that work will help you get started!
Please note, I’m just a lunch packer. I’m not a dietitian nor have an education in nutrition. The foods I choose might not work for your needs or lifestyle. I respect your choices and hope you will afford me the same courtesy.
If you have never been a lunch packer, this will be a lifestyle change. To be successful when embracing any lifestyle change, you need to know yourself, your schedule, routine and the excuses you make for not doing it.
What time and financial investment are you willing to make in packing your lunch?
I’ve been a lunch packer most of my life. I didn’t go to a school with a cafeteria and by high school; I didn’t want to spend a short lunch period waiting in a line for food. The older I got in school, the less my mom packed my lunch and it became my responsibility. Since she did the grocery shopping for our family, she needed to know what I would eat. Together we made lists so she knew what to include in her grocery lists.
Make a list of foods or meals you enjoy eating, don’t forget snacks. Be realistic, if you normally eat a burrito with double steak from a fast casual restaurant, you probably won’t be satisfied with a prepared frozen meal of lasagna. But maybe you can find a copycat recipe online and can create your own burrito bowl. If you never choose a salad when dining out, you’re going to be dissatisfied and distracted at work or school if you pack a salad as your main entree for lunch. Maybe start with salad as a side to your main dish.
If you like leftovers, you might find making an extra serving at dinner is a quick way to a packed lunch. If you don’t cook or cooking from scratch is out of the question at this time, you might assemble meals from the frozen food aisle, use soups or sandwiches.
As you make your list of meals, note what type of containers you own or need to buy in order to pack these meals. Chances are if you’ve never been a lunch packer, you’re going to need invest in products like sandwich bags (reusable or not), glass or plastic containers, cutlery, and/or a lunch tote.
If you have some containers, pull them out and match lids to the base (I love Pyrex). If possible, store your lunch packing supplies in one area of your kitchen. If your school or workplace lacks a microwave, determine what non-heated meals you can pack or whether insulating containers would work for your schedule. Make sure you address any challenges that would keep you from packing or that could become possible excuses.
Figure out how many meals you need to pack in your week, however you define it. Maybe you’re not ready for the Lunch It Punch It challenge of packing ten lunches before eating out. Maybe you live for Taco Tuesday with your coworkers and would only be able to pack on the other days.
Once you know how many days you’ll be packing, determine when in your personal schedule you’ll shop for groceries, prepare your meals, and pack your lunches.
Next make an ingredient and/or grocery list. Inventory your pantry, freezer and fridge while making a grocery list based on your meal wish list. You might go a step further and create a weekly or monthly meal plan for lunches and dinners.
Summary
1. What time and financial investment are you willing to make in packing your lunch?
2. Make a list of food and meals you enjoy eating, including snacks and then figure out which of those can used in a packed lunch
3. What type of containers do you have for packing your lunch and what types you might need to buy
4. Consider making a weekly or monthly meal plan
5. Make an ingredients and grocery list
6. Plan a time to grocery shop and prepare your lunches
How Lunch Packing Happens for Me
My choice to pack is a combination of desire and circumstance. I work in a rural area with limited access to eateries and taking lunch meetings with coworkers, clients or friends is not possible.
I only need to pack a lunch for one person, me. At some point in the weekend, I shop for groceries and then I make an entrée or soup and portion it out. Produce is usually a twice a week purchase due to personal preference, it is a quick in/out stop.
Click the photo for the Broccoli Chowder with Corn and Bacon recipe
Before I put meats away from a grocery trip, I repack them for size based on my recipes and meals. If you’re a slow cooker meal lover, consider what ingredients can be prepared after a grocery trip and packed in freezer bags/containers so that your meal is ready to go into the slow cooker.
What and How I Pack
I prefer plain yogurt without aspartame, which is often int the individual containers. I buy a big container of yogurt and make my own servings in the 1-cup Pyrex. I might add fruit or honey the night before, but if taking granola, I pack it in a small container.
If I make a sandwich, I put my bread/pita pocket/tortilla in a separate reusable bag. Then put my vegetables and protein in another and assemble at lunchtime. I also like grilled cheese and quesadillas completely assembled and don’t mind eating them cold.
For salads, I use the 2- or 4- cup glass Pyrex for each bed of greens because I’ve found they keep a little longer than plastic storage containers. When I pre-pack my greens, I top them with a paper towel and place the bowl upside-down in the fridge. Others really like packing salads in mason jars, but this method seems to work best for those packing fresh each night.
If I’m taking a protein for a salad, like Thai Chopped Chicken or taco meat, I keep it in a 1-cup Pyrex for reheating at lunchtime. I put salad dressing in a small container, but after seeing coworkers keep their salad dressing in the work fridge, I brought one in, too.
From my container prep work, I fill my lunch bag the night before and leave it in the fridge. I’ve gone so far as to pack two lunches since I have two totes. This is helpful when my schedule has me up working out before work and committed after work or in the fall when it is dark by 5pm.
Food prepped for packed lunches
My old workplace discouraged eating lunch at desks and our break room was in the windowless basement, so many of us would go to our cars or eat in the general area of the library (Yes, food in a library!). My current workplace, I have a cube but prefer to see sunlight and breathe different air so I still go to my car, except for when it is really cold, since we cannot have food in the library.
If you’re committed to lunch packing, you will figure out something that works for your situation and routine.
You can get involved in the community by tagging your lunch photos with #LunchItPunchIt on Instagram or Twitter.
Find my photos of packed lunches on Flickr and recipes on this blog.
Yvonne
January 9, 2014 at 2:51 pmHi there.
Great tips. I am a big believer in the leftovers method. I will pack left overs in a lunch container and save it for the day after tomorrow. So I don’t eat the same thing two days in a row. My favorite is pasta.
WendP
July 17, 2014 at 10:11 pm-Think about how you travel. My commute involves two buses or my bike, plus I work with little kids, so I don’t like using glass containers for packing lunches. I also don’t like the Laptop Lunch Bento type boxes because there’s nothing to keep the containers from leaking all over each other as they get jostled around in my bag. If you drive, this is less of an issue.
-Think about what is available to you at work. I don’t have reliable access to a refrigerator or freezer at work, so I have insulated lunch bags/boxes and ice packs, or I bring things that don’t need to be kept really cool. My husband, on the other hand, has access to a bunch of room at the work fridge, so he’ll take in 3-4 days’ worth of food at a time at one go.
I work in a couple of buildings. I don’t always have reliable access to a microwave in each building, so I have to think ahead about whether to bring things that need re-heating or not.
-I keep a nice microwavable plate, bowl and mug, and a set of cutlery at each of my two main sites where I work most of the time and also have a bit of space to stash them. I also have a traveling placemat for when I go to a site I frequent less often, and I have a sandwich or similar lunch with me (like this one – http://www.reuseit.com/reusable-sandwich-and-snack-bags/wrap-n-mat-wrap-n-mat-regular.htm).
-A really good thermos makes my day more pleasant. Right now, our temparatures are in the 80s, 90s, and a bit above. I leave the house with my thermos full of ice cubes and iced tea at 7:00am, and I still have little ice bits clanking about at 2pm, despite 2-3 refills of tap water. Hot tea stays hot (or at least rather warm) just as long.
– Know your eating style. No matter how much I love a dish, I’m still not going to eat it more than three days in a row. Probably not even three days, more like two. Sometimes I can break it up and make two dishes, alternating them over four days. My husband, on the other hand, if it’s a dish he really likes, he’ll eat it for five days straight.
Also – know how much it really takes to make you feel full. I still struggle with “wow, that doesn’t look like enough food” vs. “hey, that smaller amount was just the ticket”.
– Start out small. It’s totally okay to not go from 0 to 60 in 2.5 seconds. Start with a day or two a week. Try to make restaurant meals last for both that night’s dinner and the following day’s lunch. When you cook at home, make at least one serving extra.
The Student @ Food for Dissertating
August 11, 2014 at 12:12 amBeing a lunch packer changed the way I ate in general. One thing I do is that I seem to have collected a huge assortment of silicone cups in various shapes and sizes, and if I bake a casserole or something, I always make some “mini” version of it, too. But mostly I start out with cooking something packable, rather than things that aren’t. Life is just easier that way, and I can have the not-packable food on the rare occasion that I do eat out (for dinner or whatever).
And I’ve learned lots of strategies for making “something from nothing.” I keep hard boiled eggs on hand, as well as some canned fruit and ready-to-eat raw veggies like carrot sticks. Once you think beyond the sandwich, a whole host of new ideas will come to you. Now it’s fun: What else can I try? I get excited when I find a new, small thing that can be packed. Recently I discovered Bibigo’s mini wontons, for example.
I personally tend to stick to one type of container, and try to vary what I put into it every day. I do have others, but I mostly use my old, trusty Laptop Lunchbox. I know its dimensions so well that there isn’t much thinking it through in the morning–I know exactly what will fit into it.
I also try to plan ahead the night before. “I will pack X with Y,” so I don’t think about it in the morning.