What’s for Lunch?

You oversleep. 

You don’t have time to make breakfast, so you grab a Pop Tart as you rush out of the house, hoping you won’t be late to work.

Lunchtime rolls around, and you’re hungry, so you…

1. …buy something from the fast food outlets on campus
2. …steal someone else’s lunch from the communal refrigerator
3. …scrounge for left over crackers and salad dressing in the break room
4. …grab a Twix and a Diet Coke from the vending machines down the hall
5. …don’t eat, as the Pop Tart will tide you over until dinner.

Any of these responses would be suitable on occasion (OK, stealing someone else’s lunch is never a good idea), but these options are not good long-term solutions to the “what-am-I-going-to-eat-for-lunch” problem.  (Nor is it a solution to the “I-have-overslept-again” problem, but that’s for another post.)

If you’re like me, the last thing you’d think of on those hurried mornings is what you’d have for lunch later that afternoon.  In my desire to become a healthier, wealthier, and wiser person, I’ve begun taking my lunch to work with me, and I do this almost every day.  By taking my lunch, I’m not falling into the trap of eating fast food each day or of using a candy bar and soft drink as sustenance, and my colleagues don’t have to fear having their lunch stolen…at least not by me.  Plus I’m saving money and eating healthier foods.

Taking a lunch each day can take some planning, but it’s not difficult to do.  A quick Internet search on “lunch ideas” yields a number of interesting and useful websites.  A brown-bag lunch can be much more than a peanut butter and jelly sandwich . . . unless, of course, you want PB&J.

These sites are just a few of the many that provide good ideas and simple recipes for what you could include in your lunch:

• Pack and Go:  Easy Lunches to Take to Work
• Brown Bag Lunch Recipes
• Roasted Chicken (One bird; five easy, varied quick lunches)
• Quick and Healthful Lunches
• Easy Lunches for Work

Once you have prepared your food, you will want to carry it in something other than a brown paper bag (unless, of course, you like brown paper bags).  Mr. Bento from Zojirushi (you can purchase it from Amazon) is a wonderful way to carry a healthy lunch.  The stainless steel lunch jar has four microwaveable inner bowls that has “excellent heat retention.”  Soups and salads are easy with a Mr. Bento.

Laptop Lunches, what the makers describe as “American-style bento boxes,” are another way to pack lunch food that is healthy.  The bento boxes are constructed of a sturdy plastic, and they can hold a good amount of food in their individual inner boxes.  Laptop Lunches can provide you with cookbooks and an online guide to suggested lunches.  In fact, Laptop Lunches has a Flickr group so you can see examples of how other people pack their lunches and what they include.

Taking your lunch to work with you most days is a good idea, but this alone does not guarantee you’ll get up on time and not be hurried as you go off to work.  You can, though, make your lunch the night before and place a large note next to your car keys that says something like, “When you grab the Pop Tart, don’t forget to grab the ready-made lunch in the fridge.”

What are your suggestions for packing nutritious and inexpensive lunches?  Leave your suggestions in the comments below.