food to bring to work

So I am not a morning person at all, I will sleep until I have the minimum amount of time to get ready (I use public transit). I tend to scarf down a bowl of cereal or have a peanut butter sandwich for breakfast (but there's been times I've had to skip it and bought a protein bar from the vending machine at work). I only work about 4-5 hours, so I get out around lunch but I get a break about an hour before that, at which time I get hungry so again I'm at the vending machine getting a bag of chips. I'm also hungry after work, when it's tempting to eat out nearby before embarking on the hour long travel home.

Anyway, what are some things I could pack that are better? I've never been able to bring myself to make something the night before, but I can see making a batch of something that I could just grab a portion of (for example I saw a recipe for muffin style meatloaf).

What are some things you bring to work for lunch and snacks?

Hello txmom04,

I was wondering if you have a recipe for the Hummus that you mentioned with the red pepper?

and also the almond butter I have looked for it at our grocery store HEB and have not been able to find? do you have to buy it at a specialty store? ( but just to make sure I'm looking in the right place it would be in the isle where the peanut butter would be right?

I am so not a morning person either, but I have a school-age kid who needs to have a lunch, and I eat lunch at my office every day (too cheap to go out for lunch, and trying to save some bucks!).  In fact, I have a really hard time just dealing with my kid, who is definitely a morning person and up at 5:00 rarin' to go most mornings, when I get up until I have a cup of coffee!  So, when I make dinners, I cook extra, then just farm out the leftovers into small containers - individual portions - and grab n' go in the a.m.'s for my lunch and, depending on what the leftover is, for my kid's lunch.  My kid is on a PBJ or grilled cheese kick so he's pretty easy to please, with little thought for my sleep-fuddled brain!  I also make up a pretty large salad (or get the pre-packaged salads, even easier!) or other veggies and divvy that up into individual containers also.  You can get some of the individual salad dressing packets from grocery stores or restaurants, have them on hand, and, voila, a real meal.  Right now I'm eating some leftover lamb stew, about a 1/4 cup brown rice, and a great spinach salad - and all I did was grab the containers from the fridge this a.m.  Snacks - Laughing Cow cheese (light) is lower calories than the babybel cheeses - not as substantive but oh well.  Have some cheese with 1/2 an apple or pear or some other fruit, or a couple of pretzels - yum!

BTW, I'm not a fan of plastic bags - not too environmentally sound.  I know there has been some concern over the contents of some plastic containers but you can check on the websites for the companies that make them to check on the toxicity (or lack thereof) of the containers.  Or, I just saw on some website, the old fashioned light-weight metal containers.  Much nicer to Mother Nature than plastic bags!

I am the same exact way! :)

I don't know if someone already mentioned them or not, but  I have been having a VitaTop every morning. (It is the top part of a muffin.) I prefer the chocolate kinds but they have LOTS of flavors, the blueberry bran one is pretty good. They only have 100 calories each, the full muffins have 100-200. they also have brownies, which I haven't tried yet.

The muffins are so delicious and very filling, great for a snack too. They have to be ordered online. if you sign up for their emails you get special deals for free shipping and stuff now and then.

here is their website: http://www.vitalicious.com/

I have done a lot of personal research on this exact subject - Fiber One bars and Clif bars are a great snack (just be sure to drink lots of water with them if you're not used to a lot of fiber!). Yoplait yogurt cups, applesauce cups, and fat-free jello pudding cups are great single-serving packaged snacks too (the pudding takes care of my chocolate cravings). If you're looking for easy muffins to eat in the car, Krusteaz makes yummy fat free blueberry and/or cranberry-orange fat free muffins - I'll make them on the weekend and throw 2 in a baggie to take to work every day (or the whole batch to share - it's better for your co-workers than doughnuts and people love them!). Jimmy Dean's new healthy breakfast sandwiches are pretty good and easy to eat in the car but I replace their gross fat-free tasteless cheese with "veggie slices" pepper jack and it tastes great! Cottage cheese is also a good snack to have at work if you like it.

I realize a lot of the foods I mentioned are highly processed, but they have helped me to lose 20 pounds and stay away from mcdonalds, vending machines, and starbucks brownies.

Original Post by caverlady:

1.  On Sunday night I cut up a package celery into slices and then put them into quart size or sandwich style ziplock bags about 3 oz to a bag.  That way I know how much I had on a given day by how many bags I ate.  I also cut up lettuce and tomato for sandwiches all week.

2.  I keep a supply of sugar free jello cups in the fridge at work for a quick very low calorie snack.

3.  I usually bring 4 slices of 35 calorie bread with me each day in a zip lock for breakfast and lunch.

4.  Every night I make preparations for lunch the next day (or two).  If I have the Bumble Bee Sensations (I like the sundried tomato w/basil), I split it in half.  I have this little Glad containers that are reusable for this purpose and I pack up one (with bread) for lunch and leave the other in the fridge at home.  If I have the Starkist fat free lunch kit, I just throw that in a bag but I bring bread to eat instead of the crackers and save the crackers for a snack another day.  If I have the Tyson canned chicken, I make it up with fat free mayo and split it up in two servings as well.  I usually have that with a small canned veggie like spinach or carrots but I'm intrigues by the frozen veggie idea.

5.  For breakfast (at work) I measure out 1/4 cup of Egg Beaters (I really like the southwestern style) and put that in a little container and bring a slice of fat free cheese.  It makes a great breakfast sandwich with two slices of 35 calorie bread with lettuce/tomato and very low calorie.

6.  I bring an orange most days and sometimes a banana.  Tomorrow I'll bring a kiwi fruit.

I think the key is to take a few minutes each night or at the beginning of the week and measure out servings of whatever it is you want to eat.  That way you know exactly how much you're eating and it makes it much easier to keep track.  I just take care of it while I'm still in the kitchen after cleaning up from dinner and it really doesn't take very long.

 WOW! Where do you buy bread that is only 35 calories?? What brand is it? Are the slices really tiny though?

I bring cereal in a plastic container and another container with skim milk every day! When I am ready to eat my breakfast, I just pour on the milk and enjoy. I also bring a piece of fruit or cut up oranges and grapefruit to eat around 11:00 or so.

I only work part time, so I am usually home for lunch, but when I do fill in for someone, I bring a sandwich and veggie chips or maybe a yogurt and water.

It only takes maybe 5 minutes in the morning to make a sandwich and I have the cereal and milk ready the night before. All I have to do is make my coffee and put it in my travel mug, put the rest in my lunch bag and off I go!

I have lost 73 pounds since September 1 (with two bad months of January and February which I like to forget about), so apparently this is working.

Best of luck!

An hour or two later I eat desert which is either low fat yogurt or part skim ricotta with cinnamon and splenda.

I had never thought of ricotta as a snack, I've only used it in lasagna (which I make with ground turkey).

I may have to be brave and give it a try.

i take 100g of seedless grapes and a fruit like necturine/pear and when i feel peckish before lunch i would snack on that or have a herbal tea, that usually works for me. i take leftovers for lunch so i know exactly how any calories i'm eating.

Great Topic

I dislike eating, fresh tomato, celery, carrot and i had always been a bread person love the stuff. I have lost 25kgs since February, first i brought soups to work for lunch which really filled me up, then i started sandwhiches again but I find that having bread every day makes me want to have more so I had to find a way around this. So I tried moutian bread wraps but they are not very satisfying and get soggy.

I now take a glad container full of lettuce or spinach leaves i add a little can of flavoured tuna to it, and some of either mushrooms, kidney beans, spring onion this has less then 100 calories in it all up. I also bring 2 peices of fruit to work ussually apples sometimes a banana.

So my daily calories I eat when im not at home is about 250 calories, my breakfast is a couple of weetbix and some bran thats about 300 calories all up or 550 for the day time calories.

When i get home from work i have a tub of that diet yoghurt and make a low calorie jelly to have later if i get hungry. I can then eat what ever is on offer for dinner and enjoy a nice normal meal with my family. So at most my calorie intake for the day is about 1500 calories. I got to the gym 5 to 6 days a week as well so the weight has continued to fall off me. I have had a couple of bad patches like May were I reverted to some of my old ways but im back on the wagon now.

I found that cutting bread almost completely from my diet makes the single biggest difference to my ability to sustain a low calorie eating plan and get rid of this excess weight.

I love this topic too. I have lots of different snacks that I take to work because I like to have options. I am the kind of person that cuts up my fruit and veggies when I get home form the fruit market. If I don't, I grab something else. So I always have a fruit snack (watermelon, honeydew, canteloupe, grapes, cherries, kiwi, strawberries, blueberries, mango... depending on my mood. I also like to have hummus with whole grain pita or a Rye Krisp cracker or even with fresh cut veggies. Sometimes I am in the mood for a cheese so I 'll grab a Baby Bella cheese round. or the Laughing Cow soft cheese triangle with a flat bread cracker (Rosemary and Sea Salt!). I love almond butter on apple slices or on celery. Sometimes a little tuna fish with lemon on a cracker or whole grain pita is good too. Love it with fresh inion and red pepper chopped up in it! Of course a hard boiled egg or egg salad is yummy too....

I stopped bringing sandwichs to work. I know it's not easy to pack lunch in the morning so I make small dishes of food from my dinner leftovers for a few days at a time. For breakfast each day, I grab a non fat greek yogurt. I make sure I use very small containers so it looks like a lot of food when I have 2-3 oz of chicken or fish, a 1/2 of rice and veggies. I've also been experimenting with curry recipes, they are full of veggies and healthy. I'v lost 30 lbs doing this in the last few months, so it's working for me.