Lunch for a girl who hates normal "lunch food"?

I've got this issue with lunch. I'm 16 and in high school and I hate lunch foods. I'm super picky and since lunches need to be transported from home and cannot be prepared, its particularly hard.

I cannot stand lunch meats; they're overly salty and fatty and taste artificial and yucky.
I don't really like sandwiches or wraps, the cold squishy bread is unapealling.
I only like pitas if theyre plain chicken (leftovers, not lunchmeat). No veggies or cheese or anything inside.
I don't like salad. At all. Will not eat it in any form from pasta salad to garden salad.
I don't like soups with chunks of mushy veggies in them (except mushrooms or carrots).
I don't like cheese.
I don't like most frozen dinners as they generally include things I don't like.

Lunches have basically become a mishmash of snacks for me. A common lunch would be a homemade healthy muffin, 100 calorie snackpack (all-bran or nutrigrain, sometimes thinsations), large fruit (mango, apple, banana, etc.), rice crackers/cereal and a yogurt. I don't know if this is healthy or not but i think I need to get more protein and maybe more calories from my lunch, as i'm usually hungry coming home. Then I binge.

How many calories should be in a lunch for a 130lbs, 5'2 teenager? And what are healthier, more protein-y and filling options that I will like? Any suggestions of slightly alternative lunch things you like to eat would really be appreciated. My school has a microwave, if that helps.

Cereal. Bring a carton of milk, a baggie of cereal, and a bowl. Or use instant oatmeal.

I'm a little bigger/older than you but I normally have 300 calories for lunch...if I'm also having morning and afternoon snacks. If I'm not having snacks in between meals (like you) then I will have more like 400 or 450 calories for lunch.

What I would do when I bought lunch to school was bring it in pieces. For example, have 2 slices of bread wrapped up in plastic and then a small container of whatever filling you want...because believe me I know soggy bread is no fun.

Can you try getting just regular dinner food and putting it in a tupperware or something? And then you can pop that into the microwave to reheat, and you can have 1 or 2 of your usual snacky things on the side. If you do that then you have basically unlimited options.

Do you like peanut butter?  Or any kind of nut butter?

I'm a picky eater and I was much, much pickier when I was younger.  Peanut butter was one of the only sources of protein in my diet when I was a kid.  I particularly liked peanut butter on Ritz crackers.  Peanut butter on bread doesn't make the bread squishy.

Plain nuts would also do for a source of calories and protein.

eating a lunch comprised of snacks is fine, (that's what i like to do because you to have a variety of foods, and it's more interesting than eating a large portion of one thing) but it looks like you're eating a lot of simple carbohydrates, and not much protein. here are some suggestions:
    -hard-boiled egg
    -hummus and veggies/pita bread
    -english muffin/toast with peanut butter, or eat your banana with pb
   - if you get hungry during the afternoon, maybe bring a protein bar  (luna, clif, etc.) to prevent you from binging
   -chicken breast with rice (pre-prepared) to heat up in microwave
you sound kind of picky so i hope those suggestions didn't gross you out lol. are the foods at your school really unhealthy or unappetizing?
   

I used to bring my lunch to school every day back then and what I would bring are 2 5 ounce burger patties and sliced bell peppers! It worked really well to curb my hunger because protein is so good at doing that!! 

Original Post by meleba:

Cereal. Bring a carton of milk, a baggie of cereal, and a bowl. Or use instant oatmeal.

Have tried option 1 with disastrous results- I have about 6.5 hours from leaving the house to school and the milk was so warm it made me gag. The milk at school is 2% which is unnessecary fat. Oatmeal is a good idea though- I love oatmeal and its filling.

I think out of those peanut butter is the most appealing. I love peanut butter but I don't like premade burgers, hummus or hard boiled eggs and the reason i dislike sandwiches isnt even that the bread is soggy from fillings- its just smushy and raw tasting. It needs to be toasty! I truly am ridiculously picky.

But if people are eating 300-400 calories at lunch then I have some issues- i'm eating 500 at least and get really hungry! Must be the protein then. I'll have to try to bring more chicken. I don't even like other meat that much so its probably the best option. Should I have peanut butter on a pita or something? What are the highest protein nuts you can get?

http://www.weightlossforall.com/protein-nuts. htm

 

Original Post by alleycat325:
are the foods at your school really unhealthy or unappetizing?
   

 Both, lol. We have lots of sandwhiches and pastas smothered in gloopy sauce (yuck), cardboard pizza thats always cold, fried fish/chicken burgers, hamburgers that are...steamed or boiled or some methods leaving them soggy, radioactive soup...

There are fries that are delicious but I have to resist those. Empty, greasy, salty carbs.

you're probably eating so many calories and still getting hungry because as someone else said, most of it is simple carbs. The muffin-- even though it might be healthy, its probably high calorie for the amount it fills you up. Same for the crackers and cereal.

also if you bring milk it will stay perfectly fine in a lunch box with an ice pack. Put the ice pack (or 2) in the freezer the night before and wrap it around the milk before you pack it in a lunch box.

Maybe buy one of those lunch boxes that are somewhat thermal so they keep the cold in.

Original Post by juliemae2:

http://www.weightlossforall.com/protein-nuts. htm

 

 Wow, I never knew cashews were so good for you, I thought they were one of the higher fat/lower protein kinds. I'll definately get some of those next time we grocery shop, they're delicious.

You can really bring anything, it doesn't have to be "lunch food".

Why not pasta that you reheat in the microwave? A curry, or any other dinner food.

There's no such thing as 'breakfast food' or 'lunch food'... food is food and you can have whatever you feel like eating for a particular meal. The food police won't come and chew you out for it. It sounds like you are VERY fussy though, and maybe you should work on broadening your food horizons. The human body was designed to be omniverous, and it's not good to never eat vegetables at all. For one thing, it tends to really mess with your fiber intake, which messes with your digestion.

If you don't like lunchmeat nobody's going to force you to eat it (it has very little nutritional value and a whole lot of salt and chemicals!), but you really should have some protein you could take some cold cooked chicken or a pouch of tuna or some boiled eggs or whatever other protein source you enjoy eating. You could also take dinner leftovers and heat them up...

If you like oatmeal you can always add a tbsp of Peanut butter for flavour/protein...i hav bin addicted to this for breaky since i made it for the first time last week!
Warm peanut buttery goodness!! hehe

take any type of fruit with you to school.  You can eat apples pears plums or banana's anytime you're hungry!  Eat your banana on your way home from school.  

Yes, the cold packs in a lunch box works wonders! I love ceral for lunch! The Kashi Go Lean Crunch could be eated dry as a snack too.  And it's pretty good.

You said you liked carrots, there is a puree'd carrot soup that's thick but has no chunks in it at all.

And if you like oatmeal... that's always a winner and will keep you full for hours!! 

as far as squishiness, you could always toast the bread.

And I second the PB thing. Whther you hae it on carrots or on toast.

Cereal is akso a good idea.

well, at least you are thinking smartly about food as a HS student!

 

I eat a conglomeration of all kinds of food for just about every meal.  I'm certainly not as picky as you, but I NEEEEED things to change up all the time.  Do you like grits?  they are high in fiber and low in calories and you can eat them cold or hot and as a nice starch under a bed of chicken breast leftovers...

or plain veggies cut into finger food sticks--celery, carrots, cucumbers, shrooms, radishes, tomatoes (not so much into sticks) and so on and so forth. 

PB is the best idea.  in fact, I laughed that so many folks offered the pb advice.  its so dang TASTY! 

and how about talking to your lunch people at school and asking that a toaster be added alongside the microwave?????  I bet if you ask nicely and have a couple friends (or teachers) to back you up, you might get one.  then you could have a nice slice of toasty bread smothered in yummy yummy pb and raisins! 

I also do a mish mash of snacks for lunch most days as well.  It is all good, don't worry!

Many times I have a fruit and a veggie and a meal replacement shake (like Ensure or Boost).  THat usually does me good

How about a heartier muffin, like one with carrots, raisons, and nuts and whole wheat?

One of my favorite snacks is Apples and Peanut Butter.

(for the record you can find UHT milk, which doesn't have to be refrigerated, but I have never tried it so I don't know what it tastes like.)

I like the cereal idea too, just use the milk at your school.  2% milk isn't the worst thing in the world.  At 16 you should have 25%-35% of your calories come from fat (source).  Fat is good for you. :]

When I take lunch to work, I usually do a mish-mash of snacks too.  Today I had tortilla strips (140cal) with homemade mango salsa (15cal) and/or hummus (50cal), 4 graham crackers (70cal) with 1tbsp of natural peanut butter (85cal), and an apple (70cal).  430 calories total, and I wasn't hungry at all afterwards.  You could exchange the crackers for two pieces of low-cal, high-fiber toast (like this) for more protein and fiber which will keep you full longer.