(no subject)

[ewt]

Part of my PLN for successful academic successfulness this year is that I will be spending a lot more time at Trinity. I will go there every day, Monday-Thursday. I will practise. I will do things in the library. I will sit in the caf and plan my time. I will not come home for lunch, because this takes an hour and a half by the time I get around to it, and also once I'm home the temptation to just stay home is very strong.

This means I need to start packing lunches. Eating the cafeteria food every day will make me skint and crazy very fast - the food isn't bad but it isn't good, and it isn't expensive but it isn't cheap, and the service is extraordinarily slow - to the point that there are days when I don't have time to eat there anyway because I have classes either side of lunch. It's difficult/impossible to get things like wholewheat bread or wholewheat pasta or brown rice there, and the salads are always insipid things full of mostly lettuce.

There is no microwave for student use at Trinty; nor is there a kettle for boiling water for tea. I can keep some things (homemade flapjacks, some fruit if I remember to clear it out at the end of each week, some rice cakes, oatcakes or Ryvita) in my locker - but I don't want to stock an entire pantry in there, I need to use most of the space for my horn and music (and in winter, my coat). And really I need to be eating some fresh things each day, not just dried stuff that I can store easily.

There is also no refrigerator, although this is less distressing as I can always use a frozen water bottle as an ice pack for a morning.

I ate packed lunches for, oh, thirteen years, give or take a few when I had enough time to come home for lunch. The vast majority of those lunches consisted of a sandwich (peanut butter and jam or similar on whole wheat bread), a piece of fruit, a juice box, and some sort of 'healthy' pre-packaged snack food (raisins, granola bars) or maybe some home-made cookies (yum!). Toward highschool I made my own lunches a bit more and tried to get some more protein in them, maybe a cheese sandwich instead of jam, some nuts to go with the fruit... but the basic formula was the same. Every thermos I ever owned went manky, through my own fault I might add, so things like hot soups were intermittent at best. I'm very grateful that I always had packed lunches and wasn't subject to the whims of the school cafeteria, but I really don't wnat this format for a lunch. I mean, I still mostly don't like sandwiches. If I fall into a routine of eating a sandwich, a piece of fruit and a juice box for lunch, I will be most unhappy with it in a very short time.

I'm also trying to stick to fairly low-to-moderate-GI, which means lots of whole foods and fresh veg. I won't be eating commercial snack bars. I won't be taking a juice box because there's as much sugar in one of those as in about three apples. And I'm learning, time and time again, that I do need protein in my lunches if I don't want to fall asleep in the afternoon - and a cheese sarnie is not going to cut it.

And I don't have much money, and I have a milky kitchen at home, so meaty lunches that require much pre-preparation are pretty well out.

I want interesting lunches, lunches I will look forward to eating, otherwise they'll moulder in my bag and instead I'll buy chips from the caf and feel crappity. I want lunches that are easy to prepare, otherwise I won't prepare them, and I'll end up eating chips from the caf and feeling crappity. I want healthy lunches, otherwise I may as well eat chips from the caf and feel crappity.

I'm sure I can eventually figure out what will work for me, eventually. In the meantime will be the adjustment and experiementation period.

What is your favourite packed lunch?

ADDENDUM: I want a one of these. In pink, naturally.

Comments

[flickgc.livejournal.com]

Have you seen this (http://veganlunchbox.blogspot.com/)? It's a blog of vegan lunch box meals that a mother made for her son (I think) for a year. Might have some ideas that you can play around with?

[ewtikins.livejournal.com]

I've seen it and I think the food is great but most of it is very heavy on preparation.

[fjm.livejournal.com]

I use left over food. ie I happily eat cold curry, cold risotto etc,. etc.

I try to avoid sandwiches for the carbs, so am also likely to take a box containing a hard boiled egg, a tomato and some nuts (I can;t eat cheese but a lump of cheese is also an option). One tip a friend gave me was capisicum peppers. They make great sweet snacks. Whole carrots too. Sometimes bananas.

[fjm.livejournal.com]

ps. talk to the Student Union or the Junior Common Room or the Graduate Students association about getting a microwave. They receive fees from the University for student communal needs and this seems to me to be just such a one. Also a kettle.

I would be very surprised if other students didn't support you, even if what they want to cook is frozen pizza.

[yady.livejournal.com]

You were doing this thing where you would prepare vegetables in ready-to-eat portions once a week. If you do that, it would not be hard to make a few extra, and then take some of that along, right? Also once a week, you can cut up some cheese into sensible portions (either one or two blocks or a bunch of small cubes) and possibly cook some (brown) rice and/or pasta. In the morning, put two boxes of prepared veg, one box of rice or pasta and one or two protein things (hard boiled egg, cheese, tinned/bagged tuna) in a bag with a frozen water bottle, and at lunch time, mix it all up to form a salad.

Also, if you make things liek that broccoli tomato salad, that works quite well for taking along too.

As for hot soup, if you get a thermos, don't even consider one with a glass inside bottle. Those are, in my experience, *not* suitable for carrying along every day. Stainless steel all the way. And you have to make sure to rinse them out every day after use...

*hugs* I should start taking more packed lunches too, really...

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

For 'packed' lunches I make a pile of goo that contains some variety of pulses, random vegetables chopped into small lumps and pan fried and tomatoes. I microwave this at work and eat it on bread that I buy from the bread-man on the market. I could have it cold not microwaved, but eating it hot allows me a little bit of leeway in case it turns out slightly crap and is unbearable cold.

[kake]

I use left over food. ie I happily eat cold curry, cold risotto etc,. etc.

Me too! My favourite packed lunch is, in fact, a portion of the previous evening's dinner in one of those plastic takeaway tubs.

Hm, what else to suggest... it depends so much on what you like to eat. Some people like to eat lots of little individual things that are all different, some people like to eat a bowl of something homogenous. Coming up with quick-to-prepare vegetable things that you find tasty might be a good approach if you're in the former camp, for example grated carrot and/or thinly-sliced cabbage seasoned with sushi vinegar (the pre-seasoned stuff is not significantly more expensive than the unseasoned stuff, and you're more likely to use it); chopped courgettes with a dash of soy sauce or lemon juice; sliced tomatoes with black pepper and/or a bit of olive oil; that sort of thing (I can suggest lots more if you'd like me to). Things that can become ingrained in your mind as "this is easy to make, it won't take very long, and I will like it when it's made", to get over the hump of feeling too tired/too rushed/too uninspired to make a packed lunch.

Wholewheat couscous is available in wholefood shops, and is less hassle to cook than pasta. Not an enormous difference, but when you're feeling blah even a small saving in hassle can be the difference between doing it and not doing it.

Hard boiled eggs are a good suggestion since you can boil several at a time and keep them in the fridge ready for the week.

Roasted vegetables do take a bit of advance planning but the time they take to cook isn't time that you have to spend standing over the stove, and you can use them in lots of ways; with some canned tomatoes and pasta, or with yoghurt + lemon juice or tahini sauce (tahini + lemon juice) and couscous, or with balsamic vinegar as a salad,

Finally, packing something is better than packing nothing. A box of carrot salad + chips from the caf is better than just chips from the caf. If there's a day when you don't feel up to packing a whole meal, pack something small anyway, to establish the habit.

I will stop blathering now.

[kake]

Oh, no, actually I won't; feanelwa's comment reminded me that I'd forgotten about pulses. I've found it useful to stash a can of chickpeas and a can opener in my desk drawer, since in a pinch that will make a serviceable lunch, as long as you have somewhere to drain and rinse the chickpeas (just rinse them in the can with your fingers over the top).

[mstevens.livejournal.com]

Cheese and pickle sandwiches are key.

[horngirl.livejournal.com]

My standard packed lunch to take to uni with me (I definitely can't afford to buy food, and it takes forever to get to any food vending places - like you, I often have classes either side of lunch so don't have the time to trek ten minutes across campus)... um, where was I? Oh yeah.

I'm not a big fan of sandwiches unless I make them interesting. My current favourite: spread one side of bread with basil, cashew and parmesan dip, add sliced mushrooms, sliced tomato and finish with some cheese.

[ewtikins.livejournal.com]

I usually have my leftovers for breakfast. This might change as I'm planning to try a different sort of breakfast for a bit, though, at which point having leftovers for lunch wouldn't be so bad.

[qadira.livejournal.com]

I hate packed lunches. I'd rather take some kind of meat jerky than eat a packed lunch. Honestly? I always just bought coffee and a large muffin or bagel or pretzel-with-cheese or cookies when I was on campus. And then I'd just have a larger breakfast or dinner at home. So I'm not much help actually.. but if I were to have to eat a packed lunch, I'd definitely go with things like pita bread and hummous, or tabouleh salads, or a falafel sandwich. All things that are tasty cold and won't get nasty in a morning.

[pplfichi.livejournal.com]

Mine usually consists of several rolls with whatever is in the fridge + pickle or mustard if I feel it needs it, fruit, chocolate or something else sweet and water and/or other drink.

Standard/boring really.

[sunflowerinrain.livejournal.com]

I don't like packed lunches: there is something so depressing about a plastic box of food, or wrapped sandwiches. I do eat them, though. My favourite is assorted fruit and cold pizza.

Picnic hampers, on the other hand, appeal to me, especially if the contents are exotic.

[pfy.livejournal.com]

Tortilla wrap things with cheese and pesto (or whatever filling you have handy) are really easy. If you have more time, maybe some kind of pasta-with-stuff-on would be good. You could make several portions at once and put them in the fridge for later in the week.

Sandwiches are much nicer with really fresh bread. For me, at least, it can make the difference between a lunch that is boring and one that is a treat. If there's a bakery nearby that will sell you fresh bread rolls for not too much money, then it might be worth buying some on your way to college. Sometimes I just take some kind of filling with me when I go to work, and just buy a fresh baguette or something at lunchtime.

[mubeimmik.livejournal.com]

I returned my laptop lunchbox. It's too small to be practical (as in it won't even hold a sandwich), and was rather flimsy at the back hinge. I loved the -concept- of it, but I didn't even have big portions prepared for myself when I tried to use it and it just didn't fit.

[idoru.livejournal.com]

I don't always care much about re-heating leftovers, so things like cold couscous are fine by me. Similarly, it's easy to make a large batch of brown rice and portion it out into portable containers.

- Hummus + wheat pita with raw veggies is a fantastic lunch -- have you made your own hummus before? Also, excellent sandwich: multi-grain bread spread with hummus, add alfalfa sprouts/tomato/shredded carrot/pickles/what you will.

- peanut butter with apple slices? Protein + fruit. I also like peanut butter and banana sandwiches.

If you're relying on nuts for breakfast protein, maybe concentrate on beans or eggs for lunch protein. I don't know if/what kosher rules are about eggs, so I don't know if that's feasible.