Lunch meal prep thread

[campermom]

I love the dinner idea thread. Anyone want to do lunch preps too? I’m tired of the same things.

2 Aldi Southwest salad kits, spread over 5 containers
Ground beef w taco seasoning
Greek yogurt
Hard boiled egg

Got any good mason jar ideas, or otherwise “spread over 5 days” ideas?

[jinkies]

Ha, funny you should post this. I'm doing the same Aldi salad kit but adding seasoned chicken, cheese and tomatoes for my son's lunches this week.

I wfh, and DD buys lunch everyday. So my lunch planning is for my 16 year old. Not sure if that's helpful to the thread.

But last week I made these for him: www.the-girl-who-ate-everything.com/roast-beef-horseradish-pinwheels/ some days I gave him pinwheels, others I just cut the wrap in half.

Back when I worked in an office and had to plan lunches, I really liked the meal preps on 40aprons. Here is one, but there are others: 40aprons.com/buffalo-chicken-ranch-whole30-meal-prep/

[SusanBAnthony]

Boiled eggs with hummus. I dont pack them in seperate containers. Just a tub of hummus and a pyrex of eggs. I usually eat these for breakfast or morning snack at work.

Roasted veggies over quinoa with goat cheese on top. Made 5 containers. I meant to add canned chickpeas but forgot. This is my main dish for the week.

Baked apples with cranberries spread over 5 containers.

My mom is currently making cookies in my kitchen so that will probably round things out. I also keep protein shakes on hand for emergency meals but they are $$$ and probably not good for me to I try not to have them be the primary meal.

[expectantsteelerfan]

I tend to make a batch of something over the weekend to have all week for my lunch. Last week it was ground turkey chili. This week it's hot sausage (sometimes will use chicken sausage) with peppers and onions. I'm also making chicken for dinner on Wed. and I'll make extra to have on top of salad a few days (for salad I cut up a head of Romaine and then add some American bagged salad on top, along with either sunflower seats, pepitas, or French fried onions, and I use the mix to make Italian dressing. I head of Romaine is 2 salads for me, and I only do 2 at a time otherwise it gets gross).

[sofamonkey]

Yay!! I was starting to feel like I was the only one planning lunch. Lol

I made turkey chili, so I’ll have that about 3-4 days next week. I’ll add tortilla chips, shredded cheese, and sour cream to it too.

The other days, likely leftover pulled pork or some other leftover. I also have I think one or two microwaveable lunches.

DH is gone all next week, so it’s just me. The kids get lunch at school.

[SwimDeep]

I would love to meal prep my breakfasts and lunches for the week. Alas, my refrigerator is too small. And the freezer is even smaller.

So if anyone has shelf stable ideas for meal prep or suggestions for how I can fit breakfast/lunch meals for two into a tiny fridge, I am all ears.

Spoiler because this got long. No TW - just lots of whiny words 😮‍💨

SPOILER: Click to show

I've made pasta salads in the past, and that worked really well because I could just tear up some lettuce and have salad pasta for lunch. But a week's worth of pasta salad takes up a lot of space in my fridge. We also eat leftovers for dinner multiple times a week, so I prioritize space for that.

Other things taking up space in the fridge right now are:
- an exorbitant amount of condiments (which I use and replace - not talking about horseradish that hasn't been touched in years).
- fruit ... so much fruit that I 'could' eat if I could make enough space in the fridge for enough fruit for two people. (H eats the fruit. I'm leaning into fruits that are more amenable to pantry storage like mandarins.)
- large cuts of meat that will take up even more space once cooked and stored. Right now I have a whole chicken (roasting tonight), a pork butt (slow cooking on Tuesday), a salmon filet (standard Monday protein), and tofu. And I still have leftovers from last week which I don't really want to eat for lunch but feel like I have to because there is no room in the fridge for anything else.

Are we just eating too much? (But H gets most of his calories from dinner so I don't feel good about cutting back.)

H has been telling me that I just need to eat the same thing every day like he does and not eat leftovers. Not exactly the same things - but to find something I can prep and have available so that I can grab something healthy instead of diving into the chips. He's not wrong... but... his food (eggs, protein shakes, fruit, yogurt, etc) takes up fridge space.

If I want to prep overnight oatmeal (which I do want), I need fridge space. Even the cereal I've been eating needs milk (we go through 1.5 gallons a week when I eat cereal).

If I want to prep a pasta or quinoa or grain or whatever salad, I need fridge space.

For that matter, if I want to have salads for lunch, I need to think about how much space the lettuce will take up and whether or not I can put it in a place that's easy to access (i.e., not shoved into the back behind all the leftovers).

I am so tired of playing fridge tetris. It's literally easier for me to just not eat during the day. So I think I must be doing something wrong. The fridge is always full with things for H or dinner. How do I make space for me?

TLDR: I am hungry and don't know how to feed myself well during the day because all the space in the fridge/freezer is taken up by H's stuff or dinner stuff.

[SusanBAnthony]

SwimDeep interesting. Do you have a normal sized fr8dge or a smaller apartment one? Maybe your H needs to do a mid week grocery run and not keep so much of hia food on hand?

For reference here is what is in my fridge (fam of 4, side by side fridge/freezer):

All door shelves are full of condiments and bubbly water, and occasionally some beer or white wine. Also have stuff like pickles or sour cream in the door.

Bottom drawer is fruit. Othwr than the occasional watermelon we don't buy more fruit than fits in the drawer. We do keep somw frozen fruit which can be eaten when half thawed or used in smoothies.

Next drawer is veggies. Again we don't really buy more veggies than fits.

Next drawer is cheese/deli meat.

Then we have 3 shelves:

Top shelf: milk, yogurt, juice if we have any, will stick protein shakes if thw door is full. We usually have max 1.5 gallons milk. We only refrigerate 2 or 3 protein shakes at a time,thw rest are in the cupboard. May have large containers of leftovers (not parceled out into meals).

Middle shelf: meal ingredients and portioned meal containers.

Bottom shelf: bread bags (bread, bagels, tortillas) and portioned meals.

We grocery shop once a week.

ETA: we definitely finish leftovers before starting more food. Depending on how many leftovers you have, that could definitely be part of the issue. Also you have 3 large meat things- why? Surely a whole chicken and a pork butt are each like 2 to 4 meals for 2 people? (I am bad a meat math). That like you whole week so why do you need other lunch meals?

[livinitup]

My grocery store has an excellent Mediterranean bar, so it’s great for buying stuff for a Greek salad.

I usually make 2 for my 2 in-office days. Keeps great.

- Romaine lettuce, grape tomatoes, English cucumbers sliced, dolma, artichoke hearts, roasted peppers, feta cheese

[fancynewbeesly]

We do soup. DD1 isn't picky but is for lunch food--she doesn't do sandwiches or salads. So usually, I make a thing of homemade soup on Sunday-we eat it for lunch during the week and then whatever is left by Thursday or Friday I freeze. We have a bunch of soups in our rotation.

This week was baked potato soup. Last week was tomato and feta soup. We also have white chicken chili. Homemade tomato sauce-she dips bread with it. Taco Soup. Regular chili.

[cjcouple]

This gets me 3 days using half a recipe.
www.themediterraneandish.com/tuscan-farro-soup/#wprm-recipe-container-56029

[campermom]

Sept 29, 2024 14:04:38 GMT -5 livinitup said:

My grocery store has an excellent Mediterranean bar, so it’s great for buying stuff for a Greek salad.

I usually make 2 for my 2 in-office days. Keeps great.

- Romaine lettuce, grape tomatoes, English cucumbers sliced, dolma, artichoke hearts, roasted peppers, feta cheese

I went through a stint of these in Mason jars years ago…I’m going to bring it back to the rotation

[cjcouple]

Sept 29, 2024 14:04:38 GMT -5 livinitup said:

My grocery store has an excellent Mediterranean bar, so it’s great for buying stuff for a Greek salad.

I usually make 2 for my 2 in-office days. Keeps great.

- Romaine lettuce, grape tomatoes, English cucumbers sliced, dolma, artichoke hearts, roasted peppers, feta cheese

Have you tried roasted Greek salad yet?
It's so amazing! I can make it on my WFH days. haha.

[ssmjlm]

I like to make quiches with different ingredients for lunches.

This week I have ham with spinach I’ll defrost tomorrow for lunches.

[erbear]

I often make a batch of taco meat and make a taco salad. My other go-tos (outside of leftovers) are salads (usually with a rotisserie chicken, a fruit and a cheese) or a can of soup.

[tacokick]

Are you guys heating up the taco meat for salads? I’ve never had it but it seems popular!

[eb777888]

I'm not a lunch person, I'm all about dinner so I eat the same thing for lunch (almost) everyday- a cup of greek yogurt topped with blueberries and blackberries, chia seeds, Catalina Crunch cereal and chopped nuts. I eat at home but the only prep I need to do is wash the fruit and pound the nuts (lol). Sometimes I'll just do the cereal in almond milk depending on how hungry I am.

[SwimDeep]

SusanBAnthony - I'm going to have to take a long hard look at my fridge. I'm pretty sure it's a standard sized fridge and I'm just not using the space in an efficient way.

I have three shelves and three drawers below those. Top shelf is fruit, protein drinks, small things like yogurts, and condiments I make from scratch in small to go containers.

Second shelf is... whatever fits. Usually mushrooms, lettuce, Kale, and leftovers.

Third shelf is three 18 count cartons of eggs (H eats 5 every day for breakfast - five whites one yolk - and sometimes I have time to fix myself eggs too). We go through a lot of eggs. Third shelf also has long storage veg in the back (cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli, etc.) - stuff that's too big to keep in the front but we eat every week.

First drawer is lunchmeat and cheeses. And corn tortillas.

Second drawer is more delicate produce... and whatever other produce I can get to fit.

Third drawer is protein... and whatever produce I can get to fit if I can't fit it anywhere else (usually the brussel sprouts).

The door is packed too. Milk, condiments, broth concentrates, pickles, and H's tea and half-and-half and sometimes juice for me. There used to be chocolate in the door as well, but H asked me to toss/donate all of it a few weeks ago. I was thrilled when he asked me to do that because I thought it would give me more space, but there's just still so much.

I'm doing something wrong. I'm not throwing away a ton of food every week (I've reduced our food waste to almost nothing), but it still takes me an hour+ to put groceries away every weekend... and I don't have room for healthy food prep for me 😮‍💨
I need someone to come KonMarie my fridge 😩

[sadlebred]

Lunch is a mixed bag this week. Not sure of days, but....most will have some kind of fruit. I keep a couple of choices in the house at most times.

Avocado toast
PBJ sandwich (probably twice)
Sour dough English muffin w/cheese (need to use up the cheese)
Out somewhere cheap once since I'll be on the go

[shauni27]

I meal prep every week for my lunches and 90% of the time eat the same meal all week.

This week I made summer rolls with tofu in them and a slaw on the side.
Stir fry is always a good one
Trader Joes has a beef and kimchi stir fry that could not be easier. I do 2 bags and it lasts 4 meals.
Sweet potato and black bean chili
tabouli salad
white bean and sausage soup
paleomg.com/almost-5-ingredient-pizza-spaghetti-pie/#:~:text=Add%20pizza%20sauce,%20dried%20basil%20and%20salt%20and

these are just a few ideas

[candreco]

I've tried to get into real meal prep for lunches, but the best I've managed to maintain is planning dinners w/ leftovers intentionally for lunches, and having interesting salad extras and lettuce on hand to turn leftover proteins and grains into good lunch salads. I generally cook most nights, and prep/pack lunches at the same time I'm making dinner so it's not an extra round of clean up.

[tacokick]

Sept 29, 2024 18:31:46 GMT -5 SwimDeep said:

SusanBAnthony - I'm going to have to take a long hard look at my fridge. I'm pretty sure it's a standard sized fridge and I'm just not using the space in an efficient way.

I have three shelves and three drawers below those. Top shelf is fruit, protein drinks, small things like yogurts, and condiments I make from scratch in small to go containers.

Second shelf is... whatever fits. Usually mushrooms, lettuce, Kale, and leftovers.

Third shelf is three 18 count cartons of eggs (H eats 5 every day for breakfast - five whites one yolk - and sometimes I have time to fix myself eggs too). We go through a lot of eggs. Third shelf also has long storage veg in the back (cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli, etc.) - stuff that's too big to keep in the front but we eat every week.

First drawer is lunchmeat and cheeses. And corn tortillas.

Second drawer is more delicate produce... and whatever other produce I can get to fit.

Third drawer is protein... and whatever produce I can get to fit if I can't fit it anywhere else (usually the brussel sprouts).

The door is packed too. Milk, condiments, broth concentrates, pickles, and H's tea and half-and-half and sometimes juice for me. There used to be chocolate in the door as well, but H asked me to toss/donate all of it a few weeks ago. I was thrilled when he asked me to do that because I thought it would give me more space, but there's just still so much.

I'm doing something wrong. I'm not throwing away a ton of food every week (I've reduced our food waste to almost nothing), but it still takes me an hour+ to put groceries away every weekend... and I don't have room for healthy food prep for me 😮‍💨
I need someone to come KonMarie my fridge 😩

We have what used to be a normal sized fridge when I was growing up but small for 2024 and it is hard to fit meal prepped food because it’s so bulky in the containers.

We have produce in the produce bins but they can’t fit normal things like celery and huge heads of cabbage or cauliflower so that has to go on the shelf. The top shelf is condiments and things like Costco sized Better than Boullion, salsa etc. Raw meat is pretty flat so that fits okay on a shelf. Eggs we stack on the corner. Dinner leftovers in Pyrex. Dairy takes up most of a shelf. In the winter we leave cabbages and cauliflower on our uninsulated enclosed porch and that helps free up space but it’s tight.

We could fit a couple more small Pyrex bowls in there but not a week’s worth of anything for two people.

We did have a larger “modern” fridge for a few years that fit more but it broke and we downsized to a more basic fridge. Honestly we have less food waste now because there is no far back for things to get stuck in and forgotten, our current fridge is shallower. It’s a trade off.

It sounds like your fridge is on the small side for 2024 too, even just a a cubic foot or so makes a big difference in capacity.

[jennistarr1]

SwimDeep,

an overly full fridge also stresses me out

the condiments on the door...I recently did a purge and basically threw out everything that's past the "best buy date" or I couldn't read the date. Still my husband bitched about a mustard. It's too much though...seriously three shelves of random bottles

also, the to go containers. For the most part we eat our leftovers but there is some crap we bring home, like french fries, where I'm like "WHY?!?"

[campermom]

livinitup I made the mason jar salads this week.
Layers: Greek dressing, English cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, roasted peppers, artichokes, Kalamata olives, romaine lettuce, topped w feta.

I added a hard boiled egg for a snack and I keep Everything but the bagel seasoning in my lunchbbag.

Have you all tried the Oikos Remix Greek yogurts?? They have crunchies and s’mores flavor is SO GOOD I look forward to this all day.

[mommyatty]

I love mason jar salads! My favorites are Greek and taco. For the taco, I put in corn and black beans and that one is so filling.

If it ever gets colder here, I’m a fan of soup, and I really love the easy black bean soup at Salt and Lavender. www.saltandlavender.com/easy-black-bean-soup/ In fact, I haven’t found a soup on that site that I haven’t loved. So good!

[mcmel]

Soup
Spaghetti
Chili
Summer sausage, cheese, crackers
Paninos
Tuna and egg salad
Breakfast burritos
Steak bites

[liverandonions]

Follow StayFitMom.com - she does 5 day meal preps in small containers and a lot are good - this one was really good but she posts several good ones.

stayfitmom.com/spinach-artichoke-chicken-orzo-bakes/


The other Social media account I follow for good meal prep recipes is Makayla Thomas
makaylathomas.com/

[liverandonions]

Also, I can't eat the same things 5 days in a row and i live near my sister, so we have started each making one 5 day meal and sharing it so we can mix it up between the 4 adults, since we usually have other leftovers from dinner we can eat too.
So, if you can find a friend to make meals with it helps not get stuck with the same meals every day.

[fluffycookie]

I pouched some chicken on Monday and have been making chicken salad - a little mayo and dijion mustard with garlic powder and salt and eating it with mini pitas, a cheese stick and grapes this week. It's really good.

[meanie]

Lunch is always an afterthought that I have to squeeze in between meetings, as much as I would like to have an actual meal it's usually stuff thrown together.

I mostly eat some variation of the below:


Shredded chicken and add toppings (usually cheese, salsa, avocado)
Deli meat wrapped with cheese or whatever dip we happen to have in the fridge
Cottage cheese on rice cakes
Refried beans with cheese and salsa

[picksthemusic]

Anyone make those Dense Bean Salad recipes? I have things to make my own versions but my ADHD has paralyzed me into not making them yet. I need to do it before my veggies go bad haha