Bringing your own lunch to work?

[Kaitlyn]

The general question - what do you bring for your lunch?

Recently I've been eating out just about every single day, and that gets expensive! Unhealthy too, when I find myself w/ burger+fries, subway, mcdonalds, pizza, etc...

I've always grown up with a pretty unhealthy diet and I'm quite picky, so I often find it hard to eat at certain places or certain types of foods.

Hope some of you could offer some suggestions for bringing foods to lunch or help spark some ideas!

Thanks guys! :)

[Jucius Maximus]

I keep my lunch to a minimum of labour:

Usually two pieces of fruit, and a meat sandwich.

For the meat sandwich I get the buns in bulk and also the meat. This week I got those souvlaki pork chops from costco, and cooked them all at once. Then I chopped them each in half because one is too much for lunch.

I individually wrap each one in seran wrap and put them all in the freezer. The buns are all individually bagged too.

So all it takes is 3 minutes to prepare my lunch: Pull 1 piece of meat from the feezer, put it in a zip lock. Pull one bun, already bagged. Wash 2 pieces of fruit and bag them. Put them all in the lunch bag and I am ready to go!!

[Evil Baby]

I used to make pitas, but that takes up some room. One container for the meet, one container for veggies, salad dressing, some tinfoil(to wrap the pita) and some salad dressing.

Nuke the meet, mix the dressing/veggies, mix the veggies/heated meet, throw it in the pita and wrap it, then eat it. so damn yummy.

[Keelie]

yogurt and sandwich, almost every day. i like to make a good sandwich, meat, cheese, lettuce/sprouts, on multigrain or wholewheat. i'm too cheap to buy lunch everyday.

if i have it i might take some nuts or trail mix to snack on.

[BongoBong]

I usually make enough food at dinner so that I can have leftovers for lunch the next day.

[gr8dlr]

Sometimes I'll have some of those ramen noodle packs at the office...all you need is water and a microwave. If I have small amounts of leftovers, I'll add them to my noodles.

Alternatively dinner leftovers turn into next day lunch.

Don't eat much sandwiches.

If I eat out, I like to go to the chinese food courts....fast food there is fresh cooked food.

[pigurd]

I roast a turkey or chicken and pull the meat off it, wrap them into individual serving sizes and then freeze them.

before i sleep, i toast up some bread till it is crunchy, then spread almond butter on one slice, miracle whip on the other. I then microwave the turkey, and let it cool down before putting it onto the bread.. finally slice up some cucumbers and cover the bread with cucumber slices... I cut the sandwich in half and wrap in wax paper... put it into the fridge and good to go in the morning... the toasted bread usually stays crunchy...

I also make a salad on the side and throw in some roast turkey into it as well... i eat bits of everything throughout the day with an apple, orange and some other fruit... chew on some flax seeds occasionally for sexy skin/arteries/joints

[Mulder and Scully]

Recently I've been eating out just about every single day, and that gets expensive! Unhealthy too, when I find myself w/ burger+fries, subway, mcdonalds, pizza, etc...

If you're eating fast food all the time then how exactly does that get expensive? Isn't fast food typically cheap? I budget $8/day for myself and 99% of the time never go over. If I spend $6 on a Monday, then Tuesday I'll have $10 to spend instead and etc. I would rather have the variety and freshness (I have a fridge and microwave, but no sink at work -- and there's only so much a microwave can do) from buying lunch everyday than all the pre-planning and prep work of eating the same thing from home all the time.

I get Chinese takeout (everything from rice dishes, noodles and food court combos), shwarma, fresh burger and fries, Thai, sushi, pasta, gourmet pizza, Indian, souvlaki, subs, salads, sandwiches, pho, burritos, etc. I end up going to fast food chains maybe only 3-4 times a month. I brought sandwiches almost every single day in my youth from grade 3 to OAC and I've been sick of it since. And as a single person I can't even finish a loaf of bread on my own before it goes stale. I can't eat the same thing every day. I eat fairly well, and it's much better than the same single slice of slimy ham and process cheese sandwich every day like I've seen some people bring to work all the time.

[nsd]

Initially sandwiches, but I got insanely bored of them. Nowadays I make random stuff like salads with whatever leftover meat I happen to have and some croutons. Unfortunately I have to skip the bread/rice/pasta (my absolute favourites) because they make me quite fat, but the lettuce fills me up pretty good. I do make a habit of eating out once a week to satisfy my cravings, usually on Friday (I do skip the extras though - no fatty side, no pop).

[...] I budget $8/day for myself and 99% of the time never go over. [...]
I'd much rather spend the $160 I'd save monthly on my hobbies, or something.

[wszeto28]

i bring lunch 3 times a week and buy twice a week... i find that its too hard to bring lunch every single day but its too expensive to buy food everyday...

you can always bring dinner leftovers or pack a sandwich... u cant eat sandwiches everyday but once a week is fine... buy 2 or 3 instant noodles and leave them in your drawer at work.

buying food can be expensive, especially if u're working downtown... the cheapest downtown lunches are probably 5.99 not including those BK specials.

[nsd]

i bring lunch 3 times a week and buy twice a week... i find that its too hard to bring lunch every single day but its too expensive to buy food everyday...

you can always bring dinner leftovers or pack a sandwich... u cant eat sandwiches everyday but once a week is fine... buy 2 or 3 instant noodles and leave them in your drawer at work.

buying food can be expensive, especially if u're working downtown... the cheapest downtown lunches are probably 5.99 not including those BK specials.

There's one place close to where I work that has chicken teriyaki for $5 after tax daily (with rice, noodles and coleslaw) - it's pretty good, but you can only have it so many times. My major issue is that I end up spending ~$1.75 on coffee daily, when we can have it for free in the office ...

[BongoBong]

If you're eating fast food all the time then how exactly does that get expensive? Isn't fast food typically cheap? I budget $8/day for myself and 99% of the time never go over. If I spend $6 on a Monday, then Tuesday I'll have $10 to spend instead and etc.

well 8 dollars is not a ton of money but you can make your own lunch for under 5 bucks very easily, and 3 plus dollars a day savings really adds up.

[EchoAngel911]

or else you can just go out every day but eat healthy ... ie subway food

The general question - what do you bring for your lunch?

Recently I've been eating out just about every single day, and that gets expensive! Unhealthy too, when I find myself w/ burger+fries, subway, mcdonalds, pizza, etc...

I've always grown up with a pretty unhealthy diet and I'm quite picky, so I often find it hard to eat at certain places or certain types of foods.

Hope some of you could offer some suggestions for bringing foods to lunch or help spark some ideas!

Thanks guys! :)

[angekfire]

For lunch, I usually just have a piece of fruit (usually an apple of pear) & a whole grain wrap with cold meat, honey mustard & cheese, and a bottle of water (brita, reuse the same bottle). Fridays I go to Quizno's for lunch, and that costs me about $10, but I see it as treating myself.

If you're eating fast food all the time then how exactly does that get expensive? Isn't fast food typically cheap? I budget $8/day for myself and 99% of the time never go over.

So, for the 4 days I do pack a lunch, I am budgeting way less than $8. 1 pack of wraps will last me 2 weeks (8 wraps/pack) and costs like, $5 maybe? That is $2.50/week, which is less tha $1/day. The cold meat is probably around $6/week, So like $1.50/day. The cost of honey mustard vs time it lasts is negligable in the long run, since it lasts me like 2 or 3 months, and costs maybe $3, but probably less. Cheese is like what $6 for 24 slices? That lasts me around a month, so ends up being like 25 cents/meal. Apples are also, lets just say $1/day.

So for my lunch in 1 day, I am spending ~$0.63 (wrap) + ~$1.50 (meat) + ~$0.25 (cheese) and ~$1 (apple). So my meal costs me ~$3.38. Lets round up to $3.50. Over your $8/day, I am saving $4.50/day just from that one meal. So, since I assume we both eat lunch at work 5 days/week, and one of mine is more expensive, For the 4 days, I pay lunch, I am saving $18/week more than you. Then I spend $2 more than you on friday, so each week, I am saving $16. 4 weeks a month, that is an extra $64 in my pocket.

[dereky]

Yes, I saw it right away, but whats the point in being rude about it?

Keelie

[EchoAngel911]

so flax seeds for the fountain of youth

I roast a turkey or chicken and pull the meat off it, wrap them into individual serving sizes and then freeze them.

before i sleep, i toast up some bread till it is crunchy, then spread almond butter on one slice, miracle whip on the other. I then microwave the turkey, and let it cool down before putting it onto the bread.. finally slice up some cucumbers and cover the bread with cucumber slices... I cut the sandwich in half and wrap in wax paper... put it into the fridge and good to go in the morning... the toasted bread usually stays crunchy...

I also make a salad on the side and throw in some roast turkey into it as well... i eat bits of everything throughout the day with an apple, orange and some other fruit... chew on some flax seeds occasionally for sexy skin/arteries/joints

[pigurd]

it is like that tree in the movie the fountain... you eat it.. then you become budda...

I need to bring my lunch, buying stuff... they dont give you enough protien... and i eat throughout the day, cant go buying things every 2 or 3 hours...

[EchoAngel911]

nooo, if you drink the sap, you become part of nature and live forever

I always buy lunch. It's too scary to stay at work.

I always bring my breakfast to work.

it is like that tree in the movie the fountain... you eat it.. then you become budda...

I need to bring my lunch, buying stuff... they dont give you enough protien... and i eat throughout the day, cant go buying things every 2 or 3 hours...

[mwong168]

I'm fortunate enough to have my lunch prepared for me every morning by my wife :razz: It usually consists of:

2 x Sandwiches (egg+ham or tuna or egg salad) or 2 x Grilled Chicken Breast
1 x Fruit Yogurt
3 x Fish fillet (I buy a bulk frozen pack of 30pcs from Costco for $18, lasts me 2 weeks)
1 x Fruit Salad (usually a mix of but not all at once lol apples, bartlett pears, asian pears, strawberries, grapes, green peppers, cucumbers, baby carrots)

I usually snack on my food every 2-3 hours and on top of this I bring a 4L bubba keg full of water which I finish by the day before I hit the gym.

I also keep a box of Nature Valley Granola bars in case I have a craving or itch for some junk food like chips or candy.

[Minh]

Man how do you guys eat the same thing everyday at work?

I can't stand it, i just take one of those microwave dinners and zap them at work. I also bring an apple or banana with yogurt. Recently i've found that the campbells soup at hand things are friggin awsome as a snack.

[happily_married]

i am very cheap for lunch too.

usually i will just cook a bit more for dinner then bring the leftover to lunch.

[angekfire]

chew on some flax seeds occasionally for sexy skin/arteries/joints

Flax also mimics estrogen in your body IIRC. Same with non-fermented soy products (such as tofu. Soy sauce is exempt). Enjoy your extra dose of female hormones.

[pigurd]

Flax also mimics estrogen in your body IIRC. Same with non-fermented soy products (such as tofu. Soy sauce is exempt). Enjoy your extra dose of female hormones.

haha.. i drink a lot of soy as well... but i dont mind, the estrogen makes my pecs look bigger...

[gr8dlr]

Sandwiches are not necessarily healthy nor is bringing pre-prepared foods,

Sandwich meats can be very high salt/fat/nitrates. Same goes for a lot of pre-prepared foods.

If health is of concern, cook much more than normal for dinner from "scratch" and pre-portion foods and freeze them - a FoodSaver/vac sealer is great for freezing pre-portioned foods. It also heats up very well and you won't get any freezer burn if you eat it in a reasonable time. If you don't want to Food Saver it, those Glad containers are so cheap now but you will get freezer burn a lot quicker than vac sealing.

Some ideas:

Buy a bigger prime-rib and you have roast beef which is ten times better than and sandwich meat. Take that prime rib and cut it into pieces and make a stew/soup/stoup (use Cambell's Vegetable Beef soup as your inspiration). Similarly, roast a bigger pork roast or a extra chicken and make a cuban sandwich, add some mustard and pickles (if you're good, put it on a baguette instead of Wonder bread.

BTW $8 a day is a lot for lunch everyday in my opinion.

[AV-Fishing]

Leftovers from the night before ....

Nuke it up and then sit at my desk ... surfing here .. haha ...

guess what? yeah that's right .... i'm eating my lunch now ....

[EchoAngel911]

haha.. i drink a lot of soy as well... but i dont mind, the estrogen makes my pecs look bigger...

i don't know if that is the only thing it changes ...

[EchoAngel911]

+1, how can you guys just sit indoor when outside is sunny

Man how do you guys eat the same thing everyday at work?

I can't stand it, i just take one of those microwave dinners and zap them at work. I also bring an apple or banana with yogurt. Recently i've found that the campbells soup at hand things are friggin awsome as a snack.

[funkyfr3sh_]

I’m a fan of “finger” foods (I do not really like sandwiches). Some of the things I bring (but I snack throughout the day so I do not eat everything at lunch) are:
- a BIG tub of veggies and hummus
- cheese
- crackers/pita
- Fruit - fresh and dried(banana, apples, oranges, grapes)
- Nuts (cashews, peanuts)
- Dry cereal like shreddies
- Endamame

Some probably would say it's not filling enough for them since it's missing protein.
It's not only the cost savings that makes me want to pack my own but also I know exactly what I am eating! A couple times a month I will go out and buy my lunch though.

[Spidey]

Always have, always will. MY lunches vary day to day, to leftovers from the night before, to whatever I can scrounge from the fridge. I forgot my lunch the other day and had to buy subway, I felt gulity spending $9.11 on myself like that. Guess thats just me

[comicbookguy]

i can't imagine buying a lunch everyday. for one, the price adds up for what i get. but i remember reading this very intriguing article (http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/09/24/is-the-value-menu-really-a-value-comparing-the-homemade-double-cheeseburger-to-the-mcdonalds-1-version/) about the cost of a homemade cheesburger versus the cost of a mcdonald's burger. basically, you can't compete on a price level with a company whose main business is making burgers. the savings from a homemade burger are negligible at best. while the article does prove a point, i think it would vary greatly depending on where you live and what you like to eat. there is also the intangible health factor.

in any case, i prefer to spend my money at the grocery where i know what i'm eating. i use allrecipes.com or kraft canada (http://www.kraftcanada.com/en/Pages/home.aspx) to find very simple and cheap recipes. the latter is especially good since they specify kraft products that simplify the cooking process. that's how i got started. i'm learning that cooking is a very useful, transferable skill for bachelors.

i buy food maybe once or twice a month if i didn't pack enough or if i was too busy to cook during the week. i seem to be in the minority at work though, everyone here buys a lunch. my assumption is they spend at least $6 to $8 a day on lunch alone.

[PrettyMao]

I forgot my lunch the other day and had to buy subway, I felt gulity spending $9.11 on myself like that. Guess thats just me

I have a hard time accepting the fact that it is impossible to buy lunch for under $5 these days. Those $6-7 meal combos make me cry inside.

For me it's last night's leftovers pretty much every day... It's just food; it doesn't need to do a song and dance for me.

[Spidey]

I have a hard time accepting the fact that it is impossible to buy lunch for under $5 these days. Those $6-7 meal combos make me cry inside.

For me it's last night's leftovers pretty much every day... It's just food; it doesn't need to do a song and dance for me.

I know what ya mean, thats why I take my lunch. I couldnt see myself spending that much each day on myself. Id always be thinking, I could of bought this or that with the money instead,

Another reason I bring a lunch is that I usualy jog at lunch, and when I get back, I dont want to have to worry about going somewhere and standing in line and wasting more of my time

[nsd]

Oh how I miss the u of t lunches at kom jug yuen. Bbq pork for only 4.30 ahhhh.

[Emancipated]

I know what ya mean, thats why I take my lunch. I couldnt see myself spending that much each day on myself. Id always be thinking, I could of bought this or that with the money instead,

Another reason I bring a lunch is that I usualy jog at lunch, and when I get back, I dont want to have to worry about going somewhere and standing in line and wasting more of my time

What do you do, Spidey?

I don't know a lot of profession that lets you go out for a job at their break and come back smelling pretty bad to boot.

I work in a kitchen but the food is god awful so I do bring my lunch. I can cobble together a pretty good meal for under $5 but depending on what it is, it can stretch out to cover two meals or more like loaf of bread and some cold cuts or chicken breasts and some vegetables, etc.

[grappos13]

i use to deicde on whether i bring lunch based on who i was working with, where i was working, etc..

when i worked downtown on co-op terms at pwc, i dont think i ever brought lunch, cuz all my friends worked downtown or the ones i worked with pwc as well, and none of them brought lunches... i usually include buying lunch as part of the whole downtown work experience and stuff...

with everyone else buying, i never wanted to bring my own, and i didnt want ti sit by myself and eat lunch at my desk for an hour, id rather go with friends and chill and talk and have some fun, old stories.. etc..

althought i would try to spend no more than $6 and i would always bring my own drink, whether it was a water bottle or a diet pop... so $30 a week for lunch.. not too bad id say... if u made like $20 an hr for a 7 hr day... thats $700 a week... take out taxes and ur left with around $500...id think about 6% of my after tax money to one meal a week is an ok ratio...

if i brought lunch, it was a cold cut meat sandwich on 12 grain bread, one fruit, one granola bar, 1 diet pop and a bottle of water..

[Spidey]

What do you do, Spidey?

I don't know a lot of profession that lets you go out for a job at their break and come back smelling pretty bad to boot.

I work in a kitchen but the food is god awful so I do bring my lunch. I can cobble together a pretty good meal for under $5 but depending on what it is, it can stretch out to cover two meals or more like loaf of bread and some cold cuts or chicken breasts and some vegetables, etc.

I have an office, do a wipe down, deodarant and body spray and done. Ive been here for over 2 years, and no one has said a word. Ive even asked people to be honest and they say I smell fine.

What offices dont allow you to excercise??

Im kinda lucky actually, when I sweat I really dont smell, at least until later at night. Its weird

[Mulder and Scully]

So for my lunch in 1 day, I am spending ~$0.63 (wrap) + ~$1.50 (meat) + ~$0.25 (cheese) and ~$1 (apple). So my meal costs me ~$3.38. Lets round up to $3.50. Over your $8/day, I am saving $4.50/day just from that one meal. So, since I assume we both eat lunch at work 5 days/week, and one of mine is more expensive, For the 4 days, I pay lunch, I am saving $18/week more than you. Then I spend $2 more than you on friday, so each week, I am saving $16. 4 weeks a month, that is an extra $64 in my pocket.

That assumes that you're eating close to the same lunch almost every single day, year after year. You don't get tired of that?

I've brought lunch before, I've done the sandwiches thing, the wraps thing, salads and leftovers -- for over 10 years. I got tired of it. I've also worked at places where they only had a mini-fridge too small to accommodate all the staff, microwaves that were either filthy or were too weak and sometimes not even a kitchen sink or bathroom soap to wash with. I also don't want to spend my entire day inside the office.

I've also done the math when I was bringing my own homemade lunches and I averaged $5/day. Some of us eat more than others. I also don't often buy coffee or lattes, but when I do it comes out of my daily lunch budget. And I work in downtown Toronto; I'm surprised I can still manage $8/day without having fast food all the time.

[UrbanPoet]

I eat the same thing everyday...
Pretty much
brown rice + chicken breast for lunch & dinner.

Sometimes there's variations.
e.g. steamed fish, steamed salmon, or extra extra lean ground beef stir fried with mixed peas 'n carrots.

I usually make about 3 days worth of rice + meat to eat throughout the day. It saves me a lot of time and is extremely healthy.

[gordholio]

When I worked at GO Transit in Toronto, I used to take a of bologna sandwich (actually, my sister was a vegetarian and it was the fake tofu bologna - she made my lunch) and a piece of fruit or two.
Anyways, since I worked in an office and not a job that takes much energy, it was fine.
Most guys here work in offices I'd imagine.
Why the need for a fancy or big lunch? Not a lot of energy is expended working in an office at a desk.
Sandwiches are pretty cheap too.