Lunches for work

[daisy_jam]

Hey hey.

Tomorrow I start my first day at work. I'm doing waitressing at this fancy hotel, however they don't provide lunches for staff, so I need ideas for lunches. I LOATHE bread, any types of bread I will not eat, same with any type of dairy products. I'm really fussy but I love food!

Thank you

[Thinking]

I thought you are having your first day of job today! I must have remember it wrongly. (opps)

Well, are you vegan? Maybe some vege fod will work well for you I guess? I don't really know since I am not that picky on food

Anyway hope you will do well with your job. Remember to get enough of rest and eat well before you work!

[Starseeker]

Hi,
I agree that vege food might be a good idea! I'm thinking about some kinds of salads. Besides that I personally eat lactose-free yoghurts since I'm allergic. Have you tried those?

Sue~

[Chai.]

Hey,

I usually just put together a sandwich because it is so easy. Since you have said you don't like breads, I was wondering if you mean flat breads also? If you like any kind of flat bread, you could put together a wrap or two. You could experiment with flat breads to see which you like because I know a lot of people who don't eat breads but like flat breads.

I also take salads a lot of times. I realized that a plain vegetable salad would not helps much because I'd be hungry again very soon. So I make pasta salads, noodle salad, chicken salad or sprout salad. I sometimes add fried paneer in the salad but since you don't like dairy, you could try tofu, maybe.

Do you like rice? A fried rice is easy to make. You could also look for more one pot rice dishes that are easy to make, online.

I am not sure how helpful this was. Good luck for your first day at work.

[Celyn]

Good luck with work!

I think good lunch alternatives to sandwiches could be salads, pasta salad, or pasta based foods like Bolognese. And when the weather gets colder, you can try things like soups etc. either microwavable or kept in a thermos flask.

[Kintsukuroi.]

I'm going to copy my reply from another post but add a few things onto it!

I'm vegetarian and two of my siblings can't have dairy and another is lactose intolerant so it's easier to make them all things without dairy. None of us are massively fond of sandwiches either so we never make them for lunches. The only one who likes them is my brother but he can't have any nut butters at school so we never do them. But rather, we will sometimes send leftovers or make something new for lunches and then send a piece
And fruit, I always cut up fruit for me and my siblings for lunches/snack break. They get daily: an apple (either sliced or cubed depending on who), oranges (either mandarin or navel) or a grapefruit, strawberries, kiwi, pomegranate, pineapple, and a melon of some kind. (I do this the night before and toss it with some lemon juice to keep the apple from going brown) and make a fruit salad sort of. They can eat some this at their nut break or save it for lunch.
I also will send them with some kind of granola bar (we usually make our own or for a special treat like once every two weeks they get a cliff z bar) or dried fruit or a homemade fruit leather.

Now onto some food ideas:

(If there is milk, it is usually cashew or some other dairy alternative)

Buddha bowls: I usually do lettuce, kale (baby it's not as tough), spinach, collard, watercress, mushrooms, cucumbers, peppers (red, yellow and orange), broccoli, carrots, tomatoes, brown rice or quinoa (depending on what I'm feeling like) and then roasted chickpeas (I make a big batch in the oven with herbs and spices and a dash of coconut oil and that way I don't need to make them every day) and sometimes I will cook up some tofu.

Salads: I usually just throw in veggies and sometimes some vegetarian chicken strips and such, my siblings favourites are brussels sprout and kale salad, chickpea lentil radish salad, kale edamame and quinoa, pomegranate salad, strawberry spinach and quinoa salad, ect.

Zoodles, spaghetti squash, ect with either homemade pesto or tomato sauce (usually from dinner left overs) or pasta with roasted veggies (like peppers, tomatoes, brussel sprouts, ect)

Wraps: lettuce, kale, spinach, mushrooms, watercress, alfalfa sprouts, shredded carrots, sliced tomatoes, cucumber, pickles, tofu and some dressing (we use this semi local greek dressing that has no dairy in it that I think you can buy online) or sometimes we will use one that we made or falafel wraps (we make our own falafels but you can buy them), collard green wraps with sweet potato and chipotle black beans, beetroot leaf And yoghurt flatbreads, ect.

Soup/chilis: Minestone, black eyed pea soup, butternut squash, bean, black bean and sweet potato chilli, ect (I can give recipes if you would like)

Smoothies: I like putting things like kale, spinach, celery, strawberries, ect with chia seeds with coconut youghurt and kombucha.

Muffins: We make muffins with applesauce, flax seed, fruits (depending on the type like banana or apple or carrots) with no eggs or dairy and very little sugar. You can do muffins with non dairy alternatives as well. (Again I can give you recipes if you want lol)

Pancakes: This sounds weird but my siblings love bringing pancakes for lunches with berries or jam or very rarely, syrup. Their favourites are green smoothie pancakes sent with a side of either strawberries, raspberries or blueberries (we buy loads in the summer and freeze them so when we melt them they have this syrup sort of so they don't need to use syrup), apple protein pancakes with chopped apple with cinnamon and lemon, oatmeal pancakes with berries, or just protein pancakes with berries lol. Again, I can give recipes if you want lol.

Burritos: beans, rice (brown, sometimes spanish rice), lettuce, veggies, salsa.

Pizza: usually leftovers but things like pizza with a cauliflower crust (it really is good), eggplant pizza crust (like sliced and then topped with sauce and toppings), ect,

Croissants are also an option. Umm, if you like banana/zucchini bread you can make that as well.

[daisy_jam]

Oooh thank you for all the suggestions and ideas. Ive been having soup lately, but will be making more variety this week!

[Always *]

I usually make enough food for dinner to have enough left for lunch the next day. It actually drives me completely crazy when people bitch about eating "leftovers" but can't be bothered to make a separate lunch the night before or whatever (aka no sympathy from me). Not that you're doing that though. Any ways, I usually have chicken, left over pasta, stuff like that. And I supplement with "sides" of fruit, veggies, smoothies, crackers, granola, etc.

I also do things like making crock pots of chili or soup to bring for lunches. I freeze stuff like this too so that if we run out of linch food then there is something easy to grab.

Since you're 18, I'm not sure what you're living situation is - if you're at the whim of parents who buy the food, if you have roommates and limited fridge/freezer space, etc but I'm sure you can stuff find ways to make do.

[Eternal]

I'm vegan so you can obviously add stuff I don't, but lunches I've been packing usually include some kind of starch such as rice, couscous, or occasionally quinoa (it's not environmentally friendly so I try not to buy it), some kind of vegetables which can really be anything like a salad, or baked sweet potatoes, or a stir fry, and then a fruit. I have a bento box which has one big compartment, and two small ones which is handy so I can keep everything together.

Yesterday I brought fried rice, steamed broccoli, and apple slices. Today I'm bringing a kale salad, some baked sweet potato with cinnamon, and some fresh summer rolls I made myself. I find it helpful to use my big rice cooker and make a big pot of rice that will last me a few days, and then I also cook some dried beans in my slow cooker for the week, but you can used canned if you like beans. And then I just pick up a few vegetables to include as well. As for fruits, I usually eat bananas or apples because they are cheaper. Sometimes grapes. Cooking bigger portions of simple foods like plain rice can also help for making quicker dinners when you get home.

I always recommend Pinterest for meal ideas, that's what I used in my transition to being vegan and it was really helpful. I still use it for meal ideas, and I'm sure you can search for lunch ideas for work on there.

[daisy_jam]

Thank you! I've been making wraps, salads, vegetable lasagne and potato bake with some sort of protein with it. So far so good! Thank you for all your suggestions