What is for lunch today?

[Just Joe]

I wonder which one of these threads will be the longest - dinner?

As I mentioned in the dinner thread - I am a good planner of many things - but food is not one of them. I'm looking for ideas. Would love to hear what you will have for your mid-day meal favorites.

[ducky19]

I always bring a spinach salad, usually have carrots, cherry tomatoes, cheese, and ranch. Today I have a pouch of Herb & Garlic tuna, then celery and peanut butter for dessert. Usually my lunches for the week will cost around $5-6 total.

[Lookilu]

I usually bring a salad, but today it's chorizo sweet potato skillet leftovers https://www.budgetbytes.com/2014/06/chorizo-sweet-potato-skillet/ and an apple. And possibly some grapes.

[Livingthedream55]

Salad with some cannellini beans and all the usual veggies on top (I make a big salad on Sunday so family can use it for lunches all week) - I keep a couple of bottles of salad dressing at work refrigerator. Banana.

[tryingtosave]

I bring a salad 4 days a week. With grilled mini sweet peppers(the colors and sweetness help with the otherwise bland leafs), grilled zucchini, little cherry or grape tomatoes, cucumbers, then the meat I switch it up between turkey, chicken, beef, tuna, etc) Top it off with some shredded cheese and then a few drops of my sriracha dressing.

[I'm a red panda]

Leftover pot roast.

[Gimesalot]

Left over red beans and rice!

[Kiwi Fuzz]

Lentil and eggplant lasagna, 1/2 cup of roasted sweet potato (skin on, no oil or salt) and a small granny smith apple. The recipe linked makes 9 servings so I'm having this all week. It's delicious.

[mamagoose]

Baby carrots and Aldi hummus with seltzer water.

[lizzzi]

Bean and cheese burrito made from scratch. Raw cucumber slices, pepper slices, baby carrots, mushrooms, black and green olives. A little hummus and guacamole for the vegetables. Glass of milk. Everything purchased at Aldi.

[swick]

I work from home, so grab whatever happens to be in the fridge that need eating.

My husband gets leftovers every single day. Just not always the same leftovers. Whenever we do something like a stew, shepherd's pie, curry, or anything that freezes well, I'll portion out a couple of portions, label them and freeze them. Then it is a matter of asking the night before what he is in the mood for and pulling it out. It really helps break up the idea of "leftovers"

Usually, to his lunch we add a piece of fruit and if he is working late a salad to tide him over till he gets home.

[RobinRobinRobin]

Tabbouleh! Cheap, quick, healthy and delicious.

[galliver]

For the 4th* day in a row, this: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/100593/chicken-noodle-salad-with-peanut-ginger-dressing

I made a bucketful on Sunday to use up leftover chicken. It was better the first time. ;)

Also a banana.

*one of the days it was dinner, but I'm still tired of it.

[LindseyC]

My lunch is usually leftovers from the previous nights dinner along with a few fresh veggies. Today I didn't have leftovers to eat, so I had cottage cheese, an orange, some raw almonds, carrots, beans and some hummus to dip! Healthy, and quite delicious.

[davef]

Turkey pit pie leftovers.

[prognastat]

I had 1/2 cup(dry) long grain white rice with 3 oven baked eggs with runny yolks mixed/scrambled in along with a little soy sauce, mirin and rice seasong as toppings mixed in. Usually I just do the rice and eggs with some salt but I tried the toppings and it was a nice change from the usual.

[Noodle]

This week, it's leftovers from a Budget Bytes casserole: https://www.budgetbytes.com/2016/10/beef-mushroom-country-casserole/  plus a piece of fruit.

[Lookilu]

My husband gets leftovers every single day. Just not always the same leftovers. Whenever we do something like a stew, shepherd's pie, curry, or anything that freezes well, I'll portion out a couple of portions, label them and freeze them. Then it is a matter of asking the night before what he is in the mood for and pulling it out. It really helps break up the idea of "leftovers"

We do this at our house too, except that I don't bother to label anything. We refer to the frozen meals as 'freezer surprise.' :)

[Step37]

Turkey noodle casserole with Panko topping (thawed from after Christmas) plus an orange and apple.

[PJ]

My husband gets leftovers every single day. Just not always the same leftovers. Whenever we do something like a stew, shepherd's pie, curry, or anything that freezes well, I'll portion out a couple of portions, label them and freeze them. Then it is a matter of asking the night before what he is in the mood for and pulling it out. It really helps break up the idea of "leftovers"

We do this at our house too, except that I don't bother to label anything. We refer to the frozen meals as 'freezer surprise.' :)

I don't label either ... I can tell close enough, usually, that's it's not really a surprise ;-)  It's rice, or pasta, or some kind of soup, or tomato sauce.

Though I did recently defrost a mason jar of liquid that was not rich or tomato-ey enough to be sauce, that had a little bit of rice in it, so couldn't have been plain broth, but not enough rice or other additions to be soup - and of course, I had no memory of having stashed it in the jars (yes, there appears to be one more!)  So maybe I should label after all.

(It made a pretty nice base for a soup-y stew dish, so whatever it was, it was pretty yummy!)

[marty998]

For the 4th* day in a row, this: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/100593/chicken-noodle-salad-with-peanut-ginger-dressing

...

*one of the days it was dinner, but I'm still tired of it.

For the 6523rd workday in a row. A cheese and vegemite sandwich or roll.

Can you tell I like them? :D

(I'm not kidding... literally 25 years I've been having them almost every day. Never get tired of it)

[alewpanda]

Salad and leftovers, or leftovers, or a wrap.


I think today will be a wrap...

But seriously, its whatever I can scrounge out of the fridge.  I'm either terrible at planning lunches, so when I do, they never actually pan out, or our lives and schedules are very unpredictable (which, they are), so my best laid plans always end up leading to waste.  So, I plan...but only like a day or two in advance.  And I make sure I have "emergency rations" of soup or frozen meals on hand just in case.  Or its simply fruit, raw veggie, sliced cheese (for protein), and a salad for our lunches.

[tightwaddy]

I usually bring a salad, but today it's chorizo sweet potato skillet leftovers https://www.budgetbytes.com/2014/06/chorizo-sweet-potato-skillet/ and an apple. And possibly some grapes.

This is one of my favorite recipes--so easy!  I use brown rice that I partially cook in rice cooker first instead of white.

[I'm a red panda]

Can of tuna, 10 ritz crackers, 1/2c green beans, 1 cup broccoli

[spots]

Beef stew with potatoes, carrots, celery.  My wife cooked up a large pot on Monday and it gets tastier as the week goes on!

[PJ]

For the 4th* day in a row, this: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/100593/chicken-noodle-salad-with-peanut-ginger-dressing

...

*one of the days it was dinner, but I'm still tired of it.

For the 6523rd workday in a row. A cheese and vegemite sandwich or roll.

Can you tell I like them? :D

(I'm not kidding... literally 25 years I've been having them almost every day. Never get tired of it)

My maternal grandfather ate the same thing every day for lunch too.  Toast with peanut butter and a processed cheese slice on top. 

Every day.

Salad and leftovers, or leftovers, or a wrap.


I think today will be a wrap...

But seriously, its whatever I can scrounge out of the fridge.  I'm either terrible at planning lunches, so when I do, they never actually pan out, or our lives and schedules are very unpredictable (which, they are), so my best laid plans always end up leading to waste.  So, I plan...but only like a day or two in advance.  And I make sure I have "emergency rations" of soup or frozen meals on hand just in case.  Or its simply fruit, raw veggie, sliced cheese (for protein), and a salad for our lunches.

Sounds to me like you do plan - your plan is to have soup, a frozen meal or veggies/cheese/salad for lunch, but you're flexible enough to change your usual plan when something else presents itself, like the fixings for a wrap.  :-) 

Now, doesn't that sound like a better way of thinking about yourself?

[galliver]

Homemade Bento box with sushi rice, wilted kale, omelet, and grilled salmon.

Improvement on yesterday's mac& cheese cup, apple, and yogurt. (Went camping this weekend and hadn't grocery shopped yet...worth it!)

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[moof]

Leftover red beans and brown rice with a little broccoli and cheese.  I am trying to get myself to immediately dole out lunch sized leftovers as I serve dinner so I can just grab a lunch on the way to work each morning and avoid ending up eating out at lunch as much as possible.

[otter]

Braised lamb shank and (persian) jeweled rice, left over from a dinner. Yum.

[NV Teacher]

Chicken and rice I cooked in the Instant Pot a few days ago with green beans and an orange.   Since I brought enough for two days I'll be having the same thing tomorrow too. 

[I'm a red panda]

Leftover chili poured over broccoli with some cheese.

[Vindicated]

I'm really good about eating leftovers at home, but I ALWAYS forget to bring them to work for lunch.

Lately, I've been buying bread, peanut butter, jelly, bananas, protein bars, and raw almonds.  For about $30, that'll feed me for 2-3 weeks.  The almonds last a month +.  The bananas I have to replenish every week.  I'd say I'm spending $10/week.  I'm not a very picky eater though.

No, not super healthy, but I'm not picky.

*Disclaimer* I fell off the bandwagon last month, and ate out for lunch for 2 weeks straight.  Wasted $50+ :-(

[Raenia]

Leftover bean soup, plus a few chicken fingers liberated from a coworker who bought lunch and was going to throw them out because "they looked funny."  They were delicious ;P

[Anje]

I generally make enough dinner for 3-4 meals. 1-2 dinners, the rest for lunch.
Yesterday I ate chili con carne for lunch. Today I will eat tofu broccoli stir fry. Tomorrow it's potatoe leek soup with cod.

[Aggie1999]

Brown rice, pinto beans and some sausage from the freezer. All cooked in a crock pot on Sunday. Good for around 5 single person meals. I suck at cooking. Beans and rice is pretty hard to screw up. Also supposed to be pretty good for you (probably not the sausage but that gives it taste).

[rebecca527]

I just joined this forum and this is my first post because I love talking about food and meal planning. Lunch today was "refried" beans (cooked in the crockpot and mashed) with brown rice, frozen corn (toasted in a pan with a little cumin and paprika before being packaged into lunches), a little jack cheese, salsa, and half an avocado. Yum. Made a big pot of the beans a while ago and froze portions of them to use in tacos and whatnot.

[PJ]

I just joined this forum and this is my first post because I love talking about food and meal planning. Lunch today was "refried" beans (cooked in the crockpot and mashed) with brown rice, frozen corn (toasted in a pan with a little cumin and paprika before being packaged into lunches), a little jack cheese, salsa, and half an avocado. Yum. Made a big pot of the beans a while ago and froze portions of them to use in tacos and whatnot. 

Sounds great!  Though why stop at half an avocado ... I would have eaten the whole thing!  (Mmmmmm, avocado!)

Welcome to the forum!

[mudstache]

Aw, the joys of working from home (at least, until FIRE!)!  Today was pea and mushroom risotto in the Instant Pot, with a homemade caramel mocha to prepare for an afternoon of meetings.

http://www.instantlydelicious.com/blog/mushroom-and-pea-risotto

[galliver]

Spaghetti w/ red sauce and ground beef (and parmesan).

Fun story: the sauce started as roasted peppers/onions/broccoli that came out a bit soggy and weren't being eaten. I said let's have pasta and throw these in the sauce. Put them through a blender, added some tomato sauce and paste and ground beef, had pasta. And had leftover sauce. But not enough for another pasta night (of course...). So last night...let's make pasta and sauce again...peppers, onions, ground beef, tomato sauce, leftover sauce, and parsley. We're done after this though ;) Seems ill advised to keep recycling.

[geekinprogress]

Sauteed tofu (flavored w/garlic and worchestershire sauce) with a mushroom/onion/vegetarian gravy, and a side of cinnamon-cardamom-honey brussels sprouts & walnuts.  Lunch tomorrow will either be the same thing, or some leftover pizza.  :D

[I'm a red panda]

Can of tuna mixed with a tablespoon of miracle whip; 10 ritz crackers, and an apple.

[matthixson]

Since I only do butter coffee for breakfast I usually make a brunch of some sort for lunch. Check out my Instagram for examples.

https://www.instagram.com/matthixsondotcom/

 -Matt

[Rural]

Had a friend over and made a Vietnamese fried rice with tofu and lots of veggies.