Hand Lunchables Playful Pantry

Hand Lunchables

daddydoug 13 years ago

I can't think how to make this a cute and clever challenge. My new workplace (a game company) has no cafeteria to speak of and no walkable restaurants nearby. I don't like to spend the time and money to drive somewhere for lunch, and sammiches from home are getting old fast.
So the challenge is to come up with nutritious, tasty, homemade but low-maintenance lunch items. A fridge and microwave are available, but I'd rather spend my excess lunchtime playing games than waiting for my turn at the microwave. So the ideal foods require no refrigeration or heating. Drinkable is fine. Fruit is an obvious choice, but I like my lunch to be a treat, to bite in and think OMG, I'm glad I took the time to make this instead of buying some garbage out of a machine! Keni's Little Miss Muffins immediately made the top of my list.
I guess that's the challenge then. Healthy, delicious, make ahead lunch items, no reheating, no utensils, that will make passing co-workers stop and say "Wow, where'd you get THAT?"

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kittens 13 years ago said:

To us it was called leftovers. If I was fixing dinner for the four of us, I always fix a little more or another serving. I made Swiss Steak, which I might add is totally awesome. What was left over I put in the fridge. My purchased my husband all sorts of Thermos food carriers. A big mouth Thermos for soups, stews and such. A snakker 8 ounce wide mouth Thermos for fruit or desserts, And sandwich boxes for breads and flat smashable things. So on a typical lunch. He had a deep sandwich box that I used for salads and a little 5 ounce cup for dressing. Let's say I made jello with some fruit at night. I would pour some in h is 8 ounce dessert Thermos and put it without the tipin the fridge to set,. Whatever we had for dinner, I would heat and fill his soup Thermos. If I had no leftovers, I would fill with something, like spaghetti, or mac and cheese, he really loved vegetable beef soup, and Beef-a-roni. He had 2, large size, large mouth, soup or entre Thermos, In one I would put some baked beans or even pork and beans and in the other I would put a couple of hot weiners and put two buns in a sandwich bag. Next, peel, or don't peel an apple and cut it into wedges and drop them into a glass of lemonade or orange juice. Let them sit for a few minutes and with thongs, remove and drop into sandwich bags. The Vitamin C of the j uice will keep the apple from turning brown. Just takes a little pre-planning and keeping your lunch in mind when dinner is being fixed. My husband took his lunch in a cloth bag about the size of a brown paper grocery bag. A Thermos of cofffee or hot chocolate, a hot entree, a side of salad or bread or maybe a roll to go with the hot entree, fruit and dessert. Plus he always had me add a couple of danish for a morning break and an afternoon break. And if you're wondering he weighted 165 pounds his whole life. Never gained or lost and ate like a horse. Just because you're fixing a sandwich, it isn't stuck with using a plain old slice of bread. Use criossants, Kaiser rolls, French Bread, ONion Kaiser Rolls. Get some Artisan bread and slice it the way you want. If you fry some chicken for dinner, fry an extra piece or two and make a fried chicken sandwich, In the entree Thermos I'd probably put some mashed potatoes and gravy. With that, a salad in the salad dishand don't forget the dressing and a piece of fruit and some jello or pudding for dessert. Or some cookies to dumk in your coffee for dessert. Make some muffins and put one of those in. A sandwich is the least thing that should be considerred for a lunch pail. Well, I guess I have pretty much over done it with t hese suggestions. But, I hate to see anyone settle for a sandwich for lunch.

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keni 13 years ago said:

awesome idea.... and yeah, this IS a challenge.... to get anything that's hearty enough to call it a meal but is still good at room temp is tough!:)

I'm on it, though...might take me a lil time to come up with something else, especially during the holidays, but count me in!

And....welcome, Doug!

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otterpond 13 years ago said:

I make my lunches for work but I always use the microwave and I have a mini-fridge in my office. So I'm a bit stumped on the interesting and room-temperature thing but I'll give it a think. You sure got a lot of very good specific techniques from Kittens.

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kittens 13 years ago said:

How about a French Dip sandwich. Fix the roast beef sandwich on a French roll then put hot broth in your soup Thermos.

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lovebreezy 13 years ago said:

@ DaddyDoug, in a toy factory (ok, I know it’s different from a game company but it sounds cooler) … is that as fun as it sounds?
@ Kitten, what a wonderful answer. It has also been a challenge to me with the no heat - no cool situation. Thermoses are great but never thought about the small wide sizes. I have found that you pretty much need quality thermoses though. I am going to keep this thread to remember your hints.
This is a good idea, Doug so... Sort of related: I have several times needed to ‘bring a dish’ to gatherings and wanted something that required no heating or cooling. Other than a crudités, fruit or chips & dips, I don’t have many ideas.

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kittens 13 years ago said:

Out of curiosity I filled the small 8 ounce Thermos container with ice cream, packed it down tight and then set it in the freezer, without the lid. NExt morning I took it out, added it to hubby's lunch and he said by lunch time it had started to soften just a little. Some where between hard ice cream and soft serve. And if you are going to take something cold in the little ones, put it in there if possible and put it in the fridge or freezer, minus the lif. With Thermos bottles, there isn't anything you couldn't get to work for lunch and with no spoiling worries. Just make sure it is very hot when you put the lid on. Heat up a can of chili, put it in the soup Thermos, insert a couple of hotdogs, screw on the lid. By lunch the hot dogs are hot. Either eat it out of the Thermos or send along a disposable or picnic plate and a hot dog bun and you can construct your own chili dog. Throw in a fruit salad or green salad some sliced peaches or jello and that is an awesome lunch. Don't think abou;t it as fixing lunch, consider it as you re fixing dinner and let your imagine run wild. My husband said he got teased terrible about his lunch. The guys he worked with would run over and get a hamburger and coke and there he sits eating Swiss Steak, Potatoes Au Gratin, green salad and apple slices. They all told him many times they were going to steal his lunch or ask would your wife adopt us. Then when he told me that, it got to be a challenge. Just how far could I go. My husband loved it.

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daddydoug 13 years ago said:

Thanks for the ideas so far... I'm a real flavor junkie so my goal is to try to make gourmet and minimalist meet in the middle. Any kind of Thai food automatically trumps the no-utensils rule. I wonder if Thai coconut chicken would work in a thermos?
@ Lovebreezy -- yes, it totally is as fun as it sounds. Friday I was quietly working late in my little cubicle when I overheard some people talking about paying some guy $1100 in cash to decode some encrypted software they had on a disk. Knowing that they were unaware of me, I was wondering what kind of shady business deal was going on. When I peeked over the partition it turned out to be some guys sitting around a table playing some kind of spy game.

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gkwillow 13 years ago said:

Think this recipe might qualify as a "Hand Lunchable." I made it tonite with a pork chop that was leftover from the baked pork chops I fixed yesterday.
Savory Empanadas Picadillas/saved

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