searching for a cheap lunch

[to_love_a_rose]

I'm trying to bring my lunch to work every day, to save money. I'm looking for recipe ideas that

a) can be served cold since I don't have access to a way to heat up my food.
b) don't have processed meats in them. (Ideas for how to use left over chicken, pork, etc. would be great, but I don't eat commercial lunch meat.)
c) are quick to prepare.
d) have veggies in them.
e) can be transported easily. (I take public transit to work, so things that pack light and small are important.)

I like healthy foods, and love tofu, and I try to avoid processed foods when I can.

Ideas? As a thank you, I offer up one idea that I came up with the other day.



Ingredients:
- large tortillas
- hummus
- assorted veggies (lettuce, shredded carrots, diced tomatoes, shredded cabbage, cucumber slices, bean sprouts, etc.)

Toss the tortilla onto a large cast iron skillet or microwave it for about 10 seconds to soften it up. Spread some hummus onto the wrap. Add your veggies. Wrap it up. Enjoy.

Comments

[azurehart]

You can make food wraps with any left over cooked meat. I don't eat red meat, but I like to make lunch wraps with left over roast chicken.

Just put the sliced chicken on a tortilla with shredded lettuce, cheese, tomato, and a little onion. It can be heated up, but it's just as good cold.

Another quick, easy, and healthy alternative is to just take yogurt and fruit for your lunch. I often do that and find it to be a filling, easy, and cheap way to bring lunch from home.

[indeliblesasha]

http://theawesomemommy.blogspot.com/2010/04/not-your-grandmas-chicken-salad.html

This is my go-to recipe every time someone is looking for portable and variety. I think I may update the post to reflect even more options I've come up with.

You can halve a bell pepper and stuff it with the salad.
Use eggs instead of turkey or chicken.
Use plain yogurt instead of mayo, add a little cucumber, and scoop up with pita chips.
Wrap it up in large romaine leaves.

The possibilities are kind of endless. :D

[stripped]

Do you ever eat red meat? If you have leftover steak wraps, pairing that with tomato, lettuce, and a bit of blue cheese on a wrap is yummy and quick.

My favorite veggie sandwiches from the local co-op are a great alternative. Spread whole grain mustard on a good bread. Add layers of sharp cheddar cheese, shredded carrot, sprouts, thinly sliced cucumber, tomato, lettuce, thinly sliced radish.

One good hint that costs money up front but saves it in the end is a vaccuum pack machine and a bunch of containers (not the bags -- they bruise tender veggies). Then you can buy lots of lettuce, wash and chop it, and pack it in the vacuum containers until you need it. Same with cucumber slices and radish or turnip slices. Makes it easy to do a lot of prep in one evening, then just grab and reseal the containers in the morning.

Something else you might want to look at are making frozen pinwheel sandwiches. Cheese and veggies on a wrap, roll, cut like sushi, then place rolls in a single layer on plastic wrap, wrap it up and freeze. They make similar things in processed food, designed to defrost with a few hours outside of the fridge/freezer. And those have the added advantage of not needing refrigeration during the day, too!

[trouble]

You may be successful in the community batchlunch. :)

[brigid]

Oh, neat comm. *joined*

[geeksdoitbetter]

spanikopita

layers of phillo, wilted spinach, feta cheese

optional: diced onion, oregano

[willidan]

Pasta salads are a great, simple lunch. Just cooked pasta, assorted veggies and/or left-over chicken/turkey and voila! cold, easy, tasty lunch. (Sorry, I have no recipe, I just throw stuff together).

And don't forget chicken/turkey/tuna salad. Eat it with a fork or fold it in a wrap.

[leanne]

http://www.justbento.com is full of ideas. (:

[swordage]

I was just about to recommend looking into bento lunches! They're usually designed to be unrefrigerated and unheated.

[sibyllevance]

don't have processed meats in them. (Ideas for how to use left over chicken, pork, etc. would be great, but I don't eat commercial lunch meat.)
Out of curiosity because I'm not familiar with the concept - what do you call processed meat?

[to_love_a_rose]

Things like processed lunch meats, chicken nuggets, patties, etc. I don't eat any fast food meats, try to avoid pre-cooked supermarket meats. They all tend to be high in sodium and preservatives. I also aim for organic, vegetarian-fed, cage free, etc. Basically, I have no problem with killing animals for food, but I have a huge problem with them being badly treated beforehand.

[sibyllevance]

lunch meats, chicken nuggets, patties
Oh, I see. I guess I was confused because I find the taste of a lot of 'processed meat' really terrible and therefore I don't eat that.

[holyschist]

Pasta salad!

Cook pasta

Mix up:

Plain yogurt
A little mayonnaise
A little mustard
A dash of Worcestershire or soy sauce (not too much, especially with W)
Canned or leftover salmon or cooked chicken
Veggies

Combine and eat. It's good warm or cold.

[via_ostiense]

mapo tofu can be made vegetarian and tastes fantastic that way, and it can be eaten at room temperature.

Chinese stir-fries and Japanese cooking are also good at room temperature. Washoku, by Elizabeth Andoh, is a Japanese cookbook with lots of amazingly delicious recipes, and most of them can be made the night before, refrigerated, and served at room temperature the next day: tonkatsu, ginger-braised eggplant, curry rice, and hijiki salad. If you make rice, it shouldn't be refrigerated, as it become dry and mealy. It can stand at room temperature for at least a day, and possibly more, depending on how humid and hot your environment is.

[pennyplainknits]

It can stand at room temperature for at least a day, and possibly more, depending on how humid and hot your environment is.

Really? I'd always heard the major non-meat related cause of food poisoning was leftover rice?

[via_ostiense]

My family leaves it in the rice cooker for up to three days, and I made rice on Monday for lunch for this week. However, we also live in an exceptionally dry climate.

[via_ostiense]

So, some googling shows that you're correct, and leftover rice kept at warm temperatures presents a risk for food poisoning (British Chinese forum). Refrigerated rice is nasty, though, so it's up to the OP as to how she wants to balance food safety precautions and taste.

[pennyplainknits]

Absolutely, I just wondered if I had needlessly been throwing away rice all this time

[via_ostiense]

Upon some more reading...it looks like rice-related food poisoning happened mostly in the '80s at Chinese restaurants that would make enormous batches of rice and let them sit overnight for making fried rice the next day. Maybe it had to do with the quantity of the rice they were using? Restaurant-size rice batches are so large that they'd retain heat for much longer than home-size batches, providing ample heat and time for bacterial growth.

Incidentally, refrigerated rice is perfect for making fried rice, so if you have leftovers, they can go in the fridge or freezer.

[shesews]

I like to take my leftover rice, chicken, and veggies, and stir-fry everything in the morning, then pack it into bentos. If everything is bite-sized when put away the night before, it's a 5-minute process in the morning, and makes for an amazing lunch, with none of the icky-leftover-rice taste or mouthfeel. And, personally, I like fried rice hot, warm, cold, however I can get it, so it's fine right away or after a couple of hours for lunch.

[via_ostiense]

I love fried rice!

[amalnahurriyeh]

My pasta salad is Newman's Own Italian salad dressing, romano cheese, scallions, peas, carrots, maybe celery, all over salad. Could obviously have leftover meat added. Best if it sits overnight, so v. good for lunches.

I like hummus and fried kale sandwiches.

Sliced fried tofu makes a good sandwich filling. I also make tofu salad, out of frozen-then-thawed tofu, mayo, chopped celery, carrots, and pickles. It's delicious.

But, really, I eat a lot of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Sometimes I mix it up and make peanut butter and apple slice sandwiches? Or PB & fresh blueberries?

[redsnake05]

Have you tried peanut butter, mango slices and dessicated coconut, all wrapped up in your bread? It's delicious (so long as the mango doesn't go too soggy)

[pennyplainknits]

How about Sesame Peanut Noodles, from Nigella Express? This makes 8 servings, but you can reduce as needed.

125g mangetout
150g beansprouts
1 red pepper, cut into strips
2 spring onions, sliced
550g cooked egg noodles

For the dressing
15ml (1 tbsp) sesame oil
15ml garlic-infused oil
15ml soy sauce
30ml sweet chilli sauce
100g peanut butter
30ml lime juice.

Whisk together the dressing and pour it over the veggies and noodles, using your hands to combine. Scatter with sesame seeds and chopped coriander


You say you can't heat things up, but could you invest in a vacuum flask? You could heat up soup at home and it might be nice for winter.

[tapas]

I was going to suggest something similar to this with soba noodles, tofu, shredded carrot, and diced cucumber. It keeps well and is good cold or room temp.

I also make a lima bean casserole that's good at room temp. A pound of frozen lima beans (no need to thaw), 1 biggish or 2 smallish red potatoes (halved or quartered and thinly sliced), 6 cloves garlic (peeled and halved or quartered if they're big), 1/2 C sliced green olives, 3 Tbsp olive oil, 1 tsp dried sage, 1 tsp dried savory (or thyme), salt and pepper to taste. Coat baking dish with half of the olive oil, combine everything in dish, cover tightly, bake at 375 for 50 minutes or until potatoes are done. Add more olive oil if it seems dry. (Adapted from Mollie Katzen's Vegetable Heaven.)

[rainbow]

summer rolls! leftovers of any sort (i love using leftover stirfry) wrapped up in rice wrappers. wonderful cold, and you can dab a bit of dipping sauce inside before rolling so you don't need to take anything messy separately.

[lassarina]

I, too, take transit to work, and my lunches are anything from a casserole I baked up (no, seriously, I do eat these cold, they're tasty) to stuff like a hardboiled egg, or salmon salad and crackers, or a tuna sandwich, combined with yogurt (plus fruit and granola), a fruit or veggie, and something sweet (I am lost without my chocolate.) Usually my lunches have a lot of small moving parts because it helps keep me from getting bored with eating it all week if I'm just eating small bits of lots of things I find tasty. It all fits, including the can of soda, into a little lunchbox I bought at Target a while back, including the ice pack.

[zellieh]

Money-saving tip for water: use an old water bottle, half-fill with water, freeze overnight (upright, or with neck high and bottle as close to 45 degrees as you can get it) and fill to the brim with more tap water the next day.

Instant cold water, which stays chilled for several hours, and which can also double as an ice-pack to keep your lunch chilled.

Add variety by adding cordials or juice to flavour the water if you get bored with plain cold water. It's especially useful if (like me) you don't particularly like the flavour of your tap water, but don't want to ruin the environment and/or waste money on evian.

Lunch tip: salad veggies of your choice, with home-made vinaigrette; you just need a very small screw-top jar to take to work with you, and you can use any vinaigrette recipe you want -- there are hundreds -- with just oil and vinegar, plus flavourings of your choice. Pour the ingredients into the jar, and shake to mix -- takes no more than 5 minutes, and you don't even have to shake the jar if you're travelling on public transport -- the bus/train/tram/whatever will do that for you!