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The Lazy Girl’s Guide to Packing Lunch

Call me crazy, but there’s something almost soothing about packing children’s lunches … all the little containers, and bite size bits, snugly tucked into a brightly coloured lunch bag. And yet, this does not translate at all to the act of actually packing a lunch for myself.

There are countless good, solid reasons for me to pack a lunch: there is no convenient lunch spot near my work, buying lunch is expensive, I need the time to work-out (and instead eat at my desk), and last but not least, I can’t stand line-ups. But, with all these reasons, I still don’t manage to pack a lunch more than two days a week. So I either fork out for a lunch or I do without and survive on coffee.

Now, although I have titled this post “The Lazy Girl’s Guide to Packing Lunch,” I have likely misled you. Did you think I’d actually have all the answers? Oh no, my friends, that’s what I need you for!

Here’s the deal: I’ve discovered one great tip, which I’ll gladly share with you … but then, please share with me all the tips and tidbits of wisdom you have on this tedious subject so that I can finally get my act together! Promise?

Okay, here goes…. A couple of weeks ago, I noticed these new packets of soup in the deli section of my grocery store. They are upright, zip-locked bags of organic soup — enough for two lunches. So what I’ve been doing is buying a few and putting them in the fridge at work. I can empty half into a bowl, heat it in the microwave and leave the other half in the zip-lock bag for another day’s lunch. The company name is Happy Planet and the flavours I’ve tried so far are: Moraccan Chick Pea, Tuscan Tomato and Thai Coconut. My fave is the Thai Coconut so far.

Comments

  1. How’s this for lazy? Just NEVER GO BACK TO WORK. Oh, that was meant to be funny but now I’m depressed. Not really — my husband travels a lot, my youngest child is now in full-time school but somehow there’s just still so much crap to keep on top of. I’m currently taking courses towards my library tech diploma and working in the school library one day a week. Thai Coconut…mmmmmmm.

  2. I am not the expert here (have no kids yet and am working from home) BUT you could make/buy salads that you like – coucous, chickpea, pasta, etc, and store them in the fridge in containers for a couple of days too.
    I’m all about packing up leftovers to take in for lunch!

  3. Hey Julie! I bring a lunch four days a week as well as two snacks a day, every day.

    On sunday afternoon/evening, I cut a block of cheese into one ounce pieces, or cut sliced cheese into squares and slap them in five small baggies with some crackers. I do the same thing with kashi berry crunch cereal. I take one of each baggie along with one of my frozen tupperware containers to work every morning. The melting tupperware keeps the cheese cold, so I don’t need to use the gross office fridge.

    What do I bring for lunches? This week I’m having pot roast, mashed potatoes, and peas. I bought one of those maple leaf pre-cooked thingies, some pre-made mashed potatoes, and a can of peas. Took about, um, 14 minutes to cook and slap into some storage containers.

    Next week I’m having curried chicken chili, which is a one pot wonder that makes seven or so lunches. Most of the mothers I know bring leftovers from the night before.

    Good luck!

  4. And on the subject of soup, have you tried the “Nile Spice” line of soups. They are thick, delicious, natural and packed with fibre and other good things. I always try to keep them on hand at work for those days when the option of packing a lunch just didn’t work out for whatever reason. You can get them in the organics section of Superstore and periodically they go on sale. Their website is http://www.nilespice.com

  5. Neat, thanks for the tip!

    I use to buy my lunch everyday when I was a teacher because I was going from places to places and didn’t have access to a fridge nor a microwave.

    I now pack lunch pretty much everyday and save so much money! I usually make big salad and eat it all week long. I don’t mind eating the same lunch pretty much everyday. Weird, I know.

  6. I pack my lunch actually almost every day! I have not great pearls of wisdom beyond leftovers, leftovers and more leftovers!!!

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