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Saturday, February 14, 2009

Brown Bagging It

With John's recent schedule change, we've been having some meal issues lately. He goes in around 6:30 a.m., eats lunch as he's working, and then gets to be home a lot earlier, usually around 3:30 or so. Which is REALLY nice. But we've run into a problem. He's not home for breakfast or for lunch, which means I need to send something with him for these meals. If I don't, he winds up eating what they have at work and trust me...it's not pretty. Ick. I have never been good at packing lunches and certainly not breakfasts. Poor John might wind up with a PB&J and a banana everyday. Help! Ideally, I'd like to get it packed the night before and try and stay away from processed foods as much as possible. He does have access to a refridgerator and microwave. He's also got a mini-crockpot at work. I know some of you are very creative when it comes to meal planning. Care to share?

Does anyone have any good ideas of what to send with him for breakfast and lunch? What do you send with your husband/children?

~A

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

a few things you can make in preparation (such as on a sunday evening) for breakfast are things like:
ham and cheese croissants, homemade. you can make the croissants out of homemade dough, bake it and then once cooled ad the ham and cheese inside. he can warm these up in the morning. you could also do morning sandwiches like eggs and sausage (again homemade) with tortillas that he can throw in the microwave. my friend steph (fitnessbarbie on the blogroll) has a great recipe for homemade granola bars that you can premake, wrap and put in the fridge.

for lunch i typically like to eat things that are cold because my hot meal is in the evening...weird i know...so you could make in advance things like tuna/pasta salad. for warmer things, i have found that a chicken casserole recipe i adore actually tastes better the second day around, so you could make that for him and he could warm that up. if he's a sandwich guy, you could grill some heavy bread into a panini the night before, pack it with the food inserts, and he can warm it up at lunch.

i hope these ideas help!!

jenifriend

Erika said...

I like to make my own homemade frozen burritos...black beans, corn, salsa, rice, etc. It can be thawing all morning and then microwaved for lunch.

Carmen said...

I have made some "hot pocket" type things that can be frozen and are really good. You can create variety with the filling you choose to put in them. Our favorite is the breakfast variety with scrambled eggs, sausage, and cheese. Dried fruit and nuts are always a favorite around here too. It sounds like you could even send him with things I know you tend to make and freeze...muffins, pancakes, etc.

Erica said...

We used to make sausage, egg & cheese bisuits for road trips overseas. You could even mix these up the night before and wrap them in foil, then pop them in the oven in the morning for hot breakfast treat on the go. (I don't know how well eggs freeze, so I'm not sure if you could freeze these.)

I've been making my own yogurt recently in the crock pot and you can easily put it into small containers, add some fruit and granola for a tasty easy breakfast on the go.

As far as lunches, these are things that can be frozen and easily popped into a lunchbox
*Calzones are always a fun treat
*Mini pizzas
*Soups (if we have leftovers I'll freeze them in single portions for Marvin's lunches)

Other Ideas:
*Hummus cut up some veggies & pita.
*Wraps, sometimes a good change up to Sandwiches
*Pasta Salads, throw in whatever you like, meat cheese and veggies.
*If I make a bundt cake I'll cut up the pieces into indivual slices and wrap them up with plastic wrap and then freeze them. I just pull one out at put it into Marvin's lunch box.

Oh and don't worry about those recipes. I do know you are pregnant and have 3 other children. You are sweet for remembering.