Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Packed Lunches for Adults

As my husband and I try to eat only real foods (see one of my favorite blogs 100 Days of Real Food), one of the challenges we've faced is packing lunches to take to school and work. The husband's office has a microwave, so he is frequently able to reheat leftovers for lunch. I, on the other hand, do not have consistent access to a microwave. And packing sandwiches day after day can be boring, hence all those blog articles out there about packing creative and healthy lunches for kids. I haven't seen much in the blog world about packing lunches for teenagers and adults though, which inspired this new series, "Packed Lunches for Adults". I will try to document my packed lunches and share them every few weeks to help inspire you to pack healthy, money-saving lunches. I'm hoping this will inspire some more creativity in my food too!

Here are the first three lunches I've photographed (I have a lot to learn about photographing food too...these are often snapped as I'm heading out the door though, so hopefully the quality of the images will improve as I get more practice!)

 Lunch #1: Turkey sandwich on homemade bread, plain yogurt with lemon curd and blueberries, fruit salad and trail mix

 Lunch #2: Leftover steak sandwich on homemade bread, mini peppers, fruit salad, trail mix

Lunch #3: Turkey & cream cheese wrap with peppers inside, fruit salad, trail mix, sugar snap peas, crackers


You'll notice I take trail mix every day. It's a great addition in case the day goes longer than expected because it can pack a great protein boost. My trail mix is always changing based upon what I have on hand. Typically it includes one or two kinds of nuts, raisins or dried cranberries, chocolate chips or some mini candy, and other dried fruit. This current batch also has some dried coconut in it.

I also always include a bottle of water, which typically gets refilled throughout the day.

Do you pack your lunch for work? If you have any tips or ideas for packing healthy, real food lunches for kids or adults, please share them below!



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2 comments:

  1. Very soon my packed dinner struggle will begin, although I'm going to save jars for layered salads and just got a whole bunch of new Tupperware

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    1. I think the hardest part with packing healthy meals is staying on top of the planning. I do so much better when I get going on Sundays making lots of jar salads, pre-packing the yogurt and fruit, even pre-portioning out my nuts or trail mix. Then in the morning it's just grab and go.
      (Your new tupperware is nice, saw it on Sat.)

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