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I have one of those freebie insulated lunch bags complete with the hospital name that I tote to work daily. Fage 2%, fresh fruit (changes seasonally...now I'm on a clementine kick) and something sweet like a piece of good dark chocolate or Kashi chewy trail mix granola bar. The rumors you hear about hospital coffee are all true...so I drink tap water as my beverage!

I pack my lunch almost every day with either leftovers from the night before. Or some kind of salad, part of my regular rotation, a greek salad with chick peas, tarragon chicken salad. In the winter i like to make a big pot of soup on Sunday ans stack the fridge with lunch size containers.

My boyfriend and I are trying, since the beginning of this year, to bring lunch as often as possible. He could eat the same thing every single day with no problem, whereas I get depressed over turkey sandwiches two days in a row. But we've done pretty well recently roasting a chicken at the beginning of the week and parsing it out over a few days' lunches and dinners.

I made chicken Banh Mi sandwiches on hefty rolls that came out very good, and pasta salad was good for a few days. My favorite though, was yesterday: we met in the food court of the mall (too cold for the park!) and sat down to share a salad. The guys sitting next to us kept looking at it and making comments about how good it looked. "Where'd you get that?" they asked. I told them I made it and they offered to buy it. HA!

i pack lunch and snacks on most days. i use ziplock bags and ziplock reusable plastic containers yesterday's lunch was a container of raw carrots, cut up raw rutabaga, and jicama, a container of roasted brussels sprouts from the night before, a container of pomegranate seeds, a satsuma orange, and a roast chicken sandwich on homemade challah. if i'm going to be out all day, i'll also bring some walnuts and some dried fruit.

I usually only bring lunch when I feel guilty about how badly I've been eating. I brought lunch today. 2 Apples, a hunk of cabot cheddar, a whole-wheat sandwich with peanutbutter and banana. Pretty tasty.

I bring my lunch at least a couple days a week. It ranges from leftovers to bento attempts to days like today, when I opt for a bit of nostalgia with grade school PBJ, carrot sticks, and individual-serving applesauce.

(There are some ideas here that look great, though -- I think I'll try some of them!)

Everyone had lots of great ideas of what they bring. I really like dinner leftovers. Like an artichoke and hummus to dip it in, since it's great cold. I also really like grain, pasta or rice salads. That is a whole meal with a piece of fruit on the side. So, I'll make up an extra big batch for dinner and then make sure I can take it the next day. Varying sandwich ingredients can really help. Different types of cheeses, pb&j, different types of breads, spreads, veggies are all great. You could have a sandwich every day of the week and not eat the same thing. I've always been big on bringing a lunch. You always know what's in your food, you save a ton of money, and your lunch break is that much longer since you didn't have to stand in line for it. Just takes a little planning the night before.

I've always brought my lunch to work. I don't know how people can afford to go out every day. I usually have leftovers (moo goo gai pan today-nothing like leftover chinese) or a sandwich and round it out with yogurt and fruit. I pack everything the night before and while I get tired of the routine, I remember how much it costs to go out and dig a little harder into the fridge.

Leftovers :D

I'm not disciplined enough to prepare a lunch ahead of time. So I end up taking one lunch break about every 1-2 weeks to go "supply shopping" for all the groceries I need to make my lunch at work. My most frequent fallback is kindergarten-style apples and peanut butter.

And (when I remember) I'll bring a Tupperware container full of leftovers.

I bring food from home 90% of the time, of which the majority are dinner leftovers - homemade or restaurant. If we have no leftovers, I usually go with easily prepared foods like yaki soba and pad thai. Bun thit nuong, beef stew, chili, and curry hold up well sitting in my office, since people steal food out of our work fridge. >

Oh, and my lunch is carried in a plastic grocery bag that I typically reuse until the end of the week, after which it is used as a bathroom rubbish liner.

One of my favorite lunch salads is tabouleh: it's fresh, filling and low in fat and calories. I'll usually pair it with some prosciutto and whole wheat crackers, fresh cheese or some baked chicken. The only drawback is that my whole offie is often filled with the smell of green onions. I love 'em in my tabouleh, but they're kinda unprofessional!

I typically grab snacks throughout the day since I don't usually get an hour free at work. On the rotation have been...

- greek yogurt with a touch of honey
- baby carrots/celery
- fuji apples
- string cheese
- clementines

I cook a medium/large batch of soup or stew at the beginning of the week, freeze 2 and then alternate with the previous week's soup for my main "meal" around noon-1pm. This week, it's chili with 2 types of beans, corn, peppers, onions, etc. Last week it was butternut squash soup with some yogurt pureed in for a bit of extra protein.

I also eat breakfast at work; I cook steel-cut oats with a bit of almond milk and dried cranberries in the crock pot over the weekend, freeze and bring to work.

the ziploc screw-top containers are a godsend. They don't leak, stack in the freezer fairly well and can stand up to the microwave.