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leftovers from the night before......

I will also be following this thread for ideas because I am SICK to death of PB&J! Thanks for the post!

i cook a bit extra and put it aside before serving dinner so that there will be leftovers for my husband to bring in the next day for lunch.

I myself bring in a stock of snacks to last me all day. Usually items like this:

1. whole grain English muffin w/ almond butter & honey
2. Fage 2% Greek yogurt
3. fruit (these days, kiwi or berries)
4. homemade granola bars
5. handful of almonds

I find it easier to have these little snacks, and I also only pack myself a certain number of calories for the day so I know I'm not going to overeat.

Stirfried noodles or fried rice are very easy too and you can make enough for a couple days' worth of lunch.

in addition to making enough food for dinner so that you have leftovers, I also combine a lot of snacky things into a meal. Keep stuff in the office fridge like string cheese, yogurt, granola, hummus, cut& washed veggies (prep at home and bring in), edamame, nuts etc. Oh, and lots of fruit! mrsbao seems to be on the same wavelength :P

Have you tried the Kashi Frozen meals? I just had the Lemongrass/Coconut Chicken and it was soooooooooo good.

At the hospital where I work at, the food is too salty for me, but it's a good option for most people since a lot of the food is organic and/or from local farms, as well as a section of the cafeteria that serves Canyon Ranch resort menu items. All dishes in the cafeteria have nutritional facts cards. 1-2 years ago, they banned trans fat on campus too, with the exception of McD - which doesn't affect me since I don't eat that crap. We even have a farmer's market stocked with locally grown farm products. The cafeteria often sells gifty Amish items too. :P

I usually bring food from home that does not require the use of a refrigerator (cleanliness and theft issues). I'm not afraid of leaving steak leftovers, mayo, etc. in my office to eat 6-7 hours later - so I pretty much take ANYTHING for lunch that either my husband or I cook.

As far as ease, I suppose yaki soba is pretty easy to cook and transport since there's nothing delicate, temperature sensitive, or spillable.

When I take sandwiches, I usually carry separate containers for the meat, the veggies, bread (unless I want to spend half my lunch to get artisan bread at the bakery at one of our cafeterias -- yeah, 30 minutes...10+ minutes to get there, ~10 minutes to choose and wait in line, and 10+ minutes to walk back), and condiments.

I only know of the ones in Massachusetts and Tucson, AZ...mainly because we can win a trip and 1 week stay there as a healthy lifestyle initiative. :)

I'm not an assembler or a refrigerator at work - I like things that I can keep at my desk and eat when I'm ready.

Lately I've been doing a lot of grain salads - quinoa or farro with veggies and seasonings. One of my favorites, that I don't do as often as I could because I'm not sure how healthy it is, is peanut butter noodles (which I'm sure has some real name, but we've always called it that.) I just use the Barilla Plus spaghetti instead of soba, with lots of sugar snap or snow peas, some carrots (which are never the right texture), green onions, and peanut butter/broth/soy sauce.

I also drink a lot of tea at work. It seems to keep me full and happy better than just water.

I don't work but I was really impressed by Emeril's new show on Planet Green, Emeril Green. The other day he tackled this exact issue.

He took a pork tenderloin and made quite a few main and lunch dishes with it. He did soup, salad, and sandwiches all with a pork tenderloin cooked once and many different flavors. I really liked that concept since you could transfer it to almost any protein.

If I worked I'd probably start making extra at dinner, and playing with leftover ideas much like Emeril did so that you get plenty of variety.

When I worked and didn't have leftovers to take for lunch, I'd grab a Lean Cuisine or Healthy Choice frozen meal that I'd keep in stock in my home freezer. (I like hot lunches.) Certainly not for every day because they can get a bit boring.

Here's an initiative that my office conjured up. We made a deal with a local Italian restaurant. They would deliver a variety of frozen homemade single-serving entrees like eggplant parm, different pastas, soups, etc. several times weekly. All ranged from $2 - $4 and were kept in our lunchroom freezer. It worked on the honor system (and I know this wouldn't work everywhere), but you put what you owed in a little cash box. It was great for when you forgot your lunch, or if you were craving some really good Italian. It was a win-win situation. The restaurant made money by packaging items that were leftover from the previous day, and we had the convenience of a hot, delicious lunch for very little money.

I don't have any way to heat food up at work or to keep it cold. I usually make some hot cereal in the morning and bring it in a thermos. Then for lunch I bring leftovers. A lot of stuff I make for dinner tastes really good cold too. Like soba stir frys and grains with veggies. I also love to bring some really good bread and cheese. Most times the longer the cheese is out in the heat with me the better it tastes by lunchtime.

I nearly always make too much dinner for my family (only two people right now), so there is always enough leftovers for lunch the next day. i make too much food on purpose.

at my old job, i took lunch every day (area was devoid of good lunch spots, and i didn't have a lot of money), and my new job is close enough to home that i just drive home for lunch.

i pack my lunch almost every day. i take a big container of cut up veggies, usually carrots, jicama, fennel, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, whatever looks good. another one of fruit, like strawberries, grapes, or clementines, depending on the season. i might bring a couple of hard boiled eggs, a small chunk of cheese and a few crackers, some nuts and dried apricots, a cheese sandwich or sunflower seed butter on toast, or leftovers from the night before.

At the vineyard where I work, a microwave is not an option. My favorite lunch is the following roasted vegetable salad made with:

Field greens or baby spinach
asparugus
summer squash
1 roasted red pepper
2 oil cured artichoke hearts
5 kalamata olives
scallions
shaved pecorino romano
simple oil, vinegar lemon dressing
quartered cremini mushrooms

cook thinly sliced squash and asparagus in a 400 degree with olive oil and salt/ pepper for 10 mins. Add all other ingredients and chop asparagus into bite size pieces before adding. add dressing when ready to serve

I like to put my lunch together at work, so I might bring the components of a chicken souvlaki (slices or chunks of cooked chicken, pita, tzatziki sauce, lettuce and tomato).

I also like cottage cheese and melba toasts. I mix fresh herbs and pepper into the cc, schmear it on the cracker, and add sliced tomato on top. Sometimes I bring a sidecar of pepperoncini.

A nice home made fruit salad rounds it out.