Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Do you ever pick up one of those pre-cooked chickens? You can do a lot with those. Slice the bigger portions of meat for sandwiches. Cut the chunkier pieces and add to a salad. Get yourself some salad to-go containers with a cooler compartment and dressing container built in. You can make up several salads ahead of time on Sunday for the first few days of the week and fill in the rest of the week with sandwiches. And be creative with your salads - add fruit, nuts, cheese, eggs. Or just take fruit, nuts, hard boiled eggs, chunks of cheese, cut up veges.

I would definitely second soup and invest in a good thermos. There are so many different kinds, and if you make a pot of it over a weekend you can reheat it every morning. If you get bored easily and have the space, you can make two small pots over the weekend and alternate them.
Souphack: If you fill your thermos with boiling water and let it sit for a few minutes before you add the hot soup, it will stay hotter longer.

me too, me too! I'm in the same situation. I need food, and lots of it, so this is what I do:

I try to make a pot of rice and portion it out for a few days. I'll eat white rice and sauted vegetables, or I'll make some kind of stew to go with the rice. Its very filling. If I have left over rice, I freeze it until I have some accumulation of left over rice to make vegetable fried frice.

Fruit : I always buy fruit. Anything thats on sale. Whole pineapples, melons, berries, etc. I cut up fruit, portion it, and its a great and filling snack.

Yogurt: I guy a tub of plain yogurt and theres lots you can do with it. I usually just blend the yogurt and some fruit and have it as a smoothie or just eat it as yogurt. You can do this on the weekend, and it will keep for a couple days without any problem.

Make a pot of chili and you can portion that and eat with rice, chips, bread, or just by itself. I also do this with soup.

Snacks: Ive been making a lot of pita chips. I can season it and flavor it anyway I want, so I have a variety. Cut up Vegetables are of course always great. I keep some at work, and just take it with me when I leave for school. Lessons the morning load. I keep packets of oatmeal, nuts, crackers at work. I try to eat late in the afternoon, and I find that I will be less hungry later on. Sometimes I'll just go home and eat a piece of fruit or some yogurt and I'm good. I also made some sundried tomato and basil hummus. you can eat it with crackers or spread it on a bagel. It will keep in the fridge for about 5 days. With the left over chick peas, I made a bean salad. When cheese is on sale, i cut that up, portion it into little zip lock bags and it makes a good snack for me.

We have a bunch of busy searious eaters here, i see.

You could make a veg lasagna on the weekend and portion out to your freezer (assuming you can get to the microwave at some point during the day). As for fitting in a tiny freezer, you could wrap each portion in wax paper and then put in a sandwich-sized freezer bag to cut down on space (then put each portion in a sturdy-ish tupperware so it doesn't get smashed in your bag).

Count quiche and other egg-dishes in the casserole category (though it might be better in the fridge than freezer). It's an easy, cheap way to lay off the meat without sacrificing your protein. Also, most are still yummy without reheating.

Along with the other fruit/nut/snack combination suggestions: hummus. Very easy to make, very yummy, can be eaten with other easy-travel foods: veggies, bread, bagel, etc. I also made hummus once subbing in black beans for garbanzos - YUM. You could keep it in your tiny fridge in a large enough zip-top bag and then put in tupperware for when you leave for the day.

On the weekends, you could also try making granola (or just using store-bought) and add stuff you like for a trail-mix snack. I do this in an empty (cleaned out!) tahini tin and it travels well.

go with a black bean salad which is filling and also will keep for longer time. all you need is can of black bean, cup of corn (i use frozen corn - thawed), half of onion diced, maybe 2 roma tomatoes and some cilantro. salt and pepper to taste and then use about 1/2 a cup of Newman's Balsamic Vinegerette dressing. This is super easy and will keep for a week.
You can also do veggie fried rice ( i use frozen mixed veggies or whatever you have on hand) or veggie fried noodles.
You can also do BLT sandwiches. Make the bacon on Sunday, take a tomoto and some lettuce with you and when ready make your sandwich on the spot.
Same goes for wraps. you can put whatever to make your wraps.

It is time for you to join costco. Buy in bulk and make some stuff ahead of time. The Husband likes to bring lunch 4 times a week. From costco produce and bulk packs I make some great lunches. It is well worth the time and the money to join.

I bring tostadas and various toppings, usually beans and cabbage. I'll set the beans in the crockpot the night before and they are done in the morning. I'll chop up a whole head of cabbage and use half of it on the beans and the other half I'll make coleslaw with. It's filling and cheap.

Tuna salad, rice salads - check apartment therapy kitchen, they just posted a handful of great recipes that would probably get you far. I know you said you're tired of pasta salad but how about soba noodle salad with peanut dressing? Thai green (or red) curry with veggies and sliced meat (if you're on a meat day) reheats beautifully.

Nthing that rotisserie chicken thing. I eat it once as is, the next day I break it down for enchiladas or quesadillas and then it becomes bones for stock.

Chickpeas are amazing too (bittman just did something on them that looked YUMMY and check orangette.blogspot.com) - and they taste good warm.

I'd say also - look into Indian food. I know cost is an issue but you can get good, low cost spices from penzeys.com and once you have them, they last a good while. I say Indian because it seems to me to be not that fussy. Chana masala, dahl - all of those things are low cost and delicious.

Good luck!

I like to make a big batch of buckwheat noodles up when I feel energetic, good amount of protein as well as carbs for energy. I can then add whatever tickles my fancy, usually I eat them cold with a peanut butter sauce, and lots of sprouts.

TJ's stuff is good, but tends to be high in sodium - so mixing with fresh veggies and brown rice or something can be a good way to cut down on cooking time without having a heart attack.

student here too, i try to make a big batch of something on sundays and then have leftovers the rest of the week - i rely a lot on chili (i make mine vegetarian and with lots of vegetables; if you buy pre-cut veggies the prep is cut down a ton), casseroles/kugels, pasta with vegetables or pasta salad, and asian stir fries with either rice or noodles. i try to make sure i have a protein (usually tofu or beans), vegetable (usually multiple - makes it more interesting and makes me feel healthier), and complex carb (usually brown rice) in each.

it usually takes about an hour or two to cook everything on sunday, and then i'm set for most of the following week - and i end up saving money and feeling healthier (because otherwise i'd probably be eating pizza and falafel most days), so it's worth it.

I'm a full time student+full time employee too, except I school days and work nights... Having sworn off eating expensive, salty, and gross food every day on campus, my recent lunch projects include:

1. big pot of brown rice and a big pot of red lentil dahl with tomatos and spinach. This would also be really good with chopped hard-boiled egg on top. (If you pack the rice with the dahl in tupperware as soon as you cook it, the rice doesn't go dry in the fridge. Also, this takes no serious prep: you just have to pop into the kitchen every now and then.)

2. cold potato-vegetable salad: cooked small new potatos; lightly steamed bell peppers, asparagus, and zucchini, chopped fresh green onions; yogurt-dill-mustard dressing. (This was so delicious that I ended up eating a bunch of it out of the pot as soon as it was done so I only had enough for 2 days of lunches. This would *also* be great with chopped hard-boiled egg... I love eggs.)

3. Veggies and dip with a hardboiled egg. I make the dip from yogurt, cottage cheese (for substance), and various herbs and spices (curry is soo good, for a while I rocked this with just black pepper and salt.. mmm). Serve with a baggie of crackers. (More eggs!)

(Also, I like to keep a little it of really nice chocolate in my bag... you know those $5 organic dark chocolate bars with espresso or chili in them? I wrap a chunk in saran wrap and tuck it in my purse. Nothing's better when you're 12 hours into a 15 hour day and you realize that there's some candy in your bag. I can't carry the whole bar because I have pretty serious willpower issues.)

i dont like meat much but i love to cook up a big pot of beans or lentils and freeze them in individual portions in small freezer bags. that way you can freeze them flat and it takes up less space (dont know if you have a freezer).. then i pull out a bag o' beans and make bean burritos or lentil salads. i even freeze soup in small freezer bags and grab them in the morning before work. so conveniant and no trouble at all if you just portion out any leftover soup.

my friends and I found ourselves in a similar situation but were getting bored with making a big pot of something on sunday and eating it all week so now we've started to exchange lunches, like kids on the playground. We're still each just making the one pot of food, but we get to eat different things everyday.