Contrary to what my posting may indicate, I do still work! Sorry I’ve been withholding my packed eats from you guys. I have only been taking pictures of 50% of them, though, so here’s what I’ve got. Hope this helps you with some ideas!
Oats. Veggies. Pretzels. Sabra hummus (x2). Lasagna (leftover). Cookies. Apple. Candied ginger.
Oat preference as of late: nuts, cinnamon & dried cherries. When the cherries soak overnight they plump up to get to be the size of full cherries. It’s pretty cool.
Now that we are meal planning, my real real focus is on making big enough portions that they can last throughout the week for lunches. It’s easy with crock-pot soups and casserole/pasta type dishes, but not so much for big salads.
This one is Kyle’s. I have been packing his lunches because that way I can make sure he’s getting a nice well balanced veggie diet.
The only real difference between his and mine is the presence of cheese. That and his morning meals are savory. Grits with parmesan and tomatoes, for example.
Here are some other work lunches that I photographed…I can’t remember if they were his or mine since we eat so similarly now.
This sandwich had Sabra hummus and Falafel Republic falafel. On bread of course. I layered hummus on each side and then kinda semi crumbled the falafel (I used ~3-4 per sando). The hummus holds the falafel in place.
Ok, this has string cheese, so it’s obviously Kyle’s.
Home-made trail mix. Kyle’s obsessed with it. I make it differently each time. Cereal. Chocolate chips. Nuts. Dried fruit. Etc.
Silver Hills The Big 16 bread is a new fave (when I’m not making my own). It’s soft like the high fructose crap bread, but it’s got the ingreds of healthy hippie bread.
After months of plum jam, I’m on the very last of my mom’s freezer jam reserves. Crap! I better get home to steal some more soon. Anyway, this is an apricot jam from 2011. It’s a thick batch and I’ve been pairing it well with all kinds of nut butters.
Above: Artisana coconut butter (I had to microwave to get it melty first)
Below: Home-made peanut butter with Artisana cashini butter
Oh look, another milky bowl of oats.
With dried cherries and nuts and a whole lotta almond milk.
This is clearly and end-of-the-week hodgepodge salad. Kale, roasted butternut squash, tomatoes, and some planet raw leftover sides.
I’ve been buying these Harvest Sensations kale salad bags lately, but the cabbage has been bothering me lately so I’m going to go back to just buying kale.
This is Kyle’s raw burger that he didn’t want to touch.
I pretty much ate them all mixed together. The raw nut-based patty was okay. The flax bread was meh. Not exactly the crouton effect I was looking for.
Another leftover lunch repurposed.
Tomato quinoa soup served as the sauce. Kyle’s is the pasta one, mine’s the quinoa one.
Then I added salmon to his and vegan home-made meatballs to mine. Sorry I can’t reveal the recipe for that one – it’s not mine to share.
Daaaaamn was this good.
I’m pretty sure these meatballs would be excellent apps for a party, served on a toothpick with some kinda of tomato dip. Or maybe made into a burger patty.
Kyle enjoyed his too. And he got his omegas.
Meatball quinoa thing. Kale salad. Oatmeal. Banana. Cookie. Pretzels. Veggies.
Kyle’s breakfast was different than my oats. He had a brie & jam sandwich on sourdough.
So fancy.
For snacks, I simply gave him this whole bag of Sahale parmesan cheese & herbs crunchers and said have at it.
Even though there are four servings in this bag, I suspect it will only last him one day.
Sahale sent me this whole package and since I called dibs on all the rest, I figured I’d donate the dairy-ified item to his lunch.
I’ll let you know how the rest taste.
Sando. Pasta with tomato salmon. Sahale snacks. Carrot cake (leftover).
And that’s a wrap.
PS Giveaway reminder – go here!!
I do that too, make big batches so the boyfriend and I can eat leftovers through the week. Saves TONS of time.
I use klip it salad containers to make my salads in so that I can make 4 salads at a time. (http://amzn.to/P8ZgBe <- them on amazon). The bottom is just greens for us, then I can put all kinds of veggie/topping combos in the top tray and it makes a big salad once you mix it all up. And I swear end-of-week salads are just as fresh and awesome as Monday salads. 🙂
I've picked up LOTS of cool tips from you, it's about time I can share one, haha.
holy cow, you’ve got gourmet eats for lunch! i love the idea of using the soup for a quinoa topping! and i love shale snacks! I’ve never seen that parmesan flavor before! i always get the cranberry vanilla cashews — ohmygosh yum!
Love this post! I’ve always made my own lunches but am now trying to make the boyfriend’s too so that he doesn’t go out and eat (and pay for!) a huge lunch every day. He’s vegan, I’m not, but everything we keep at home is vegan, so my lunches have changed a lot. Some of them look similar to yours, but I’m definitely grabbing a couple ideas from you.
I think I might need to get a bigger purse to hold all the containers I’ve been bringing in!
Those meatballs look awesome.
Arlene, those Klip It containers are intriguing!
I envy your lunch-time creativity! These posts always inspire me to up my game when it comes to packing food. So, thank you!
Re-purposing leftovers has become my best friend over the past few weeks. It just saves SO much time if I don’t have to cook another meal for lunch. And, of course, hummus with raw veggies and pretzels makes very regular appearances as well.
I’ll have to try those Sahale snacks- they sound delicious!
can we talk about the fact that you are the best wife EVER? seriously. you pack kyle his lunch and you cook dinner. lucky man, that kyle.
xoxo
Is there any chance I could hire you to pack my meals for work 😉 ?
Those are really a lot of amazing ideas. The most appealing one are the vegan meatballs – can you share the source of the recipe?
I really need to work on making some crock pot meals for the week! Hopefully I’ll be more inspired once it cools off for fall…
im doing recipe testing for a vegan cookbook thats not my own so i cant share much right now…but when the time comes ill be sure to let you know.
well lets be real…kyles pretty much the best husband ever, so im constantly trying to make myself better just to keep up.
I would love to live at your house and eat all your food;) Its always so delicious sounding!!
I also love the Silver Hills bread, I love how its thicker and heartier than ezekiel. That bread is a little too thin for my carby preferences!
I’ve made lots of jam this summer, so remember to grab some next time you visit 🙂
noted. ill trade you for some english breakfast tea. it made me puke so its all yours.