Packed lunch ideas

[Everglow.]

I am really bad at lunch prepping, and always end up buying lunch at work. I get lazy and can't be bothered to make something the night before, or I get bored of having the same ham sandwich every day.

What are you go-to lunches for work or school? Help me quit my bad habits

[Ennui.]

I don’t know if you all have the Uncrustables pb&j sandwiches Smuckers puts out but they were a staple when I was in high school. They’re crustless and you just unthaw them and go!

[Ambedo.]

Dinner leftovers always make great lunches! I also brought frozen burritos for work lunches fairly often when I was working in an office. I'm not sure if you guys have Tina's Burritos, but they're really cheap and not too bad for coming from the frozen aisle. Wraps are also a great quick and easy option and I feel like you can mix them up a bit more than you can with a sandwich.

[NeuroBeautiful]

Uncrustables are great, except there's often a strict no nut policy at the schools I've worked at. I'm guessing you work in an office not in a school so that should work.
I like the dinner leftover idea especially if you have access to a microwave at work so it isn't cold.

If you have hot water, I recommend tradition soup. I enjoy funding ways to add to the soup like taking baby carrots and sliced cucumbers on the side or boiling eggs and taking 1-2 along so I have protein. I have done many different things with my tradition soup including using the liquid of leftover chicken soup as the water for the tradition soup and adding cooked vegetables.

If you don't have access to hot water or a microwave, you can make the soup in advance at home and then drain the liquid and you have pasta to do what you want with. Ibe done that as well. I added marinara sauce and had it dry rather than as a soup.

I try to have a carbohydrate, proten and a vegetable AZ the minimum. I don't eat dairy personally but there's a lot of east ways to melt cheese. I heard a neighbor even melts cheese onto her child's tradition soup pasta. I'm assuming she separates the liquid first as I described earlier and melts cheese. Thats carbohydrate and protein right there and then you can take some raw vegetables like carrots, peppers, tomatoes cucumbers etc

I also like to make lunches for the 5 day work week or at least 2 days and then 3 days at the beginning like on Sunday.

I would want to learn more about what the barrier is. There are ways to make food prep enjoyable. But changing the habit is going to involve food prep even if it is minimal. Is it getting started? Is it thinking of ideas? Is it the cleanup after? What's boring about it? Why can't you be bothered? Is it physically hard or emotionally hard? both?

For example u know someone who has mobility issues and if her friends and family don't encourage her, she might skip lunch and/or dinner. Sometimes she will pass an offer to a food item because it is messy but someonw sliced the food in halves and made sure she had a napkin close by she would actually eat it.

My question to you is, what's the barrier and what would need to change for you to build motivation? Do the recipes need to be simple? Do you need verbal encouragement? Do you need a break from making lunch every night and need a system that allows you to be more efficient? Is it something you'd find value in having an accountability partner? How often do you want to change what you take for lunch? Maybe you want to take the ham sandwich 2x a week and try another sandwich 2x a week and a new lunch 1x a week until you feel more confident? Is it sandwiches yours bored of or the ham sandwiches specifically? Do you have enough SNACKS? Yes lunch is important but snacks are important too especially if you find yourself still hungry after the ham sandwich. I supplement with vegetables but I try to take a variety of snacks with me including fruits, chips, jello, yogurt (I use non-dairy), dry cereal or oatmeal packets if theres hot water etc
It can make my main lunch (usually a sandwich) not feel as boring

[Ennui.]

I want to add that things like boxed soup (or other soups) may work even if you don’t have a microwave. I used to have a thermos that kept hot things SUPER hot and cold things cold. I’d even take cereal in a little container and put milk in the thermos to pour in. It was a metal thermos so I think I just had to freeze it overnight for cold things.

[Dawn.]

I have different types of soups, a piece of fruit, a muesli bar and a packet of crackers for lunch. I switch up the flavours every day.

[Soda_Voxel]

A good alternative to sandwiches is onigiri - it's just sandwich fillings wrapped in a big shape of sushi rice and a piece of seaweed (though you could leave that out) - i've never had it but is the equivalent to sandwiches in japan and would make a wonderful alternative and you can have a lot of fun with flavours - salmon roe - tuna mayo - etc