BT Forum

Leftovers.  When you are putting them away after dinner, portion out what you need for lunch.  Heat (or not) and eat! 

Buy a bag of broccoli florets and throw some in a container - I rinse and micro for 3:30 mins.

I also like sliced turkey wrapped around red bell pepper and avocado, with an apple.

Chopped up mixed salad with grilled (whatever) leftover from the night before drizzled with a little olive oil.

Hard-boiled eggs.

The key - cook more for dinner so you'll have leftovers to work with.

I do a lot of leftovers as well.

When I don't have leftovers and I'm planning ahead, I like to have a few bags of frozen veggies (or containers of washed, chopped fresh ones) in the fridge/freezer.  I also cook a bunch of chicken breast or ground beef or other types of meat on the weekend and chop it up.  Then I have at least two 'sauces' made and on hand.  I do anywhere from a curry sauce to maybe a tomato based sauce or a pesto.  Then when it's time to pack a lunch, I take a large pyrex container with a tight lid and toss in a ton of veggies, some meat and then top with sauce (all cold).  I nuke it at work when it is lunch time.  Yum!  It's nice to be able to mix it up depending on my mood for the day.  I also often skip the sauce and just throw in some spices and drizzle on some olive oil or pastured butter.  Again, yum!  My husband works from home, and he helps himself to the fixins as well.

best advice...i tell my co-workers this all the time.

I bring my lunch a lot. Soups and salads and leftovers are great! Other ideas (assuming you have access to a fridge and microwave):

Oats for oatmeal (hot water from an industrial coffee machine works great for this)
Nuts (I have to watch serving sizes here)
String cheese
Greek yogurt
Hummus/veggies (homemade hummus is super easy)
Applesauce
Fruit
Granola or other bars (Clif, Kind, Lara)
Quinoa or brown rice with roasted veggies
Pre-made smoothie (think Naked or Odwalla brand)
Air popped popcorn
Fat free refried beans w/ tortillas (burritos!)

I didn't have any leftovers from last night's meal, so before I went to bed, I put a roast and some seasoning in the crockpot (you could do this with almost any meat).  It was done by the time I left for work, so I took a hunk of it for lunch along with a bag of steamable veggies from my freezer.  Easy peasy.

All of the above (with the exception of cooking a roast over night!LOL!). I am also trying to get away from lunch meat, so I will buy a big pack of fresh chicken breast, bake them all in the oven, slice them thinly, lay them on a cookie sheet in the oven to freeze, then put them in a freezer bag. The fresh chicken doesn't have even close the amount of preservatives so it doesn't stay good as long. I take out a couple slices the night before and wala-healthy lunch meat.

I do the same thing to replace the frozen chunk chicken that my kids and hubbie like to use in salads or creations and just chunk instead of slice.

Since you didn't say "homemade", there are several organic, preservative-free frozen meals out there.  My favorite brand is Amy's, as they have a lot of GF meals and all the ingredients are wholesome.

I pair one of those with a piece of fruit, some frozen veggies or a salad, and sometimes some trail mix/nuts if the meal itself isn't substantial enough.

Almost as good as homemade, but doesn't take any pre-planning other than picking them up at the store.