Healthly Lunches for Stubborn Men, are they a dream?

Food

Healthly Lunches for Stubborn Men, are they a dream?

Posted by jbloomquist on September 10, 2007 - 5:03pm.

My husband and I work 10-12 hours days, sometime 6 days a week and I am struggling to get us into healthier habits before we can pass our bad ones on to our children. So far I have done reasonably well working more vegetables and less fat, salt and sugar into our dinners but lunches are killing me. I have been able to survive on reheated leftovers (which are usually sad afterthoughts of the night before), but my husband does not have access to any heat source. I will be the first to admit that he probably could find a way to get to a microwave, but that's a battle for another time. Suffice to say, he is stuck eating cold food while sitting in his mail truck. I need some ideas of what I can pack in his lunch besides tuna fish or peanut butter sandwiches that meets his nutritional needs, and that's tasty and convienent enough that he won't just toss it and get Taco Bell.

try wraps

by dancingqueen on September 10, 2007 - 6:06pm

Have you tried making him wraps for lunch? You can make them with turkey, roasted veggies, hummus and cheese. They are easy and won't go bad in a lunch bag. Pasta salads with marinated veggies and beans are a good source of protein and fiber if you use multi-grain pasta. Keep it up!

more options

by Vicki_R on September 13, 2007 - 3:48pm

Salads are awesome to send and can be very filling if you use lots of beans, veggies and meat if you are not a vegetarian. Put them in a container and use a separate one for the dressing. I like the idea of wraps and like to eat them myself. Pitas are a good alternative as well as any leftovers. Lunch is always a hard meal for me. I prefer breakfast or dinner. Much more options.

Same Sitch as My Husband

by sagartland on September 19, 2007 - 7:32am

He works in a warehouse, and as the only one who doesn't go out on deliveries, he's the only one there for lunch. They don't seem to feel the need to put a fridge or microwave in. Here's some things I pack for him:

Cold Soba Noodles with Cooked Shredded Chicken (with a little side container of japanese soba sauce on the side to pour over before eating)

Cold Peanut noodles with steamed snow peas (steam the night before)

Quesadillas, full of veggies and cheese, are delicious cold the next day.

Cold soup such as gazpacho served with some hummus and crackers.

A pita pizza (made night before) is much healthier than pizza and fun to eat with your hands.

I have recipes I could pass along, send me a message if you'd like some links and recipes. I really hope this helps. Healthiness is tough to make work, but Vicki R and dancingqueen both have great ideas and I hope mine help too!

Pesto Tuna Wrap

by NeoHippieMama on September 20, 2007 - 10:37am

I'm always trying to find new ways to spice up my hubby's lunches with normal ingredients. I came across a recipe for pesto tuna salad. Add pre made pesto to a couple cans of tuna, some mayo and parm. I put it on whole wheat wraps loaded with chopped peppers, mushrooms, onions, lettuce, fetta and pepper. He LOVES it. It's super basic, and you can make a bunch in advance. He always gets whole milk yogurt with fresh berries that I add in for dessert (which is DELICIOUS) a sparkling juice like Izze, some chopped veggies and hummus and maybe some natural chips. All things I can buy in bulk and prepare before hand. Good luck! Getting Husbands to eat healthy is a chore!

zillion ways

by Vicki_R on September 19, 2007 - 5:05pm

Love the idea of cold noodles. You could make them a zillion ways, peanut butter comes to mind. How healthy is that. If you really think about it, anything you eat for dinner probably is good cold the next day. My husband is lucky and has a load of options, since he works in NYC. But still he tries to have fruit and a salad everyday for lumch.

He loved the Pesto Tuna!

by jbloomquist on October 4, 2007 - 9:22am

The peanut noodles didn't work out the greatest, but I think I may just need to add more broth if we are going to eat it cold. Any suggestions on a good recipe for cold peanut butter noodles? Or any other noodles? I think he liked the idea, just not the texture, and I guess he's not that fond of peanut butter... weirdo!

As for the wraps, they have gone very well. I did Mediterranean Turkey (spinach, feta, hummus, tomatoes, olives), Pesto Tuna (our favorite!!), Turkey BLT, and we are trying Salmon Dill today.

The quesadilla's got a little soggy, so they weren't my favorite, but the extra's heated up great!

I found a Once a Month Cooking plan (OAMC) for Lunches designed to be eaten cold that looks promising. http://www.recipezaar.com/bb/viewtopic.zsp?t=222392 I hope to try it the next day off that I get and will post how it goes. I might even get him to try eggplant!

Thanks for all of the help!