Do you use a brown bag, or do you have an actual lunchbox? Is it insulated? How much food do you bring, and what types of food?
Thanks in advance, I’m super interested by this type of relatively mundane stuff.
For myself I usually bring some kind of sandwich in a paper bag, nuts/dried fruit in the bags they come in from the store, and tea in a thermos. All of those things in my backpack.
I bring 3 oranges, a sandwich (surprising, I know), a yogurt, water and generally a gatorade.
I really like oranges, and this way I have fresh fruit every day. Bananas check a lot of the same boxes for portability and convenience, but I mainly only like them when they’re still green so it’s not always easy to have them consistently through a work week.
The sandwich can be almost anything, since I tend to swap sandwich ingredients weekly, but I really like sourdough so that’s my staple bread most of the time.
I have 3 mandarins almost every day! Otherwise my lunch is just whatever leftovers we prepared recently: penne marinara, red beans and rice, mac & cheese, gnocchi soup, chicken wild rice soup, beyond burgers. Sometimes I’m unprepared and just drink a Soylent. I use a cloth shopping bag to carry it all, each in glass or plastic reusable containers.
I live in an 18-wheeler for most of the week; I keep a mini-fridge behind my passenger seat. It’s mostly there for drinks, but I save some shelf space for sandwich supplies. Deli meats, cheeses, etc., plus some occasional treats in the freezer. I generally just slap a sandwich together, maybe pop it in the toaster oven for a bit, and then I’m off again.
My microwave gets some occasional action, and every now and then I’ll use my coffee maker to boil some ramen. I’m also thinking about hooking up a crockpot for this winter, have soups or stews going while I’m driving all day. Just depends on what food I bring onto the truck; convenience store and vending machine prices hurt my wallet, so I try to stay away from those.
You know how much your truck jostles around better than me, but there are crockpots with rubber sealed lids and locks to keep it shut that might be good!
Exclusively work 12s so I bring 2 meals. I also have a dedicated cabinet at work for my stuff. So I keep some random snacks in there. I prep one set of meals about once a week. So one of those ends up in my cooler. Big ass cooler I can fit lots of stuff in. Then usually leftovers of something my girlfriend didn’t eat or something I can setup fast like overnight oats. Schedule rotates so its either 5 am to 5pm or 5pm to 5am. So I don’t a breakfast lunch and dinner setup. Bring a few seltzer and I have a big water bottle.
I always pack two meals. I can’t eat much in the mornings, so I pack a breakfast and a lunch. Before work I usually just have something really small, either a small bowl of cereal or a single slice of toast or maybe a small muffin or something. Then I pack a wrap of some kind for my first real meal. I’ve been a big fan of Buffalo wraps the last 6 months or so, but I’ll mix it up sometimes with something else. Today was more of a citrus marinade with chicken thighs and rice. Then for my second meal, usually leftovers from whatever I had for supper the night before. In the odd chance I don’t have anything left over, I’ll make something the night before that resembles a typical supper meal, or maybe buy something but that’s pretty rare.
I have it in an insulated lunch bag with an ice pack as my lunch usually hangs out in my car the whole day.
One sandwich with 3 pieces of ham rolled up and a single slice of cheese under the meat. With that I bring a string cheese and a 12 ounce soda.
I’ve been using the same cooler for years, just a simple Coleman one with an icepack in it.
Small insulated lunch bag (cheap) - and almost always some kind of sandwich. Leftovers from the weekend dinners too. I eat in my car as the lunch room is an awkward silence
5 identical glass Tupperware. Usually it’s a can of refried beans, 2 chopped green peppers, chopped sweet onion, small bag of frozen corn, and brown rice with a packet of taco seasoning mixed in. All divided roughly equal between the 5 containers.
Been doing this for like a decade. Used to have broccoli, chicken, pork, mushrooms, and other stuff but more or less the same idea. Been trying to go more vegetarian/vegan over the years.
I love it. I love spending 1 hour on Sunday to make all my lunches for the week.
My job has a canteen, so I spent several years eating there.
This year, they increased their prices at the same time as my rent went up, so I’ve started bringing in my own lunch. Every couple of Sundays, I make a huge pot of brown rice and beans and parcel it out into takeaway containers. Those things are airtight and hold enough for a sensible meal.
I usually do a smoothie in the morning that works as a brunch of sorts that includes:
Oats, chia seeds, benefiber, magnesium, frozen berries, maybe a banana, nut-butter, maybe a scoop of protein powder.
I work in sales (ironic, I’m anti-capitalist) barely take breaks and like to not die from colon cancer so it fits my lifestyle.
no job so I just grab or make stuff whenever. when I work in an office I mostly pick up something local unless there are leftovers or such that are easy to bring which happens once in awhile. sometimes I would fast cuz it was easier to do at an office away from temptations.
Trader Joe’s salad and a fruit. any heavier and I’m sluggish all afternoon. And the vitamins seem to give me energy instead.
I use a 6-pack size cooler bag. Inside it, I pack whatever I can find in the kitchen, like an unhinged raccoon foraging the trash. Maybe something normal like a sandwich. More commonly, like half a green pepper, leftover corn chip crumbs, and a tablespoon of cream cheese, or some such. Then I open the lunch bag and wonder who packed my lunch.
I use a lunch box with a good size freezer pack that lasts all day (or at least long enough to survive summer heat past lunchtime). I have a few extras ready to go incase I forget to take it home one day or refreeze it. I also put it in a ziplock bag so when it inevitability leaks it won’t make a mess.
Paper bags in the long run are costing you more than buying a lunch box. I used to have one of those packit freezable lunch bags. It was only a bit larger than paper one but it didn’t condecne as well. The paper bags are great for when going somewhere you don’t want worry about leaving anything behind.
Sandwiches I put in a container to prevent them from getting smushed. I also bring a small reusable bottle water so I have fresh cold water at lunch instead relying on my full size one.
Paper bags in the long run are costing you more than buying a lunch box.
The paper bags are “free” because I bring produce (potatoes) and other dry bulk goods home from the store, but I hear you. Part of why I started this thread is I wanna get a lunch box and I wanted to hear about how people are using 'em.
I see, well if you get them for free and it’s working for you…
The biggest hassle for me is forgetting it at work overnight, so I have to use an old lunchbox and remeber why I replaced it, but wont get rid of it for that exact situstion.
I have an insulated lunchbox. All I bring is a cheap frozen thing, a breakfast bar, and a drink (usually something like Gatorade, Body Armor, or Crisp Ice).
Whatever I put in the fridge. I work from home, and I enjoy cooking, so the cantina at work is great.







