Work Lunches

[Noelle126]

Well, I just got a job (just graduated from college and its my first "real" job)..and since I am still somewhat new to gluten free eating (gluten-free since Oct), I was wondering what types of things everyone packed in their lunches for work as I am somewhat out of ideas...thanks so much!

[Carriefaith]

Congratulations on the new job! That is such an accomplishment. You must be so very happy! I know I would be Here are some ideas for lunches:

Vegetable salad and dressing (Kraft will clearly indicate gluten on their ingredient lists)

Gluten free pizza

Thai Kitchen gluten free instant meals (most of their instant meals can be cooked with hot water (no microwave) Open Original Shared Link

Frozen vegetables heated in the microwave with soy sauce (I use VH)

Rice cakes and peanut butter

Tuna tacos

Tinkyada rice noodles and sauce (I use Ragu sauce)

Fruit

[Mango04]

I usually bring salads with lots of veggies and I add garbanzo beans, hard boiled eggs or tuna for protein.

Amy's frozen meals are good to have on hand if you need to grab something in a hurry (but they get pricey).

I always bring apples and banannas with peanut or almond butter.

Sometimes I'll cook a big pot of soup on Sunday (lots of chopped up veggies, lentils, imagine veggie broth) and that will be lunch for several days.

If you are going to be working in an office, it might be helpful to keep food at your desk. (I always have a whole bunch of fruit, salad dressing, peanut butter, gluten-free crackers, trail mix, almonds, etc. that I keep in my cubicle - yes my coworkers make fun of me for having a pantry in my cube and they also have an odd yet amusing obsession with how expensive my food must be )

I'm actually kind of spoiled because my office is within a few miles of a Whole Foods, a Trader Joe's a Henry's (same company as Wild Oates) and a Jimbos (local health food store in San Diego). So if I'm lazy every so often and don't bring food with me to work i definitely don't starve!

[jknnej]

I buy Kinnikinnick gluten-free English muffins or bagels and make cold cut sandwiches. Boarshead lunch meats are gluten-free.

Or I eat a bagel with peanut butter, gluten-free of course.

Or I bring a piece of chicken with rice and veggies from home

Congrats on the new job!!!!!

[grantschoep]

Congrats on the job,

I generally always "forget" my lunch on the counter at home everytime I go to work. I actually do this about 99 percent of the time. I'm horrible...

Anyways, we have a microwave at work avaialble, I figure most work places have one somewhere you can use. I usually just buy some good gluten-free canned things, and have a drawer or something at work chock full of canned goods.

Good gluten-free canned goods? Here's what I have in my drawer right now(yes I am sitting at work at 9:25pm... darn on call cell phone...)

Dinty Moore beef stew

Hormel Chili (note, not the Turkey, thats not gluten-free)

Progresso Chicken & Rice

Progresso Chicken & Wild Rice

Too numourus to mention lentil soups. I was in a lentil soup kick awhile back and I went out and bought like 6 different brands of lentil soups that I had confirmed gluten free

[Jnkmnky]

Kinnikinnick bread makes great sandwiches. That's what I pack my kids most of the time.

[kevsmom]

I made a pot of rice spaghetti earlier this week and put the leftovers in individual containers to bring for lunch. When I heat it in the microwave, I cover it in plastic wrap to keep it from splattering AND to prevent contamination.

Sometimes I wlll make something in the crock pot and do the same thing.

You can also freeze the individual containers and pull them out for a dinner sometime.

[carriecraig]

Congrats on your job, that's great! When I was first DX, I brought a lot of salads, and bought gluten-free bread and made sandwiches. I also went a little crazy and bought food online - bagels, pizza crusts, english muffins, snacks. Now, I like to make food on Sunday, and bring it with me for a few days - cold peanut noodles, veggie salads, pasta (Notta Pasta) with chicken and veggies, salads.

[jenvan]

hey girl! ck out these 2 other posts on lunch ideas too: Open Original Shared Link

Open Original Shared Link

as for me, i usually take a big salad w/mixed greens, lots of veggies like carrots, mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, peppers, celery, jicama etc. and i'll put any combo of the following on that: ham or chicken lunch meat (i use deli selects or hillshire farms); black or pinto beans, almonds, rice, quinoa, sometimes dried fruit or berries; and an assortment of amy's dressings. used to do kraft cucumber ranch, but am casein free now for the most part.

other possiblities, leftover soup or a thai kitchen soup bowl, left over rice and beans, an amy's meal

as snacks, kettle valley all fruit bars, nana banana cookies, glutano crackers or lundberg rice chips, w or w/o salsa

hope that helps! oh, and if you're into salads, i bought a salad spinner--love it! i fill the thing up with salad and veggies at the beginning of the week and it keeps my salad fresh to the weekend. that way, each evening i just pull out a 'handful' of salad!

[lpellegr]

I usually have leftovers because I do a lot of cooking from scratch, but for days when I don't have anything available I keep a drawer at work stocked with individual size cans of tuna and Bush baked beans (buy a manual can opener if they don't have pull-tab tops), Nut Thins crackers, squeeze tubes of peanut butter (but these can be hard to find), soups in "juice box" style packaging in single sizes and gluten-free snack bars. I also keep a plastic bowl and plate, a supply of plastic utensils, and a small bottle of dish soap. My co-workers know about celiac now, but they can still be pigs, so I never eat any of my food if it falls on the common table since I don't know what crumbs were there last. Spreading out a napkin helps avoid that and gives you a clean place to lay your utensils. Yeah, you can get a little paranoid about this! I also have my own bottles of soy sauce (La Choy is safe) and salad dressings in the common fridge and allow people to use them as long as they don't contaminate them - even at home my stuff is labeled with a green dot that says "gluten-free" to tell the family it's for my use only or it's safe to cook with when they cook for me. Congrats on the job!

[skbird]

Congrats! I'm in a new workplace myself and still trying to get a good habit going. But my most successful meals lately have either been leftovers or snack plates. We have a litttle kitchen at work and I pull out a hunk of cheese, cut it up, cut up a pear or apple, and get some nuts or something else like that and make a plate of snacky things and go back to my desk and chow (we don't take formal lunch breaks). Or boiled eggs sliced up. It's pretty good.

Another good easy lunch is I've been buying the three packs of microwave brown rice (in the health food store, or the Trader Joes brand) - it's a little pricey for rice, but convenient. I snip open part of the bag and pour some in a to-go dish/bowl/Tupperware, then I put some left over chicken, meat, whatever, put a pat of butter in, salt and pepper, and maybe some Braggs Liquid Aminos, toss in some pecans, there's a micro lunch waiting to happen. It doesn't take long to prepare, either.

Of course if you don't have facilities to prepare a lunch, then it's a little more difficult. This is the kind of stuff I do.

Stephanie

[tarnalberry]

I tend to take leftovers - so it means a lot of stir-frys, soups, stews, chili, etc. these days. Raw veggies and hummus is a good one too. :-) And a piece of fruit, of course.

[Carriefaith]

Raw veggies and hummus is a good one too.

That's a great idea I love hummus.

[Rusla]

Congrats on the job. I take stir frys I have made. I like taking raw vegs like sugar peas and carrrots. A half hour lunch is not enough time for anything else with me, so I have raw vegs and fruits like apples, oranges, bananas. Maybe a chicken sandwich with gluten-free bread and cooked chicken breast.