Man lunch ideas!

katiegizmo

Try googling savoury tray bakes too, there are some nice ones with things like goats cheese and olives etc
You could make flapjacks or something to swap for the chocolate bars as long as you control the sugar etc if he wants to lose wait.
Potato salad? Frittata?

My hubby is also funny with lunch. He won't take leftovers as he doesn't want to have to go to the work kitchen to heat it up and doesn't think they should be cold... You're not alone!! :rotfl:

craigywv

Ok i have the fussiest man in gods creation! This works for him.............chicken drumsticks,homemade scones 1 of these with butter and jam,banana,grapes and a biscuit. Or get a plastic bowl give him in a sandwichbag his favorite cereal and a small pint of milk,cheese scone with sliced ham ,bag of crisps and biscuit. Or make the night before for your dinner either one of these if he has access to a microwave chicken fried rice,chilli and rice,pasta any kind,. Tin of soup if he dont like yours. And make sandwiches etc. Hth

trailingspouse

If he is truly going to lose weight and keep it off, he needs to take responsibility for his own diet. What does he think would be a sensible lunch?

And is there any real reason why he can't put together his own lunchbox either in the morning or the night before?

Nebulous2

Well I'm probably a bit older but have a very similar job and had very similar eating habits. I spent twenty years buying lunch, sandwich, can of coke, bag of crisps and just very very slowly getting fatter and heavier.

I then decided to do something about it and over 14 months I lost a pound a week, pretty much every week.

I made some lifestyle changes, increased exercise, changed my breakfast to porridge, but the main change for me was dumping the poor lunch and eating fruit. I eat 5 portions of fruit every lunchtime at work and at weekends I have a salad.

I still eat a big meal in the evening, still occasionally snack before bed but cutting out that meal deal or stodge at lunchtime was the major change.

babyshoes

You say you are both are watching your weight. Something I've learned recently is that nuts are pretty good as a snack to replace (not as well as) other fattening 'treats', because although they are high in fat, they are also full of soluble fibre, which means that you don't absorb as much of the fat as you'd expect, as it somehow gets caught up and swept out along with the fibre. Apparently it doesn't work for nut butters though - I forgot the science-y reason behind that conclusion though.

I certainly find that if I have a good handful of nuts mid-morning instead of crisps, biscuits or choc, it fills me up better, and I am less starving by lunch time - probably because of the combination of high fibre and protein.

They can also be a good substitute when a low-medium intensity chocolate craving hits. No substitutes for a more intense one though!

Will he eat fruit if you give him a whole piece? If not, you could try cutting it up or even mix 3-4 types and you have a fruit salad.

I often take a pot of yoghurt and find it lasts well even without a fridge, sometimes for 2 days if I forget about it - I mean, yoghurt is basically milk that's gone off, if you think about it! If you are concerned, an insulated lunch bag will keep it cool enough until lunch time.

You've had chicken legs suggested as a good snack - another high protein snack is boiled eggs, if he'll eat them. Protein is good for keeping you fuller for longer. We often had loads of chicken legs and boiled eggs in the fridge when we were doing the atkins diet!

I can understand him not wanting to take leftovers in if he can't warm them up properly, but will he eat them if you turn them into something else, such as chicken mayo in a wrap, or roast meat sliced / diced for sandwiches or salad toppings? If he will, then you can plan meals around having 'suitable' leftovers for sandwiches, wraps or salads.

danih

Thank you so much for all the replies!

Tortias, chicken drumsticks, savory flapjacks etc - will be trying all these ideas over next couple of weeks.

I really like the nuts idea. And he is good with whole fruit as part of his lunch - probably less likely to eat a fruit salad.

Great to hear other people's experience of improving their diet and health - good motivation for us.

Even better to hear that other people have fussy OH's!!! We should compete to see whose is worst

Tomorrow's lunch - going for the Bento box idea with lots of bits. So - chicken strips in breadcrumbs, nuts and dried fruit, grapes, banana, cheese cubes, and ricecakes with chocolate spread. The chicken strips are shop bought (yellow sticker - 10p), so processed and not the healthiest. No chicken drumsticks anywhere in asda today Did get chicken fillets, to plan a healthier protein option for Friday.

It is a very valid point that he should be making his own darn lunches, but in a marriage you pick your battles and make compromises. I sort out our food, he does other stuff.

Flat_Eric

I love my food flask

Alchemilla

Doesn't it drive you bonkers that kind of fussiness?
I know we all have foods we prefer, but not eating it because its "dinner"?

You have the patience of a saint!

gayleygoo

Before the kids got off school for summer, I usually made OH a packed lunch along with theirs. Often he said he was happy with whatever he bought from a shop while he was out, but the other day he told me how much he'd started spending - nearly £50 a week :eek: - and he wasn't even getting full up on what he bought - time to go back to the packed lunches!

When I do his lunch, he normally get sandwiches (ham, cheese, tuna, whatever is in the fridge), plus a couple of pieces of fruit (sometimes just apple/orange/banana, other times it is grapes, berries or pineapple chunks in a small plastic tub). Also, a yogurt, a snack bar or HM flapjack, a little tub of nuts, rice crackers or pretzels, or really anything that I can put in a little box! Sometimes I make up a tub with crackers in it, and bits of cheese and ham wrapped in greaseproof paper, but that depends on how much effort I feel like putting in. He gets a kit-kat, or else whatever baked thing that's still in the tin, for dessert. He has a reusable water bottle to fill with water or diluted juice - bought drinks are so expensive and usually unhealthy. I try to use tubs, recycled packaging and home-sewn fabric sandwich wraps to cut down on the cost and waste.

So basically he does get quite a full lunchbox (a big biscuit tin or box is fine if you don't have a big enough plastic box), but he is a postman and will eat some things earlier in the morning and save some for later, and he needs the energy. It rarely costs more than £2 and is much better for him than a shop-bought sandwich, mars bar and bottle of coke he'd buy from Tesco and be hungry an hour later!

I'm hoping once the kids start back to school he will do all their lunches once or twice a week, although I don't mind doing it because it means I know they're getting enough and a good variety. Some days it is just a nutella sandwich and a banana, but over the course of the week they get lots of different things.

Some sandwiches can be made in advance and will keep for a few days in the fridge (others will keep in the freezer and be nicely thawed by lunchtime if taken out in the morning or left overnight in the fridge). Things that can be portioned can be put in their tubs at the start of the week (and hidden from peckish fridge-hoakers!) I don't know if you meal-plan your evening meals, but it can help to plan the lunches too.

Even though they should be perfectly capable of doing it themselves, making packed lunch, even occasionally, for your OH is a loving thing to do. It shows you care and will make him feel thought of during the day Occasionally I put in a little note, or draw a silly face on his banana. Thinking of what to draw on the banana often takes me more time than making the dang lunch, but you don't get that on a supermarket sandwich

lulu_92

I bought some jerk seasoning earlier and coated drumsticks in it, they were yummy.