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Lunch ideas please
I am so lost as to what to buy/pack for DH for lunch. I used to buy him tuna packets, and he would make tuna salad sandwiches for lunch. Then he got sick of tuna, so I bought him canned soup, but he won't eat canned soup without rice, and I don't want to/forget to cook rice every night for him to take to work the next day. He doesn't like PB&J and doesn't want me to buy lunch meat/cheese for sandwiches.
Sometimes we do have leftovers from dinner, and he will take that, but a lot of the time, we don't have leftovers. Like, when we make burgers, or have tacos, or I make a stir fry.
Another thing that bugs me, is sometimes he WILL pack a lunch, but then I will find out later that he didn't even eat it! He will go out to lunch if he doesn't "feel like" eating what he packed, or sometimes his boss will buy everyone lunch. He won't eat leftovers after 1 day. So this food that was perfectly fine to eat will just get thrown away.
For the last few weeks I have been leaving cash for him for lunch, but that is at least $7 a day and is really impacting our grocery budget (do you know how much ground beef I can get for 7 dollars?!).
Any help would be appreciated. My sister says I need to just stop helping him figure out what he has for lunch every day...
Re: Lunch ideas please
I would have to agree with your sister if he's being this difficult about lunch, let him fend for himself. He is a grown man. It's not your job to pack his lunch, he's not your child. That said, I will sometimes pack my H's lunch, but he appreciates it.
Re: leftovers. Can you purposely make enough dinner that there will be leftovers for lunch the next day?
What about easy mac? Frozen dinners?
I purposely make extra dinner so there will be leftovers for lunch. Even tacos turn into taco salad. Maybe if you sit down and work out how much eating out for lunch is really costing you guys he'll be more likely to eat the leftovers. I'm not a huge leftover person, but if I want a hot lunch that's the only option I give myself. So I eat something I'm just feeling "meh" about...I've learned it doesn't kill me. Usually it gets rid of the craving for junk food I'm usually feeling when I want to order out.
Why won't he have a lunch meat sandwich? That seems like the easiest solution to me, and you can vary the meat from week to week so it doesn't get boring.
my read shelf:
He simply "doesn't like them." His mom said he has never liked them- but also his mom is a bit of a health freak and wouldn't even buy lunch meat when he was a kid because it was too unhealthy. Yeah, I don't get it either. He tried different kinds but insisted that they all tasted "salty and chemical-y." Even the super top-dollar organic stuff. So I gave up on that route...
Or, if he insists on buying out so often that it is cutting into your grocery budget too much, then maybe that eating out money needs to come out of his "fun money" budget.
When he buys lunch, what does he get? Can you try to have something similar on hand that he will eat?
Do you get it freshly sliced from the deli or from a package? I find that makes a HUGE difference to me...deli tastes so much more like normal meat to me.
Yeah...I wouldn't mind packing my DH's lunch, but if he was going to go eating it the night before I would be royally pissed. Can't you just tell him it's off limits until lunch the next day?
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I also agree that just making more for dinner so you have leftovers is a good option. And I would just tell him that the leftovers are for his lunch, not for him to eat as a snack!
I second the salad idea too. You can get a lot of different toppings so he isn't eating the same thing every day.
Here are some quick lunch ideas. I don't know if he'll eat them or not, but I pack my lunch everyday so this is what I have.
-Salads with a protein on them (I'll cook extra chicken or beef with our dinners)
-Hummus and pitas
-Veggies and dip
-Yogurt with granola and fruit
-Leftovers
-Cheese and crackers
-Soup (I always make soup in the crock-pot and have tons leftover for lunch all week)
-Lean Cuisines or Smart Ones meals....go ahead and laugh but when I have nothing else in the house or am running late to work, this is what I take to work.
One thing you can do is make up a big batch of rice, then freeze it in portion sizes. He can grab it out of the freezer before going to work, or the night before. It'll thaw out in time, plus get reheated in the soup anyway.
This won't help in the immediate time frame, but you can start making extra at dinner, seal with a food saver in lunch portions, and he can take them in a week or two. It won't seem like leftovers (hopefully) that way. Also, if you're making extra for his lunch the next day, I guess you just have to tell him that it's hands-off that overnight. Would he still eat it that night if he knew the plan before hand? I mean, was the spaghetti incident just a miscommunication
?
Will he eat burrito style stuff? I put anything in a burrito with a little cheese and heat it up, lol. Black or red beans, mushrooms, salsa, meat of any variety, with a little cheddar, and heat it up in the microwave. Easy, filling and good. I do the same with tortilla chips sometimes for "nachos".
Leftover chicken or ham can be finely chopped and turned into a mayo based salad for sandwiches. Personally, I do not like eggs, but egg salad sandwiches have a large following, LOL.
As for the food he isn't eating going to waste, is he throwing it out? Can it be tossed in the freezer or used for your lunch one day? That (throwing away food) would bother me much more than him wanting to order out for lunch sometimes.
It does really sound like he's just bored with his options and picky, so this probably won't be that easy. But, if he's really pressing the budget (You mentioned he was raised in a well off family. He may just not be used to truly having to stick to a budget) maybe try to start with a commitment that he will only order out 2x/week or something, and try to get him on board that way?
Good luck!