Lunch Ideas

[colormist]

I'm starting to get a little creative with my work lunches, but they're still lacking. I really don't want to go through the effort of cooking my lunch the night before (I barely have the energy to make dinner), so I try to find things in the freezer section/snack aisle.

These are a few things that I've found:
Stouffers Mac & Cheese - delicious, but not the greatest to eat everyday.
Michelina's Mac & Cheese - not quite as good as Stouffers, but cheaper and less fattening.
Rice Expressions - pre-cooked rice, frozen. Comes in a box of 3. Available in three different flavors. I like the thai jasmin. No additives (that I can tell, ingredient on the box was "thai jasmin rice").
Cheese its & Cheese Nips - regular or reduced fat
Quakes - cheese flavor. They use to have a sour cream & onion flavor that was AWESOME, but apparently I was the only person that loved it. Haven't seen it sense. Off brands have sugar in them.
Nuts - Almonds & Sunflower seeds
Beef Jerky - Some kinds are seasoned with dextrose.
Mixed greens - I just shove a sandwich bag full of mixed greens and munch on them like a rabbit. I have yet to find a safe salad dressing.

I used to love the Boca/Morning Star Farms frozen patties & "chicken", but I haven't checked them out since I was diagnosed.

Anybody else have any ideas for lunch foods? I'm really at a loss.

[Tammy]

That would be nice to be able to buy salad dressings, but like everything else, it's not in my area.

Have you tried making the salad dressing using Hidden Valley Ranch mix? You just mix it with milk and Duke's Mayonaise. For those who can't take the milk, it won't work so well, but for the rest - it's pretty good because you can mix it to suit your taste.

Jimmy Dean makes a frozen sausage/egg/biscuit sandwich that is ok. It comes frozen, and you just pop it in the micro. I'm not that big on them, but Regina eats them for lunch sometimes.

She does a lot of sandwiches for lunches. Mostly just ham and cheese but sometimes Tuna or chicken salad (again with either just mayo or with the Ranch mix). Sometimes I actually have bread she can eat, but usually it's just on crackers with a couple of dill pickles.

Lucks chicken and Dumplings make a good throw-in-the-microwave (or she even eats it room temp) lunch.

Weaver's makes frozen "mini-drums". They are like chicken nuggets that you nuke. But watch, other Weaver chicken products, including the nuggets, have sugar.

Tyson makes some frozen chicken things that are ok, but they have to be microwaved longer, so it's probably more like cooking.

And of course, lets not forget the favorite lunch food. Hot Dogs. I just nuke them. Sometimes we wrap them in frozen "Kinnert" pastry dough and then nuke them. That way they have a bun. (But that may fall into the "cooking" catagory)

[colormist]

Oh, I love hidden valley ranch mix! I've been meaning to look at the ingredients while I was at the grocery, but hadn't gotten around to it. I will have to pick up some of that this week.

I also emailed Renee's to see if their products are in any stores in the midwest. I'd love to be able to season my meats again.

[sarahk]

I also love the hidden valley ranch mix!
For salad dressing I use Annie's Goddes or red wine vinegar.

If you want to season your meat, try:
McCormick Grill Mates Montreal Steak Seasoning (Ingredients: Coarse Salt, Spices (Including Black Pepper and Red Pepper), Garlic, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Natural Flavor, and Extractives of Paprika.)
Kirsten and Coley love it too

I had my baby (boy) three weeks ago and have had my hands full, not too much time to post. We are waiting for his HFI test.

[Tammy]

Sarah
Congrats on the new baby boy!!!!!!!!!! How wonderful for you.
I'm slowly waiting on grandbabies. I'm being told it's going to be a looooooooooooong wait. lol.

McCormicks Seasoned Meat Tenderizer is something else Regina can eat that gives some flavor to meat again.

[julienc]

I love the McCormicks Montreal Steak Seasoning. Yummy!

I'm going to have to try the Hidden Valley Ranch mix. Fortuantely we have Duke's mayo here.

I've never been a big salad eater, probably due to a lack of dressings to choose from, but on occasion I use the Neuman's Own Olive Oil and Vinegar salad dressing. It does not have any added sugar or corn syrup. It does have onions listed as an ingrediant, which I guess is a no no, but in the past I have handled it in small quantities.

And dumb question - Red wine vinegar is okay, right? Just not red wine?

[Gretchen]

It's nice to see some "action" around here!! I lurk alot, but with the kids almost done with school We're crazy busy. I found Hot Pockets Ham and Cheese crossoints today that might be ok for some. The ingredient list is huge. The one thing I saw was cocunut oil. Not sure how that ranks and there is sugar listed 3rd to the last in a list of about 50 ingredients. Jarrett does ok with that small of an amount. Actually my family has been TERRIBLE with his diet lately. My inlaws took him and bought him chocolate cake and my dad took him for a root beer float. Both said he inhaled it before anyone decided to take it away from him. He had one day with some diarrhea, but didn't fair to bad considering!!! Uggg!!! Some much for the sweet eversions!!! Well I'm off to do more running. Keep up the lunch list. Now with school out I'm looking for more ootions.

Gretchen

[Tammy]

Hi Gretchen.
Coconut oil is fine. It's just the oil. Lunch pockets would be wonderful, but even the little bit of sugar doesn't work for us. I have made some "lunch pocket" type of things and froze them already. I used the pretzel dough. (The recipes are posted). With summer coming, thanks for reminding me of them. Maybe I'll make some again.

And quit lurking!!!! lol. While you're logged on, it doesn't take that much more time to say hi. I also like to see the activity and conversations and know that everyone is still out there and doing well.

[colormist]

julienc said:

I've never been a big salad eater, probably due to a lack of dressings to choose from, but on occasion I use the Neuman's Own Olive Oil and Vinegar salad dressing. It does not have any added sugar or corn syrup. It does have onions listed as an ingrediant, which I guess is a no no, but in the past I have handled it in small quantities.

And dumb question - Red wine vinegar is okay, right? Just not red wine?

I'm going to say "no" on the Red wine vinegar. I picked up a bottle of Newman's Olive Oil & Vinegar and tried it today. I was leery of the Red Wine Vinegar, but it was so delicious! I really did love it. Did. I had the salad at 11:30am, and at 1pm I was feeling queasy. I'm super-queasy now (and downing pixie sticks--I hate blue pixie sticks and that's all I have left).

I was really happy about how yummy my spinach was tasting, too. Thankfully I picked up some hidden valley ranch dressing and will be mixing it with the sour cream tonight.

I'm really bummed about Newmans, but I did see some other organic sugar-free (more expensive) salad dressings that I can check out next time around.

[sarahk]

I really enjoy red wine vinegar on my salads. Have you tried Annie's Goddess dressing?

As for Red Wine--I can tolerate it--when wine ferments, the alcohol "eats up" all the residual sugars. So, the higher the alcohol level, the less sugar. Red wine doesn't necessarily have more sugar than white-the red is from the grape skin. I also don't have a preference for red or white--just DRY wine--the drier the wine, the less sweet. Obviously sweet wines are all out.

[julienc]

Hmmm, this is interesting. Colormist - could it have been the onions? I wonder if there was something else in there that got to you? I usually eat salad in small quantities, if ever, so maybe I just haven't had enough of it to bother me.

I have always done fine with the red wine vinegar. I usually put it all over my cooked spinach. Yummy! I can't do wine, though. Definitely not whites, and sometimes I do okay with a half glass of a dry red, but now I stay away completely and stick with beer.

Too funny - I also hate the blue pixie sticks but will eat them as a last resort.

[guest]

I also have problems with vinegar. It doesn't seem to matter what kind I try, I get really sick.

I'll trade you a blue pixie stick for a my orange pixie.

[colormist]

guest said:

I'll trade you a blue pixie stick for a my orange pixie.

DEAL!! ;D

I don't usually have a problem with the vinegar made from apples or white vinegar. I don't know why the salad dressing made me queasy, then.