The Vine: May 4, 2012
I have a question about a topic I know is near and dear to you — snacks! Well, snacks and other food, and I’m hoping the TN readers can help with some suggestions.
I’m fat, and while I’d like to lose some weight, my main concern is not gaining any more weight this semester or going broke buying fast food. I’ve gone back to school, and part of my program basically involves picking up a math degree. I work for my college running our Math Center, and all of my friends are in either math or engineering classes. We’re all crazy, obsessive high-achievers, so we generally spend every hour during the day that we aren’t in class working together on homework in the Center, so even when I’m not working, I’m in there.
Bottom line, I leave my house at 7:45 AM, work until I have class at 11:00, have 30 minutes off for lunch, then either work or have class in the afternoon for a few hours. I’m usually in the Math Center until 7:00 working with my classmates if I’m not on the clock, then I head home, except for Wednesdays when I have a 6:00-9:00 night class. All of this takes place in the same building, and we’re at a small commuter school with a terrible dining hall. We have some decent coffee carts/kiosks, but they’re expensive.
I can’t afford to keep eating subs and pizza with the guys every day (for the sake of my wallet and my waistbands), and those are the only options close to campus. I also try not to leave and come back during the day, both because I don’t have a lot of time between shifts, classes, and getting my own work done, and because after 9:00 AM parking is impossible. In short, I’m out of the house and in one building roughly 12 hours a day.
I’m looking for ideas for food that either comes pre-packaged or that I can portion and package myself. I have a little space in the Math Center to keep food, but we don’t have a refrigerator or a sink on our floor. Everything needs to be shelf-stable, essentially. There is a microwave and a water fountain, so I can do things like oatmeal cups and soup.
I don’t want to deal with washing and reusing plates, cups, or bowls since I’m there all day and there’s no convenient place to wash them. I also would like some food that can keep me going all day that is better for me than the chips and candy bars in the vending machine.
Last semester, I kept a supply of:
- Instant oatmeal in single serving cups — they’re more expensive than packets, but so convenient; I plan to keep using those
- Easy Mac — easy, but gross
- Peanut-butter crackers
- Granola bars
- Clif bars
I plan to keep bringing the last three, and adding nuts, but I need some variety and I need something more substantial most days. If I had a fridge and a sink, I’d be fine, but without those, I’m a little stuck. I’m looking for high-protein, portable, reasonably healthy food that I can eat while walking around the room working, walking between classes, or while trying to figure out differential equations and triple integrals at a table full of always-hungry college boys.
Suggestions?
Hungry for more than knowledge
Tags: Ask The Readers food health and beauty
I make soup at home on the weekend, and freeze it in individual serving containers. I have found that I can grab one out of the freezer in the morning, leave it sitting on the desk all morning, and it is still partially frozen by the time I eat lunch (which is often 6+ hours after I leave the house). Ziploc’s small (2-cup) Twist-n-Loc containers hold a perfect lunch serving of soup and absolutely do not leak. If you can’t do a quick rinse in the bathroom sink or wipe it out with a paper towel when you’re done, you can at least be sure that it won’t leak into your bag if you bring it home unwashed. Also, when you make your own soup you can cut way down on the sodium content, as @Maria and @KTB have mentioned.
Being one of those not morning people who can not get up even five minutes before she absolutely has to, I’ve gotten good at making lunches the night before. Last summer (I work at a school — I only bring my lunch in summer when the cafeteria’s closed) I made pita sandwiches with spreadable brie (it doesn’t take much to get the flavor so it wouldn’t be too bad for you) and turkey, and then usually took a yogurt and some kind of fruit (I’m partial to blueberries when the New Jersey ones are in season, but I mixed it up a bit). I have an adorable little bento box that I make it up in at night and set it in the fridge, but you could easily put all this stuff in those plastic sandwich bags. Pita bread works great for this because it doesn’t get all soggy overnight.
I highly recommend checking out vegetarian cookbook author Heidi Swanson” blog 101cookbooks.com . She has a whole section on snacks, very few of which need refrigeration and all of which are healthy and filling, as well as easy to make. I really like her quinoa patties. There more durable than they sound, and they’re really good.
Food really does not go off as quickly as all that. If you take leftovers out of the fridge in the morning and take them with you in tupperware, they will be perfectly fine at your lunchbreak at 11, regardless of it containing meat or dairy. I do this every day with chili, curries, pilafs, anything at all. I guess you might prefer an insulated lunchbag if it gets really hot where you work. It gets up to mid 30’s where I am, and I have never had an issue with food freshness. But I think the suggestions for coolers and min-refrigerators are overkill. Mass access to refrigeration has not been around very long, whereas eating last night’s leftovers for lunch has been with us for much longer, I suspect. In my opinion, the best things you can do to expand your eating choices are 1) cook properly in the evening and make enough for the next day, and 2) get over the fear that food removed from a refrigerator will decay into a biological weapon within the hour. It will not.
I agree with everyone else’s votes for fruits and veggies. You don’t even need to refrigerate things like apples or baby carrots if you don’t mind eating them at room temperature. I have some co-workers who take those bags of pre-washed salad and nibble on it like potato chips, which looks funny but is useful if you’re into mindless eating.
Since you mentioned that subs are one of the things you eat on/near campus, I just wanted to add that you could ask them to give you extra veggies. Double up on all the veggies you like, and you’ve got more fibre and nutrients, and you’re fuller after lunch.
Tuna either the pouches or cans with ringpulls attached.
Anything you would have for dinner freeze in plastic tubs and itll be defrosted and ready to microwave at lunch.
High fibre crackers and no sugar peanut butter would be a lot better than the ready to eat sort.
You’ll work a lot better if you eat better. Taking the time to do the prep and the time out your day to eat will make you more productive overall than fighting sugar highs and lows as you must be doing existing on processed crap.
Peanut butter and jelly, yo. Watch how much PB you use, try for a reduced sugar or all-natural jelly, and put it on some fiber-rich bread. Freeze it over night!!! Put it in your insulated lunchbag, and it’ll be thawed by lunchtime. Freezing also works really well for yogurt in tubes~like GoGurt, but many grocery stores have normal fruit flavors (not like cotton candy gogurt yuck) and they freeze beautifully.
Also on the kid-food avenue, they have pouches! Not the Gerber or whatever actual baby food ones because those are gross, but look in your all-natural/health food type aisle at your supermarket. All natural fruit and veggie purees that actually taste delicious and not at all like jarred baby food. Squeeze directly from pouch into mouth, and they’re shelf stable. GoGo Applesauce is really tasty.
I’m a nanny, I’m pretty well versed in what “kid food” tastes good enough for adult consumption.
Another vote for bento–lunchinabox.net isn’t being kept up any more, but it’s still got some great tips. I can’t tell you how happy a lunch makes me when it’s got a bunch of different colors in it!
However, I’d also strongly recommend my go-to–a decent cheese and crispbread. The cheese will only be better for hanging out at room temperature for a while, so there’s no refrigeration issue. Take the hunk and a paring knife or slice it at home and wrap the slice, and get a good whole-grain crispbread. I use this because crispbread isn’t pastry enough to awaken my “must have more!” sensors but is still really filling with cheese, and I’ve enjoyed trying different cheeses as a treat. This is actually my at-work breakfast most of the time and it works just fine.
First, stop eating Clif bars. They are great if you are being physically active, but they are full of carbs and sugar. The caloric count is high enough to be meal replacements, so it is not a suitable snack unless you are expending some serious energy. If you are hooked on bars, look for protein bars. I like the Nature Valley ones because they are naturally low sugar whereas most protein bars are full of fake sugar.
If you like to snack all day, stick to veggies. They are more or less “freebies” in the dieting world and are great to use as filler. Try whole wheat wraps instead of sandwiches for better carb counts, although both should keep fine at room temp as long as you don’t use mayo. Packets of mayo are shelf stable so if you want it, you can add it that way.
Most of the other ideas I have have been suggested already, so I won’t repeat them except to say that if you really want to lose the weight and eat healthier, you need to cook. Even “diet” packaged foods contain tons of sodium and far more calories than you might think. Set aside one day a week to make big batches of lasagna, cassaroles, beans, stewed meat, even pizza can be healthy when made at home, and then portion it, freeze it, and get a weeks worth of meals ready to go.
I’m thrilled by all these snack ideas for myself! I just wanted to mention, since several people have recommended Sabra hummus, that there is an active call to boycott that brand because its parent company, Strauss group, gives significant material support to the Golani brigade, an Israeli military organization with a really horrific human rights record. People for whom this is an issue can research it and make up their own mind, obviously.
I decided to fast over Lent and ate only soups and fresh fruit juice for the entire period. It was fairly simple because I could make soup at home on the weekends and bring enough for 2-3 servings to work every day. Same thing with juice. I’d juice a blender full of fruit in the morning, pour it in a large thermos and have throughout the day. I thought I’d starve to death, but by having more substantial soups (not just purees but stuff with veggie chunks, meat, noodles, etc) I didn’t feel like I was missing anything. It also saved me a ton of money as I found I could make an 8 serving soup for $20 bucks or so and it would last me 4-5 days. If I cooked a different soup every 3-4 days I could alternate and provide some variety. It actually worked out great and I ended up losing weight as well (completely by accident).
For snacks, I’d suggest peppermints (the old fashioned striped kind, not the Altoid variety) which are fairly long lasting with low calories. Also, you can find individual size bags of mixed nuts, which are great for portion control. Fresh fruit is always a good idea and things like grapes, tangerines and banannas travel and keep well.
I like Annie Chun’s Noodle Express (http://bit.ly/d84Fxy). One minute in the microwave and they’re done; nothing to clean; and the packaging is made of cornstarch (not plastic) so one doesn’t feel decadently wasteful. They’re like ramen for grownups (or as my friend calls them, “Executive Ramen.”) I buy them from Amazon by the case (much cheaper than at the grocery store) to keep at work for evenings when I have a late meeting. They might be a little much for lunch, but they’re 8 WeightWatchers points and therefore a very reasonable dinner.
Completely agree about fruit. Completely agree about string cheese. I also really like nuts; they’re great for you and transport easily.
I’m also a teacher at the college level and often do not get breaks for food, so here are the other options I really like:
Nutrition drinks or meal-replacement drinks. My favorite are the Atkins ones because they’re super low in sugar and also have lots of protein. No fridge is a little dicey, though, they taste like crap when they’re warm. Still, you can grab these as you run out the door.
Nutrition BARS or meal-replacement bars. I generally buy the Luna ones, they come in lots of flavors, they taste good, and they’re good for you. Any granola bar or diet bar works here, too. The point is just to not be hungry for a few more hours.
Fiber-one products. These are mostly bars, but they also sell brownies and other things if you get bored of bars. The nice thing about these is they’re full of fiber! They’ll keep you full for a while. And plus… brownies. :)
Tuna-kits – tuna salad and crackers, basically. There are lots of these but they are not all created equal. Look for the off-brand ones that come in small cardboard boxes. Inside will be a package of crackers and a can of tuna salad. They cost like $1 each. Do yourself a favor and don’t buy the “low fat” ones… you don’t want to know what they replace the fat with. ;)
I can’t think of anything else. I hope this helps…!
Lots of great suggestions. Definitely tuna pouches if you eat those. The pouches don’t require draining and are easier to deal with. Most veggies — baby carrots, cherry tomatoes, celery, sugar snap peas, bell pepper slices — are going to be fine hanging out with you throughout the day. One suggestion is to get 1/2 cup glad containers and pre-portion them with all sorts of things. That way it’s easy to grab a serving of nuts or dried fruit from the pantry, or hummus or salsa from the fridge. You can just wash at home without a problem (no need to do it at school).
I also want to second that I’ve never bothered with ice packs in my lunch bag and have never had a problem eating my lunch at lunchtime. Meat sandwiches, yogurt, cheese, whatever. I know others have different tolerances for those sorts of things. :)
It may not be the most weight friendly idea, but Bagels are the most portable, stable and mess free food I can think of. I almost always toss a bagel in my bag in case I have to work through lunch. I eat them plain and whole mostly, but I think even one with a schmear would last okay in an insulated lunchbag. Wheat thins are my other desk staple, as they taste good plain and can be filling. Lastly, what about some chips (or corn tortillas) with a little container of salsa? Ditto to everyone who said avoid Clif bars and granola bars, as they tend to be very high calorie. Try graham crackers for when you need something sweet and dried fruit if you don’t want to mess with peeling/cutting/juicy fallout from fresh fruits.