A PLAN TO MAKE HEALTHY COLD LUNCHES FOR THE HUBBY

My husband is on-the-go most of the day, so he needs cold lunches that can be eaten without microwaving. I’ve been terrible at getting lunches ready for him lately so I wanted to put together a long list of lunches as a reference.

When he doesn’t have a lunch, he does one of the following: a) doesn’t eat at all, b) buys crackers and milk, or c) spends at least $5 on lunch. I would rather make sure he takes a good lunch from home that doesn’t cost all that much. When he doesn’t eat at all, he comes home extremely hungry and grows impatient if dinner isn’t ready yet.

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MY PLAN TO GIVE MY HUSBAND BETTER LUNCHES

Just like when I decided to take charge of my family’s breakfast menu, I am going to take charge of my husband’s lunch menu by making a list of everything he will eat. It does no good to have this list of lunches unless I actually start to use it so I will be putting this list on my fridge where I can always refer to it.

I know that if this is going to work, I’m going to have to spend more on groceries each week. I will be increasing our grocery budget by $15 to start. I need to find out if $15 is too much, too little, or just right to pay for all his lunches. It seems like a lot because, over the course of a month, that is $60 extra for his lunches, but it’s a whole lot better than him spending $100 to eat out or not eating anything at all and going hungry.

I would like to start preparing many of his lunches over the weekend or at least the night before. It’s just too much for me in this season of my life to try and get his lunch together in the morning.

His lunches should be healthy and balanced so I will be making sure he has protein, starch, fruit, veggies, a snack, and water for each lunch. This may prove to be too much work or too much for him to try and eat, but I want to try it and see how he likes it.

HEALTHY COLD LUNCH IDEAS

Here are the ideas:

MAIN COURSE

• Sandwiches (mayo, mustard, tomatoes, lettuce, onion, etc.)
  • Chicken
  • BLT
  • Turkey and pesto
  • Egg salad
  • Chicken salad
  • Tuna
• Bagel with cream cheese and lunch meat
• Lunchables (salami and cheese with crackers)
• Pinwheels (tortillas, cream cheese, lunch meat, and spinach)
• Soup in a thermos
• Pita pockets
• Herring with crackers

SIDES

• Potato salad
• Pasta salad
• Fruit or fruit salad
• Raw veggies
• Popcorn
• String cheese
• Nuts
• Trail mix
• Pretzels
• Crackers
• Yogurt
• Pudding
• Jell-O
• Gummy bears (his favorite!)
• Chips and salsa
• Dried fruit
• Olives
• Guacamole
• Hard-boiled eggs or deviled eggs
• Salad with dressing on the side
• Muffins
• Bread
• Graham crackers
• Milk in thermos*
• Apple juice
• Fruit snacks
• Hummus
• Granola bars
• Baked veggie sticks
• Pumpkin or sunflower seeds

Just like our breakfast plan, this lunch plan will work best if I make sure to write down a menu each week, in addition to our breakfast and dinner plan. It can get overwhelming when there is so much to plan each week, but it’s necessary since I want my family to eat well.

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If you’d like to print out a lunch ideas sheet, please click here.

The lunch box he currently uses doesn’t do such a great job at keeping things cold, so I wanted to find one that would work better. I came across this particular lunch box* on Amazon and I think it will be great for less than $10. We have used these Freez Paks* in the past, but I don’t know what happened to them, so I think I might buy a pack of 3 just in case the lunch box is not as cold as he would like it to be. It’s really a chore to fill his lunch box with ice from the freezer each day.


source: https://feedingourflamingos.com/healthy-cold-lunches/