What do you guys do for lunch away from home (e.g. at work), suggestions? page

[AMonkey]

So I'm starting university term again, but due to time restraints I won't be able to make lunch at my flat, additionally I'm doing intermittent fasting, so no breakfast. Thus I am either forced to eat out or bring some food with me for lunch.
Now eating out isn't great. The campus food is terrible and expensive, and while there are plenty of nice restaurants around they are expensive and other people likely won't want to go there (I'm trying to be social here). Thus I have a problem, what should I eat for lunch?

Ideally the following criteria need to be met:
Not expensive
Healthy
Can be eaten cold
Won't smell
Won't make a huge mess

That doesn't leave me with a lot of options. Cold chicken and sweet potato could be great, but sweet potato goes soggy in tupperware. Perhaps a chicken salad every day?

What do those of you who are away from home at lunch do? Have you found a restaurant that does good quality, in line with primal, food? Or do you just bring your own?

[Owly]

I pack lunch most days.

Cold chicken is good, but you can eat other meats cold too. I'll do roast beef, slice it thin and take that cold, for example, and you can also do this easily with other roasted meats. You can also do hardboiled eggs. Make tuna salad with homemade mayo. Make meatza and eat it cold. If you like shrimp, they are supposedly good cold too (I can't eat them, but I hear that's good). Some fish is good cold too, especially smoked varieties.

Most stuff can be put on salad, or you can take cut up vegetables on the side, make a sweet potato salad, or white potato salad if you eat white potatoes.

There are lots of great kale salads and things you can do too--I make a yummy kale salad by cooking kale in a bit of coconut oil, then cooling it and mixing it with gluten-free tamari, a little sesame oil and some toasted sesame seeds, rice vinegar, and a bit of five-spice powder. Very tasty cold. You can do coleslaws and things too.

Make egg muffins, bacon-wrapped eggs, or mini-quiches, they're all good cold too.

And of course there's stuff like jerky.

If you eat fruit, it's great portable food. Berries and cream are nice as a lunch item.

[NZ primal Gwamma]

Amonkey, great thinking ahead ! Good luck with your studies. I always have a small can of salmon in my handbag. Whereever i go - its just there for any emergencies. Actually yesterday Nana was rushed into the ED, suspected heart attack. Thank fully it didn't come to much in the end, but I was fine, cos while everyone else was eating cake, muffins etc.... I pulled out my wee tin of salmon, and my little fork....voila...easy.
Mash your egg with butter and a wee bit of salt while still warm. Works well in a tupperware container !
Fry some walnuts in a bit of butter, then drain on a paper towel, and sprinkle with a wee bit of curry and salt. Best primal snack EVER !!!!!! and they last for a week or two, so you can prepare in advance.
Another one I do is prepare your primal aioli, (once again in advance) and dip carrot sticks, celery etc... This along with your meat would be perfect brain fodder for a day in the lecture theatre !!!!
My aioli = blend two eggs, bunch of freah herbs (parsley, mint etc), 1/4 cup cider vinegar, teaspoon of mustard powder and garlic.
once all blended add a thin stream of olive oil. It thinckens up quite quickly, so you will only need about 1 1/2 cups. Anyway good luck and keep me posted !

[cheekymonster]

Do you cook dinner? If so, just double it and pack the leftovers in your bag for lunch.

[jammies]

You could also invest in a thermos and bring hot soup or stew some days. I love homemade chicken and sweet potato soup with sea salt and butter for lunch.

Are you still planning to eat with people at the campus facilities? They will often have a microwave there for people. So you could put cooked meat, frozen veggies, and a little sauce in a pyrex dish and then heat it at lunch. The frozen veggies keep the meat cold.

But most days I do what cheekymonster suggested. I make double the dinner and pack half in a pyrex dish then eat it for lunch.

[peril]

The old time constraint BS. We all have the same 24 hours in a day. Its what we choose to do with them that makes the difference. You're just deprioritising the quality of your lunch. That's OK, just don't make out it isn't your choice

[palebluedots]

hard boiled eggs are always my fallback. Even at crappy places, they usually have at least one dish that involves a crumbled hard boiled egg, which means they usually have whole hard boiled eggs in the back, and they're usually happy to sell a couple.

That, and for emergencies, I keep the little single serving packets of Artisana raw nut butter in my bag. Pecan is my fave.

[JudyCr]

A thermos is a great idea and something you would look so forward to as lunchtime approaches. Nothing quite as tasty as beef stew or thick chicken soup. The one I bought has a spoon built in the top. If you don't mind eggs cold, the egg muffin recipe Goldie posted the other day is fabulous. Make them once a week, freeze and it's done. We had them for bkfast this morning and DH said he didn't need toast(!!!). I felt like celebrating. I take a little ziploc of olives with me when I leave home (if we're out of macadamias), both very filling.

[Philosopher Dan]

I like big salads with last night's dinner. Or sometimes, last night's dinner plus some peppers or carrots or maybe a bit of fruit.

Sometimes, if I am pressed, I'll eat the meat and some mixed nuts, and have the salad later.

If you are pressed for time, try to set aside a time in the week when you can make stuff ahead - particularly salad in a giant tupperware. Then you could just portion it out as the week goes on.

Good luck!

[RobinNM]

The old time constraint BS. We all have the same 24 hours in a day. Its what we choose to do with them that makes the difference. You're just deprioritising the quality of your lunch. That's OK, just don't make out it isn't your choice

A+ on the snark and condescension. F on actual helpfulness.

OP - Eggs are great cold and are cheap. Boil up a dozen eggs and take a couple or three peeled eggs with you. Add some veggie sticks like carrots or peppers or celery and you've got a decent salad type meal. You could get a big spiral sliced ham. Those are fairly pricey as a one time outlay but for $16 or so you can easily get 15 or more meals out of it which makes them a good deal for my pocketbook in the long run. That works great cold and you can throw in a handful of cherry tomatoes and maybe some swiss cheese and have the same flavor profile as a ham and swiss sandwich. And then you can make soup with the ham bone when you have a day off and get even more value out of it.