Brown-bagging it

I'm back, and back to school!

I have a pretty packed schedule. I'm in classes for about 20 hours per week, but also have time in between classes sometimes, up to 3 hours. This means that I'm actually on campus for about 27 hours per week. Usually I only need to pack lunch and snacks, but one day per week I am at school for eleven hours, meaning that I need to get some dinner too since I don't actually finish class till 9:30pm. Ughhhhhhhhh.....

Given that I am a poor and starving student, I really can't afford to be eating on or around campus (even like, once per week would push me way beyond my budget). Besides, the food that is available is mostly fast food and isn't the best option nutritionally. So, my best bet is to pack my own lunches (and sometimes dinners) and snacks to make sure that I stay both on budget and on plan!

I decided to post here a few ideas of the types of things typical of my lunch and snack bags for your viewing pleasure.

Snack Bag - usually at least two or three of these items appear each day

• whole fruit (bananas, peaches, apples, oranges, etc)
• cut veggies with hummus (peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini, carrot sticks...)
• Greek yogurt with berries (strawberries, blackberries, blueberries...) and maybe a drizzle of honey
• WW mini snack bar or pack of gingersnaps (some kind of crunchy or sweet snack to satisfy those mid-afternoon slump cravings when the vending machine calls)
• baggie of pretzel sticks

Lunch Bag and sometimes Dinner Bag - usually I take leftovers from dinner the night before as lunch the next day. When leftovers aren't available, these are some of the things that might appear

• giant salads - made with 2-3c of greens, about 1c of other veggies (peppers, mushrooms, onions, whatever is left over in the fridge), almonds or walnuts, maybe some avocado, and anything else in the fridge that needs to be used. I usually pack a breakfast pita along with my salad.
• other kinds of salads - bean salad, quinoa salad, chickpea salad, pasta salad...
• soup in a Thermos - heat it up in the morning, pack in a Thermos, and it will still be warm a few hours later when you get around to eating it!

Given that I am indeed such a ridiculously busy person, I often have to prepare these things at least a day or two in advance so that I can just grab them and go. Usually this means that my fridge is stocked with:

• Pre-cut veggies: Come home from the grocery store, chop veggies into suitable pieces (pepper strips, carrot sticks, celery sticks, etc). Store them in water in the fridge so that they don't dry up. All you have to do is reach into the cold water and pack up your veggies to go! Also a great way to cut down on dinner prep time! You can do this with fruit too, but maybe only a day or two before you are going to eat it. Unfortunately, fruit tends to get soggy if you keep it in water, so you have to leave it as is (e.g. strawberries, peach slices, kiwi slices, mango chunks, etc)
• Pre-packs: In addition to pre-chopping, I usually also make pre-packs of some of my staple snacks. This makes it quick and easy to just take what I need out of the fridge, and hey - everything is already PORTION CONTROLLED! I often pre-pack my yogurt and cottage cheese. I also pre-pack my bulk snacks, usually as soon as I get home from the store with them (things like dried fruit, nuts, pretzels, etc). This way I can just take a little pre-portioned baggie with me, and I know how much I'm getting. If I have the opportunity to reach my greedy hands into a bag full of almonds, I will eat them all. If all I have is a little bag, I will still eat them all. However, it's significantly fewer almonds/whatever than I would have eaten uncontrollably without the pre-packing!
• Breakfast on the go: I've posted before about how awesome breakfast is, and I'm a HUGE lover of this morning meal! I need to eat breakfast, and usually, I eat a lot of breakfast. That way I'll stay satisfied and energized throughout those boring morning classes where I would otherwise be tempted to snack. I also am energized enough that on days that I don't have a morning class, I can go to the gym for a workout, or plow through some of my homework! During times when I know that I will need to take a to-go breakfast or just need to get breakfast made really fast (e.g. on the way to an early morning yoga class), I will cook up a big batch of oatmeal early in the week and keep it in the fridge. I just scoop out a few spoonfulls, pop it in the microwave, and a couple minutes later I'm munching my way through a hearty homecooked breakfast! I make my oatmeal with just some cinnamon and a pinch of brown sugar, so that I can mix up my oatmeal toppings every day and it won't get boring. One day I might put dried cranberries and almond slivers, the next day is blueberries and strawberries, the next day might be apple chunks, etc etc etc...

What are some of your favourite snacks and lunches to take on the go? How can you make prep time easier when you're a busy bee?