Okay, here's the deal: I need help feeding myself. Here are the constraints:
Go!
Gonna be hard to beat the classic PBJ. Stick a banana in there and its healthy. Get a two dollar cooler-lunch bag thing, and you're good.
Soup or chili in a thermos.
Oh, or if you have a rock or something you could take an MRE.
PB&J is a staple for a reason. That, an apple and a refillable bottle of water will go a long way.
I may be weird but-many standard meat with cheese sandwiches taste pretty good after warming in a car for a few hours.
Can of soup is tough to beat, though dried meat, some cheeses, biscuits, crackers, nuts, and fruit have all pretty much been standard travel food for centuries.
Some of the Hormel instant lunches are decent; I usually have a couple of them, canned soup, tuna and cracker instant lunches and peanut butter in my locker at work all the time just in case.
My lunches are based on the assumption I wont have access to a microwave. Lunch often sits in the truck all day. Back windows are tinted and I try to keep the windows cracked. Its inevitably pretty hot on occasion though.
Lunch cooler. Load lunch with a small ice pack and cold soda/beverage before leaving the house in the morning. Just about any sandwich should be able to make it till lunch time. Roast beef and chee this week. Half the time I dont even bother with the ice pack.
I like to supplement sammiches with clementine oranges and apples (also from the fridge helping with keeping things cool), crackers, sometimes string cheese. Also fruit snacks...get a big box from costo it will last a couple months. Because fruit snacks are awesome.
Make toast. Add slices of cheddar or make pimento cheese spread if you like it. Put cheese product on toast. Place in foil and leave on sunny dash. Hot "grilled" cheese sammich! 
Do I win something from your lunchbag?
mazdeuce wrote: PB&J is a staple for a reason. That, an apple and a refillable bottle of water will go a long way.
This. I eat 2 PB&J's on toasted 5 grain wheat bread for lunch pretty much every day at work. Add some kettle chips, some baby carrots, an apple and/or a banana and a thermos full of ice water. I love good food and my wife is an excellent cook but spending a ton of $$ and time on lunch just seems silly to me and remembering to ring leftovers everyday is just a PITA.
I can usually make a loaf of bread and a bag of kettle chips last a week and I actually prefer the Publix brand crunchy PB and their grape jelly which usually last about 3 weeks. Cheap, delicious and satisfying.
When I pruned Christmas trees as a youth we would take out our sandwiches at our first water break and put them on the flat black roof of the boss man's Ramcharger. Those were hot and melty and good.
Trucker Lunch!
MrJoshua wrote: I may be weird but-many standard meat with cheese sandwiches taste pretty good after warming in a car for a few hours.
Yep. As a young'n, I used to put the ham and cheese sandwich on the dashboard of the truck. By lunch time, it's morphed into delicious...something. Especially if I'd slathered it with mayo.
In all sincerity, I'd say various sandwiches are the best way to go Tommy, along with fruit or such for a side. Pretzels or what have you for crunch if needed.
You're young, but you may still want to consider calories and carbs, especially if you're not doing anything physically active.
As much as I enjoy periodically stress testing my immune system, eating lunch meat that's been out of the fridge more than an hour or two is a massive food safety no no.
buy in bulk and make your own trail mix/gorp.
If you have or can procure a decent lunch cooler or cooler bag, you can make a big pasta salad on sunday and bring it all week. you can do mayo based, dressing based and tomato sauce based ones to mix it up. we ate "american chop suey" a lot growing up. basically, brown a lb of ground beef, mix into heated jar of tomato sauce, then pour over a bunch of elbow macaroni or spirals. works cold, or could do the "leave the tupperware on the dash" to heat it up thing. this presumes you have access to a kitchen at some point during the week.
make sure the bag/cooler goes in the shade in the car, inside another bag. It does help w/ the staying cool.
Lunch cooler, water cooler and a couple of ice packs do wonders. Today I'm bringing a deviled ham salad with carrots and a couple of bananas. It will stay in my truck until lunch time and still be fresh.
The wife usually picks up a ham, a roast and a chicken, every other week. We have it for dinner and I slice the rest for sandwich meat. Keep a head of lettuces and a couple of tomatoes in the fridge, a bunch of fruit of your choice, and you can eat like a king for pretty cheap.
As a plus, it's a whole lot healthier and if you start it now, you probably won't end up weighing 270# by the time you are 45.
If you have constraints of having to have it in a hot car and then be able to eat in a waiting room setting, your choices are somewhat limited if you want to eat healthy. Most foods that can handle that without getting nasty have a ton of preservates and salt. PB is always an option (I hate jelly). Use whole wheat bread and all natural PB. Pack it along with some fresh fruit and you're good. Or if you have a lunch bag you can use, you can also make a salad. Put an ice pack in the lunch bag, and throw some lean cold cuts on the ice pack, so you can put them on the salad when you eat it.
I eat soup from Aldi's every day. I pour the juices into a foam cup. Heat it for 2 min. Pour it into the can with the goods. Enjoy.
bluej wrote: buy in bulk and make your own trail mix/gorp.
This. I keep a pound jar of unsalted peanuts at my desk, along with a huge bag of dried cranberries and a cylinder of raisins. Mix in whatever ratio you prefer. It's a great protein boost with some healthy sugars and carbs. I just found out there's a store that sells just nuts across the street from me...their unsalted nuts are a bit fresher than the ones at the grocer, and they have tons of variety.
For road trips, my wife and I'll make up a gallon ziplock of the above, adding dried fruit and a few semi-sweet chocolate chips to make it super tasty. We've been known to exist only on that, a bag of carrots, and water for an entire day.
Also, if you dig 'em, hard boiled eggs. Man can we eat some hard boiled eggs.
Stop at a high end grocery stop or supermarket at lunch time and cruise the aisles eating the free samples.
Good, healthy, FREE
Kenny_McCormic wrote: As much as I enjoy periodically stress testing my immune system, eating lunch meat that's been out of the fridge more than an hour or two is a massive food safety no no.
Oh, picky picky picky!
Hey, if you get lucky, you get jet propulsion this way!
There always is the hospital cafeteria.
Ok. I know.
Appleseed wrote: Trucker Lunch!
Thats breakfast, at least when I was driving a truck. Used larger portions though, 44oz Dew and a king size Snickers bar.
I can send you some MREs.
N Sperlo wrote: I can send you some MREs.
Send those this way 
When doing field studies most of the time I would just do a PBJ or two (depending on how long of a day and how much hiking I had planned), a banana and a couple canteens of water. Then I normally had trail mix, jerky (make sure it is dry stuff not greasy otherwise heat from the day can make it nasty but I also did stuff in the desert) and a couple CLIF bars tucked in my pack.
You'll need to log in to post.
