Husband's Lunch - Mobile,AL

We bought a car chargeable lunchbox that has a switch for heat or cool. It hangs on the back of a seat and has two cup holder on the top for drinks. If you got one of these, you could pack ANYTHING (leftovers comes to mind) and it will keep warm (or cold).

Rachel D responded to one of my posts earlier and it had to do with her hubby's lunch. She said she packed him Pasta Salad and it sounded sooo good. Maybe try that as something to mix things up?

What does your husband do for a living? Is he on the road driving around? (ie UPS driver, air condition repairman going from one house to the next)

If so, here's what I suggest. (This may sound odd, but my grandfather taught me this.)

Wrap a hot dog, or a pre-cooked hamburger patty (the kind that you just need to heat up) in aluminum foil. When he's about ready to eat, have him take the aluminum foil packet and stick it on the engine of the car. For hot dogs you only need to drive about 5 minutes. I have no idea how long for a hamburger patty, but I would guess about 7-10 minutes depending on if it's frozen.

You can do this with any foods really. I bought my grandpa a cookbook for engine cooking. He loved it, and one year he told my aunt that he would cook the turkey. He put it under the hood and drove the several hour trip to her house. It was done when he got there.

cold chicken. fresh fruit. a great big salad with grilled meat on top. a tortilla wrap. Cold pasta salad.

if he was standing in front of your fridge or cabinet, what would he grab to go sit down and eat in front of the tv cold? That's what I would send.

My husband has the same issue same old lunch meat. This week I baked a ham cut it into sand meat gave him a sand on Monday. Tuesday I heated up the left over breakfast burritos egg sausage hash-browns with peppers and onions and salsa wrapped them in plastic wrap so he could keep them on the dash of the truck seeing how its so hot here he eats at 9am so they aren't sitting there long. I do this with Mexican burritos too. Sometimes I send him with a salad. I cant wait to see your responses as I too run out of ideas :)

For my husband, I make bbq turkey burgers and put a patty in a zip bag (To the ground turkey breast I add grilled onions, minced garlic and red peppers and quite a bit of BBQ sauce, mix until blended, then grill. You can add diced cheddar chunks too). I also grill chicken breasts - cut them into cubes and put in a zippy.

Hi N.! I put lasagna in a stainless steel insulated food container and it stays hot for hours. Any other casserole would work well in the stainless container too. I bought mine off of amazon.com
Does he like salads? My husband loves great big salads with chicken, cashews, assorted veggies and dressing on the side in a little container.

-Cold pasta salad with diced chicken/sausage/pepperoni and add cubed cheese, veggies etc
- Spinach salad with sliced chicken, bacon and hard boiled eggs
- Panzanella (sp?) salad... cubed mozzeralla, cubed "peasant bread", chunked tomatoes, peppers, onions and some kind of protein. Pack him a little thing of balsamic to pour over it before eating. This is one of our favorite summer dinners!

We get tired of the same ole sandwiches as well. But I do love tuna and/or chicken salad with Ritz crackers. And salad with bits/shredded chicken.

a wrap - tuna, chicken, turkey with lettuce and tomato.....
pita pocket filled with his favs!!

a cold piece of chicken with pasta salad.....
even a nice salad with spinach or chicken.....

i LOVE the idea of the engine cookbook!! HOW COOL!!!

Get a thermos to pack hot/warm foods.

Try wraps and pita pockets instead of sandwiches, like felafel/hummus wrap or chicken salad in pita pockets.

Add a couple of fruits (apples, bananas etc) or snack-like items like cereal bars, individual dessert cups or yogurt to fill him up.

Jennifer H has a real good idea. But be careful where you put the foil wrapped foods. ALL modern engines have computers and the computers are VERY sensitive to electronic inputs. Some of the sensors send electronic messages measured in millivolts (one one thousandth of one volt). If you are going to put the foil wrapped food in the engine compartment, don't place it around, underneath or on top of any wires to avoid interferring with the engines electronic sensors. Aluminum is a very good conductor of electricity.

Motor homes have microwave ovens. I don't know if they are 12 volt or 120 volts. You might look into that.

BTW, you will make your man feel really good if you ocassionally give him a love note in with his sandwiches. That will make him sssoooo glad to have the sandwiches.

Good luck to you and yours.

Bacon is good you can either slice up some tomatoes and put some lettuce each in a small container a couple of slices of bread maybe some avacado...fresh fruit stays good if you don't cut it,peaches, grapes, apples...celery filled with p-nut butter stays well...if you place everything separately you can make salad fixins and let him put them together @ lunch...fried chicken is a winner...again you can put beef, pork, chicken chopped into pieces along with the salad fixins...boiled eggs...geez I could just go on & on...packed many, many lunches :)

How about tortilla wraps with cold meat, grated cheese & shredded lettuce; or tortilla chips & hummus dip; or bran cereal with raisins, dried cranberries, nuts; or made at home green salad that he adds the dressing to right before lunch; or chicken salad with crackers.

If you haven't already tried this .. put sandwiches on different breads, buns or in a tortilla roll up. Add different toppings, bacon is my favorite on any sandwich! Fruits right now are always good. I too go through lunch packing burn out and don't know what to pack for family members. They seem to like the small changes of bread/buns a bunch for a little something different.

My husband is on the road a lot and we get bored so I'm excited to read what others have written!

We do wraps. Take a tortilla and add shredded lettuce and meat. I put the dressing in a separate container so he can add it later so it doesn't get soggy.

My husband likes it when I make him a Bento Box lunch. I serve cold chicken with teriaki sauce and I make rice balls (you have to wet your fingers to make the balls) and drizzle the teriaki sauce on them and add some sesame seeds. I will also add a small pasta salad. Bento Box lunches are supposed to be eaten cold. I also make a Japanese egg pancake with soy sauce.

I'm going to look up engine cooking right now! My husband always says he wants a HOT lunch so this might be a solution!!

As to the engine cooking idea....which we have done many times, by the way! We also snowmobile...mostly just in the mountians now, but also in Upper Michigan and occasionally here in MN....we have done the engine cooking under the hood of our sleds. They even make a little cooker pot that attached under there and snaps shut for cooking a small meal (pretty snug under there). Its pretty cool that we can ride in the fluffy powder for hours, then stop and eat a warm/hot little meal!

Google the engine cooking idea! Have fun!

Barbecue salad is one of our faves. I also second the panzanella idea. Here is a great recipe for that:
http://www.rachaelraymag.com/recipes/rachael-ray-magazine...
You can definitely modify the steps of the recipe by keeping the sausage, bread, and tomato vinegarette separate so it doesn't end up soggy. We also love chicken tacos that are great served cold. Grilled marinated chicken slices in a flour or whole wheat tortilla topped with sliced avacodo, cabbage, grilled corn sliced off cobb, and a squeeze of lime. If you like it spicy, make a sauce of 1/2 cup light sour cream with 1 tsp of adobo sauce. HEAVEN!