A friend of mine recently got a job working on a construction site but has no refrigerator for their lunches. A ice pack is about as much cooling as anything will get but don't want to rely on that. I was wondering if anyone had lunch meal idea's that won't spoil in a hot car.
My husband works in this environment and has for a long time now. He just packs a whole bunch of ice packs with his lunch. He also sometimes freezes water bottles not only to keep his lunch cool but to have cold water late in the day.
Small ice chest w/several of those ice packs.
Freeze bottles of water. When they melt, he has water to drink.
Don't keep the meals in a hot car. Tell him to pull the ice chest out & leave it in the shade.
If you are leaving in the car, get a bigger cooler, add a few extra ice packs.
We use water bottles as an ice pack. We re use it, but my parents refill them each time they are pulled out so they have cold water to drink after the ice melts. With a bigger cooler, then you can put more ice in.. Also put a towle over the cooler or put it in the trunk.
Not sure how much battery it takes up. But they do have plug in coolers that you plug into your car, but I think that is for when you are driving.
There are gogurts, applesauces, juicebags, etc. that can be frozen ahead of time and will thaw and be cool by lunchtime. Peanut and butter should be fine. You can also do fruit and veggie sticks and crackers. Don't know if that helps. Be sure to have well-insulated box and ice packs come in all sorts of styles now. We have one that's 12 1-inch squares, connected. It can be wrapped around juices, etc... :)
Have you thought of hot lunches? Put a hot item like mac and cheese into a thermos.
Stick with snack type items, like crackers, pretzels, fruit, dried fruit, veggie sticks, nuts.
I would invest in a good cooler and a few ice packs. Almost anything you leave in a hot car for a few hours packed well will be fine.
I agree that maybe a larger cooler and/or more ice packs might be okay. Also, I really like the larger ice packs that are meant for coolers. They have little squares or small spaces on them and each one is filled with cooling gel. They work great and cover a large surface area. I also recently saw lunch sacks that you can put in the freezer and they have a gel inside them that freezes and helps keep things cold. Genius!
Other than that, I guess you could stick with PB&J, fruits and veggies, crackers, nuts...? That stuff won't spoil but I think it's safer to just use a few extra ice packs.
An ice pack and a thermal lunchbox will keep it cool (or hot) enough until lunchtime, even in a car. Pack whatever he/she likes!
I pack a ham sandwich with mayo, mustard and cheese with one of those ice packs and have never had it spoil.
Have also packed tuna salad and deviled eggs with no problems.
I just used ice 2 large 5x5 ice packs, which lasted all day. I packed a thermo bag with yogurts, salad, meat, cheese, whatever and it lasted 12 hours.
It's not an exciting meal, but back in college when my husband spent his summers working on road crews he survived off pb&js, fruit and chips.
