Eating when you're gone all day
January 24, 2015 7:11 AM
I'm going to be gone from 8am-9pm three days a week. How do I feed myself?
I am a grad student who has morning classes M/W/Th followed by evening clinic times (M 5-7, W 6-7, Th 4-7), and then I have to wait another 1.5 for the next bus so I can go home. So I'll be gone from 8am-9pm.
I know from experience I'm too lazy to cook at 9pm. Should I bring a big lunch and some snacks and then eat a prepared dinner in the fridge or freezer when I get home? Or should I eat lunch after class and dinner after clinic while I wait for my bus?
What are some things I, a single person, can cook on the weekends to prepare for this schedule? As much as I enjoy cooking, I have such an insane amount of schoolwork I don't have time to devote an entire day standing over the stove.
I have a slow cooker, I have access to a microwave on campus but no fridge, I don't have a lot of money.
*The time needed to wait for a bus, and then take another bus back to campus makes going home in the middle of the day difficult. I can't/don't drive.
I am a grad student who has morning classes M/W/Th followed by evening clinic times (M 5-7, W 6-7, Th 4-7), and then I have to wait another 1.5 for the next bus so I can go home. So I'll be gone from 8am-9pm.
I know from experience I'm too lazy to cook at 9pm. Should I bring a big lunch and some snacks and then eat a prepared dinner in the fridge or freezer when I get home? Or should I eat lunch after class and dinner after clinic while I wait for my bus?
What are some things I, a single person, can cook on the weekends to prepare for this schedule? As much as I enjoy cooking, I have such an insane amount of schoolwork I don't have time to devote an entire day standing over the stove.
I have a slow cooker, I have access to a microwave on campus but no fridge, I don't have a lot of money.
*The time needed to wait for a bus, and then take another bus back to campus makes going home in the middle of the day difficult. I can't/don't drive.
I toss a ton of chicken breasts into the crock pot and then use them for different meals through the week. Chicken salad sandwiches or chicken tacos/burritos, or throw it into some rice.
Couscous takes no time at all to make and stays nicely in the fridge, or you can make it right at your desk (boil some water and then pour into a container with couscous, cover and wait 5 minutes.
Peanut butter, in those individual packets, works very nicely. Put it on an apple, or on crackers.
posted by xingcat at 8:06 AM on January 24, 2015
Couscous takes no time at all to make and stays nicely in the fridge, or you can make it right at your desk (boil some water and then pour into a container with couscous, cover and wait 5 minutes.
Peanut butter, in those individual packets, works very nicely. Put it on an apple, or on crackers.
posted by xingcat at 8:06 AM on January 24, 2015
My spouse and I are both extremely busy grad students. When we're gone all day, we love taking these for lunch: a nice, easy, healthy hot meal in the middle of the day is fantastic. They'll probably keep in a lunch box with an ice pack.
Seconding slow cooker meals for dinner: make a big batch of soup or chili or curry on the weekend; real easy to reheat and then eat with some bread and cheese when you get home.
posted by damayanti at 8:07 AM on January 24, 2015
Seconding slow cooker meals for dinner: make a big batch of soup or chili or curry on the weekend; real easy to reheat and then eat with some bread and cheese when you get home.
posted by damayanti at 8:07 AM on January 24, 2015
Take something portable with you for breakfast. An egg sandwich, or PBJ, or some other easy to consume item.
Cheese and fruit makes a nice morning snack.
On the weekends make a stew or hearty soup that you can freeze and re-heat in a microwave at school. Chili, stews, whatever you like. It'll thaw in your backpack.
Afternoon snack/tea. Sandwich, soup, fruit.
Dinner while waiting for the bus. Pasta salad made with oil and vinegar dressing with cheese and veggies and salami (if you like it.) Or throw a can of tuna into it. Will be fine at room temperature all day. Check out Mason Jar Salads for ideas.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 8:40 AM on January 24, 2015
Cheese and fruit makes a nice morning snack.
On the weekends make a stew or hearty soup that you can freeze and re-heat in a microwave at school. Chili, stews, whatever you like. It'll thaw in your backpack.
Afternoon snack/tea. Sandwich, soup, fruit.
Dinner while waiting for the bus. Pasta salad made with oil and vinegar dressing with cheese and veggies and salami (if you like it.) Or throw a can of tuna into it. Will be fine at room temperature all day. Check out Mason Jar Salads for ideas.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 8:40 AM on January 24, 2015
I used to have a schedule like this! (And still do, sometimes...sigh) I would just eat while you're out - eating and then going to bed is not generally a great idea unless you have a GI tract of steel.
Nthing crockpot meals that you reheat on campus. Something that's been stewed for hours holds up pretty well over time. Casseroles can also handle this - my husband was on a chicken noodle casserole kick for a long time. My favorite crockpot recipes are beef stew (stew meat, carrots, cream of mushroom soup, and chunks of cabbage or turnip depending on your preference), cashew chicken (recipe here is kind of like what I use), and pulled pork/chicken/whatever. Stuffed peppers can also pack and reheat well, and are a nice, filling, discrete unit. These are all things you can make in 4-6 serving batches on Sundays, to provide leftovers all week.
I also tended to bring chopped vegetables to munch on - carrots, cucumbers, bell peppers, broccoli, whatever. I have been known to pack a whole, washed cucumber or pepper and just munch on it like an apple. I haven't tried those jar salads, but that seems like it might work if you had an insulated lunch bag with an ice pack to keep the lettuce from getting wilty.
I am also a big fan of premade soups. I realize the sodium content is badbadbad, but they are tasty and microwaveable and it is cold out right now. The ones in bags from Campbell are nice - they even have a couple of curries. And I have been known to get a bag of, like, a TastyBite lentil dish and just eat that as a meal.
And I fill in with shelf-stable foods that are relatively low-GI (because the only thing worse than having to eat all your meals from a lunch sack in a student union or office kitchenette is getting hangry from low blood sugar). Carefully chosen trail mixes, flavored nuts, jerky, protein bars, that kind of thing. It makes getting through a really, really long time away from home less immediately exhausting.
posted by bowtiesarecool at 8:43 AM on January 24, 2015
Nthing crockpot meals that you reheat on campus. Something that's been stewed for hours holds up pretty well over time. Casseroles can also handle this - my husband was on a chicken noodle casserole kick for a long time. My favorite crockpot recipes are beef stew (stew meat, carrots, cream of mushroom soup, and chunks of cabbage or turnip depending on your preference), cashew chicken (recipe here is kind of like what I use), and pulled pork/chicken/whatever. Stuffed peppers can also pack and reheat well, and are a nice, filling, discrete unit. These are all things you can make in 4-6 serving batches on Sundays, to provide leftovers all week.
I also tended to bring chopped vegetables to munch on - carrots, cucumbers, bell peppers, broccoli, whatever. I have been known to pack a whole, washed cucumber or pepper and just munch on it like an apple. I haven't tried those jar salads, but that seems like it might work if you had an insulated lunch bag with an ice pack to keep the lettuce from getting wilty.
I am also a big fan of premade soups. I realize the sodium content is badbadbad, but they are tasty and microwaveable and it is cold out right now. The ones in bags from Campbell are nice - they even have a couple of curries. And I have been known to get a bag of, like, a TastyBite lentil dish and just eat that as a meal.
And I fill in with shelf-stable foods that are relatively low-GI (because the only thing worse than having to eat all your meals from a lunch sack in a student union or office kitchenette is getting hangry from low blood sugar). Carefully chosen trail mixes, flavored nuts, jerky, protein bars, that kind of thing. It makes getting through a really, really long time away from home less immediately exhausting.
posted by bowtiesarecool at 8:43 AM on January 24, 2015
Do you have an office? Honestly, if this is going to be your life for the next N years, it would be worthwhile to get a mini fridge and stock it weekly with sandwich stuff, fruits, veggies, yogurt, hummus, or whatever easy food you like. Bonus points for toaster oven or George Foreman grill so you can have hot sandwiches. To make the cost more palatable, find a used one or see if officemates would share the cost. I found this way easier in grad school than packing multiple meals per day, and that was without a crazy bus trip to campus.
posted by ktkt at 9:38 AM on January 24, 2015
posted by ktkt at 9:38 AM on January 24, 2015
FATS.
You can go to trader joes and buy a bunch of nuts and eat them throughout the day. You will have great BMs and stay satiated.
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 9:55 AM on January 24, 2015
You can go to trader joes and buy a bunch of nuts and eat them throughout the day. You will have great BMs and stay satiated.
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 9:55 AM on January 24, 2015
I spent 9 years in grad school and now am a faculty member with a sometimes rotating, weird schedule. They're silly and gimicky, but if you're without a fridge and moving around campus a lot, Lunch Blox are actually pretty great. I have a salad kit, a sandwich kit, and the blue bag. My salad is usually pre-washed greens, pre-shredded carrots, pre-shredded cheese, and some nuts or croutons, with the little dressing container filled with oil and vinegar. It is a tasty, filling lunch (or maybe dinner in your case), that I can assemble quickly in the morning and eat quickly during the day. The outside pockets are great for bananas, apples, tangerines, etc.
I also always have in my bag a Luna or Cliff bar (to replace a meal), a chocolatey granola bar (so I don't buy a candy bar for a snack), a reusable water bottle (can be filled anywhere), and a reusable coffee cup (can be filled anytime there just happens to be free coffee/tea somewhere on campus, which is a lot of the time). That stash solves a lot of problems and saves a lot of money.
posted by hydropsyche at 9:59 AM on January 24, 2015
I also always have in my bag a Luna or Cliff bar (to replace a meal), a chocolatey granola bar (so I don't buy a candy bar for a snack), a reusable water bottle (can be filled anywhere), and a reusable coffee cup (can be filled anytime there just happens to be free coffee/tea somewhere on campus, which is a lot of the time). That stash solves a lot of problems and saves a lot of money.
posted by hydropsyche at 9:59 AM on January 24, 2015
My trick for thinking about these things is to think about what I in my well-rested, well-fed, calm self would want to do, and then arrange things so that this thing is the easiest course of action for my tired, hungry, stressed self.
Probably the most important thing to do is to carry some snacks that are high in fat, amylopectin (complex carbs), and fiber so that when you screw up elsewhere, it's easier to eat that than to go hungry or pay too much for bad food. E.g., unsalted nuts, roasted chickpeas, peanut butter to spread onto apples, raisins and peanuts.
For your proper meals, you'll need to figure out whether you like variety. Some people can eat the same breakfast for decades straight. Others need to change their menus frequently or they'll go non-compliant from sheer boredom. It's important not to try to fight your natural preferences, because if you rely on willpower you'll fail.
posted by d. z. wang at 10:17 AM on January 24, 2015
Probably the most important thing to do is to carry some snacks that are high in fat, amylopectin (complex carbs), and fiber so that when you screw up elsewhere, it's easier to eat that than to go hungry or pay too much for bad food. E.g., unsalted nuts, roasted chickpeas, peanut butter to spread onto apples, raisins and peanuts.
For your proper meals, you'll need to figure out whether you like variety. Some people can eat the same breakfast for decades straight. Others need to change their menus frequently or they'll go non-compliant from sheer boredom. It's important not to try to fight your natural preferences, because if you rely on willpower you'll fail.
posted by d. z. wang at 10:17 AM on January 24, 2015
I feel like I post this in every food thread, but here we go: moist/tender chicken breasts every time. I do 2 12" skillets at a time, each of which holds 4 smaller breasts (which I get in a family pack of 8 at one of my local grocery stores) or 3 big ones (6-pack, different store), using a gallon freezer bag, partially closed, to pound them to an even thickness (which I do with the bottom of a large glass Torani syrup bottle, but I should really get around to picking up a flat meat mallet).
The entire process takes about 35 minutes including cleaning as you go, and you only intervene in the actual cooking process 3 times so there is downtime, and then you have about 8 meals' worth of chicken ready to go for the week. It's fully cooked but just, so it can stand reheating without getting unpleasant.
You can use them for both lunches and dinners, and if you can live with keeping it very simple and not needing 20 distinct and novel meals, all you need to do is add two vegetables and an optional starch, which can also be made ahead and microwaved at the time.
You can do the same bulk-prep with ground beef (flavor it neutrally when you cook it, and then go for a specific flavor when you assemble a meal), buy and disassemble a rotisserie chicken if you've come up really short on time, make a couple roasts in the crock pot, etc. Same principle.
If you want cheap fancy, just about any grocery store now has half an aisle of "simmer sauce" both in packet and jar format. When you pack up a container of lunch or dinner, you can spoon over a couple tablespoons of your tikka masala or enchilada or lemon or green curry sauce (and you can portion and freeze part of a container of sauce to use another week so you don't tikka yourself to death in a single week).
Egg-type casseroles also travel well, and don't necessarily need reheating either. See green chile egg puff for a base, and add protein (like taco-seasoned meat, leftover chicken, etc). Pack up a square of that and salad and you're all set, or you're done with dinner minutes after you get home.
If you're not too concerned about your carbs, don't forget sandwiches. (If you are concerned with carbs, get l-c tortillas or Flatout bread to make wraps.) I work from home, and my husband often comes home for lunch, and I can't always generate enough leftovers for a hot lunch every day. I buy the most-fibery bread on the shelf, and there's a plastic shoebox in the fridge that I keep stocked with a couple kinds of lunchmeat, cheese, and the dregs of whatever salad-type stuff I've had around. Toast the bread (this makes a huge difference in the sense of non-squishy satisfaction you get from a sandwich, and a toasted-bread sandwich travels tons better), mayomustard, throw some cabbage shreds or a romaine leaf on there, lunchmeat, done, boom. If you want to make several days' sandwiches at once, assembly style, I find that over-toasting the bread slightly helps it hold up.
Similar to the sandwich plan, bulk-assembled freezer burritos and spinach-feta breakfast wraps, both of which are of course customizable to what you want to eat/spend.
Spend a little money on a stack of ice packs - I like the thin-format ones because you can fit a bunch of them in your freezer door compartment, and they don't weigh your stuff down as much as the bigger ones. When you can, use frozen items that you will eat as your ice pack - for example, put frozen spinach or cauliflower on the bottom of your container, put some curry sauce over it, chicken on top of that, rice on top of that.
For emergencies (both time- and illness-related) I keep a few cans of Progresso soup in the pantry. They tend to be satisfying, and not as salty as some brands, and you can throw a can of soup and a slice of bread in a bag and it's better than being hungry.
posted by Lyn Never at 11:27 AM on January 24, 2015
The entire process takes about 35 minutes including cleaning as you go, and you only intervene in the actual cooking process 3 times so there is downtime, and then you have about 8 meals' worth of chicken ready to go for the week. It's fully cooked but just, so it can stand reheating without getting unpleasant.
You can use them for both lunches and dinners, and if you can live with keeping it very simple and not needing 20 distinct and novel meals, all you need to do is add two vegetables and an optional starch, which can also be made ahead and microwaved at the time.
You can do the same bulk-prep with ground beef (flavor it neutrally when you cook it, and then go for a specific flavor when you assemble a meal), buy and disassemble a rotisserie chicken if you've come up really short on time, make a couple roasts in the crock pot, etc. Same principle.
If you want cheap fancy, just about any grocery store now has half an aisle of "simmer sauce" both in packet and jar format. When you pack up a container of lunch or dinner, you can spoon over a couple tablespoons of your tikka masala or enchilada or lemon or green curry sauce (and you can portion and freeze part of a container of sauce to use another week so you don't tikka yourself to death in a single week).
Egg-type casseroles also travel well, and don't necessarily need reheating either. See green chile egg puff for a base, and add protein (like taco-seasoned meat, leftover chicken, etc). Pack up a square of that and salad and you're all set, or you're done with dinner minutes after you get home.
If you're not too concerned about your carbs, don't forget sandwiches. (If you are concerned with carbs, get l-c tortillas or Flatout bread to make wraps.) I work from home, and my husband often comes home for lunch, and I can't always generate enough leftovers for a hot lunch every day. I buy the most-fibery bread on the shelf, and there's a plastic shoebox in the fridge that I keep stocked with a couple kinds of lunchmeat, cheese, and the dregs of whatever salad-type stuff I've had around. Toast the bread (this makes a huge difference in the sense of non-squishy satisfaction you get from a sandwich, and a toasted-bread sandwich travels tons better), mayomustard, throw some cabbage shreds or a romaine leaf on there, lunchmeat, done, boom. If you want to make several days' sandwiches at once, assembly style, I find that over-toasting the bread slightly helps it hold up.
Similar to the sandwich plan, bulk-assembled freezer burritos and spinach-feta breakfast wraps, both of which are of course customizable to what you want to eat/spend.
Spend a little money on a stack of ice packs - I like the thin-format ones because you can fit a bunch of them in your freezer door compartment, and they don't weigh your stuff down as much as the bigger ones. When you can, use frozen items that you will eat as your ice pack - for example, put frozen spinach or cauliflower on the bottom of your container, put some curry sauce over it, chicken on top of that, rice on top of that.
For emergencies (both time- and illness-related) I keep a few cans of Progresso soup in the pantry. They tend to be satisfying, and not as salty as some brands, and you can throw a can of soup and a slice of bread in a bag and it's better than being hungry.
posted by Lyn Never at 11:27 AM on January 24, 2015
I would definitely bring a frozen meal to reheat for dinner whilst you wait for your bus.
My basic approach for years has been to cook more than I need, and portion out the rest to add to a stable of leftovers in the freezer. Curries (Manjula's Kitchen is a great resource) and stews will freeze well, as will a basic 3-2-1 Cream of [Vegetable] soup (this question has a bunch of options, including a couple from me that I still make regularly. You can extend a soup like that with some meatballs/chicken/ham/etc.
Borscht is dirt cheap, delicious, and freezes well, too.
posted by Kreiger at 5:11 PM on January 24, 2015
My basic approach for years has been to cook more than I need, and portion out the rest to add to a stable of leftovers in the freezer. Curries (Manjula's Kitchen is a great resource) and stews will freeze well, as will a basic 3-2-1 Cream of [Vegetable] soup (this question has a bunch of options, including a couple from me that I still make regularly. You can extend a soup like that with some meatballs/chicken/ham/etc.
Borscht is dirt cheap, delicious, and freezes well, too.
posted by Kreiger at 5:11 PM on January 24, 2015
Quiche travels really well and doesn't need reheating. Hummus with veggies and crackers. I recently started making lasagna and minestrone soup in my slow cooker. Little tangerines are a fun snack. Be sure to drink lots of water.
posted by leslievictoria at 8:44 PM on January 24, 2015
posted by leslievictoria at 8:44 PM on January 24, 2015
If you are SUPER lazy like I am, make some trail mix bags. My dad would make these when he went on long trips, and I made these when I had a job with long hours.
NOT just nuts and dried fruits like those ones you see in the store, but put in fresh fruit/veggies as well--like grapes, small tangerines, baby carrots. Also include some slices of salami or jerky, those little Babybel cheeses and/or sliced cheese, popcorn, tortilla chips, and a few sweet things like your favorite chocolate. Just buy a whole bunch of all that stuff and cram them into several bags. Put a week's worth in the fridge and grab a few on your way out the door. They cover the essential food groups, the meat/cheese helped with feeling full, and they're portable so you can eat them on the bus.
posted by picklenickle at 11:09 PM on January 24, 2015
NOT just nuts and dried fruits like those ones you see in the store, but put in fresh fruit/veggies as well--like grapes, small tangerines, baby carrots. Also include some slices of salami or jerky, those little Babybel cheeses and/or sliced cheese, popcorn, tortilla chips, and a few sweet things like your favorite chocolate. Just buy a whole bunch of all that stuff and cram them into several bags. Put a week's worth in the fridge and grab a few on your way out the door. They cover the essential food groups, the meat/cheese helped with feeling full, and they're portable so you can eat them on the bus.
posted by picklenickle at 11:09 PM on January 24, 2015
I sometimes make a huge batch of breakfast burritos to eat throughout the week. You can stock up on the materials on the weekend and then have breakfast all week. The black beans and potatoes are the only items that are essential, here; the potatoes provide filler and keep you full until lunch, and eating a serving of black beans first thing in the morning always gets things working real well for the rest of the the day on the fiber front.
BLACK BEAN BREAKFAST BURRITOS
one tube/half a package of Mexian chorizo or veggie soyrizo
1 bell pepper, diced
1 small onion, diced
1 poblano, minced
2-3 potatoes, boiled until soft and cubed (scrape off any gross bits of potato skin, but leave the skin on - you need that fiber) (you can also use sweet potatoes - lower glycemic index, more vitamins; I like to add a few chopped chipotles to counteract the sweetness)
1 can black beans, all the gross liquid goop rinsed off and drained
1 pack large burrito tortillas
Heat the chorizo, until it's half cooked in a dry pan. Meat chorizo is greasy, you need you add oil for soyrizo.
Fry the onion/pepper/poblano with the chorizo until the veg is soft and the chorizo is cooked. Press this mix into a side of the pan, letting the orange chorizo grease drain away; move the chorizo/pepper mix to a bowl and keep the grease in the pan.
Add oil to the pan if you used Soyrizo or you don't have at least a tablespoon or two of chorizo fat. Add the cubed cooked potatoes to the pan and let them sit there browning for about ten minutes. This is pretty much your only chance to get a golden brown crunch on the potatoes, if you stir them around a lot they're just going to absorb the oil and turn into hot mashed potatoes.
Add the beans, the chorizo/pepper mix, and cook, mixing it together gently until everything's heated through and evenly distributed. Makes like 9 burritos; they freeze perfectly well in sandwich bags for HOLY SHIT THERE'S NO FOOD IN THE HOUSE mornings. Just microwave them. They also stay warm for a very long time microwaved and then wrapped in tin foil.
posted by Juliet Banana at 1:39 PM on January 25, 2015
BLACK BEAN BREAKFAST BURRITOS
one tube/half a package of Mexian chorizo or veggie soyrizo
1 bell pepper, diced
1 small onion, diced
1 poblano, minced
2-3 potatoes, boiled until soft and cubed (scrape off any gross bits of potato skin, but leave the skin on - you need that fiber) (you can also use sweet potatoes - lower glycemic index, more vitamins; I like to add a few chopped chipotles to counteract the sweetness)
1 can black beans, all the gross liquid goop rinsed off and drained
1 pack large burrito tortillas
Heat the chorizo, until it's half cooked in a dry pan. Meat chorizo is greasy, you need you add oil for soyrizo.
Fry the onion/pepper/poblano with the chorizo until the veg is soft and the chorizo is cooked. Press this mix into a side of the pan, letting the orange chorizo grease drain away; move the chorizo/pepper mix to a bowl and keep the grease in the pan.
Add oil to the pan if you used Soyrizo or you don't have at least a tablespoon or two of chorizo fat. Add the cubed cooked potatoes to the pan and let them sit there browning for about ten minutes. This is pretty much your only chance to get a golden brown crunch on the potatoes, if you stir them around a lot they're just going to absorb the oil and turn into hot mashed potatoes.
Add the beans, the chorizo/pepper mix, and cook, mixing it together gently until everything's heated through and evenly distributed. Makes like 9 burritos; they freeze perfectly well in sandwich bags for HOLY SHIT THERE'S NO FOOD IN THE HOUSE mornings. Just microwave them. They also stay warm for a very long time microwaved and then wrapped in tin foil.
posted by Juliet Banana at 1:39 PM on January 25, 2015
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Most things you make in a slow cooker can be frozen. They'll be halfway thawed by lunch time.
Apples are portable and hard to damage.
I like beef jerky.
posted by jander03 at 7:20 AM on January 24, 2015