Lunch at mid-day is inconvenient. Do you have a work around?

March 20, 2018 8:48 AM

Often, I delay going out to run errands till after lunch because I don't want to have to grab a lunch from a fast food joint. This is terribly inconvenient. The fix would be to pack a lunch and eat in the car or perhaps eat two small meals before and after the errand run. A packed lunch isn't very appealing and two small meals isn't as appetizing as a substantial meal. Do you have some work around that I'm missing?
posted by Coffeetyme to Food & Drink (13 answers total)

1. I started getting realistic about how long errands would take and doing more in the morning. If I was out during lunch and really starving there are few places I could get smoothie that wasn’t pure sugar
2. Eat lunch immediately once I got home. This sometimes means “prepping” or packing a meal that if available the minute I walk in the door (or 5 min in the microwave after I open the door).
posted by raccoon409 at 8:54 AM on March 20, 2018

Best answer: eat a snack before you go out (protein bar whatever) and have lunch when you get back.
posted by misanthropicsarah at 9:13 AM on March 20, 2018 [1 favorite]

Coffiest/Soylent are useful for filling food voids like this.

I have a 45 minute commute to the office in the morning, and I use this as an alternative to fast food.
posted by oceanjesse at 9:17 AM on March 20, 2018

I'm a bit unclear on why delaying errands until the afternoon is a problem in the first place. It seems that making lunch at home the "Fixed Point" and scheduling everything around it would solve the problem, but that isn't working for you, I'm assuming.

Is this a lack-of-time problem, that scheduling your errands earlier (starting at 9 am, say) might address?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:27 AM on March 20, 2018

Are these errands taking place from your workplace which is NOT your home? Is the problem that you're trying to squeeze lunch and errands into a company-mandated 1 hour lunch break?

If so, my solution has always been to eat a very good packed lunch at my desk before I go. If you have a fridge and a microwave in the office you can make some excellent lunches.
posted by AmandaA at 9:33 AM on March 20, 2018

A packed lunch isn't very appealing

Doesn't that depend on what you pack? I splurge on good lunch stuff precisely because I don't want to eat the garbage choices that are available locally to my job. It sort of seems expensive in the grocery store, but compared to $35-50 to buy lunch out daily? It's cheap. Buy things you like and enjoy a nice packed lunch.
posted by Miko at 9:45 AM on March 20, 2018 [3 favorites]

Eat breakfast later. I'm eating breakfast right now (approx 10 am local time) and at "lunchtime" I won't be hungry and will be free to run errands if needed. I usually have lunch around 1:30, back at the office/my desk.
posted by assenav at 9:56 AM on March 20, 2018 [2 favorites]

I am also assuming you're talking about squeezing in errands and lunch during a work day. It might be helpful to know what your ideal/regular lunch is on a day that you're not running an errand. Do you eat at a work cafeteria? Go out to eat at a non-fast food place? When I have to run an errand during lunch at work, I usually just eat an early lunch at my desk and then have a snack later in the afternoon. It doesn't have to be two small meals. Just make one of them a snack and one of them the actual lunch; one before the errand, the other after. Assuming you don't run errands every day, figuring out a packed lunch that's appealing once in a while shouldn't be so bad. You could even stop at a bagel or deli in the morning on your way into work and get a sandwich to keep until later.
posted by LKWorking at 9:58 AM on March 20, 2018

I've been packing a thermos of some kind of hearty soup for lunch lately, and that's been pretty nice. If you prep the thermos with hot water first, it stays warm pretty much all day, so you can eat it whenever is most convenient, whether it's actually lunch time or otherwise. Also, hot lunch is WAY more satisfying (to me, and it sounds like maybe to you) than some kind of cold packed lunch situation.

Edit: oops, accidentally posted twice. Sorry, y'all. This one has a thermos link and that's the only difference.
posted by helloimjennsco at 10:35 AM on March 20, 2018

Unless there's some kind of additional restriction you haven't mentioned, you're overengineering this. If you have time to eat a small meal before and after, you have time to eat a meal before or after, and there is no need to split it up or eat in the car. Prep a good lunch in the morning or the night before - whether you work in an office or this is happening from home - and eat it either before or after errands. That good lunch can be made up of components that are homemade, some pre-packaged add-ins, good frozen items, grocery deli items (either the stuff in the actual case like fried/grilled chicken, vegetable sides, salads; or the ready-to-heat prepared meal stuff usually just next to the deli), delivered prepared meals like Freshly (we get 6 of these every week, 4 for my husband who works in an office, 2 for me at home), and extra takeout/delivery from another meal.

You may also want to think strategy about the errands themselves. Why are you having to run so many errands? Could you reduce trips by applying some kind of automation, delivery, or a single weekend trip instead? Can you run the errands at a better time? I work from home so there is no "on the way" option for errand-running, and I hate going out after my workday starts and also hate it after my workday ends, so most of my supplies are obtained via online shopping and Instacart if it can't wait until the weekend, when I go out as early as feasibly possible to hit my stops as soon as they open.
posted by Lyn Never at 10:41 AM on March 20, 2018 [6 favorites]

The short answer is that errands don't work like that for me, but the closest equivalent for me seems to be traveling, where I have plans for the day and lunch always ends up being kind of an annoying afterthought. I deal with it by planning to have a big breakfast and early-ish dinner, and mostly skipping a mid-day meal. I'll bring a healthy snack and water with me, and will have a vague plan of stopping for something small if I want to rest my feet.

If I was at home and had, say, 5 hours' worth of errands, I'd probably just go out in the morning and let myself be hungry by the time I got home. If you're talking about workday errands, I avoid them like the plague until they build up, then I take an afternoon off of work every month or so and knock them all out.
posted by tchemgrrl at 11:42 AM on March 20, 2018 [1 favorite]

Best answer: +1 skip lunch. There's no law that you have to eat at any specific time.

If it's a hunger problem just eat at your desk before or after. I always make too much dinner so I have a real meal at lunchtime with the leftovers. Today I had a korma with chicken, cashews, avocado, chickpeas, and raisins! Tomorrow is lasagna.
posted by rabbitrabbit at 12:39 PM on March 20, 2018

+1 for Soylent which, while not the zestiest lunch, is healthy and drinkable.
posted by hexaflexagon at 6:39 PM on March 20, 2018