Safe/creative lunch ideas for DH? (edited for clarity)

[EMS83]

My husband starts a new job tomorrow.  I think he'll likely be out riding around in a truck most of the day and we're hoping to find some alternatives to fast food 5 days/week for cost reasons.  We can acquire a cooler, but I have no idea how long anything will stay cold in the Georgia heat in a truck.  Fall and winter will be better, but that's about November around here.  And he may not have access to a break room (microwave, mini fridge, etc.).  Any ideas???  Or are we just looking at $$/month for fast food?   :ohmy:

 

 

ETA: I realized I used an idiom for what he actually does.  It's not just riding/driving; it's going from job to job across two counties.  He'll be doing service work and hopefully contracting.  So the truck may just be sitting there for hours, or half an hour, until one job's done and he moves on to the next.  I'm sorry for any confusion.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 15, 2016 by CES2005

[school17777]

Right now, pb&j sandwiches might be the way to go, until the temperature cools off and other snack stuff that won't go bad if not kept cool.

[umsami]

A good cooler will work in Georgia, at least they work in Florida. :)  Use ice packs and actual ice.

 

I would start off with sandwiches/wraps.  Chips.  Fruit.  Like you're packing for a kid.

 

You can get a wide mouth thermos and then add soups, stew, and pasta.  Just be sure to heat the thermos first with boiling water, and then pour out the water before adding whatever you want in it.

 

I got a metal water bottle at Costco that promises to keep drinks cold for some amazingly long time like 24 hours.  Both boys took those to Boy Scout camp...all day outside in the hot Florida summer sun....and they worked wonderfully. Kept the water ice cold.

 

 

[hornblower]

Better than ice packs; will keep things cold for many many hours. Someone I know had her pop actually freeze solid because she placed it too close to one of these packs.
 https://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Shock-Shock-1-18F-Dry-9-Inches/dp/B01ACCBQG2/ref=sr_1_1/151-1366007-6085566?ie=UTF8&qid=1471228792&sr=8-1&keywords=Cooler+shock

Edited August 15, 2016 by hornblower

[marbel]

Try a cooler with 1-2 blue ice packs.  Pack a pb&j and have him note how cold it is when he gets around to eating it.  If it stays pretty cold, you will know you can pack other things safely. (My son takes leftover pizza and eats it cold sometimes.)  You can also partially freeze a water bottle.  Additions could be trail mix, packaged granola or protein bars, small container of applesauce or an orange or apple, oatmeal cookies - just thinking of some things my son has been taking in his lunch (though we do not live in GA and he does not ride around in a truck all day.  But he has no access to refrigeration and his workplace doesn't have a/c). 

 

Is the truck air conditioned? 

[idnib]

Tuna in pouches can be opened at the right time and added to bread. Get some mayo packets from a restaurant supply or Smart & Final if you have them.

 

Baby carrots/broccoli florets/cauliflower florets

 

Nut and dried fruit (raisins, raisins, apples) mix

 

Bananas/apples/grapes

 

Hard cheese, but only bring the amount to be eaten that day

 

Crackers (can be eaten with cheese)

 

Beef jerky

 

 

 

 

[zoobie]

My dad keeps a cooler in his car all day in Georgia, and he packs just about everything. He freezes a large block of ice in recycled plastic containers (sour cream or cottage cheese usually). He also freezes reusable plastic water bottles for drinking. Get a small, hard-sided cooler and watch the Alton Brown Good Eats show on how to pack them. Warm air rises. :)

[EKS]

Put a thick layer of newspaper on top of everything in the cooler--the lids on coolers are frequently not insulated and this helps to mitigate that.   Be sure to use lots of those plastic things you fill up with water for the ice.  Then wrap the cooler in a blanket (or two).  It should stay cold until lunch that way.

[Rebel Yell]

Get a slightly larger cooler than you'd need if he was just using it for a commute and putting his lunch in a fridge... He'll need space for ice.

 

Pepperoni or hard sausages (the kind that aren't refrigerated in the grocery store) or jerky. String cheeses

Hummus

Seconding the idea of foil pouches of tuna and mayo packs.

Experiment with making sandwiches with frozen deli meats and cheese.

 

Frozen fully-cooked breaded chicken tenders. As-is or in a wrap. They should thaw by lunch time and are good cold.

[LucyStoner]

We use coolers on vacation in scorching hot Idaho summers and don't have an issue. I think a cooler will be fine if you pack it with enough cold packs.

[EMS83]

Thank you and keep them coming!  You guys are geniuses!  

 

Seriously, all I could come up with was MREs.  I might be slightly food-challenged.   :lol:   I don't think I've ever packed the kids' lunches.  The short times I've done that for him, he had access to a fridge and microwave.  

 

[ktgrok]

I think a cooler with some freezer packs will be fine. You can put the sandwich under an ice pack to really keep it cold. Sandwich, chips, fruit, etc. 

[bettyandbob]

I put the blue ice in a small cooler and that works. Another thing I do is fill a water bottle half way and freeze it on its side or at least leaning. In the morning I fill the rest of the bottle--cold drinking water for a few hours.

 

In winter we use a good Thermos for soup or leftovers to stay warm. Another thermos could be coffee or hot tea.

[Lady Marmalade]

DH drives a dump truck most of the days of his life- including the sweltering summer days.  His cooler works just fine with a couple of ice packs thrown in.  He also usually has a couple of water bottles that he'll freeze, and then as they melt during the day he has icy cold water to drink.

 

He usually has to eat while sitting in the dump truck, so sandwiches are the preference.  He adds a cup of Greek yogurt or cottage cheese, two pieces of fruit, carrots and hummus, and if I have it on hand, he'll add some dried fruit and nuts to munch on.  Every once in a while he'll take a salad, but only if he thinks he will be able to not drive while eating.  Pasta salad with meat and tons of fresh veggies is one of his favorite lunches when he can take it.   He made the decision many years ago to not succumb to fast food while on the job.  Not only is it expensive in the long run, but it's really unhealthy to be doing daily.  

[Carol in Cal.]

Re those big main dish salads--

As you're loading the cooler, put the major ice packs on the bottom.  BTW, a 12 pack of beer sized foam soft side carrier works great for a biggish lunch.  So, cover the bottom with ice packs that you have frozen hard overnight.  The flexible ones don't hold the cold nearly well enough for this.  There is a thermodynamic reason for this that I won't bore you with, just trust me on the observed reality.

 

Then you take a short but wide tupperware and load the prepared meat into it.  That goes directly on the ice packs.  

 

Then you put a flexible ice pack over that.  Then the large, tall, wide salad bowl over that, with all the veggies and cheese in it.  If you use hardboiled eggs, they belong with the meat.  If you use beans, they belong in with the veggies.  Rinse and drain canned beans before putting them in; frozen veggies can go in without being rinsed.  Frozen green beans are great in salads.

 

Regarding the dressing--you can have a little separate container for it and pour it on just before eating.  That is the purist way to go. But I think it is just about as good, and far easier, to put the dressing in the bottom of the salad bowl, add the cheese and/or onions and/or carrot chunks and/or radishes and let them marinade in it until lunchtime, and just put the greens on top of this.  Then toss at lunchtime and add the meat at that point.

 

My husband used to like to eat canned tuna or salmon on his salads.  I never did figure out how to do this remotely.  You do want to rinse them and drain them right before eating.  Although I was comfortable putting cooked chicken and beef into the bottom container, I never felt like that about fish because it spoils so fast.  We did keep canned fish in the fridge so that it would be colder, and when he ate at home he would use that, rinsed and drained, on his meal sized salads.

 

 

Edited August 15, 2016 by Carol in Cal.

[Miss Tick]

If he is doing more driving than parking, you can also get coolers that plug into whatever we are calling the cigarette lighter these days. Might make a good Christmas present.

[Cinder]

For sandwiches, we try to pack the meat separately on ice--to keep the meat colder and the bread from sogging from the condensation--then just put the sandwiches together before we eat. If you must prep the sandwich completely beforehand, sandwich/hamburger buns seem to hold up better than regular bread (according to ds2; I have no proof but he swears by this theory :tongue_smilie: ).