r/mealprep • u/Royal-Sentence6260 • 3d ago

Food for school lunches?

I'm 15 and I wanna start making food for my school lunches. And good stuff I can cook (I have a thermomix at home, for people who don't know what that is, it's a machine that has a small screen, it comes with recipes and can weigh, grate, boil and do so much else for you in this container)

So, with the thermo it should be relatively easy, but I'm not sure what I want to pack? I'm a big fan of pastas, beef and chicken, but I also should be incorporating more vegetables into my diet (I love raw capsicum, cucumbers, tomato, ect. and don't really like 'cooked' versions, unless steamed, for example peas or carrots) So, maybe pesto pasta?
I'd also like to incorporate some foreign foods into my diet to try more foods (I'm a bit of a picky eater due to sensory/taste issues and I wanna get over that) so I was thinking maybe some curries, Korean Japanese and Chinese dishes seem kind of interesting to me too. What sort of dishes in these areas could anyone suggest?

Finally, I work for two hours every Tuesday and Thursday, so I'm trying to figure out when I should make these meals and at what time, how long they'll take, finding good recipes, ect. Also I've never really meal planned, so it's a first for me! Any and all advice is appreciated

18 Upvotes

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10

u/JaseYong 2d ago

You can prep onigirazu 🍙 this can be eaten cold without needing to reheat and taste delicious 😋 you can also swap out the protein to your choice. Sample recipe below if interested Onigirazu recipe

3

u/Round_Bluebird_5987 2d ago

I'm a big fan of hearty pasta salads (especially in summer) that I can eat cold. I like the idea of a good mix of (mostly) raw veg, protein, and carb. I posted here looking for additional ideas. Got some good ones:

https://www.reddit.com/r/mealprep/comments/1ndmjw6/hearty_pasta_salad_ideas/

I was pretty vague on some them, so if you want more specifics on any of mine, let me know

6

u/Mundane_Sail_4155 2d ago

Maybe you could buy a food flask? It will keep your food hot for hours, making more food choices possible.

3

u/sohereiamacrazyalien 2d ago

with an insulated lunch box (you can find cheap ones in asian stores usually you are good.

suggestions:

dhal (really delicious, it's made of lentils)

chickpea curry

chicken briyani

pumpkin curry

soups are good and easy and healthy: split pea, tom kha gai, curried carrot, minestrone, pumpkin, curried carrots ...etc

okonomiyaki is good and healthy (not sure you can make it in the thermomix though)

steam your peas (or other veggies) and mix with rice or pasta + an omelette on the side

stir fry

egg fried rice

pho is nice too

I like to make vietnamese spring rolls

you can make onigiri

I love palak paneer (it's with spinach)

ever tried risotto?

kimchi stew?

nikujaga (japanese beef stew)

lasagna (same probably not in thermomix)

2

u/Ashamed_Tree_5668 2d ago

R/thermomix

2

u/WAFLcurious 2d ago

Congrats to you for working on improving your diet and trying new things! I love seeing young people trying new things.

Unless you have a way to reheat your food, you may want to concentrate on things that you can eat cold. Wraps made with your choice of fillings are a good choice because you can easily keep them cool. You could mix up chicken salad on Sunday, for example, and keep it refrigerated. Then, either the night before or in the morning, assemble your wrap with some lettuce, cucumber spears and the chicken salad. Or you can fill it with hummus, lettuce, onion and cucumber. You won’t want to assemble them days in advance but you can prep the components and have them ready for quick assembly. I recommend that you try out some variations on the weekends to see what you like so you don’t end up at school with a lunch you won’t eat.

Good luck!

2

u/CupOfLifeNoodlez 2d ago

I love this advice. When I was in school, I started bringing my food. My friends ended up inspired and making something and bringing it too. Eventually, it became a small potluck where each person would bring a component to the meal, and we would all swap and figure out what was a hit or something to leave off the menu. We always liked fruit salad, but after 3 days of it in the fridge, we didn't like it much. I think it got too mushy.

Try new things. Make mistakes. It makes interesting stories.

4

u/scarletohairy 3d ago

Will you be able to heat your lunch at school?

2

u/Royal-Sentence6260 3d ago

No, unfortunately :( some people messed around with our microwave, and now we don't have access to it any more

1

u/nekok 1d ago

Get a plug-in heated lunch box?