No fridge, high protein vegetarian lunch ideas???

[Vebrithien]

Morning,

I'm returning to work (in a school) after maternity leave and the summer, have been kindly informed by my colleagues that the school staff kitchen is out of bounds, and as such, we have no access to a fridge.

I've made a wrap for today, but I'd really love some high protein vegetarian lunch ideas that don't need to be kept in the fridge. Don't eat mushrooms, but happy with anything else.

Thank you!

Haven't got any coherent ideas, but my first thoughts are: boiled eggs; crudités and humous or cream cheese to dip; cheese cubes; cous cous salad with chickpeas/beans; wraps and sandwiches; flavoured nuts for a snack.

I honestly don't think anyhting needs refrigerating in the period between leaving the house and lunch. If it helps, make lunch the night before and leave it in the fridge so it's properly cold before you take it out. It will be fine until lunch.

Presumably the children's packed lunches don't go in the fridge and food tastes better if it's not chilled anyway.

I don't have access to a fridge in my new job, I bought an insulated lunch bag and some little ice packs and I find this keeps my lunch a nice temperature

I agree, make your own "fridge" with a small cool-bag containing an ice pack.

PB& J is the only thing I can think of that needs no refrigeration at all.

But second the idea of an insulated bag/box with ice packs.

In which case:
Three bean salad.
Frittata
Quinoa and peas in creme fraiche and black pepper dressing.

Or get a thermos and have chunky soups, chilli etc.

Slices of frittata or Buddha bowl with beans/chickpeas would work.

how many grams of protein do you want, what do you call high protein?

A Tesco cheese sandwich is almost 20 g protein; most women need < 50g protein, so I think that's "high" as 1/3 of meals but 40% of protein needs.

If you take it out of your fridge at home at say, 8am and eat it at 12, I'm pretty sure anything will still be ok to eat.

Infact, I always take anything that's ready to eat in the fridge, out, an couple of hours before as I hate really cold food.

You could use freezer packs in your lunch bag?

Edamame beans
Chick peas
Maybe some sort of salad with those?
Not sure greek yoghurt would keep
The clear whey isolate drinks are really good for a protein boost and about 90 calories

Goodness, thank you!

I didn't think about taking a small cool bag. I've not seen any about recently, they've completely slipped my mind toddler DS still not sleeping through

I like the idea of beans/pulses in a Buddah bowl. Trying to reduce the bread and pasta that used to be my go-to.

Thank you again!

Try a little thermos type flask or pot. Chilly or SHO or actual Thermos are brands I can think of. Most keep food hot too for the winter

Hummus goes pretty funky pretty quickly so I’d be wary of that…
I used to make big home made bean sausage rolls for lunch when I didn’t have a fridge at work and always enjoyed them

Homemade crust less quiche.

I fry up quorn and onion, add spices, add veg like grated sweet potato, chopped pepper, spinach. Bit of passata. Put in a oven dish and pour beaten eggs over. Put in the oven. It slices well and holds together.

We have this one, roughly fits two Chinese takeaway plastic containers in plus a mini cool brick.

I found this at John Lewis & Partners. What do you think?  https://www.johnlewis.com/thermos-lunch-bag/blue/p453109?tmad=c&tmcampid=7&sshare=jlappioss_Y29tLmFwcGxlLlVJS2l0LmFjdGl2aXR5LkNvcHlUb1Bhc3RlYm9hcmQ=

@Vebrithien

Morning,

I'm returning to work (in a school) after maternity leave and the summer, have been kindly informed by my colleagues that the school staff kitchen is out of bounds, and as such, we have no access to a fridge.

I've made a wrap for today, but I'd really love some high protein vegetarian lunch ideas that don't need to be kept in the fridge. Don't eat mushrooms, but happy with anything else.

Thank you!

I like eating wholefood so some of my lunch ideas:

• Boiled eggs and a salad of raw baby spinach / tomatoes / wholemeal pasta
• You can eat tofu straight from the packet, just drain it off - smoked tofu is amazing. In winter I sometimes get an Itsu Instant noodle pot and add tofu into it directly. It’s so filling.
• roasted chickpeas (you find them in mediterrean shops) or roasted gram (Indian shops). They are so filling and very high in protein. I just toss them in a bit of chilli and lemon before I eat but they take most flavours well.

When my school fridge/kitchen was made out of bounds (due to covid....) my mum (from splendid retirement abroad) sent me a thermos food flask via amazon after id clearly been whinging... I still live off lentil dal and rice, batch cooked and then microwaved before work, slung into my flask and its still hot whenever I manage to get to eat it during the day.

Cous cous salad / Spanish omelette / baby quiches / veggie sausage roll type things will all be fine without a fridge or cool bag.