Young Calorie Counters

I need some easy, healthy and filling school lunch ideas.  I don't believe my school has a microwave available to students, so thats out.  I'm able to keep things cold with a cooler pack but I can't really bring tuna or anything that will spoil really quickly.

Also, I'm starting to transition to vegetarian, but right now I still eat lunch meats, but any veggie meals would be great!

Gosh I'm so sick of pb&js, ham/turkey and mayo, and school salads bleh, how boring.  Any ideas?

watch out when going vegetarian, it can be one of the most healthy, but also one of the most dangerous diets, as sometimes it can either be on the border of anorexia, or high-carbohydrate/low protein dieting which will cause you to gain weight like CRAZY. Avoid ALL prepackaged Granola-Bars and also Juice Boxes(the devil in disguise), and go organic if can (afford it) but take care when shopping for anything pre-packaged stating its "Organic" as that stuff is usually not healthy at all. For filling foods, I tend to lean to "entertaining foods" that take a long time to eat so that you feel full sooner; in school I tend to slooowly eat celery sticks (0 calories) as well as other vegetables... Bananas, Apples, and Grapefruits are all very filling and take a long time to eat, again, AVOID prepackaged "Fruit Cups" and try to eat everything you can as raw as possible.

 My lunches usually consist of:
Chopped Vegetables (raw sticks)

1-2 pieces of fruit (raw + Whole)

Whole Wheat Sandwich (no Mayo, its evil)with lettuce, fat free turkey breast, and sometimes really good low-fat Havarti *still really bad for you :3

Popcorn ( Smart Pop ) is a really good + Filling snack as an entire bag of the stuff is only 200 ~ calories and I can usually eat it as an entire meal. . .

#1 Rule = No Juice/Pop/Artificially Sweetened Diet Drinks; drink only water,tea, or milk...  

  if you get an unhealthy craving, try to ignore it, drink some water, and wait 15mins and it'll be gone! 

 

HURRAY!

You're not going vegan are you? That would be tough for getting in protein when packing a school lunch.

• Whole-grain La Tortilla Factory wrap with lettuce, pico de gallo, black beans, and pinto beans.
• Light string cheeses, and fat-free cottage cheese.
• Apples, pineapple, grapes, oranges; any fruit you can pack.
• Raw veggies; celery, carrot sticks, lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, red onion (for a salad), cucumber...
• Natural peanut butter and raisins.
• Whole-grain sandwich with natural slied or chopped turkey (NOT from the deli!) OR Tofurky, with low-fat swiss cheese, lettuce, sliced tomato, and dijon mustard if you want.
• A square of dark chocolate...if you like that kind of thing.
• 100% fruit smoothies; pack your own, or try Naked Juice - it's awesome.
• Bottled Water (a must)
• Homemade vegetarian soup or chili (beans, lentils, veggies) - make it the day before and then heat it up before school and pack it in a thermos so it stays warm.
• Stuffed pita pocket sandwiches; you can fill them with anything you want - veggies, veggie burgers, falafel, tofu...
• Plain nonfat yogurt and Greek yogurt - great sources of vegetarian protein.

Anyway, hope you'll like some of these ideas! I too am trying to slowly convert to going veggie, so I've had to open up possibilities for myself as well. x33

I bring tuna and only have a cooler pack and it doesnt spoil so i doubt it will for u either

I am so glad to be done with school lunches. They were so hard to make healthy. If nothing else, try lean cuisine. They are cheap and not too bad and plus its grab and go. 

To Zebulancherry:

Thankyou so much!
That helped me alot!
xo

yeah school lunch is harddd to make healthy cuz when i do eat something healthy my friends are all eating burgurs/fries/cookies/candy and i end up joining =[ not anymore though cuz i usually just drink water and a fruit snack then wait till i get home to eat lunch which is muchhh better than eating it at school cuz i dont have any bad influence from friends

usually what i pack for lunch:

-bagel + lowfat cream cheese.

-tangerine, orange, bannana (plus any fruit i can find in the pantry.)

-tropicana grapefruit juice

-string cheese

-mini pretzels

-low fat yogurt

-water!

 

this usually adds up to be around 800 calories, which is just right.