Brown Baggin'

I work at home and have access to my kitchen all the time. Sometimes that's good and sometimes it can be too handy. Anyway, I've talked to a few people about how I would eat lunch if I worked outside my home.

I'm working on making more healthy choices and portion control in my eating. I've learned the art of making my meals on weekends or week nights in big batches and storing in meal-sized portions in my freezer. It's handy to get out one portion at a time for each meal. Below is when I made turkey burgers on my George Foreman Grill. I packaged in baggies and put them in my freezer.

Almost everything I buy gets put in single serving portions the day it comes in. Below is an example of how I measure out applesauce in half-cup portions. It's so handy to grab one portion during my busy day.

If I were to work outside my home, I would think having plenty of good choices handy would be very important as to not be tempted to make bad choices at work. Pictured below is a low-fat hot dog, lite bun, honey mustard, apple, tomato salad, lite yogurt, and lite microwave popcorn. I would eat the yogurt for breakfast or a morning snack; have the hot dog, and tomato salad for lunch; have the apple and/or popcorn for an afternoon snack.

The hot dog is inside the pull-out part of a mini crock pot and the lid is next to it. I would keep the other part of the mini crock pot at work and just bring the inside part to and from work for washing and cooking.

Knowing me, I would get all this ready the night before, packed in my lunchbox and waiting for me in the morning to just grab and go. I don't think that well in the morning and even though I work at home, I still lay out my clothes the night before, lol.

At work, the only thing I have to do would be to plug in my mini crock pot when I arrived, and put the insert in it, and add about a tablespoon of water to the hot dog. About a half hour or so before lunch time, I would put the hot dog bun (still in it's plastic wrap) on top of the crock pot's lid. The heat will warm it up nicely. Hot dogs come out of the crock pot perfectly roasted!

Other ideas to heat in a mini crock pot are:

precooked hamburgers or turkey burgers
chili
boneless, skinless chicken
pork chops
turkey sausage
meat balls
frozen burritos (I've done this several times and it works great!)
tuna patties
macaroni & cheese
fried rice
egg rolls
soup

I'm sure there are many more things you can do. Many times I reheat supper's leftovers the next day in my mini crock pot.

So, there's my idea on having a healthy and hot lunch to take to work. Many years ago, I did work outside my home and I remember a sandwich every day! Then there were all the unhealthy doughnuts and cake for everyone to share. I'm sure if I had healthy snacks to fill-up on, I may not eat as much doughnuts or cake.

This post is being linked to:

• Tempt My Tummy Tuesdays at Blessed With Grace
• Tasty Tuesday at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam
• Tuesdays at the Table at All The Small Stuff