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Recently, I decided to stop eating sandwiches. The problem is that I have eaten a sandwich everyday for lunch for the past 20 years or so (any sandwich before I was a vegetarian, cheese or PB&J since then). When it comes time for lunch, I immediately think "sandwich," and it takes me several minutes to come up with something different to eat. I'm trying to compile a list of non-sandwich foods to try and incorporate into my diet.
Just for the record, I already did a search and found this post. I understand this is a quasi-repost, but I feel okay about that for three reasons.
1 - A lot of those lunch suggestions are sandwiches, which clearly do not help me.
2 - A lot of those suggestions contain meat.
3 - That post is over 5 years old. Surely there are some new members with some new ideas since that first post.
I am especially curious as to what non-Americans eat for lunch. I feel like I have a pretty good handle on most of the standard American options (sandwiches, fast food, frozen meals, etc.), but no idea about the rest of the world.
Any helpful suggestions appreciated. Thanks!
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16971 Posts
Vegetables and rice.
You'll have to cook them the night before and bring them as leftovers, though :<
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Over here in Egypt lunch is the "main meal" as opposed to dinner like in the US. We eat sandwiches for dinner instead of for lunch.
As for non-sandwich vegetarian lunch, how about eat some fruits?
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Depending on where you eat lunch, I've always found that "leftovers" (even if you never ate them the first time) make fabulous lunches. Purchase a bunch of Gladware (or Tupperware, or Whateverthehellyouwantware) and cook a few meals for 3 or 4 instead of 1 person. Portion lots of it out into the plastic containers, and freeze it. By doing this, you cook an extra couple of times (maybe do it on the weekend?), but you have a great variety of things to choose for lunch rather than 4 PB&Js in a row.
These meals can be anything you'd normally eat for dinner. Lots of different Indian dishes are vegetarian, and if you can get some microwavable steamed rice containers, you can have fresh rice and a curry. Eggplant can serves as a meat replacement in several Italian dishes (think eggplant parm). Stir-fry works well, too, if you can have fresh rice (again, they make little JUST ADD WATER!!! tubs of rice that you can microwave and have fresh rice) or noodles.
This is assuming you're at an office (or school, or campus area, or whatever) with a microwave. If you work in something like construction where you're outside on the job and can't take cold food and heat it on-location, these suggestions are much less useful.
EDIT:
On August 19 2011 01:45 mucker wrote:
Salads?
This. There are a billion different ways to make a salad that aren't Iceberg lettuce + carrots + tomatoes + dressing. Different greens, chickpeas, a whole host of different vegetables, pasta, croutons...all of these can be combined into about a bajillion salads. As above, don't make them individually. Make a bunch at once and portion it out (with salads you'll want to keep "wet" things like tomatoes separate or it'll wilt all the greens) to save yourself the hassle of making a salad every day.
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Pasta (the microwave kind) sounds suitable for your needs o_O
As a chinese guy, I like noodles for lunch ^^
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You could try tofu/seitan/tempeh based meals. Those are usually good because they provide a lot of protein and therefore satisfy appetite.
Raw washed vegetables can be nice as well. Carrots, celery, broccoli, bell peppers are all tasty raw treats.
If you eat dairy, canned or sliced fruit with cottage cheese is quite nice. Yogurt with granola. Cheese cubes and crackers.
Personally, I think the healthiest is some sort of vegetable protein + bulk leafy greens but not sure what your lunch situation is so those might not be practical.
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On August 19 2011 01:45 Fattah wrote:
Over here in Egypt lunch is the "main meal" as opposed to dinner like in the US. We eat sandwiches for dinner instead of for lunch.
As for non-sandwich vegetarian lunch, how about eat some fruits?
Europe and a lot of other places do this too. It's so much better.
I try to get soups a lot for lunch. You can bring from home, or find a deli nearby. I've got a great little polish kitchen nearby where I get big ones for $3 
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Look up some Indian dishes. Indian food is awesome and most of it is vegetarian.
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You should get a rice cooker if you don't already have one, rice pretty much goes with everything.
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Sandwiches are like what, maybe less than 1% of all possible dishes eaten by the human race? It's really hard to identify exactly what you are looking for when most foods in the world actually aren't sandwiches.
Just think about everything you can possibly eat with a fork, spoon, or chopsticks. Those are all foods that are definitely not sandwiches. Pick what you want to eat from what you can think up.
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Salad with walnuts bleu cheese cranberries apples grapes whatever else works with it, and topped with some vinaigrette  I usually add grilled chicken but thats not required.
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Look at some chinese tofu recipes too. I love tofu and we chinese use it in like 50000 different ways.
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I've been workin on my diet as of late and been eating a lot of carrots, celery, & avocados (pwnage). Salads are good. Rice & beans are good. Fruit smoothies with whatever fruits you like. Nuts. Yogurt & granola with honey on top. Homemade soup with whatever veggies you like, or just some canned stuff. Beets with Italian dressing. Butter-free popcorn with Tabasco (pwnage). Chips with homemade salsa, guacamole, or hummus!
Lettuce wraps and burritos are kinda close to sandwiches and could help you ease into a sandwich-free lifestyle!
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stir fry veggies! Good thing to stay away from bread/grains. They irritate your gut!
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On August 19 2011 01:36 JDittert wrote:
Recently, I decided to stop eating sandwiches. The problem is that I have eaten a sandwich everyday for lunch for the past 20 years or so (any sandwich before I was a vegetarian, cheese or PB&J since then). When it comes time for lunch, I immediately think "sandwich," and it takes me several minutes to come up with something different to eat. I'm trying to compile a list of non-sandwich foods to try and incorporate into my diet.
1 - A lot of those lunch suggestions are sandwiches, which clearly do not help me.
I'm sorry but I literally burst out laughing after reading this line, I don't know if you intended that to be funny or if it's just me but I cracked up, it's a very... unique problem you have here.
As for getting into other foods, just be adventurous, go out to eat and mimic things that you find good for you, it can't be that hard to ween yourself off sandwiches?
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I mean seriously you make it sound like it's difficult to not eat sandwiches
edit: don't mean to sound mean!
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On August 19 2011 02:09 AppleTart wrote:
Look up some Indian dishes. Indian food is awesome and most of it is vegetarian.
True as well. Curry makes everything awesome
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Try to cut down on carbs if at all possible, a grain heavy diet is the main culprit of modern diseases like heart disease, digestion tract problems etc.
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On August 19 2011 02:58 ShloobeR wrote:
I mean seriously you make it sound like it's difficult to not eat sandwiches
edit: don't mean to sound mean!
Lol, I know what you mean (and you don't sound mean, esp with your disclaimer!). I know that it's not actually difficult to eat foods other than sandwiches. I know there are plenty of other non-sandwich foods in the world. It's just that I've done the Lunchtime=Sandwich stimulus and response 5000+ times in my life. It's an ingrained habit.
Thanks for all the suggestions so far. I work non-traditional hours, so I'm home for lunch with access to my kitchen and all that. It sounds like my best bet so far will be to think about eating "2 dinners."
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If you have access to your kitchen, then it should be really easy to be creative.
Have you tried stirfries? Tofu is a really delicious ingredient especially if you are vegetarian. Firm tofu cooks well with almost everything in a stirfry dish.
Curry is another healthy vegetarian option. Look up Aloo Gobi and Saag.
Another option is chili. Load it with beans, tomatoes, onions and spices, and off it goes.
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Make a bean, cheese, and rice burrito. Get uncooked tortillas, (takes a few minutes to cook in a pan, no butter or anything needed) refried or pinto beans, shredded cheddar and jack cheese, and some sort of Mexican/Spanish rice. (brown with a few diced tomatoes in it) Most of this stuff can be found prepackaged at a grocery store.
Cook the tortillas, and cook/heat the beans and rice as necessary. Find a nice burrito wrapping tutorial on youtube (the wrapping is very important) and eat with hot sauce. Enjoy!
edit: Also, my local Mexican place has one of those that comes double wrapped with lettuce, french fries, (it's good, really) and guacamole. Try that if you're extra hungry. You can make your own guacamole fairly easily.
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sorry, made a new post instead of editing. 
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On August 19 2011 01:45 Fattah wrote:
Over here in Egypt lunch is the "main meal" as opposed to dinner like in the US. We eat sandwiches for dinner instead of for lunch.
As for non-sandwich vegetarian lunch, how about eat some fruits?
talking about egypt making me think of this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baba_ghanoush
oooh, delicious eggplant. it's a nice dish if you ever get to make/buy some.
Look up some Indian dishes. Indian food is awesome and most of it is vegetarian.
also, this. indian spices are amazing if you can digest them. (dont be afraid if your stomach gets funky the first few times, i think that's normal.) you've never had chickpeas, lentils, or spinach until you've had them the indian way.
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Most lunch options besides sandwiches take a lot longer. You can try a vegetable omelet with cheese. Sautee the vegetables first, cook the firmer kinds like potatoes and onions longer. Beat three eggs with salt and pepper and a tiny bit of milk. Throw some butter in, then the eggs, use a spatula to make sure the sides don't stick, add cheese, flip and serve. Popular vegetable choices are red pepper, yellow onion, potato, tomato, mushrooms, asparagus, spinach, etc, just about anything think you can think of. Goes well with a glass of juice.
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EPT
