Tips for going out all day and maintaining your diet

[CoolStuff]

Sometimes you can't always find a produce store or a health food store near you. I sometimes bring a snack, but I never seem to eat a whole meal.

Do you have any tips on trying to keep it healthy while you're out?

Also can a toaster oven completely replace a microwave? I'm trying to reduce microwave usage.

[NotesMaeve]

Depends on your diet.

I try to eat healthily, and once it's a habit, it's just not that hard.

Example: Yesterday I was starving at noon and went to Quiznos. Sure, I could order a large greasy beef and cheese sub with extra grease, but instead I ordered a small Italian Caprese with pesto, tomato, lettuce, mozzarella, and balsalmic vinagrette. Would I be better off eating an organic homemade salad? Sure, but still, what I ate was an improvement over most diets. Had that with a Diet Pepsi. Went to the town I'm moving to and got a tall iced tea lemonade. The came home, had half a baked potato with cheddar and light sour cream, as well as about half a cup of leftover chicken and shrimp pad thai, and Diet Dr. Pepper. Think it took me about 6 minutes to slop that together. Not the BEST diet, but not tons of sugar and fat.

Don't be afraid to order things off the beaten menu or to ask for extra veggies.

And for replacing a microwave? I recommend a toaster oven.

[{aspiring_to_clarity}]

I haven't had a microwave in a year. I just use the stove for everything. It's a little more work, but everything tastes better. I am sure a toaster oven would be useful for certain things. The only thing I miss out on is microwave dinners -- but that's not missing much.

[Freelancer]

I always eat Herbalife which makes it extremely easy to maintain a healthy diet, you can prepare a shake and eat it anywhere you want which makes it real easy...

[Matthew Shea]

You're not going to be able to boil water or easily heat "wet" dishes in a toaster oven. You'll need a stove for that if you don't want to use a microwave. There are electrically heated hot water dispensers and kettles, too, that would replace the need to heat water.

[NotesMaeve]

Originally Posted by Matthew Shea

You're not going to be able to boil water or easily heat "wet" dishes in a toaster oven. You'll need a stove for that if you don't want to use a microwave. There are electrically heated hot water dispensers and kettles, too, that would replace the need to heat water.

He could pony up for a $14 hot plate. Just saying.

[CoolStuff]

Well it's just that I wanna make meals that I won't have to heat up using the microwave. I want to take these meals to work or school or places where I will usually only have a microwave, maybe a toaster oven.

[hymalaia]

Originally Posted by CoolStuff

Well it's just that I wanna make meals that I won't have to heat up using the microwave. I want to take these meals to work or school or places where I will usually only have a microwave, maybe a toaster oven.

A good thermos might work for this, depending on how long you are going to be out.

If you use a toaster over as a replacement for a microwave it takes a lot longer to reheat your food. I'd guess three times as long, at least. With me it also seemed to cook the food a bit more but that didn't really bother me that much. Really the extra waiting was the issue; 10 minues is a lot longer than 3.5. Especially when your lunch break is 1/2 hr...

[Ilya]

The trick I used when solving the same problem is to have three - one per serving, thermoses. If you eat healthily, they can be really small ones, and do not weigh too much. They are bulky though, but can still fit neatly in a backpack. Now, the coolest thing. I actually cooked my food in thermoses.
I would put in ingredients in the morning, pour in boiling water and go to school or to work. By the lunch time I would have my food cooked and still hot, ready to be served.
You can use anything that can be boiled - pasta, rice, lentils, potatoes, oats, buckwheat, corn, mushrooms, vegetable mixes. I've made vegetable soups, I managed to boil chicken fish and meat, but it is a little bit more tricky. Technology is a little bit different for different foods, and it is different from the usual boiling, but it works. This way i save huge amount of time both in the morning, and at a lunch time not having to cook and heat the food.
If you get the ingredients right, by the time you are ready to eat, there won't be any water, if you cook grains, so you don't have to dry it. Rice comes out perfect as if from the rice cooker.
You can't fry anything this way, but I think, but it is unhealthy, anyways.
Add some salads, or sandwiches and you have hot, healthy lunch at a fraction of a time.

[MariaG]

A thermos will stay hot for a long time if it is "primed" with some boiling water before being filled with food. As an extra layer of insulation, you could put your thermos in a soft cooler.

[Jenny]

You can do wonderful things with a bagel... I absolutely love a bagel spread with hummus or mashed black beans for instance and then add sprouts, onions, cucumbers and so forth. They are easy to carry and taste great.

Celery with peanut butter, hummus or low-fat cream cheese is another favorite.

I have one of those lunch bags that keeps things cold and pack my lunches in it.

Oh and as far as carrying things in a thermos I cook a lot of soups and stews in a slow cooker (they come in many sizes) and if you toss ingredients in before bed you have a wonderful (and easy!) meal to pack by the time you leave in the morning.

[CoolStuff]

Thanks everyone for the great answers!

[Matthew Shea]

Regarding keeping things cool, they make some great thin and/or flexible ice packs that you can easily stick into most lunch bags if you're going to a place where you won't have access to a fridge. I have a hard plastic, gel-filled one that's barely half an inch thick and is great for lunch bags. They also have flexible gel-filled ice packs, usually found in the first aid section of a store, that also work well for this purpose.

[CoolStuff]

Yeah I have some icepacks, but I'm interested in trying to avoid microwaves to see how it works out.

[Kaspian]

I quit using the microwave almost a year ago. The toaster oven can do a lot, the stove can do some, and I eat the rest cold.

[madgeylou]

lots of foods dont even have to be refrigerated. you can eat room-temperature lentil soup, hummus, produce, peanut butter, nuts, roasted vegetables, etc.

if there's no meat or eggs in it, you can safely eat it even if it's been out all day.

[CoolStuff]

^ You can eat room temperature soop? I thought if it was cooked, you should refridgerate it or not let it sit too long.

[AldianP]

I bring supplement fibers whenever I go out. Eating a spoonful of those fibers before any meals make me feel a bit fuller Especially since I have to take it with a full glass of water, too!

The only downside is that its container is pretty bulky to bring along.