"What's in your lunch bag?"

For protection against leaks and for easy clean up, line lunch bag with a plastic garbage bag

The question I am asked more than any other is this: What's in your lunch bag?

After 5 years of flying I have finally mastered the art of packing my food for any number of days. Use this outline to help you pack your lunch bag and eventually you will find a method that works best for you.

Frozen Meals

• For days with more than one flight I pack 2 frozen meals. For days with only 1 flight I pack 1 meal
• Wrap frozen meals in tin foil to help them stay cold and prevent the condensation of defrosting meals from making everything wet

Salad

• Spinach, Romain, Kale etc.
• Dressing/Olive Oil in travel size bottle
• Dried Herbs 

Protein 

• Cooked chicken breast 
• Nitrate free lunch meat
• Shrimp
• Fish such as salmon or tuna

Fresh Vegetables

• Having your vegetables ready to eat make them an easy choice for a quick snack during a busy day
• Prep your vegetables and store them in travel containers the day before your trip for an easy grab and go

Fresh Fruit

• Along with bananas and berries, you will always find avocados in my bag. A superb fruit, avocados are a great source of fiber and omega 3's which is so important

Snacks

Although we'd all love to believe we will only eat the fresh vegetables so nicely prepared and ready to eat, stress and tiredness will win throughout the day and the mini-pretzels will begin to taunt. To prevent inhaling useless carbs and calories, keep healthy snacks you consider a treat easily accessible.

• Nuts
• Healthy Chips
• Crackers
• Popcorn

Other items I rarely leave home without

• Olives
• Peanut butter
• Hummus
• Stevia packets
• Tea
• Almond Milk in a jar

Tips: 

• Always pack more food than you think you will need. In this industry, just because your paring says you will get home on a certain day at a certain time does not mean you actually will. Weather and mechanical delays can take a huge hit on your food supply.
• If you are on reserve, always pack for as many days as you are good for, even if you are only scheduled to do a turn. In a perfect world tagging wouldn't exist but the world is far from perfect.  Besides, even if you don't need it that day, it will be sitting in your fridge just waiting to be tossed in your bag when that 2 hour call out comes.
• I know the possibility of international flights is a huge excuse to not bring your own food. I have tips for that too but they deserve a whole post of their own! Stay tuned.

Take this model and mold it to make it your own. As with everything I discuss, this could take some trial and error to figure out what works best for you but keep at it. 

As Always,

Here's to Life, Love, Health and Happiness. Cheers!

(Note: For information on lunch totes and travel skillets, check out the links on the right)