Portable Lunch

[thinwater]

The wind is up, the boat is going like a bomb… and your stomach’s growling and you can feel you personal as tank ebbing towards empty. To complicate matters, let’s say you are singlehanding or on passage with no one available to take over the watch, and ducking below is not safe. Or perhaps it’s just perfect day, you’re only peckish, but you just don’t feel like diving below to throw a sandwich together.



Back in my ice climbing days, it would be -40F in the morning when we headed out, sometimes warming to 0F but with a steady breeze. Stopping for lunch was unappealing, so we would eat a lumberjack breakfast and subsist until dinner on steady infusions of energy bars and gel packs. Hot filled your water bottles hot, packed them in spare clothing, and still knew that if your didn’t drink them by 1pm they would be frozen. This is common practice climbing serious mountains. The food-on-the-go requirements for most sailors are not so Spartans.


So what is your favorite on-the-go lunch food, either day sailing, or for days when fixing lunch on watch ain't practical? Sandwiches get smashed in the pack. You can grab stuff (breads, cheese, fruit etc.) but I don't find it satisfying somehow.


Lately I've been eating wraps. They travel very well, I can eat it with one hand, and I can fill it with ANYTHING, including top-notch Indian leftovers or Thanksgiving turkey and stuffing.



What's your favorite? We can all use more variety.

[a64pilot]

Cheese and crackers and a coke, or small pepperoni and salami and crackers, and ideally a Coke.
Ice tea will work, but for some reason in sporty weather crackers and a Coke seems to help settle the stomach. Maybe because that was the cure according to my Mother when I was a child and it’s just psychological ?

You can buy the packages of Salami and Pepperoni in bags, and it doesn’t need refrigeration.
Also boiled eggs are good.

[thomm225]

Canned Tuna/crackers

Potted meat/crackers

Deviled ham/crackers

Apples

Grapes

Sliced cantaloupe

Slice watermelon

Granola Bars

Peanut butter and crackers.

Peanuts/nuts in general

Bananas

Raw sweet potato

Oranges

Beef jerky

Twizzlers

Potato chips

water.

beer

coke

And since I used to be a cyclist (and beach cat long distance racer) Gu Energy Gels are great also if you cannot leave the helm

https://www.backcountry.com/gu-energ...CABEgLxcPD_BwE

https://guenergy.com/products/all-energy-gel

[hafa]

Foil-packed albacore tuna in water, string cheese, crackers, cereal bars, almond milk and juice packs.

[StuM]

Sausage rolls and bacon and egg pies




> "Sandwiches get smashed in the pack." That's why they invented those plastic containers generically known as tupperware

[a64pilot]

As a former long, well long to me cyclist, I expected to see bananas, not gu packs. Yes I’m aware of bananas on a boat tradition, learned it on a dive boat long ago.
Bicycling I used to make my own “superfood” sort of a trail mix in a way, recipe was in some magazine, and delivering aircraft and spending up to 14 hours in the cockpit I would eat low or no fiber food for obvious reasons, beef jerky was on the top of my list, and perhaps all that zero fiber food is why I have diverticulosis from time to time now? Or maybe it’s just that I’m old?

But tuna with lots of hot sauce on crackers was one of my Army favorite quick “meals”
Hot sauce changes it completely, try it.

[thinwater]

Yes, Tupperware can protect inherently fragile food. I'd prefer less fragile food. I also find that a sandwich with enough in it to be interesting is not a one-hand meal.


Bananas don't pass any robustness test... even in Tupperware.



I was really hoping for an interesting on-hand option I had not thought of. Crackers and fruit and cheese and salami are just ... obvious. Perhaps some street food I had not considered. No one mentioned pocket breads. How about pasties? Egg roll-ups? Chimicangas?

[Fore and Aft]

I am with StuM. Depending on the day I bring a frozen pie or two and put them in the oven on low heat. Taste wonderful and only requires me to duck below and put them on a plate.
We used to do something similar with frozen pizzas when racing around Wellington harbour.
Two minute noodles are a favourite with our kids. We have some big plastic soup cups with lids and break the noodles into them, then pour hot water on top.
Cheers

[Jammer]

Pasties, yes, had one yesterday. Traditional logging food from the UP of Michigan to Northern Minnesota. Best hot but readily made ahead, ideal for a cold day when you have an oven and can at least duck below long enough to get food out of it.


And much indeed depends upon the weather. Hot food is comforting in the cold:
- tacos, in a soft tortilla, heated up
- soup
- stew
- the sorts of sandwiches that can be heated/reheated in the oven to good effect and eaten out of hand, corned beef, roast beef, rueben

- tea, coffee, cocoa, etc



On warm days, well:
- fruit of all kinds
- nuts
- summer sausage
- cheese
- cold sandwiches, cut into small pieces so you can have one as a snack
- fruit juice (too heavy and bulky for mountain climbing but works ok on a boat)
- other cold cuts e.g. Genoa salami, ham rolled up, thin slices of roast beef rolled up
- olives


Fresh bread is good hot or cold by itself or with butter, jam, cheese, etc.


In the absence of refrigeration sardines, deviled ham, spray cheese on bread or crackers. I always keep these and a few other non-perishable items aboard in case we are delayed

[Merriweather]

I like to make a big Greek Salad which has barbequed chicken strips, bow tie noodles, kalamata olives, sliced onions, cherry tomatoes, sliced crunchy cucumber, spices, and a good vinegarette and then whenever I'm hungry, dish some out! It lasts a long time and makes excellent leftovers that I can just grab quickly anytime!

[hpeer]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

Cheese and crackers and a coke, or small pepperoni and salami and crackers, and ideally a Coke.
Ice tea will work, but for some reason in sporty weather crackers and a Coke seems to help settle the stomach. Maybe because that was the cure according to my Mother when I was a child and it’s just psychological ?

You can buy the packages of Salami and Pepperoni in bags, and it doesn’t need refrigeration.
Also boiled eggs are good.

If my Wife makes cheese and cracker for lunch ONE more tome I getting a lawyer. I live her dearly but did not mary her for her domestic abilities. She was trotting that still ff out daily for months, on the hook. I am DONE!

Well she is now giving me some mustard to go with it so I guess ifs alright, I’ll shut up now. LOL

[hpeer]

Sometimes I can find a kind of sesame bar, seeds glued together with honey. High calorie for energy. Fat to give you a full feeling.

I have been known to make a bunch of pan cooked biscuits. Just flower and water with some baking powder, make the mix kind of thick and fry them in a pan with butter. I like a heavy dose of raisins. Make them ahead of time. They eat well cold. Raisins retain some moisture and make them less dry to eat. I wrap them up in paper towels and stick them in my pocket. Make a big batch and have them for a few days.

I suppose you could cook them with other things inside, like crisp bits of bacon, or ham. Have not experimented with that yet. Maybe make up q big batch, some with bacon or ham, some with raisins or other fruit.

My family tells me that the t was traditional to take some left over bread dough and fry it up like this to take on the water cod fishing. Or as a treat for young uns.

Deadly but effective.

[thinwater]

Logan bread was another favorite of mine when I was hiking and climbing a lot. A high calorie, low-rise bread that would not crumble in the pack.


When I started this thread I was thinking in terms of one-handed, while busy kind of meals. Not salad, trail mix, or even cheese and crackers. Fruit and jerky work, but they are only a part of a meal... which can work.


Another favorite, in the early summer when the wild grapes are just leafing out, is grape leaf rolls. Wrapped tight and served cold, they are a good one-hand gulp. How tasty depends on your skill with the filling. Mine tend to be kind of hot.

[BermWorm]

The grandkids lunch packs are convenient. Crackers, cheese, choice of ham, turkey, or pepperoni plus a juice drink. Small serving but takes the edge off.

[DocBrauer]

I heat up my thermal cooker with a variety of dishes and it stays hot for 9 hours. My usual is Panamanian sancocho (type of chicken vegetable dissolved pumpkin soup). Keep it in the sink and eat it when I can. Singlehanded half the world. Picked up a Philippine wife for the second half.