Lower Carb Packed Lunch Ideas for Carb-Addict Husband

[luceeloo]

My non-diabetic husband is very soon to be 40, and has an active job (he works in agriculture and forestry). For the last 6 months his diet has been in total freefall.
He's always had a big appetite and used to take a packed lunch of 2 ham and cheese sandwiches, a couple of packets of crisps, a banana, 2 cakes such as mini-rolls, and a chocolate biscuit or two. I was never happy about this packed lunch, however, he always burned his calories and with the intensity of his job, he does need high energy food.
For a few months now his packed lunch has been as follows: 3 packets of crisps, 3 bananas, 4 cakes, and 3 chocolate biscuits. He has a couple of bananas for breakfast, and when he comes home he throws a fit if there aren't chips served with his dinner.

It came to a head last night when I was writing the shopping list and he asked for "packed lunch food". Just three days previous, I'd been out and bought a pack of 12 mini-rolls, a multipack of 20 packs of walkers crisps, two packets of fox's biscuits, and god knows how many bananas. He's eaten the lot.
This revelation occurred an hour or so after we'd had a bicker over the fact that I'd cooked a joint of gammon and pile of cauliflower cheese for tea, and he "needed" chips or onion rings with it despite there being enough to serve an army.

I sat him down and told him that his diet has to change for his own health, and that he also needs to support me and my need to low-carb. I've told him that I won't be cooking any additions to my tea menu again - I'll make sure that he has more than enough in the way of food, but the type of food is going to change. Surprisingly he agreed, and wants to change his packed lunch to something healthier.

So, where do I start??? I need to help him create a lower carb but substantial lunch. He has no access to a microwave or any kind of kitchen (as he's usually in the middle of a forest). He's not prepared to take food that he's got to handle too much, and doesn't have a fridge to keep his packed lunch in. Any ideas??

 

[Bluetit1802]

Why not start with cutting out the sweet stuff from his lunch box, and limiting him to 1 pack of crisps? Replace the cakes and biscuits with an apple. As he is not diabetic and needs carbs for his job, I can't see any harm in a sandwich on a bread with a lot of seeds in it. Hovis Seed Sensations is very tasty, full of goodness, and quite thick. Cooked meats, eggs, cheese, chicken drums, cherry toms, mashed tinned salmon/tuna, side serving of mayo. Lots of things like that. All he would need is a spoon.

 

[Brunneria]

If he is that active, he may be needing 4,000+ calories a day! just to keep going. That is a LOT of cake and crisps!

Does he like peanuts?
Bags of nuts make a great alternative to crisps.

I wonder if his desire for crisps and cake and carby snacks are because they are so high carb that they don't last. In which case, more slow release foods would help. Even including mayo on the sandwiches, would do that.

Wrapping cold meat and coleslaw in a big iceberg lettuce leaf is as easy to eat as sandwiches.

And there are some fab low carb cake recipes. They tend to be very nutrient rich and calorie dense, but also slow to digest. So that might slow him down a bit!

Changing his breakfast to something protein based would also decrease his cake munchies for elevenses. How about protein shakes? Some of them are delicious.

The main problems to changing to eating like this is that it takes more prep, more effort, and costs more.

 

[cold ethyl]

If his job is very manual , then he probably needs the calories though he isn't picking healthiest choices of carbs.
One bag of crisps and then some mixed nuts would be a better option. How about some homemade oaty flapjack type tray bakes with dried fruit rather than shop bought cakes and biscuits. As a non -diabetic the bananas are ok and are energy dense.
Wholemeal bread or rolls and fill with cheese and salad and mayo or butter ; or tuna mayo or salmon. You could always pack a pot of cherry toms, and sticks of carrot or other veg as a nibble rather than biscuits, or a few pretzels or twiglets as the marmitey taste makes a few enough. Hard boiled eggs are easy to eat or you could make crustless quiche with veg( i line my dish with sliced ham for a firmer base)or frittatas and wrap slices in tinfoil.
If you bought a wide necked food flask he could take some homemade chunky soup to have with his lunch- barley,lentils, split peas etc are very filling with chunks of veg and diced ham. Or even reheated leftovers from night before.