The food in the cafeteria is so bland and hard to swallow, and the lunch break isn't long enough to go out for a meal. The best way to save time and satisfy your hunger is undoubtedly to bring your own lunch box. Nowadays, many young people choose this method to solve their stomach problems. Therefore, office buildings that don't have a cafeteria nearby have to provide microwaves and refrigerators to help employees solve their lunch problems.
Of course, bringing your own lunch in the summer is very limited and requires special attention. What dishes are less perishable and more suitable for microwave reheating? What dishes should not be included in a packed lunch? Are there any special considerations for microwave reheating? Now, let a nutritionist reveal the answers. For packed lunches in the summer, the most important thing is the frozen storage of the food:
The night before, you should seal the dishes you want to bring and place them in the refrigerator's fresh food compartment. The next day after arriving at work, it's best to put the lunch box into the company refrigerator as soon as possible. The nutritionist reminds you that if your company doesn't have a refrigerator, the temperature in an air-conditioned room cannot guarantee that the food won't spoil. For the staple food, rice is the best choice.
For packed lunches, rice is the best staple food; steamed buns and large flatbreads are not suitable. From the perspective of microwave reheating, reheated rice can basically maintain its original state, but steamed buns and large flatbreads are very easy to become dry and are not suitable for microwave reheating. Try to choose beef, mutton, or chicken with low unsaturated fat content. Pork has a relatively high amount of unsaturated fat and is not suitable for a packed lunch.
In addition, the nutritionist reminds you to pay attention to the cooking methods. Cooking methods suitable for microwave reheating are steaming, braising, and stewing. Dishes cooked with these methods are less likely to change in flavor and color after being reheated in the microwave, while dishes that are deep-fried or stir-fried are obviously not suitable for eating after microwave reheating. Also, compared to green leafy vegetables, solanaceous vegetables (like eggplants and tomatoes) are less perishable and less likely to change color and aroma after microwave reheating. It should be reminded that vegetables to be packed should be cooked to about 60-70% done to prevent further destruction of their nutrients during microwave reheating. Classic dishes like scrambled eggs with tomatoes and braised eggplant are quite suitable for the "lunchbox brigade". Say NO to the following dishes:
Since it's a packed lunch, you must naturally consider whether the dishes are not perishable and whether their color, aroma, and taste change after microwave reheating. The following dishes obviously cannot meet these two "packed lunch" conditions. Fish and seafood are not suitable. On one hand, fish and seafood easily produce protein degradation products overnight, which can damage liver and kidney function.
On the other hand, fish and seafood reheated in the microwave are difficult to maintain their original color, aroma, and taste, and their appearance can also affect appetite. Green leafy vegetables are also not suitable. Green leafy vegetables contain varying amounts of nitrates. After being heated in the microwave or stored for too long, the vegetables will turn yellow and change taste, and the nitrates can be reduced by bacteria into toxic nitrites, which have carcinogenic effects.
Cold dishes are also not suitable. The key is that cold dishes are not suitable for eating overnight. Cold dishes are often contaminated during preparation, and even after refrigeration, they are very likely to have spoiled overnight, so it's not advisable to put overnight cold dishes in a lunch box. A special reminder is not to bring foods high in oil. Twice-cooked pork, sweet and sour spare ribs, meat patties, fried rice, etc., are best not to be brought because they contain too much oil. Compared to low-fat foods, these things spoil more easily and are not as fresh.