Post Punk Kitchen Forum

Hey, PPK! My work is looking for new ideas for the breakroom and I'm looking to submit a few ideas. Right now, I have an ezekiel, hummus and veggie sandwich pretty much every day and it gets old. We have a salad-bar type thing, a bunch of refrigerator cases, a few freezers, a toaster, a microwave. The best thing I've been able to come up with has been cans of beans, instant rice and tortillas for tacos. I know frozen falafel exists, but the only ones I've seen have had animal products in them. Ideas appreciated

Wow, it sounds like you work in paradise! Would some tofurky be out of the question? If you're asking for cans of beans, how about some soup, too? Babaganouj (sp) to swap out with the hummus? Also, I know WF carries a brand of vegan refrigerated falafel, but I can't remember what it is, or if it is local to Colorado.

Me, I'm just happy when I work somewhere with free coffee.

Our breakroom is mostly junk food, but we do have individual bags of Lucy's Cookies, small jars of hummus with pretzel chips, Popchips, Amy's frozen vegan burritos and various candy bars, including Peanut Chews.

Love the idea of cans and microwave rice. This might be a bit out there, but what about frozen waffles and frozen fruit and veggie bacon? Breakfast for dinner!

edit: Heinz Beans and microwave baked potatoes are also a thing

I'm usually happy just having some snack food around in case I end up having a long day and forget to bring something.

I'm thinking about maybe asking for some Boca chicken patties because I love those things and they're frozen, so I don't have to worry about spoilage. I do work with at least 2 other vegetarians so I don't think it would be much of a problem. I'd LOVE Heinz beans at work. I don't want to make 'em hunt them down, though because it's not easy to find. Baked potatoes isn't a bad idea. Just nuke 'em and drizzle some olive oil and vinegar in it.

Do you work at Vegan Headquarters or what?

I always try to get in on the costco trips for my office so I can pick the snacks. Otherwise my co-workers come back with dumb shiitake like Doritos and Quaker granola bars. I have trained them to get hummus and pita chips, though. I don't even have to put them on the list anymore!

Point them to the Amazon link above! HUNDREDS OF BEANS! I have ordered the Heinz Beans 12-pack myself, and as much as I like them it took me a long time to work through it because I don't want to eat baked beans every day, y'know?

If keeping whole potatoes creates too much spoilage, maybe frozen tater tots or something would work too? You can put pretty much anything on potatoes. Potatoes are awesome. Frozen Chick'n patties + tater tots and hot sauce sounds like a delightfully filling lunch.

Another thing I just thought of... McDougall's soup cups. I wouldn't eat them every day, but they keep for a long time and some of the flavors are pretty good.

I'm jealous. We just lost our fridge because the door fell off, so now I'm not sure what I can bring for lunch. We won't have another fridge unless a staff member has an old one to donate.

I was on the road a lot in my previous work and I would take my lunch in a wee mini-cooler with an ice pack in it...as a good as fridge (better really because it was sanitized to my desired level).

I was just thinking about this and I think frozen brown rice and Tasty Bite (and the billion other bagged curry brands) would be the best. Your work could order it through amazon's subscribe and save.

ETA: but the bagged rice sucks, so don't get that! frozen forever! I freeze my own in huge batches of little 200ml cups and it tastes so fresh after a microwaving.

This is what I do because at my work, people have been known to steal food out of the fridge and people have had their lunches go missing! So I keep a small cooler bag with an ice pack in it with my lunch near where I'm working and it keeps my food cool all day long.

I would want your breakroom in my breakroom.

I don't have space for personal things at work, so anything I have needs to stay with me. This means wearing a coat/jacket is too much trouble, and hauling lunch around all day to 3 different rooms is also too much trouble since I also have laptop and cords, papers, whatever else I need, and my bag with my phone, wallet, etc.

So, I remain jealous!

I thought just labeling it "Vegan" in big letters would be sufficient to protect your lunch....I mean, who wants to eat rabbit food & more importantly, why would they eat something with absolutely no protein!!!

I brought my own mini fridge to work. Bought it on Craigslist for $20. Of course then a co-worker discovered it and decided we would "share" it, and has since stuffed it full of her food. Still, it's better than walking waaay down the hall to the break room.

I can't even imagine having a breakroom provide anything for meals, let alone options! I would die for a free salad bar.

I saw Larabars in a vending machine last night and thought, "why don't we have that??" The only vegan thing in our breakroom vending machine is animal crackers.

We have hard cider tastings in our break room! I win. Okay we also have lots of potato chips. I feel like I'm pretty much covered, but I don't eat that well at work. I try to bring in soups and stuff but I usually just go for the chips. We have three fridges so I really have no excuse not to bring a proper lunch.

Man, I want your breakroom! We get nothing, unless it's left overs from a big executive meeting, which means stale non-vegan muffins. I think you've got a pretty good list of things for them to get!

I wish! My company just hooks it up. And our CEO is big on health, so he's always trying to get us healthy foods and into the gym and such.

The McDougall's soup cup is a good idea. I think we already have ramen noodles somewhere, so I can only hope they don't think I'm asking more of the same. Even though I hate talking about my veganism with co-workers, but I'll talk to them about it if it gets me more options. Requests gotta be in by the end of the day. Some good stuff here.

If you have a salad bar you could ask for some baked tofu or beans or tempeh to add some protein to a salad. You can make couscous in a microwave. Tofurky is a good idea too.

quinoa

And on a serious note, tasty bite has these packets of various vegan friendly heat n serve foods. Maybe a few of those packets?

My husband keeps those at work along with various frozen burritos (Amy's has a few good ones).