Instructions: I work from home and my daily torment is the small, whining voice that insinuates into my concentration somewhere around 11:45 am: "Whats for lunch?" Breakfasts are pretty routine and filling, and dinners get taken care of, whether eaten in or out. But lunch? Forget it. It seems as if theres never a good solution.

First of all, many people - especially those working at home - just dont want to stop working when they are fortunate enough to have a wide stretch of uninterrupted time in the middle of the day. Every telecommuter Ive talked with has the same complaint. I know people who eat a carton of yogurt at the desk every day, rather than stop working. And some people ignore lunch altogether.

But stop for refueling we must. And the pit stop for food had better be quick and have us back to work in a minimum of time.

Here are some lunch solutions Ive heard from fellow solo workers:

Make extra portions for dinner, so you can heat up leftovers.

Order large pizzas every time, and freeze individual cuts to dole out at noon.

Improve and extend canned soups with leftover veggies.

Add snipped scallion rings and drops of sesame oil to freshen Ramen noodles.

Make it a point to take home a doggie bag from restaurant dinners.

Construct quickie pizzas from toasted English muffins, canned sauce and pre-shredded cheese.

Make mid-week stops at the deli and pick up cartons of salads.

Use the blender to whirl high-energy smoothies from bananas, yogurt and wheat germ and tofu, if you have it.

Try reversing breakfast and lunch. Eat leftover spaghetti and fruit for breakfast, and go for a bowl of cereal and juice for lunch.

Keep a big selection of fruit to eat out of hand. Bottled nuts, too.

Buy bags of ready-peeled carrots and other veggies to crunch on.

Have a good supply of crackers and cheeses around.

Never ever run out of peanut butter.

My own solutions usually come out of a can. I like the convenience of a shelf-stable, portion-controlled mini-meal thats only a reach away in my pantry. With every supermarket visit, I troll the canned food aisles. More often than not, I pick up canned fish.

You get more bang for the buck with canned fish than with any other quick lunch. Theres lots of protein and good nutrition in tuna, salmon, baby shrimp, smoked kippers and sardines. I usually just drain the can, dump the contents on a plate along with crackers, sliced onion and a blob of mayonnaise. After munching a piece of fruit and a cookie over the Wall Street Journal, Im back at the desk in less than 30 minutes. A final word of warning: never eat over your keyboard!

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