I’ve recently started bringing my lunch to work, and I’m already bored with what I’ve been eating. I snack on cracklin oat bran (dry) in the morning until lunch, which I like. It’s the lunch itself that I need to mix up. I’ve been making whole grain pasta the night before and either covering it in some italian dressing or pasta sauce. With that I have a yogurt and piece of fruit. I’ll never get sick of the yogurt/fruit part, but the pasta every day is getting gross. I need some foods that I can prepare in 10 minutes the night before work. I have access to a microwave also. Any suggestions? Oh, I hate cold cuts and I refuse to eat fake meat soy products. Thanks for you help.
PBJ, yogurt, fruit
rice
sandwich with veggies and hummus
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Peanut butter & jam sandwiches are always good.
TC already suggested the hummus sandwich, I had that for lunch today along with a bowl of vegetarian chili. I bought it from the cafe across the street, but it wouldn’t be too hard to bring in the same thing.
open a few different cans of beans and swish them through a strainer under the faucet to rinse the stuff off.
then put them in a skillet with chopped up onion/bell pepper mix>which you can get frozen and just dump it out of the bag into the pan. let it go for 10 minutes, add some cheese, and then bag it up and take it with you to work and nuke it. if you want to get excited, take a tortilla and make a wrap out of it.
you can also scramble up some ground turkey breast with onion and taco seasoning the night before, take it in a seperate bag to work, nuke it and dump it on top of salad and have a turkey/taco salad.
mix a can of chopped up tomatoes with cooked rice, a little taco seasoning, add a can of beans. take some blue corn chips and whammo, you’ve got yourself a hearty bean dip and chips.
you can make that lasagne that i posted, which would be enough for an entire week.
soup: organic chicken broth, frozen mixed vegetables. throw in some shrimp, a little sea salt and you’ve got a great shrimp vegetable soup.
or you can add in noodles, baby carrots, and quick rice and have chicken rice soup.
chili is easy to. basically scramble up the meat, dump in chili seasoning, a can of beans, some water and let it simmer for an hour. you don’t even have to the be at the stove for more than 10 minutes, it can cook while you do other stuff.
take a baggie of brocoli–microwave it–dump some crab meat on it and drizzle honey mustard dressing on it. take a boiled egg, too.
egg salad. tuna salad, crab salad. all of that takes 10 minutes or less.
These are great suggestions. They all look pretty quick and easy. Thanks, kittycat.
I make a tuna salad out of can of tuna in water, a little chopped onion, S&P, chopped parsley, pickel relish and a small amount of extra virgin olive oil to bind, mix and eat on whole wheet crackers or bread of choice.
Wraps are always great and easy. Cook up some extra chicken. Chop it up and add some salsa, tomato, mushrooms, beans, and a bit of cheese. Nuke it and it’s real tastey. Or if in a rush just whole wheat wraps with some cheese and mushrooms. The microwave can help melt the cheese and cook the mushrooms for a real “comfort food” meal. Heck you can put anything inside a whole grain tortia shell.
Salads are great too. You can put just about anything on a salad - tuna, chicken, egg, bar-bq’d salmon, chick peas, beans, variety of veggies, avocado, peppers, berries, cranberries, nuts, seeds, cheeses, cilantro, basil etc… You can chop up a variety of things at the beginning of the week then store them in the fridge. Add them to lettuce (mixed organic greens are great) and each salad can taste different. Try for a variety of colours too -it makes those around you real jealous. Dressing is rarely needed as they can have so many flavours on their own. It’s not rabbit food when you’ve added a variety of protein sources.
Taco salad is nice too - just heat up some precooked ground turkey/chicken/or beef and add it to lettuce, tomatoes etc… for a quick and easy taco salad.
Another great salad is bococcini with avocado, tomatoes, olive oil and balsamic vinegar with a touch of salt and pepper. The cheese helps keep you full.
Boxes of veggie soup kept in a drawer is always good to keep on hand. A quick microwave and you have a hot meal.
I’ve snacked on cottage cheese, yogurt, almonds, all bran cereal (and other dry cereals),apples, carrots, celery etc…
The easiest way to keep your tummy happy is to have a variety of foods on hand at work. That way you always have something to eat and you get to control how healthy it is for you. (It will also make your co workers sit up and take notice).
Mmm all this food talk is making me hungry. I’d better get my lunch ready for tomorrow.
fluffernutter
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I frequently take a peanut butter and honey sandwich some fruit, a raw veggie (carrot, maybe) and a cup of yogurt.
how about rice?
I always have leftover rice, throw it in tupperware with whatever I can find. Easiest protein to throw in are frozen dumplings (chicken, shrimp, pork etc.). And some random veggies.