Munchy--I made the carrot peanut soup for dinner tonight (really didn't want the spaghetti I made for the kids) and it was yummy! I'm looking forward to the leftovers tomorrow (if hubby doesn't eat them all).
I use to be big on eating leftovers for lunch, but now the rest of the family devours them before I get home most days.
I've always had trouble making a healthy lunch for myself. With the medically-supervised, low-fat, low-carb diet I'm on now, I have been forced to be accountable for my meals to the doctor via my food journal. That means, I HAVE to make sure I prepare a healthy lunch.
As a result, I've learned to prepare an extra portion of whatever the evening's meal is for lunch the next day. If I'm baking chicken, I cook an extra serving to put in my lunch the next day, for example. I also make certain I prepare enough vegetables to have at least two 1/2 cup servings or that I clean enough lettuce and chop fresh vegetables for a salad the next day.
This is an entirely new approach for me because I'm fussy about eating leftovers. I'm trying to balance that tendency by not making too much food ahead, so I don't get sick of it or have too many options in the fridge.
Right after dinner, before doing the dishes, I put up my lunch for the next day, measuring servings into plastic containers and putting the prepared meal on the top shelf of the fridge. I also prep my lunch bag by making sure I have clean utensils and napkins. I toss in my prescription protein bar and make sure I have zero-calorie flavor drops for my water. That way, all I have to do is grab the prepared meal and toss it in my lunch bag the next morning and I'm good to go.
As some others, I am a big fan of cooking on the weekend and "prepackaging" everything into one portion servings. I find the biggest key to me going off plan is not having something ready when I am hungry and tired.
This weekend it was an Italian meatloaf which I packaged with pasta sauce and grated cheese and a healthy pumpkin dessert recipe. I also have several prepackaged "standards" on hand that I prepare on the weekend so that I can grab and go anytime i.e., 2T hummus and 7 crackers or baby carrots, measured and packaged fruit portions which I eat with a cup of plain yogurt, 1T almond butter with 7 crackers ... Portion control goes out the window if I just grab a box of crackers etc.
I regularly make chicken bone broth in the slow cooker, and I heat that up in the morning, then add miso paste for probiotics and taste. Sometimes I add hot sauce and vinegar and a bit of sesame oil to make it more like hot and sour soup. Other times I add Italian herbs and garlic, or curry powder and coconut cream, to vary the flavor. Anyway, that all goes into a Thermos for my soup-drink.
Then I usually make a salad, with a hard-cooked egg, a Baby Belle cheese, and lots of chopped veggies with a little lettuce. Homemade oil and vinegar dressing. Sometimes I add tuna (from a can in my desk at work) or leftover chicken or pork from dinner. Sometimes I add pistachios.
And that's my normal work lunch. Sometimes instead of a salad I take leftovers, or make egg or chicken salad to eat with celery.
