Ah, one of my favorite topics.
I am on a seemingly neverending search for new lunch/snack ideas. Lunch and snack during the week can either make my day, or totally undo my nutrition plan (if I am not careful).
The past two weeks for lunches at work, I had a homemade mini pizza, a serving of baby carrots, and a blood orange (with water to drink), for 354 calories total. The homemade mini pizzas were topped with tomatoes, yellow squash, broccoli, and fresh mozzarella. (a side note, I portioned out everything on each mini pizza, and they came to 238 calories each! Not bad at all, and taste sooo much better to me than the frozen type from the store.) The mini pizzas were easy to make....I bought one 16-oz ball of fresh dough from my grocery's bakery, divided it into 8 pieces, stretched each piece into about a 5-6 inch diameter, topped with toppings, and baked. I usually do that on a Sunday afternoon, and the whole process takes considerably less than an hour....and then my week's lunches are all done!
This week for lunch I made a tomato-rice soup that has garlic and navy beans in it. I found the recipe in Veganomicon....I'm not a vegan (or vegetarian, for that matter), but I bought the cookbook to help me find interesting new ways to try more veggies. Anyway, this soup recipe had no nutrition info listed, but I went with it anyway, hopeful that it would not be too high in calories or fat....Just looked up the nutrition info for the recipe with Sparkpeople's recipe builder, and OMG, 167 calories for TWO CUPS! Happy day for me.
So for this week's lunch, I will have a serving of the soup, 1 oz of cheddar cheese, 1 serving of Kashi original crackers, and a piece of fruit (apple or orange).
For snacks at work, I usually have one No Pudge brownie and 1% milk or a cup of hot tea, around 3pm. I find that by that time, my day has usually been so stressful that I need a little pampering snack, like something chocolate.
I have also done 1 tbs of peanut butter and 1 square of Hershey's special dark, with a mug of tea. This week my snack will be some cubed canteloupe, 2 Wild Harvest organic chocolate sandwich cookies, and a cup of tea.
I try to vary my snacks week to week, and I am always looking for ways to get in more servings of veggies and whole grains. I usually try to avoid simple carbs, but to be perfectly honest, sometimes when I am having a rough day at work, one No Pudge brownie and some blueberry rooibos tea does the trick.