I have been eliminating chicken from my diet the last couple of months, and having trouble thinking of what to have for lunch now. I used to have chicken on my salad, TV dinners, chicken sandwiches, etc...

I've been eating fish instead lately (I know, not vegetarian), and that's good for dinner, but eating it for lunch and dinner would get costly unless I go for the canned tuna and salmon, but then there's the mercury in tuna to worry about.

any ideas for easy to make lunches that don't require a lot of ingredients, is easy to make (it's ok if it makes 2-4 servings to last a few days) and has a decent amount of protein? I also want to avoid the processed fake soy meats. I still eat some dairy, so cheese is ok.

I usually have a pot of brown rice sitting in the fridge, so I make a salad with brown rice, lettuce, olive oil, chick peas, cucumbers, tomatoes, etc. Maybe some sunflower seeds or other nuts to get me up to 400-500 calories.

Seagirl, I love cold brown rice salads! Except I like to chop up any greens fine; bigger leafy pieces are weird to me with the rice. One of my favorites is brown rice, fresh basil, green & black olives, pine nuts and roasted bell peppers, plus I add chickpeas. Mmm mmm mmm.

Beans. Garbanzo beans and kidney beans are awesome cold on salads. I also make a taco salad with heated up mashed black beans (refried style).

Also quinoa salads are great. Quinoa, beans (black beans are awesome but almost any will do), chopped bell peppers, scallions, a little lemon juice, red wine vinegar and a dash of olive oil. You can also add some sliced fruit to give it a slightly sweet taste. Mango is lovely diced in a quinoa salad.

You can experiment with other grains as well including buckwheat, barley and my new favorite, black rice.

You can also make a no-tuna chickpea salad. Mashed chickpeas, mustard, diced pickles, diced celery, and some chopped sea veggies (nori is readily available and fairly cheap). You can top a salad with it or use it in a sandwich.

Hummus sandwiches are another option. Hummus is easy to make and usually available to buy but it tastes better if you make it. Hummus, cucumbers, sprouts and tomatoes in a sandwich is one of my favorites.

I keep meaning to try this!

I buy Asmar's vegetarian tuna and chicken salad, and a different brand of no-egg salad made with tofu, and am trying mightily to copy them. Not satisfied with my results so far.

I make brown rice salad with kidney beans and cilantro; yum. I have a whole arsenal of grain and bean salads that I make for my lunch and my husband's as well.

I'm not veg. but I usually only eat meat at dinner so my lunches are pretty vegetarian .

I LOVE cold rice and bean salads. Quinoa is yum with tons of veggies in it. I second the hummus sandwiches. Lately I've been doing that a lot for lunch. Light Wheat bread, hummus, light feta, cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, mushrooms, spinach (LOL just load it on)... SOOO good and filling .

So much yum stuff out there!

I love a quinoa salad for lunch . . .

quinoa, any fresh veg - I do bell peppers, red cabbage, carrott, sundried tomatoes and top with some feta & dressing of evoo/balsamic/dijon (you could use any dressing really). Love a crunch.

double post

I just made a 7 bean soup with "It's All Good" Beefless strips. They are so close to the real thing. My daughter is very picky about food and texture and loved the texture of beef but finally just couldn't eat animals anymore for moral reasons. These are an excellent for those who are used to putting meat in their salads and soups. I still feel weird eating them though because they are so incredibly close in taste and texture to the real thing.