Healthy Lunch Ideas!
 

Last August I left a job that I had been at for 20 years. Over the past 6 months I have worked on getting healthier - have been eating healthier & exercising - and as a result have lost almost 50 lbs. :carrot:

Next Monday I am returning to work - a job I am excited about. I want to continue on my weight loss journey so plan to bring my lunch. This is where I need help - I would appreciate ideas on healthy lunches i can take to work with me. I know there is a lot of expertise out there - please help!

nice job!

Well it depends on your work place..does it have a microwave?

If not you will get limited!

I hate salads, but if you like them then take a salad.

Sandwiches are good, as long as you make them that way!

I like to get the select campbells soups or healthy choice (I add pepper flakes! and hot sauce ;) ) I don't like to eat these every day because they are super high in sodium..I try to make my own soups, but, realistically you don't always have time.

I got a food saver for christmas and recently I have been cooking chicken and preportioning it out to 4 ounce servings. My fav is cutting up chicken and searing it in a nonstick pan with garlic salt, curry powder, and black pepper. I vacuum seal it and bring it to work and eat it with cottage cheese..mm!

I have also bought a big bag of mixed veggies (frozen, because I HATE raw).....I steam them in the micro and eat cottage cheese and butter spray with it. My coworkers (all male), complained about the smell so now I have had to resort to other things. buttheads!

Bring any leftovers you preportioned out...or Healthy frozen meals..again they do have a lot of sodium too.

Keep lots of low cal snacks (around 100) in your lunch box and plan to eat them every 2 hours or so to keep you from starving by lunch time.

These are great ideas - thanks! I will have access to a microwave which will help.

No problem. If you have a place to put a weeks worth of food do it. I am a food horder in the office (which they ***** about too) but that way I can pick and choose sometimes what I feel like!

Wraps! Wraps are good too, like sandwiches. I love my wraps :) You can pretty much throw anything in there (and they're good if they're with messy things like tuna or something) and they're quick and easy to make and store.

My favorite thing to eat for breakfast (but I've sometimes had for lunch) is poached egg with tomato. You can totally make that in a microwave though and it's very yummy with some salt and pepper.

I love love love soup. I make at least two big batches on weekends, portion into 1 cup containers, and freeze. They range from 100-175 calories a cup, and I just pack one every morning for myself (along with two snacks for the day). I never get sick of them because I only make what I really like.

I cater lunch for a coworker (soup and something else), and her menu this week is/was:

Monday: Leftover low cal stuffed mushrooms paired with one cup of roasted broccoli soup
Tuesday: Caprese salad and one cup of spicy tomato blue cheese soup
Wednesday: Thai chicken wraps with some poached leftover chicken I had, a quick peanut sauce made with peanut butter, sriracha, soy sauce, water, and agave, a huge bunch of broccoli slaw, and fresh mint and basil paired with one cup of carrot peanut soup.
Thursday: Bagel thin with neufchatel and a little coriander and cumin with a cup of curried lentil soup
Friday: Arnold bread round with dijon, honey ham and swiss with a cup of split pea soup.

I love to bring salads in the summer - I'm a sucker for spinach and cucumbers with gorgonzola, craisin, sunflower seeds and champagne vinaigrette, but there are just so many different salads you can make (and they can all be put into a wrap too).

Quinoa salad with roasted red peppers, roasted broccoli, scallions and a little bit of feta is so good, even my four year old likes to eat it!

My mom used to make a traditional tabbouleh salad (without the tomatoes) when I was a kid and put it into a half a pita with raspberry vinaigrette. I know it sounds odd, but it's delicious!

Other wraps that I like are BBQ chicken or buffalo chicken, or a veggie burger. If I'm in a rush I'll make a quick wrap with some hummus, cucumbers, spinach, tomato.

There are always leftovers too! Just pack up a small portion of what you had for dinner, and you're all set.

I do soups too! I make a big batch every week or two, package them up in individual 2 cup plastic containers and freeze them. I bring in a bunch at a time and leave them in the freezer and then just nuke one each day at lunchtime.

The trick is to make sure the soup is a properly balanced meal. My favorite is a Mexican inspired chicken and black bean soup with tons of veggies and chopped chipotle and cumin for seasoning. It's very tasty, has plenty of veggies, and plenty of protein. Good stuff.

I tend to be fairly routine in my breakfast and lunch and the monotony I find comforting. But here's what I do, rotating as I get bored.

Grilled/baked chicken. I grill/bake chicken for dinner one night a week and do enough for leftovers for my lunches.

Steamed veggies. I take them frozen in a contained and steam them with a little water in the microwave.

Salad with the above mentioned grilled/baked chicken.

Dinner's left overs. Today it's taco salad.

I'm another big fan of soup. I don't mind eating the same thing everyday so will often make up a soup on Sunday to eat the rest of the week. Made right, they are full of healthy stuff and very filling.

My favorite lunch to make:

Sweet potato, chicken, spinach, pepper, onion, whatever veggies on hand stir fried and seasoned w/olive oil and dill. Just toss it all in a frying pan (boil the sweet potato)!

Take leftovers in a Mr or Ms Bento lunch jar.

http://www.amazon.com/Zojirushi-SL-N...8725685&sr=8-2

A.

Check out this link - it might give you some good lunch ideas.

Healthy Lunches

Great lunch ideas here! I have been making notes and realize I need to get some containers to have on hand.

Keep the lunch ideas coming - I would guess others will benefit from these too!

Same here. I love wraps. I throw some turkey or ham, some reduced fat cheese, lettuce, spinach, some lite or ff/sf sauce in, roll it up and magical lunch! Takes minutes. Also sliced apples, walnuts, spinach, some ff/sf blue cheese dressing along with some deli chicken in a wrap is hard to beat.

Another rapper here, I mean wrapper! ;) My latest fave is a whole wheat wrapped nuked for 20 seconds, then douced with peanut butter, then I put a whole banana on top of the peanut butter in the middle of the wrap, then I toss on a large handful of raisins, a generous portion of sliced almonds, a sprinkle of cinnamon & a bam of ground flax & sometimes some coconut if I am feeling a bit tropical'! I roll this up and eat this ooey gooey sweet delight for lunch many a days :T

What a cool idea!

The pb and banana wrap sounds delicious!

I'm very spoiled -- I have a fridge and microwave in my (individual) office, so I always have fruits and veggies to much. This week I had an apple, an orange, a container of blueberries, one of carrots, and a hard-boiled egg as quick small snacks. I'm following Ornish's low-animal-fat plan, so I do a lot of bean-based soups, too. Easy-peasy! Loving the ideas others have posted!

oops, "muNch"

I have one of these and LOVE it! :carrot:

Here are some of the things I've eaten for lunch in the past couple of weeks. I pack in Tupperware and reheat/prepare as needed at lunchtime at the office:

-vegetable lasagna: 390 cals (I make a casserole each weekend and freeze individual portions in tupperware so that I have them to eat as leftovers throughout the week. I weigh and measure the ingredients as I'm cooking so that I know how much is in each serving)
-big salad of spinach, chicken strips, black beans, craisins, and light ranch: 545 cals
-Progresso canned lentil soup (whole can), whole wheat dinner roll: 400 cals
-4 tbsp hommus, baby carrots, pita chips, yogurt: 390 cals
-Amy's frozen bean & cheese burrito, apple, yogurt: 465 cals
-big salad of spinach, romaine, chicken strips, feta cheese, vinaigrette dressing: 400 cals
-25 roasted brussels sprouts with olive oil and paprika: 290 cals
-4 oz oven roasted salmon with butter and garlic, 1 cup peas: 420 cals

I second the leftovers idea. I just make extra at dinner time and take to work. For example I will have a large amount of stirfried veg, some brown rice and some type of protein such as tofu. I sometimes bring homemade soups or salads with quinoa. I bring snacks for my break such as baby bel lights, fruit and almonds. I find I have to be prepared or I will buy lunch out which I should not do as I am on a budget and it is difficult to eat out and have a healthy meal and I make food that tastes better anyway. :) Hope this helps.

I love to take leftovers from dinner the night before. I do my best to make really yummy/healthy dinners (which was not easy at first since I have never been much of a cook), before we even eat I take out my trusty glad container and place my next days lunch in it so it is ready for the morning. I have found if I get everything ready the night before I don't have to stress about it the next morning.
I also always have a few trusty frozen dinners in the freezer for the days I don't have leftovers for whatever reason. I don't like to eat these to often because of the amount of sodium in them but are great in a pinch and better then running to McDonalds on my lunch break.

This is a typical school lunch for me:

Pile of curly kale with some vegetable-quinoa dish, shaken up a bit to get tge veggies and quinoa fully incorporated into the kale :)
Orrr, one of my favorites:
Lots of kale, again
Sweet potato, baled until soft-ish
Raisins
Dice up the sweet potato and toss it with the kale and raisins. I looove cold sweet potatoes! :)

Heath is wealth.You should take healthy food. According to me in healthy lunch:
1. Green leaf salad
2. Tuna salad with greens, tomato and avocado
3. Salmon on top of greens, blanched green beans, mushrooms, and sprouts
4. Chicken with greens, cucumbers, pecans, and crumbled blue cheese
5. Steak with greens, thinly sliced red onions, green pepper, and mushrooms
6. Juices
7. Cheese

I love my salads too especially fresh spinach. I usually take that and either throw in some tuna, almonds, some shredded cheese (not too much) with a vinagarette, and a boiled egg.

When I'm in a rush I take the Heathy Choice Steamers, they are pretty good actually so if you have a microwave it's nice and quick.