Hello,
Healthy Lunch Ideas
Need some healthy lunch ideas that are easy to prepare?
Even when I was in high school, on Sunday night I’d prepare all my lunches for the week and freeze them. I found it much easier than having to prepare something every day. At the time it was usually 10 sandwiches, two per day. One would be somthing like baloney and cheese, the other, peanut butter and jam.
I still prepare lunches in advance, although now I make much healthier fare!
Sunday afternoons or evenings I spend some time in the kitchen getting everything ready for the week.
Here's how you can prepare healthy lunches too....
Healthy lunches have 4 ingredients:
Actually, all healthy meals contain these four things:
- Lots and lots of vegetables – that will fill up at least half the plate
- Some good quality carbohydrates
- A good quality protein source
- A good quality fat
How to:
For the vegetables I’ll often make a huge salad, enough for 4 or 5 lunches. However this is not just lettuce! I need something more substantial, so I include every vegetable imaginable and especially left over steamed vegetables from dinners, such as beans, kale, broccoli, cauliflower, etc. I also grate a large amount of carrots, finely grated and keep them in a separate large plastic container to add in. I include at least one dark leafy green, spinach, kale, arugula, parsley, basil, coriander, etc. I add some of the regular salad fare of cucumbers, celery, red peppers, radishes, tomatoes, etc.
For the carbs I always keep left over cooked cold quinoa in the fridge, so it’s easy to add. This nutritionally dense, high protein food is perfect for a salad. Or it might be some leftover spelt or kamut pasta, made into a pasta salad. Or some steamed sweet potatoes or potatoe salad. In a pinch it might be some spelt or kamut bread on the side. We need the good quality carbohydrates as they fill us up and keep us satisfied a long time so that we don’t get hungry and have the urge to reach for unhealthy snacks mid afternoon.
At lunch, I invariably bring a vegetarian source of protein, some home-made hummus or a bean salad or homemade tofu spread or veggie paté, etc.
Dressing and Transportation
There are numerous delicious dressings to make, home-made will ensure you use healthy oils (good fats)and vinegars rather than refined found in store bought dressings.
If I'm in a hurry, my home made salad dressing often consists of extra virgin olive oil, unpasteurized vinegar, apple cider vinegar, or any other unpasteurized vinegar, some sun dried sea salt or Braggs liquid soy seasoning, basil oregano, dijon, etc.
Plastic containers transport the salads. Square Ziplock containers work well, pictured above.
You can keep a large jar of your home made salad dressing at work or, for transporting dressing just for one day, get a small leak proof container, Tupperware has a great one pictured at left.
With a bit of planning and preparing things in advance, it’s easy to stay healthy.
You can get up and grab what you need from the fridge before you head out the door!
To your natural health!
Sue-Anne
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