Lunch ideas

heyersb820

Anyone have any good lunch ideas other than salad? I work long hours and have to pack a lunch if I want to have healthy food as the food my work provides is not healthy but I want other options other than salad thanks for any idea or recipes

MushroomLadyJR

How many calories are you aiming for?

My lunches tend to be around 500 calories. Usually two mini wraps stuffed with whatever veggies I have with quorn or cheese (sometimes both). I typically have 2 or 3 servings of fruit with this and occasionally 25 grams of crisps. This keeps me pretty satisfied until dinner (anytime between 7-8)

serindipte

Sandwiches with fresh veg/fruit on the side, a can of soup, wraps, leftovers from the night before. These are my mainstays.

heyersb820

I’d say I’m shooting for around 400 calories per main meal

WholeFoods4Lyfe

Leftovers. I eat a lot of leftovers. It's so easy. When I make dinner, I purposefully make enough so that I can take some to work the next day for lunch.

mutantspicy

I like to make a batch of carbs on sunday that I can store and then combine easily with a variety of meat or veggie options. I will make black beans, or lentil stew or a batch quinoa or brown/wild rice mix. I can warm those up at work and eat along side some smoked salmon or rotisserie chicken that's precooked.

cwolfman13

In the winter I usually have leftovers from dinner because we do a lot of soups and stews and casseroles and whatnot. In the nicer months I usually grill a bunch of chicken on Sunday and take that with various sides...I do that about 3x per week and usually have a sandwich or something the other two days.

eleiter69

Tuna wrap, hardboiled eggs, definitely dinner leftovers, ham or turkey and a slice of cheese wrapped around a pickle (my personal favorite, because I love pickles, just have to watch the salt), lots of fruits and veggies (I've started dipping raw veggies in salsa or a little bit of homemade guacamole instead of ranch like I used to - I just can't eat raw veggies without a dip), rice and beans.

HoneyBadger302

I bought some "bento" style food containers, which I'm finding are great for "meal prep" (which I'm trying to incorporate into my life). Salads are fine, but add some variety! Different bases, different toppings - look at what some restaurants have for salads (we have one locally, Ladle and Leaf that has lots of great salads) and use them for inspiration for adding some variety to your choices.

vallary14

Today I brought tuna fish and had it with some crackers, grape tomatoes and cucumber. Leftover roasted veggies or baked potato are good options too and I’ve found the roasted veggies are even good cold(no microwave here) have that with some cottage cheese or yogurt.

callsitlikeiseeit

look through the forums on here. theres hundreds of threads on the same topic

snemberton

I make a crab and shrimp salad sometimes. Crabmeat, cooked shrimp, cherry tomatoes, diced cucumber and bell pepper. Toss it with a zesty italian dressing. A HUGE bowl is right at 300 calories, but lots of protein and low fat. I have a few Triscuits with it too.

Lounmoun

Leftovers
Sandwich or wrap
Vegetables
Fruit
Hard boiled eggs, rolled omelet, egg muffin
Yogurt
Cheese
Hummus
Cottage cheese
Pasta salad, bean salad, corn salad
Stuffed tomato, stuffed cucumber, stuffed zucchini, stuffed pepper, stuffed mushrooms
Meatballs
Muffin, granola bar, protein bar

amgreenwell

LEFTOVERS, as others have said, they are the best and easiest way to get a solid meal without any work on my part. I also love making a big crock pot of soup and eating it all week at work. SO many amazing soup recipes out there. You can even have some bread and cheese with it if you find the right stuff to fit into your calories.

hesn92

I always plan to cook enough food for dinner to last two dinners and a couple lunches. It’s very cost effective and I get to eat good, hot food for lunch. If we happen to not have enough for me to bring for lunch, I will make a sandwich plus maybe some fruit or something.

nickssweetheart

I really like soup for lunches because it actually improves in the fridge. Making a big batch on whatever day I'm not working will often carry me through 3 or 4 days of meals or more (I freeze it if it's going to be more than 4 days worth.)

In the winter I ate a lot of:

Split Pea Soup
Curried Pumpkin Apple Soup (you don't need the whipping cream or can substitute a bit of canned coconut milk and personally i use olive oil instead of butter)
Easy Lentil Stew

Now I'm thinking a bit lighter, so I'm fixing things like:

Tomato, White Bean and Kale Soup
Roasted Tomato Soup (I cut the olive oil down to a couple of tablespoons and omit the cream)
Asparagus and Pea Soup (use the lemon!)

skelterhelter

I was big into Mexican style sweet potatoes for a while. Just pop a sweet potato in the microwave for about twelve minutes, slice it open, and top with low fat cheddar, salsa, reduced fat sour cream, and nutritional yeast (optional, but I liked the umami flavor it added). You could bulk it up even more by adding lentils, black beans, ground turkey, etc. Pair that with some fruit, a yogurt, hard-boiled egg, veggies, whatever, and you have a nice lunch

mutantspicy

HoneyBadger155 wrote: »

I bought some "bento" style food containers, which I'm finding are great for "meal prep" (which I'm trying to incorporate into my life). Salads are fine, but add some variety! Different bases, different toppings - look at what some restaurants have for salads (we have one locally, Ladle and Leaf that has lots of great salads) and use them for inspiration for adding some variety to your choices.

This actually sounds interesting to me. I'll check this out, I like the idea of it. I currently just use the cheap glad takeaways. They're cheap do what I want /stack nice. I take 4 takeaways per day. 1 salad, 1 microwavable dish usually beans/lentils, 1 raw veggie pack and 1 yogurt /fruit mix.
I've been wanting to upgrade to something a little more durable and flexible.

daniellewhiteliving

Homemade soups or casseroles with plenty of veg and a wholemeal pitta. You can bath cook then freeze..just defrost in microwave!

rheddmobile

I like grain bowls - prep the grains ahead, prep a couple of proteins such as roast chicken and tenderloin, then assemble grains plus a protein, veg, legumes, and spices/toppings/sauce of choice. Can easily be made Thai, Japanese, Mexican, Mediterranean, or Indian with slightly different choices. So a Mexican bowl might be turmeric rice, black beans, chicken, vegetables, and lime juice, salsa, low cal sour cream, plus avocado. Japanese would use edamame and ponzu sauce.

dotren

If you go to pinterest or youtube and search for "meal prep xx calories a day" (put in your calorie goal, of course ) there are some easy ideas. Also searching those sites for "no cook lunch prep" and terms like that will get you some good ideas

tennisdude2004

If you've got or can get hold of a good food thermos or if you've got access to a microwave then I would suggest chilli.