Easy clean, healthy lunch ideas

AngDenSti

I'm a teacher and bring my lunch everyday, but really struggle to eat well at school because I don't like to take a lot if time to prepare my lunches. Anyone have favorite easy quick lunch ideas to share?

Butrovich

I have a bunch, but here is a link to one of my favorite soups at Food network. It makes about 7 servings that can be frozen in containers. I simply make a batch and pull one out of the freezer the night prior.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/butternut-squash-and-apple-soup-recipe/index.html

I also make 5 servings of chili (recipe coming later) and put those in the freezer as well. Another quick lunch recipe is to boil two bags of Success Brown Rice and cook two 8oz chicken breasts. Divide the cooked rice and cooked chicken into four serving containers. You can now either add BBQ sauce or orange ginger sauce with some stir fry veggies and throw the containers in the freezer.

If you can't tell by now, I prepare a lot of my meals ahead of time to help make getting ready for work that much easier.

Mike

Butrovich

Quick Chili
Makes five servings

40oz Lean ground beef (I like 96%)
1 cup water
2 packages chili seasoning (I like one hot and one mild)
2 16oz cans diced tomatoes
2 8oz cans kidney beans
16oz tomato juice
1 large onion

In large skillet over medium heat cook the ground beef and drain any fat. Chop onion and add to ground beef. Raise heat to high and stir in water, seasoning, tomatoes (with juice), beans (with liquid), and tomato juice. Heat to boiling, then reduce heat to low and cook for 20 minutes.

And yes, you can freeze in serving containers for later.

Mike

azbutterfly1324

I eat almost exclusively from recipes from this site:

http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/

If you put 'lunch' into her search, you will see all her lunch blogs. If you follow her on FB, she posts daily what she packs her kids for lunch. Yes, it's for her kids, but it's 'real' food that all of us can/should eat.

She also has free meal plans online complete with shopping lists, etc. Every single one of her recipes has been wonderful and are the things my family requests I make all the time. This blog single-handedly changed the way I shop/cook for myself and my family!

AngDenSti

Thanks guys!! It looks like I'm going to need to prepare for the week on Sundays. I will let ya know how it goes when I go back to work Monday.

HeatherZousel

I cook a batch of each black beans and rice every couple of weeks, then take a bunch of pint jars and put in 1/3 beans and 1/3 cup rice put the lid on and freeze it. Every day for lunch I take a jar and microwave it (without the lid obviously) and add chopped tomatoes, avacado, black olive (just a few), plain greek yogurt, Annie's Goddess Dressing and El Pato Jalapeno hot sauce. If you live in the pacific northwest it is a home version of Cafe Yumm's Hot and Jazzy Yumm Bowl.

Butrovich

Not exactly a lunch idea, but I wanted to share a "recipe" for my fellow coffee lovers. Short story - I was driving through Kentucky listening to a cooking show on the radio. Don't ask, there was no good music on any other channel. Anyway, the guests were talking about cold brewed coffee as opposed to hot brewed and how using hot water to make coffee changes the chemistry and brings out the bean's bitter taste whereas cold brewing allows more of the natural flavor to come out.

I don't know about you, but I LOVE iced coffee from McDonalds and I was more than willing to try this out. I bought a French press and a small coffee grinder. I now buy my coffee in bags of whole beans, grind the coffee fresh, place in the French press with water, and leave in my fridge overnight. When I wake up, I add either Vanilla Almond milk or a scoop of chocolate protein powder. If I really want to splurge, I will add a small topping of whipped cream. Who needs McDonalds or Starbucks??

Here's another note... if you have tried adding flavored protein powder to hot coffee, the powder ends up "cooked" into clumps. you don't have that problem with cold brewed.

Just sharing. Maybe we can add a Food & Recipe section to the group?

Mike

groundhawg

I make large batches of food once a month and then freeze it. I highly recommend http://onceamonthmeals.com/ it makes it easy by providing you even with a shopping list. Theyre update the site soon so you can just do breakfasts and lunches with no dinner. Eating frozen soup all the time was getting boring, but this has really helped me out with keeping the variety going. One of my favorites is just ground browned bison with spices and sundried tomatoes, frozen, and then I defrost it, throw in some veggies and a pita wrap and bam! lunch.

JustT1m

What you don't like the school luch?