Simple Hot Lunch Ideas

Scrambled eggs with veggies
Frozen brown rice, frozen broccoli, pre-cooked chicken breast
Make a huge batch of soup once and freeze portions.

Pasta dishes. You may use skinny noodles or whole wheat pasta or soba . Be conservative with the cheeses. Mind your portions - so measure EVERYTHING. You may layer them in one to-go container, ready for the microwave or in separate baggies ready to assemble@ lunch.

Soups Any soup is mobile if you have a thermos.

Pizza sub/pizza Same as with the pasta. Choose a skinny pizza dough recipe or you could just use normal dough if your caloric goals allow - pre-bake@home. Assemble. Pack. Fire it up in the microwave@work.

Hot sandwiches I would choose dense breads similar to the artisan variety and because the lunches are hot, think panini type sandwiches with your meat and veggie selection. Assemble. Microwave@work. Burritos and quesadilla's fit into this category too


Nachos Choose or make healthy crisps. Pack cheese/meat/sauce separately/ Assemble/ Microwave.

Quiche You could alternate between flour/rice/root crop crusts

Stir fry You could pre-cook an assortment of veggies with the meat (or not) of your choosing. Freeze. Microwave@work.

EDIT: If you choose to prep it at home before going to work, then look into 'Lunch and Go' and Stainless Steel Bento Jars - They should keep your already hot lunches hot until lunch hour. Insulated lunch cooler bags should work too.

Mix together 1 can of refried beans, 1.5 oz of low fat cheese (I like shredded Mexican blend) and about 1/2 cup salsa. Microwave for 2-3 minutes until cheese is melted. Mix again and eat with 1 oz of baked Tostitos scoops. This amount of the bean mixture is enough for 3 lunches for me. It's delicious warm, healthy, filling, high fiber, and low cal.

Bumpity!

If you have access to a toaster at work, I love a good butterflied chicken breast half between two slices of toast, with lettuce, tomato and a little pesto. Just bring all the ingredients packed separately, then microwave the chicken breast, toast the bread, and shazam!

Cous cous is good because you only need to add boiling water, then just mix in some flavoured tin tuna and some baby spinach leaves. Or if you can organise yourself at the start of the week cook 2 different dishes eg stir fry, soup, curry and then you have a bit of variety and they will last in the fridge or freezer for you to mix it up a bit. Wraps with chicken/beef, tomato and baby spinach are yummy in sandwich toaster too.

This is what I did last night:

Take 4 tilapia filets and squeeze lemon juice onto them. Lightly salt them, crack pepper over them and bake at 350 degrees until cooked through.

Take a butternut squash and peel, remove seeds, cut into chunks. Boil until fork tender. Mash with a little salt and/or butter.

Take 2 heads tatsoi and a few handfuls of spinach (or all spinach, all tatsoi, other greens, etc). Heat a teaspoon or so of olive oil in a pan, add a chopped shallot and several chopped garlic cloves and let cook but not burn. Add washed greens (do not remove all water) and cover. After it's steamed/sauteed a bit, remove the cover, stir, cover again until cooked as desired (some like theirs just barely wilted, I like my spinach like that but my tatsoi more cooked).

I put 1 filet, a scoop of greens and a scoop of squash into a 2c pyrex dish and that's lunch for each day. Tilapia, at least in my experience, doesn't smell much at all when you microwave it so it's more office friendly than other fish. I also pair it with a sweet potato and roasted asparagus, rice and roasted green beans, couscous and steamed broccoli, etc.

ETA: If you're lazy, unmotivated or pressed for time, most grocery stores sell the squash ready to cook (peeled, seeded and cubed) and sell spinach pre-washed.

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