Quick, Easy and Healthy Office Lunches?

Mayo - Kraft Mayo With Olive Oil, 1 tbsp (15g) 35 2 3 0 95 0 
Orrowwheat - Healtful 10 Grain Bread, 2 slice 160 34 2 10 300 4 
Bumblebee - Premium Light Tuna Pouch / Single Serve, 2.5 oz/71 g 70 0 1 16 240 0 
Bobs Red Mill - Chia Seeds, 0.2 Tbsp 12 1 1 1 0 0 
Cabbage - Green - Shredded, 0.25 cup 4 1 0 0 3 1 
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I just had a light tuna with mayo, shredded cabbage and chia seeds sandwich on 10 grain bread. This was 281 calories.

I also had a banana and 1/4 cup of almonds.

If you have a refrigerator that you can use, you can always stock up on quick snacks too.

1. A light Campbell's or Progresso non-dehydrated soup
2. 1 can tuna, 1 tablespoon light miracle whip, 1 tablespoon dill relish = tuna salad; adds crackers if desired
3. Last night's leftovers

I typically choose one of those three options and add some fruit, light yogurt, and/or reduced fat string cheese

I love those Mason Jar salads, you can make several at once and they keep for a few days, there are recipes all over the Internet. We make a big batch of tabbouleh and add in chicken, chickpeas or whatever needs using up. I make extra roast beef, grilled chicken or whatever for dinner on Sunday, cut it up and create a sandwich or salad around that or even just make enough leftovers of anything to take as lunch. If you have time on the weekends, make big batches of tuna, chicken or egg salad and you can, again, make sandwich or salad with that. Sometimes I just buy chicken breast or boneless thighs and broil them and keep them in the fridge to grab and stuff in a wrap or pita. Soup you make at home with whatever is in the fridge is good, I make a big batch on the weekend to clear out my veggie drawer and me and the hubs have that all week. Hummus and pita or veggies is a great office snack/quick lunch.

A little bit of planning ahead can make a huge difference. When I worked away from home, I spent one day every other week or so making stuff that would keep well in the freezer. Portion it up, take it out the night before and you're good to go. I got a ton of great ideas and inspiration from justbento.com. She has great tips on how to pack healthy, filling and portable meals. Lots of recipes and photos, too.

Double the amount of whatever you usually make at dinner; eat that for lunch. Calorie counting and meal cooked all in one. Use a microwave safe dish to take it to work (in an insulated bag) and you can even nuke it easily.

I don't mind having the same thing every day, so on Sunday I make my lunches for the week. In winter tend to have one of the following:

Pork and bean chilli
Chicken and Veg soup
Tuna noodle casserole
Pumpkin soup with shredded chicken
Enchilada soup
Chicken broccoli and asparagus risotto

In summer I tend to have a lot of salads with lean meat, lots of veg and couscous/quinoa/mograhbeh...

I usually work from 11:30 to 8pm so I bring enough food to count as lunch and dinner. Currently I'm doing the frozen entree thing )(WW, Lean Cuisine, Healthy Choice, ect.). I also bring Greek yogurt, whole almonds, string cheese, applesauce, Kashi Granola bars. One diet soda and lots of bottled water.

I am wondering if the frozen meals are OK. Or does it matter as long as it fits my calories?

They tend be be quite high in sodium, but if you aren't bothered by that they're ok. I find that it's cheaper and so much tastier to make and freeze my own meals though!

Some of the organic brands frozen foods have less sodium than say Lean Cuisine. Check out Amy's Organics and Ceder Lane.

I like to have hummus on hand, fresh fruit, or cereal/Nutrigrain bars on hand at work as snacks.

In regards to meals, I'll do a giant meal prep during the week or weekend, and bring those meals to work. Some recent recipes:

- Homemade chicken salad with onion and celery- around 250cals per serving, and a ton of protein
- Steak tips with cheddar noodles and steamed fresh broccoli- around 500-600cals for the entire thing, and it kept me full until very late that night
- Chicken alfredo with primavera veggie blend- around 350 calories per serving, same as above

I would definitely say to utilize the recipe builder, premake and preportion out your lunch, and bring that with you. I always find if it's already in the fridge, I want to grab it the next day and bring it in!

I got this bento box http://secure.laptoplunches.com/itemdesc.asp?ic=L600-jubilee&eq=&Tp= and I love it. It's super easy to pack. I usually do something like sugar snap peas (roughly 20 pods since that's what fits in one of the larger containers in the lunch box), a hard boiled egg and some fruit (cherries, grapes, slice up a peach) in the two smaller containers, and a tuna salad in the other large container. I usually make my tuna salad with half an avocado instead of mayo, but today I went with Miracle Whip (it got really hot all of a sudden and my avocados did not survive). The tuna salad is best when you use the snap peas as an edible spoon. all in all this lunch is about 381 calories, 31 carbs, 12 fat, 35 protein if you use the Miracle Whip. I just came back from a very long break and am getting back on the wagon, so I'm not sure what the count is when you use an avocado.

Here's my tuna salad recipe (fits perfect in my lunch box):
1 can bumblebee solid albacore tuna in water
1/2 medium avocado (or 2 tbs Miracle Whip)
1/2 green onion, diced
1/3 celery stalk, diced
3/4 mini sweet bell pepper, diced
salt and pepper to taste
dill to taste
~1 tbsp lemon juice if using avocado (helps it stay green and fresh looking if you're making it the night before. no one wants to eat brownish mush for lunch even if it still tastes good)

I'm going to have to figure out something else to put in there as well as I'm going to get burnt out on tuna salad pretty quick. another good thing about the box is that you can just take out the little containers and use the main one on it's own. I'm thinking I might throw a salad in there. leftovers fit pretty good too. and even though the containers look small, they're perfect serving sizes. it's rare that I get hungry before dinner.