Lunchtime at the office

I generally stop off at the shop on the way and get a '£3 meal deal' = a bottle of water, a pack of fruit and either a healthy options sandwich or salad which is around 250 calories in total.

Butternut Squash and Lentil Casserole, made it the other night and saved a portion for today!

I like to grill up a bunch of skinless chicken breasts or tenders in the beginning of the week, then make a big salad, or if you're not a salad fan, just skip the lettuce part. I cut up the chicken, add black beans, part skim mozzerella cheese, crunchy fiesta strips, olives and either salsa or low fat greek dressing...yummy!
Also hummus (esp Tribe roasted red pepper) on tortilla chips or crackers is good.

Lentil soup for me today. 186 calories for the can and it's quite filling.

I work at a hospital that has REALLY good food. They have a great salad bar, and also vegetarian options... AND, they are cheap. I buy homemade oatmeal every morning, there, for 60 cents.

Best,

Debbie

I usually make a salad (One of the following):

-Quinoa with sundried tomato paste mixted through- with olives, roasted butternut & Aubergine (Eggplant) cubes.
- Wholewheat pasta shapes with reduced fat pesto with tomato, cucumber, red onion & rocket (Arugula)
- Wholewheat cous cous with harissa/ chilli paste & bell peppers, onions, feta & olives.
- Tuna, cold baby potato chunks, black olives, green beans, lettuce leaves, cucumber (Add a hardbolied egg if you have the cals and you have a nicoise).
- Marinated chicken tikka pieces (Either shop bought or home made) with cucmber, tomatoes, onions, lettuce & yoghurt & mint dressing. (Easy dressing- fat free plain yoghurt + tsp mint sauce).

or cold leftover from the night before (Pasta, stir fry, lentil daal)

or pitta strips with low cal dip (Salsa, tzatziki) and veggies (Bell peppers, cucmber sticks, carrot or celery sticks).

Or a big fruit bowl.

Plus I keep a well stocked stash of healthy low cal snacks: Cup a soups, melba toasts, rice cakes, breakfast bars.

You can always use veggie soup as a 'filler' - have it with something else that you would normally have a bigger portion of. just cut down whatever you would normally eat, and make sure you eat a big bowl of the soup first. That way you'll fill up on the veggies, and have a little of what you're craving. Careful on the soup though - a lot of packaged ones are really high in sodium.

My Gran's veggie soup:

packet soup mix (usually lentils and other dried things... it's just called 'soup mix' at the supermarket)
1 parsnip
1 carrot
1 onion
1 celery stick
1/2 pack of barley (100g or so)
1 turnip
1 lamb shank
4 litres of water

chop up the veggies really fine, put everything into a pot and simmer for four hours. leave to cool, scrape all the fat off the top (from the shank). bring back to boil, simmer and scrape twice more. then take out the shank and shred the meat. there isn't much fat in this as you've scraped most of it off each time it cools. you add more water if needed as you cook. it does take a weekend to make, but is the most delicious soup EVER.

hi today i made a salad which had the following in it:
letice,sugar snap peas,sweetcorn, pine nuts, fetta cheese, carrott and then a cooked a fillet of pepered salmon and has a small amount of sweet chili sauce.
it was very nice, low in calories and filling

I've found it VERY helpful to make up batches of real food variety and take leftovers for the week:

- extra lean ground beef with tomatoe sauce and lots of vegetables and spices cooked together.
- chicken breast/thighs cooked with tomatoes, basil, and a splash of white wine.
- pork tenderloin (usually come as a pair anyway), marinated or dry rubbed, roasted.
- roasted yams or sweet potatoes for a side.
- roasted peppers and onions, roasted up with olive oil and seasonings.

These are pretty simple to make too!