Work lunch ideas?

For the first 5 months of my calorie-counting, I brought black beans and rice for lunch. Spicy, filling, delicious, and not too calorific.

Recently I switched it up. I'm making a week's worth of lunches (and breakfasts) at a time, and each week is different. Lunch is always chicken, veg, and a carb, but the details vary.

This week it's sort of southwestern. Chili-lime chicken, spiced rice, cumin-lime roasted sweet potatoes, and a lime-dressed slaw of red cabbage, broccoli, onion, corn, and cilantro. Last week was very vaguely thai--noodles with a peanut-chili sauce, curry chicken, and lots of fragrant veg. Before that was kind of Italian with pasta, garlic chicken, tomatoes, zucchini, etc. You get the idea.

Homemade bean salad with meat
Quinoa, broccoli and meat
Quinoa Salad

I would recommend the You Tube channel Fit Couple Cooks. They do all most entirely Meal Prep videos. Tons of ideas almost every meal is very balanced.

TeaBea wrote: »

I like making a big batch of soup in the crockpot (eating some for dinner) and then packing the rest up for the freezer.

http://www.skinnytaste.com/stuffed-pepper-soup/

This soup is so good and I haven't made it in forever. Thanks for reminding me!

If you're willing to pay me and live in Central Arkansas, we might be able to work something out

IDK about a recipe, but I can give you a general idea, sure.

The chicken itself was skinless boneless chicken breast which I marinated for a couple hours in lime juice and zest, garlic, cilantro, various chili powders (ancho, new mexico, and cayenne for sure, and maybe the 'chili powder' that's actually just cayenne with spices that every grocery store carries), a touch of honey, a very tiny amount of olive oil, and I remember I didn't have quite enough to cover my chicken so I stretched it with vinegar, probably apple cider. Then I just grilled it, super simple.

The rice was long-grain white rice which I stuck in my rice cooker along with a healthy dose of turmeric for color, a can of salt-free Rotel (which is stewed tomatoes and green chilis with a bit of lime and cilantro, it's a staple in my part of the world but I understand it's hard to find elsewhere), and New Mexico chili powder (it's my favorite and has a nice kick to it). I might have used some cumin here, but not much, I wanted a cleaner flavor here. And water, obviously. Rice cooker does the work, no problem. I always salt rice AFTER it cooks, I think it does something to the texture if you salt it first.

The sweet potatoes were very simple, just a nice large dice, tossed in a small amount of olive oil with some chopped yellow onion, salt, the juice of half a lime, and a strong amount of cumin. I roasted them at 400F until they were getting a little black at the edges. I like a bit of char in my life. I hit these with the juice from the other half of that lime when they were done cooking.

The slaw was approximately equal parts red cabbage and broccoli (I love broccoli stems, so I buy the fresh broccoli with as much stem as possible), along with a couple shredded carrots, some half-rings of thinly sliced yellow onion, and some frozen sweet corn. I don't remember exactly what went into the dressing, but the only ingredients I logged in MFP were lime juice, honey, and salsa verde, so anything else would have been effectively noncaloric in the amounts I used them. Salt, obviously, maybe some spices, maybe a bit of vinegar.

Then I measured and packaged everything. Five days worth of everything except the slaw, which I made three days worth of because I didn't want it to get too limp. I'll make Thursday's and Friday's tonight.

When I eat the meal, I heat up the hot stuff in the microwave at work, then give everything a squeeze of lime juice and mix a healthy heap of cilantro into the slaw.

EDIT: This lunch comes to 450 calories for me, but obviously with a larger or smaller serving size this could fit pretty much any caloric budget.

Also I had extra rice and slaw which I've been having for dinner because I've been short on time the last couple evenings. Warm tortilla, hot rice, some grated Monterey cheese, slaw, and salsa verde. Simple, quick, delicious.

thewindandthework wrote: »

IDK about a recipe, but I can give you a general idea, sure.

The chicken itself was skinless boneless chicken breast which I marinated for a couple hours in lime juice and zest, garlic, cilantro, various chili powders (ancho, new mexico, and cayenne for sure, and maybe the 'chili powder' that's actually just cayenne with spices that every grocery store carries), a touch of honey, a very tiny amount of olive oil, and I remember I didn't have quite enough to cover my chicken so I stretched it with vinegar, probably apple cider. Then I just grilled it, super simple.

The rice was long-grain white rice which I stuck in my rice cooker along with a healthy dose of turmeric for color, a can of salt-free Rotel (which is stewed tomatoes and green chilis with a bit of lime and cilantro, it's a staple in my part of the world but I understand it's hard to find elsewhere), and New Mexico chili powder (it's my favorite and has a nice kick to it). I might have used some cumin here, but not much, I wanted a cleaner flavor here. And water, obviously. Rice cooker does the work, no problem. I always salt rice AFTER it cooks, I think it does something to the texture if you salt it first.

The sweet potatoes were very simple, just a nice large dice, tossed in a small amount of olive oil with some chopped yellow onion, salt, the juice of half a lime, and a strong amount of cumin. I roasted them at 400F until they were getting a little black at the edges. I like a bit of char in my life. I hit these with the juice from the other half of that lime when they were done cooking.

The slaw was approximately equal parts red cabbage and broccoli (I love broccoli stems, so I buy the fresh broccoli with as much stem as possible), along with a couple shredded carrots, some half-rings of thinly sliced yellow onion, and some frozen sweet corn. I don't remember exactly what went into the dressing, but the only ingredients I logged in MFP were lime juice, honey, and salsa verde, so anything else would have been effectively noncaloric in the amounts I used them. Salt, obviously, maybe some spices, maybe a bit of vinegar.

Then I measured and packaged everything. Five days worth of everything except the slaw, which I made three days worth of because I didn't want it to get too limp. I'll make Thursday's and Friday's tonight.

When I eat the meal, I heat up the hot stuff in the microwave at work, then give everything a squeeze of lime juice and mix a healthy heap of cilantro into the slaw.

EDIT: This lunch comes to 450 calories for me, but obviously with a larger or smaller serving size this could fit pretty much any caloric budget.

Also I had extra rice and slaw which I've been having for dinner because I've been short on time the last couple evenings. Warm tortilla, hot rice, some grated Monterey cheese, slaw, and salsa verde. Simple, quick, delicious.

OMG... Now I'm hungry again...

thewindandthework wrote: »

lol, you're welcome and I'm sorry.

During lunch today I realized that I forgot about the jalapenos--there was a whole chopped jalapeno in my chicken marinade, seeds and all, and I seeded and julienned another which went into the slaw.

This just gets better! Yum yum yum - can't wait to try this now!

I'll pack my husband things that keep him full since he's an RN working long shifts .. some ideas I do is egg salad with whole wheat crackers or bread , tuna salad with grapes and whole wheat crackers , brown rice or quinoa topped with shredded chicken or ground turkey , black bean and cheese quessdillas, meatloaf ( make a huge one for the week can use for sandwiches also ) cottage cheese with fresh fruit , bratwurst with mushrooms , onions and peppers with rice , whole wheat tortillas with cream cheese , spinach , cucumber , turkey meat . I also throw in snacks to keep him going like cliff bars , bananas and peanut butter ..