Favorite Lunch

Dinner leftovers make good lunches for me. (I need variety though, I can only eat it again 1 or 2 times.

And I like salads but think outside the box—they don’t have to be lettuce. Grain salads, bean salads, green salads with fish (canned fish is easy to keep at work).

I love wraps! It's basically a salad but handheld so I feel like its a bit heartier. I also really like soup this time of year. I have hamburger veggie soup in the crockpot right now.

My lunch is often leftovers from the previous nights dinner...this is particularly true this time of year when we typically make at least a couple different "stewps" weekly or we make a casserole type of dish, etc. Twice per week I do a "chicken Greek salad" with spring mix greens, cherry tomato, cucumber, kalamata olives, whole Greek feta, and grilled chicken. During the summer when I tend to have fewer leftovers I usually have that salad a couple of days per week and sandwich a couple days per week. I usually get takeout for lunch on Fridays...usually tacos from a fantastic street taqueria up the road from my office.

If you're looking for something super easy, I've been enjoying some of the Birds Eye Steamfresh frozen veggie meals. They usually have a mix of rice or quinoa, veggies, and sauce so it's a meal all in the bag. Green Giant also makes something similar. They cost $3-4 where I live so I eat them in a pinch rather than getting takeout.

Smoothies- I have a personal blender I leave at work. I just take the 'cup' back and forth. I put frozen fruit, spinach, chia ect. In the cup in the morning and just blend at lunch time.

michellel23 wrote: »

What is your favorite lunch. I always struggle w this. I burned myself out on Salads and can never think of anything good to eat for lunch.

I eat at home so my lunch will vary.


FAJITAS TO GO

BUT--my sister likes to make a big tray of seasoned fajita chicken or steak strips with onions and peppers on Sunday. Separate it into lunch containers. Grab a container and go to work. It reheats well. To vary it, you can add some canned refried beans (also reheats well), you can add a side of spicy salsa, or you can add a dollop of sour cream. Or add nothing. It's good by itself or with a tortilla

• chicken or beef strips, cooked and seasoned.
• sliced bell pepper
• sliced or diced onion
• Olive oil or other oil
• Optional: Sour cream, salsa, beans, tortillas, Jalapeno

You won't want it every week, but it's easy to make. Microwaves well. Tastes good. Calories are low as long as you don't go crazy with sour cream, cheese, or too many tortillas.

Calories with 3 ounces of grilled chicken, 1/2 onion, 1/2 bell pepper, seasoning, 1 teaspoon sour cream, 1 teaspoon olive oil.

Calories per serving: 178 (plus 15 calories if you use the dry Fajita seasoning packet).
Total Fat 7.7g 10%
Saturated Fat 1.2g 6%
Cholesterol 56mg 19%
Sodium 47mg 2%
Total Carbohydrate 7.4g 3%
Dietary Fiber 2g 7%
Total Sugars 4.9g
Protein 19.2g

***Adding 1 flour tortilla to this serving, will increase the calories to 230.
***The Fajita seasoning mix my sister uses adds 15 calories per packet.

You can google fajita seasoning to add your own, but sister just buys the dry fajita seasoning mix.

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AVOCADO CHICKEN SALAD RANCH

Makes 6 single lunch servings of about 361 calories, 5 carbs, 23 protein.

• 1 ripe avocado, halved and pitted
• ⅓ cup ranch dressing (Sis uses 1/8 a cup instead but mixes in a pack of dry ranch season mix instead to lower calories).
• 2 tablespoons chopped pickled jalapeño or regular jalapeno. They sell it precut in a can.
• 1 tablespoon white-wine vinegar (sister sometimes skips this one)
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon ground pepper
• 3 cups shredded or chopped cooked chicken (she just used the canned chicken in water)
• ½ cup diced celery (grocery may have it pre-cut)
• ¼ cup diced red onion (grocery will probably have it pre-cut)

Directions
Scoop avocado into a food processor. Add ranch dressing, pickled jalapeño, vinegar, salt and pepper. Pulse until smooth. Transfer to a medium bowl. Add chicken, celery and red onion; mix with a rubber spatula. Serve at room temperature or refrigerate until cold, about 2 hours.

You can make it on a Sunday. Scoop out what you want cold. Add in a piece of low calorie toast. It is basically a souped up chicken salad sandwich. Just lower calorie and healthier.

The ranch is the fattiest ingredient. If you switch it out part of the 1/3 cup with the ranch mix instead, you can cut the calories. It won't be quite as creamy though.

You can make a batch on Sunday and it should be good in the fridge for a few days.

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BBQ Chicken Sandwich

*You can dump the bun and lower the carbs/calories or you can switch the bun out. My sister sometimes, takes just the top of the bun and cuts it half for the top/bottom. This cuts the carbs and calories, but you still get the 'good' bread as she puts it

• ½ cup shredded cooked chicken
• 2 tablespoons barbecue sauce
• 2 teaspoons light ranch dressing or lower the calories by using the dry ranch seasoning pack.
• 1 small whole-wheat sandwich bun. Use half a bun or no bun to lower carbs/calories.
• 1 leaf romaine lettuce

Combine chicken and barbecue sauce in a bowl. Spread lite ranch dressing on the bun. Top with the chicken mixture and lettuce. You can also eat it in a bowl with no bread.

With just the chicken and Sweet Baby Ray's Spicy BBQ sauce--it is 246 Calories.
Adding the lite ranch (Ken's) and the whole wheat bun will add about 120 calories.

I would just have the BBQ Chicken with some apple slices and a few pretzel sticks.

I'm European, and hence only have one cooked meal per day. Double faced bread mostly, milk, fruit, veggies, the lot.

SafariGalNYC wrote: »

Hmm didn’t think of how I do it different location wise @yirara

Food for thought . 🤔 hmm I suppose I do eat different geographically.

I suppose in NY I do a lot of salmon and vegetables.

We are part time Europe - in Italy also a lot of veg and fish and lamb. When we are visiting family in South of France, we eat a lot of soup and warm seafood. In Germany, my family makes a lot of warm lunches and typically meat and veg. My fav shop makes a lovely lunch time Eintopf. (It’s a hot stew)

@michellel23 - are you a seafood eater? How about shrimp or tuna? Stew?

I think it's a generational thing. When I grew up there was no thinking of having more than one cooked meal per day. Bread and milk were considered healthy (I still think they are). Lived in 5 countries in Europe, and in only one lunch at work included cooked food. Though.. sometimes people brought something cooked, and then only had sandwiches in the evening.

SafariGalNYC wrote: »

@yirara - interesting! Never thought about that. I will say - my tantchen! 💜 loves making brot / vollkornbrot. It’s a meal in itself.

Now you’ve got me thinking about stews and cold meats, and yogurt. Always.. . 😋

Happy to inspire with some truly old-fashioned stuff (gosh, now I do feel old)