Healthy Lunch Ideas

I try to do a big batch meal on Sunday night - i am all about the leftovers.

Here's a really good one.  I found this recipe - super healthy and very tasty (and satiating - which i often don't find veggie chili to be all that filling but this one is awesome)

http://www.fitnessmagazine.com/recipe/chili/chipotle-vegetable-chili/ 

I have a few other stand by's - a homemade chicken curry, certain soups i really like and don't get tired of - and then i usually enjoy my lunch options more than the takeout options. 

Lisa provided lots of great ideas for keeping on-hand or pick up things. 

My personal faves for a clean-eating lunch:

-All natural peanut or almond butter on gluten-free bread; add honey if you need it sweeter but be weary of the processed honey they sell in most grocery stores which is processed to heck, and no better than corn syrup; and opt for raw, unfiltered honey (available at most health food stores); a banana works for some sweetness also

-Plain, organic Greek yogurt with nuts/dried fruit/honey (VERY filling)

-Fruit salad with local, seasonal fruits

-For salad ideas, try adding one or more of the following: hard boiled egg whites, hummus, tahini (makes a great dressing mixed with a bit of olive oil and spices), dried fruit, sunflower seeds.  I sometimes dress a Mexican themed salad with all natural corn & black bean salsa--Dessert Pepper Trading Co. is my favorite

x2 I totally forgot about Greek yogurt - love.

for this i usually just grill a lot of chicken breast sunday night and cut it into bite size pieces.  then depending on the day i'll do various things with it.

- add it to a random salad
- create lettuce wraps, add chicken and hummus and w/e else
- eat plain with a hot sauce or something
- throw into some pasta if i have some left over

usually i will go the sweet potato route once or twice a week and either have fries, whole potato, or make sweet potato hash browns. i try to save the hash browns for breakfast since i make a full work week of them at once on sunday though.

i also notice you say you want to get away from processed food: the yogurt everyone is mentioning is very processed, and multi-grain/wheat bread is too, as well as instant oatmeal, only actual regular whole oats are not.

If we're getting technical, anything you pretty much didn't grow or kill yourself is considered processed.  Like the pasta and the hummus you suggest.  Processed is a tricky word.  Almost anything you buy at the store that has an ingredient list is processed.  That doesn't necessarily make it bad.

Milk is homogenized, that's a process.  So anything dairy is processed unless you milked the cow yourself.  Canning or freezing something is considered a process also.

When people say they're avoiding processed foods, they're usually referring to the type of processing that uses chemicals to create either 1. a preserving effect (like adding a ton of salt to a frozen meal) or 2. to add flavor.

I have been wanting to try spaghetti squash! Is it easy to make? What is the taste/texture like?

Thanks for the all the great tips! I'm so excited to go shopping this weekend!

It is good! It comes out like like spaghetti strings once you cook it. A little crunchier than pasta - but I find it's a mild flavour.  

Most people roast it in the oven (about 40 mins).  I take a quicker approach and microwave the squash.  Cut it in half and place it cut-side down on a moist paper towel for about 10 mins - my mic is small so i can only do one half at a time. Comes out perfect!  When it's cool enough you use a fork to scoop out the insides.   

I pack everything the night before while making my breakfast fruit smoothie which contains greek yogurt and some naked juice green machine.

Snacks are hard boiled eggs usually just whites or half yolk. light string cheese, low fat cottage cheese, apples, bananas, raw almonds, yogurt, pretzels, and a few other things sadly almost always the same.

My lunch is almost always the same as well frozen steamed veggies with chicken that I have cooked up every sunday, and I either add some red potatoes or brown rice.

Amy's Organic frozen lunches

Smart Once frozen lunches

Starbuck healthy lunches

http://www.endurancecorner.com/Vince_Matteo/smart_eating

I like this article from Endurance Corner..

Ditto on it's good!  I love it.  Thanks for the microwave tip--I am definitely doing that from now on.  Wasn't sure how it would cook and I'm all about the quicker way!  Thanks!

I don't have any specific recipes, but I have an idea to cut down on preparation time in the morning.  In one of the offices I work at my co workers bring their lunch food and keep it in the refridgerator.  When lunch time arrives, they prepare it.  Of course you need a decent size refrigerator for this.  They bring bags of lettuce, greens, and precut veggies for salads,  bread and sandwich makings, dinner leftovers, etc. 

The fastest way to gain weight is to eat out for lunch all of the time.  It is SO unhealthy, due to the saturated fat and the amount of sodium in the food!

I make a big batch of quinoa at the beginning of the week and buy a lot of veggies and chop them at the beginning of the week too.  

Take a wrap of some sort, slather it with hummus.  throw in some quinoa all kinds of veggies, pumpkin seeds, black beans, whatever i can find and roll it up into a giant burrito.

or

cook up some rice and beans and throw all the veggies in and stir fry it for a big bowl or a  burrito hot or cold.

sometimes i put some meat in it sometimes not, depends what is in the fridge.  

sometimes, I just go to chipotle.  (but only eat half and save the rest for later)

pretty much i eat a ton of burritos.