We have yet another hectic week ahead of us, but I did my best to come up with some easy and quick meals for the week, including some lunch ideas.
Meal Planning Week of 9/14
Sunday: Homemade pizza (it’s been awhile, and this is always a fun treat!) We usually make ours with store bought whole wheat crust, tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, grilled chicken, broccoli, spinach, and basil. And Rob puts pepperoni on his side
Monday: Steak, baked potatoes, asparagus
Tuesday: Burgers, sweet potato fries, broccoli
Wednesday: Probably won’t be around for dinner
Thursday: I’ll be at a conference. Rob will probably have chicken with some sort of potato and whatever veggie we have left at this point.
Friday: Pasta, turkey meatballs, salad
Saturday: Maybe dinner with my parents or out to eat
As you can see some weeks are way more organized than others! Hopefully when things settle down in a few weeks I’ll get back to planning more fun recipes and trying some new things.
Easy and Healthy On-The-Go Lunch Ideas
Last year at this time, I was packing a turkey sandwich to eat for lunch everyday. I considered it “healthy” because it’s a lean protein and I was eating it on whole grain bread. I usually had a flavored fat-free chobani yogurt on the side. Sometimes I would also eat an apple or other fruit. I also went through a carrots and hummus phase.
Also at this time, Rob was buying lunch out everyday. He would get alot of sandwiches from Jimmy Johns. He then decided to try to save some money and try to eat a healthier lunch, so he started packing sandwiches. As you may have noticed, I no longer pack sandwiches for lunch and actually kind of avoid them. I didn’t even realize until I stopped packing that lunch that it was giving me a stomach ache. Here are some of problems I see now, looking back:
-the deli meat is high in sodium and nitrates
-The bread usually has added sugars and is processed, and was probably giving me a stomach ache
-The yogurt had lots of added sugar
-My meal had practically no fat
-It didn’t keep me full very long
-There were few, if any, veggies
After going for a physical last week Rob also decided to quit eating turkey sandwiches for lunch. He still wants to pack a lunch so now we are trying to brainstorm more lunch ideas that we can both bring to work throughout the week. Thinking about what has worked for me lately, I thought I would share a few ideas.
Salads with steak or chicken
I’ve been cooking flat iron steaks on Sunday and then putting a salad together each night to bring to work the next day. I usually include spring mix, carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers, and olive oil and balsamic vinegar as the dressing. When I am feeling brave I add avocados too. I also think we will start grilling some chicken over the weekend to use in lunches (maybe even freeze the cooked chicken to use later in the week).
Spaghetti squash with meat and veggies
This weekend a made a version of this that included ground turkey, broccoli, and marinara. It would also work with chicken, nitrate-free bacon, spinach, and other tomato sauces. I’m sure there are other ingredients that would work great, too! I made this using a full large spaghetti squash so hopefully we will each get a few days of lunches out of it. (It was also Saturday night’s dinner).
Meat, sweet potatoes, and veggies
I’m not big on bringing fish to work for lunch, so I usually stick with chicken, steak, or ground beef/ground turkey. I’ve made burgers out of the ground meet which works well, or just cooking it on the stove. You can cook up whatever you have , and have it with a baked sweet potato (you can cook it before and eat it cold or reheat at work), and whatever veggies you like- asparagus, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, etc.
Lunch Ideas: Leftovers!
Get creative with leftovers! I like to make leftover foods into salads basically by taking the leftover food and adding it to spring mix. If the meal was cooked in a marinade you might not need any dressing. It not you could add some simple olive oil. Or just bring the leftovers as they were cooked. You can also mix and match, like if you just have leftover chicken then find some veggies to bring along too.
I am also big on the work snacks in case lunch isn’t filling enough. I always bring a few kinds of fruit, a Lara bar, and trail mix, just in case:)
- Any ideas for easy lunches that can be brought to work?
- What is your go-to lunch these days?
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Leftover slow cooked meat, like pulled pork or shredded beef, and chili are also good leftovers to bring to work along with some veggies or a salad. Also I’ve done a big batch of chicken salad and both my daughter and husband bring that in. My husband has his with a salad and my daughter has cut raw veggies and fruit. Meatballs are also a good leftover. I have’t had a steak salad in so long!
Those are great ideas! I need to start using the crock pot again. Do you have any good chicken salad recipes?
If you like turkey, you can try buying the fresh carved kind (free from the hormones and nitrates). They should have it at most deli counters. I used to like it. Now I am a vegetarian but when I needed to bring lunch every day a few years ago, I went with big salads with lots of roasted vegetables. If you roast in advance, they store real well for the week and are terrific eaten cold. Then just top with whatever protein you like. I usually went with chick peas. Plus avocado for the fat. So good! Or, buy Ezekiel bread and make hummus veggie sandwiches. I am getting hungry now.
That is a really good idea to get the fresh carved turkey! I will need to check that out at our grocery store. I also want to try your idea of roasting lots of veggies. I am fine with just throwing random foods together so I think that would be great!
Awesome ideas! My lunches normally consist of a small salad with some chicken that I cook on Sunday. Sometimes I marinate it, sometimes I don’t. I also am a huge fan of leftovers for lunch. That spaghetti squash casserole would happily feed me for days. You’re more than welcome to come and be my personal chef 😛
Haha sometimes when I cook I actually have no idea what I’m doing and just hope for the best:) After eating the squash for dinner last night there wasn’t as much left as I would have liked…but at least we will get a couple leftover meals out of it!
Oh wow, that spaghetti squash with meat and veggies looks delicious!!
I used to always bring a turkey sandwich for lunch everyday, too. These days I much prefer left overs. I’m such its (usually) healthier for the reasons you mentioned but also the turkey sandwich got really boring! Towards the end I would start dreading it and would sometimes just throw it away and go out to lunch!
Oh yes my lunch definitely got boring when I was eating turkey everyday! I only ate it because I would be starving and have no other options. Lunch is so much more fun now:)
I do the same thing with putting nearly any leftovers over greens for lunch the next day! And I completely agree that people think the turkey sandwich lunch is ‘healthy’ but it’s missing so much, as you pointed out.
Lately I have been all about eating as many nutrients as possible and with the turkey sandwiches they’re just not there. Besides, I think its more fun to make creative lunches now with lots of different ingredients!
I try to over-cook to give a couple of days of leftovers, so rather than just cooking 4 servings I will do 6 and that will benefit anyone looking for lunch. It is fragmented and not ‘planning’ but with the crazy schedule we’ve had lately it seems to work 🙂
That’s a great strategy. I just have trouble figuring out how much we will eat for dinner sometimes. I will expect there to be leftovers and then Rob goes in for seconds (or thirds) and my plan goes out the window. But I’m learning to figure out how much to cook to have enough for leftovers without ending up with food we throw out later in the week.
I use a slow cooker to make my chicken for salads during the week or with veggies. I have a similar rotation as you, I make zucchini spaghetti (replace the pasta)
Sounds great! I need to start using my slow-cooker again.
This week is an unorganized off week for us too. I had hoped to make a big pot of pulled pork today but forgot to take it out of the freezer. that always works well for breakfast, lunch and dinner! A good one to prepare ahead for quick lunches is ground bison or beef seasoned with taco style seasoning then served over cooked sweet potato with an easy guacamole on top. Protein, carb and fat. Yum!
Sounds great! I need to see if I can find ground bison somewhere, that would be a good addition to the mix of meats that we eat.
I love spaghetti squash, and it holds well for left overs too!
Yes definitely! And I’m ok eating it hot or cold:)
This post inspired me to be better about meal planning again. I used to be great at cooking at home every night and having leftovers for lunch but I have gotten so lazy about it. This leads to spending too much money eating out, and multiple trips to the store each week because I have no idea what I am going to be cooking so I never know what I need to get. Lunches especially are something i need to get back into the habit of making, because the location of my work makes it difficult to go out to grab something.
It can be really tough to stay on track with eating and spending. I know that I do best when I plan out my meals and cook at home as much as possible. I also can’t really get out for lunch so it makes much more sense to bring something from home everyday!