One of the best ways to get in control of your eating and help boost energy and inch loss, is to go back to basics and take your own lunches to work. Not only will you be eating healthier foods it’s a lot less expensive too, meaning you can spend the difference on a nice outfit in the sales.
First of all, there are a few essentials to getting this right-
• A nice lunch box/bag – Most good department stores sell these. This means your food will be kept cool and won’t get squashed as you battle the commute to work.
• Be organised – the best way to do this is always cook extra in the evenings so you have food you can put together for lunch then find a way to remember to take it out of the fridge and to work with you.
• Be flexible – don’t beat yourself up if you have a meeting and you decide to buy lunch occasionally. Ensure it’s as healthy as possible and then have your packed lunch for dinner instead.
• If you find it hard making your lunch every day, always have staples at work or pick a few things up, such as crudités, hummus, oat cakes or a bag of mixed nuts/ seeds. This means you can add these to smaller bought lunches, helping you to eat better and save a bit of money.
• Make it tasty – I’m not talking peanut butter sandwiches or low fat cottage cheese on Ryvita. You need to make your lunches tasty and exciting. Try my top 10 healthy home-made packed lunches and if you really can’t make these, then you can always resort to buying similar ones from the shops.
1. Sweet potato super food salad
For this you need to have leftover baked sweet potatoes or sweet potato wedges and some leftover green veggies such as broccoli or mange tout, some chopped fresh tomatoes, some hummus, sunflower seeds and olive oil and lemon.
• Place a layer of spinach leaves in a Tupperware box
• Layer with your chopped or sliced tomatoes
• Add sweet potato chunks, then a layer of your green veggies
• Put a dollop of hummus (or butter bean/canellini bean spread) on the edge
• Sprinkle with sunflower seeds
• Drizzle with olive oil and lemon
2. Pesto salad with oat cakes
Pesto sauce is fantastic for energy, is tasty and will sex up any salad. For this salad you can use a variety of salad ingredients of your choice, then add a pesto dressing and some oat cakes for some slow releasing carbohydrates.
• Make up a salad of your choice. An example could be rocket, watercress, tomatoes, cucumbers, radishes and grated carrot
• Either make or buy a pesto sauce and dilute this slightly with some olive oil and mix with a little lemon juice so that you can drizzle over your salad
• Buy some oatcakes – the Nairn’s range is particularly good
• Top with some extra pine nuts for some crunch and an omega hit
3. Feta cheese and pumpkin seed rice salad
Rice is a fantastic source of energy and is so versatile. For this you need to have cooked up some rice the night before. You also need some chopped organic feta cheese, some pumpkin seeds, chopped peppers, cucumber and some fresh parsley.
• Put some cold, cooked brown rice into a Tupperware box
• Add finely chopped peppers and cucumber and parsley and stir gently
• Add the chopped feta cheese
• Drizzle with olive oil and lemon (or pesto is also another good option for this one)
• Top with pumpkin seeds
• Add some fresh mint for an extra twist
4. Tuna Nicoise
This is a fantastic lunch option giving you good sources of protein, carbohydrates and raw food in one hit. You need to have a few left over cooked boiled potatoes (you can also use sweet potato chunks), a hard boiled egg, tomatoes, onions, some green beans, olives and salad ingredients. French dressing is particular good on this.
• Place some chopped mixed leaves in a box or bowl
• Add the chopped French beans and quartered tomatoes
• Add some chopped red onion and some black olives if you like them
• Stir it gently
• Then add the cold new potatoes and a chopped hard boiled egg or two and stir gently again
• When you go to eat it at lunch time, add some French dressing, either making it yourself with olive oil, white wine vinegar, lemon, herbs and some mustard, or buy a good quality one from a supermarket
5. Roasted veggies and hummus
Roasted vegetables are so easy to prepare and make and are great cold the next day with hummus and a salad. You need a variety of vegetables so you can vary what you cook every time. This lunch is low calorie, filling and tasty.
• The night before, place some largely chopped vegetables (such as butternut squash, peppers, onions, carrots, mushrooms etc) in a roasted tray drizzled with olive oil and herbs (rosemary and thyme are nice this time of year). Cook them for 45 to 60 mins until the vegetables are slightly soft
• Once cooled, put your roasted vegetables into a Tupperware. Add a dollop of hummus and eat with some spinach leaves as well.
6. Salmon fillet and a raw stir fry with chilli/Thai style sauce
Salmon fillets taste lovely hot or cold, are so easy to cook and they are amazing brain food – just what you need in January to get yourself back into the swing of things! A raw stir-fry is basically exciting crudités to make a change from salad.
• Bake some salmon fillets in some soy sauce, honey, garlic and chilli
• Finely slice peppers, carrots, celery and mushrooms and add mange tout and put into a Tupperware
• Place your salmon on top and seal
• Make or buy a Thai style dressing, something that includes chilli, garlic, soy sauce
• When you want to eat your lunch, drizzle with the dressing
• It’s good to have a small carbohydrate portion at lunch so a little bit of left over rice or some chopped rice noodles are a nice addition to this salad
7. Chicken, chick pea and cashew nut salad
This is one of my favourites and is very easy to make. Boil up some organic chicken breasts in a pan of boiling water and add an optional stock cube for extra flavour. Once cooked chop into chunks and keep in a zip lock bag in the fridge. This is a great way to be organised and you can vary your chicken salads this way too.
• Place some mixed salad leaves in a box and chop up
• Add chopped cold boiled chicken breast
• Add one to two tablespoons of chick peas
• Add some cashew nuts
• Add extra salad ingredients of you choice – peppers, red onions or tomatoes work well with this
• Drizzle with an olive oil based salad dressing (pesto goes well with this too) and enjoy
8. Sun dried tomato, black olive wheat-free pasta salad
Pasta salad is easy to make, is filling and with the right ingredients, can be a low calorie lunch, especially if you have a small portion and a good sized salad. Pasta however is wheat which can cause gut aggravation, bloating and lethargy. I am yet to find anyone who hasn’t felt better and lost weight by giving up wheat. You can now buy very good wheat-free pasta and the best ones I have found are from the Free From range at Sainsbury’s.
• Cook up some wheat-free pasta tubes or twirls
• Pop into a big bowl; add some sun dried tomato pesto or sauce
• Then add chopped black olives, a little bit of chopped fresh basil, finely sliced red onion and mix
• Crumbled feta cheese and some pine nuts make a nice addition to this and are great if you’re having a small portion
• Serve with some chopped salad leaves
9. Open sandwich
Open sandwiches are a great lunch option, because they are filling, without zapping you of energy. Like pasta, bread is wheat and is not great for us. Instead try some rye bread which is wheat-free yet packed with energy and goodness. You can top your open sandwich with a variety of things but these are my top three.
Tuna, avocado and sweet corn mix: My Mum used to make this when I was little and the combination really works. It’s best if mixed with a little full fat mayonnaise, but olive oil and lemon works just as well. Drain and chunk up a tin of tuna, then chop up an avocado into small pieces, add a tin of drained sweet corn, and finally add the mayo/olive oil/lemon juice and mix up. Pop on top of your rye bread – delicious!
Egg and tomato: Chopped boiled egg with or without a little full fat mayonnaise tastes great on rye bread with sliced tomatoes that are drizzled with olive oil and a little salt. Serve with a cress salad.
Smoked salmon and cream cheese: Spread a small amount of full fat cream cheese (ideally organic) on to your rye bread. Then add some salad leaves, then place smoked salmon on top. Drizzle with stacks of lemon juice and you will have a nutrient packed lunch in seconds. You can swap cream cheese for hummus and add sliced or mashed avocado too. Yum.
10. Soup, glorious soup!
Soup is fantastic for lunch, fantastic for Winter and fantastic for keeping you trim! The best thing to do is to make or buy and heat it at home and keep it in a flask, rather than zapping it in the microwave at work where valuable nutrients will be lost.
My top three soups are:
• Leek and potato (if you are making this, try sweet potato in it – lovely)
• Thick vegetable soup (use root vegetables to make this thicker)
• Tomato and basil (as this is a lighter soup, make sure you have some oat cakes with it or you may find you are hungry within a couple of hours
Serve soups with a mini salad box, add rice or wheat-free pasta to soup to make it into a main meal and have oat cakes or rye bread to fill you up. There is no point having a baguette and lashings of butter with a low calorie soup.
Happy lunching ladies!
