The Recipe Blog - Lunch Recipes

Lunch ideas are tricky.  They have to be relatively portable for work.  They have to take almost no preparation.  They have to be satisfying, since there is rarely healthy alternatives.  Basically, you have to WANT to eat this stuff instead of just going out and grabbing a Greaseburger.

I tend to eat a fair amount of salads for lunch.  Adding some protein makes it pretty balanced, and I can generally get really FULL from veggies, with little added fats.

Seafood Salad
Salmon - 2 oz packaged
Shrimp - 4 large shrimp
1/2 onion
2 cups chopped Romaine
1 Tomato
1/2 cucumber
1 Carrot
1 rib Celery
Cal = 215 - 4g fat, 22 g protein

Pack the tomatoes and cucumber in a separate baggie from the drier veggies.  Ideally, the lettuce would be in its own bag as well.

Dressing:
#1 - mix 2 tbl spn extra virgin olive oil with 1 teaspn dijon in a jar with a lid, add pepper to taste
Cal = 244 - 27 g fat
#2 - 2 tbl spn low fat mayo with 2 squirts of hot sauce = 100 Cal - 10 g fat
#3 - squeeze some fresh lemon over the salad, and add a little pepper

Turkey Burger with salad
Ingredients:
Sandwich Thin (peppridge farms or arnolds) - Toasted
Turkey Burger - Jennie-O - 4 oz
Pepper Jack Cheese - 1 oz
Red onion slice

Serve with side salad of romaine, carrots, celery, cucumber, tomato - dress salad with fresh lemon
Cal = 450 (385 burger, 65 salad) - 18 g fat, 34 g protein

The trick with bringing this to work is to bring the burger in its own bag.  Microwave the already cooked burger for 1 min, then add the cheese and onion and microwave again for 20 sec.  If you can toast the bread at work, great, otherwise bring it already toasted (but don't microwave it - it'll get stale).