If you’re heading back to the office or preparing to send kids back to school, chances are you’ll be facing the daily necessity of packing a lunch. Preparing lunch doesn’t have to be a chore – in fact, it can be a great way to make sure you eat healthy all day long!
Why is a Healthy Lunch Important?
Eating a nutritious lunch can help you stay focused at work and can lead to higher academic performance in children. It also helps keep you full and satisfied until dinner, which curbs the pre-dinner munchies. Lunch is a great opportunity to advance your health goals, not skip them, and you’ll surely feel the benefits of a nutritious lunch all day long. Besides, packing a lunch doesn’t need to be stressful or rushed at all, as you’re about to see. Follow these tips to become a lunchmaking pro in no time.
Plan and Pack
Planning ahead is a common theme when it comes to healthy eating. Deciding on your dinners at the beginning of the week will ensure you stick to your diet goals and takes the stress out of choosing a meal at the end of the day. Planning lunches can be even easier than this, because one of the easiest ways to eat healthy at lunch is to pack up leftover dinner from the previous day! Saving leftovers will not only help you reduce your portion sizes at dinner, but it will ensure you have a nutritious option for upcoming lunches all week long. And if you love what you made for dinner, you’ll be able to enjoy it a second time now without any extra work! That’s what I call a win-win.
Ditch Pre-Packaged Foods
Preparing a lunch at night along with dinner or before work in the early morning can add to the stress of the task. When pressed for time, many of us are tempted to reach for pre-packaged lunch snacks: chips, cookies, crackers, and other high-salt or sugar goodies that are so readily available in stores. While these toss-in options may save you time in the morning, they won’t provide a healthy or satisfying lunch.
Pack Produce Aplenty
No meal is complete with just one item, and lunch is no exception. When packing a lunchbox, you’ll want to fill it with a variety of foods to make a complete meal, but make sure you don’t reach for the cookies. Fruits and veggies make sides that are just as easy to pack, and their nutritional value is obviously much higher. Baby carrots and celery make great lunchtime extras and they are rich in the vitamins you need to feel good at work (and they’re perfect for scooping up hummus). Packing carrots in a child’s lunchbox is also a great way to help them form good habits and accept inclusion of healthy foods as the norm, rather than the exception. Whole fruits like apples or oranges can be tossed into a lunchbox as easy as can be, or you can slice up a peach or any other fruit for a sweet treat. Fruits are high in essential nutrients such as flavonoids that help with memory and focus, making them a perfect choice for work or school. You’ll quickly find that packing whole fruits or a bag of veggies is even easier than adding processed snacks and is the obvious choice when preparing your lunch.
Simple Salad Solutions
One great addition to any meal is a simple salad, and packing a lunchbox gives you an extra opportunity to make some creative salads. Leftover pasta can easily be reused to make a pasta salad by combining fresh vegetables, olive oil, and a little bit of garlic to create an entirely new lunch food from ingredients you already prepared. Using whole grain pasta is a good way to increase your daily whole grain consumption and offers a healthy alternative to processed pastas. If you’re working without pasta, a simple ‘shake and serve’ salad can be a fun addition to your lunchbox. Tupperware is your friend, and these nifty containers allow you to pack salad staples separate from dressing or toppings to keep your leafy greens fresh and crispy . At work or school, you get to combine the ingredients however you like to make a unique salad each time. Adding a side of salad dressing in a kid’s lunchbox adds an element of fun to lunch when they get to shake their salad and dressing together. Eating vegetables should be fun, and ‘shake and serve’ salads reintroduce this element of fun to your mealtime.
Beverages
Skip the juices, fruit drinks, and sodas and pack a reusable water bottle. If you fill it throughout the day, consider one with a built-in filter. A can of flavored seltzer gives you that satisfying pop when you open it, and come in wonderful flavors with no calories or artificial sweeteners. Make sure to recycle!
Here are a few lunch ideas to inspire you!
A thermos of lentil soup with whole grain crackers and a nectarine or apple
Hummus wrap made with a whole grain tortilla smeared with hummus and stuffed with baby spinach or lettuce, chopped up bell peppers and tomatoes, shredded carrots, and even leftover cubed tofu or chicken
A leftover baked sweet potato split and stuffed with fillings of your choice (try refried beans, salsa, and avocado for a twist on a Mexican burrito!)
Buddah Bowl made with leftover quinoa or brown rice, fresh leafy greens, leftover veggies and beans, and topped with a sprinkling of almonds or other nuts and/or crumbled goat cheese
Chicken noodle soup with a homemade whole grain muffin and dried fruit
Tuna sandwich on whole grain bread (or stuffed into a bell pepper or lettuce wrap) with a container of cubed watermelon
½ whole grain bagel with peanut butter (or soy nut butter / sunflower butter if nut free), raw veggie sticks with a little natural ranch dressing, and grapes
Unsweetened Greek yogurt with mixed fresh or frozen berries (they’ll thaw by lunchtime!) and low-sugar granola or Muesli
