Take Your Diet to Lunch

Most of us spend a considerable amount of time planning what’s for dinner. We might even put an effort into assembling the ingredients needed to make a healthy and satisfying breakfast the next morning before flying out the door to get to work on time. Unfortunately, lunch is usually given the least amount of thought and preparation during the week. In fact, it may often be dictated by the offerings on the collection of take-out menus at the office. Worse yet, there may be a tendency to grab something convenient from the vending machine or your ‘snack stash’ drawer (uh-oh) and eat that at your desk. Does this sound familiar?

It doesn’t have to be this way, though. With a few simple tips for planning ahead, you can start looking forward to lunch making a comeback, starting today.

Better the second time around. A great lunch can be made from leftovers from the night before. For instance, a piece of leftover grilled chicken can be blended in a food processor with a chuck of red onion or sliced scallions, a handful of raisins, a few chunks of apple, and a bit of low-fat mayo for a fantastic chicken salad. Got leftover steak instead? Cut the meat into strips and toss with some fresh greens and a low-fat dressing for a dressed-up salad.

Let us eat lettuce. Instead of reaching for carb-heavy breads or rolls, make a sandwich wrap with crisp romaine lettuce. Fill ‘em with just about anything you might place in a regular tortilla wrap. Be creative!

Lunch around the world. Keep a variety of salad and wrap fixings on hand at work so that you can create a different exotic lunch for each day of the week. Monday could be Greek style, Tuesday Mexican, Wednesday Thai, etc.

Stuff it. Stuff tomatoes or peppers with low-fat croutons and cheese, bake, and reheat the following day at work for lunch.

Soup on the go. Create ‘instant’ soups and stews in the microwave from a variety of shredded veggies, cooked rice or pasta, canned beans in a based of vegetable stock or chicken broth.

Okay, but what if you don’t have access to a refrigerator or microwave at work? Don’t worry…here’s some ideas for brown-bagging your lunch that won’t require either:

- String-cheese and grapes
- Cucumber slices
- Low-fat peanut butter and an apple
- Zucchini sticks
- Cream cheese and fruit spread on whole grain bread
- Hummus wrapped in a pita
- Carrot sticks and broccoli florets and low-fat dip
- Bean dip spread on toasted pita rounds