I am ga-ga over Kettle's new baked chips, "Bakes". These are their aged white cheddar, which have 120 calories per serving and only 3 grams of fat. They are 100 times better than Baked Lays. These chips accompany a Plain Jane turkey sandwich. The pineapple and strawberry fruit kabob's steal the show.
Tuna Pasta Salad is not an exact science. This recipe was borrowed from a poster on a forum that I frequent. My lunch is made from one and half stalks of medium celery, frozen peas, cooked medium pasta shells, one 3 oz pouch of tuna, 2 TBSP of light mayonnaise, teaspoon or so of Dijon mustard, salt and pepper. Mix together and enjoy.
The previous lunch of pita slices with hummus evolved into this vegetarian pita sandwich. The pita sandwich is filled with hummus, sprouts, shredded carrots, sweet bell peppers, and persian cucumbers. These veggies were previously my side items and now became the main course. I packed seedless grapes and strawberries to complement the sandwich. This lunch was more satisfying than the previous pita slices and toppings.
. I had a hard time keeping the layers on the pitas without them toppling off into my lunch box with every bite. This lunch was not as filling as I had anticipated. This could be because I started working out and my body may need more nourishment.
I found this recipe on the WeightWatchers Message Boards and decided to give it a try. I used fat-free cream cheese and it was quite noticeable. If you do not mind the obvious taste of the fat-free cream cheese then go right ahead and use it. If you are more concerned with the overall taste than the fat content then use regular cream cheese or compromise with the reduced fat spread. Regardless of my cream cheese decision, this recipe was quite easy and enjoyable. I will be adding it to my meal-planning options.
My new Bento Box turns a simple lunch of cottage cheese (sprinkled with chives) and apple slices into something hip. The bottom container is smaller and therefore when the food is gone these tiers can be packed inside one another. I also have an adorable little bag that matches this box.
As promised, here is the picture of my fabulous spring rolls lunch. This lunch included sides of sliced pear and one serving of Trader Joe's Cat Cookies. I was freezing cold the day I packed this for lunch. I ended up buying a small broth soup and eating only two of the spring rolls. Everything else was brought back home.
My good friend referred me to these Vietnamese Spring Rolls. They make an excellent light meal. I made my spring rolls with the mini-shrimps.
I transformed last night's tacos into today's taco dip. The bottom layer is ground turkey with taco seasonings. I topped the turkey with a very thin layer of fat-free sour cream. Next comes the shredded lettuce and chopped tomatoes. All sprinkled with reduced-fat fancy shredded cheese and green onions.
Tomorrow's Lunch will be fat-free cottage cheese with Life Cereal. I have sides of sliced kiwi and apple slices with peanut butter. This maybe breakfast and lunch or lunch and snack. Technically, there are 2 servings of cottage cheese in the compartment.
Why have I never had spaghetti squash before? It was fast and easy. Ok, it is easy, but not so fast - you have to bake the squash for an hour. After the effortless baketime, it is fast and simple.....And so delicious.
We received our first Community Sustained Agriculture organic food box today from EatWell Farm. I love it and should have taken a picture of all the awesome produce. Currently, we will receive our locally grown produce every other week. I think we may have to switch it to a weekly box. Unfortunately, I typically let produce go to waste before I use it. My plan is to incorporate more produce into my diet on a daily basis and with CSA I will always have a variety of produce available to me.
Lunch will be a homemade Red Pepper Risotto (recipe below) with a salad, baby carrots, and 1/3 cup of craisins. The dressing is Annie's Naturals Low Fat Gingery Vinergrette.
I had to post my lunch. I am addicted to posting these. First, the healthy stuff. I have a salad and newly in-season and locally grown strawberries. The mini-bagels aren't awful: 140 calories per bagel. In fact, I am only bringing one and half mini-bagels to work tomorrow. When I attempted to close the lunch box with 2 they would not fit. I still think the pair makes a better picture. Now for the really bad item-Oreo Jello Pudding. I thought it was a good idea at the time. The pudding looks unnaturally glossy in the photo and has hydrogenated oils in the ingredients. Hey, at least it is made with skim milk. Kidding. (It is made with skim milk, but that doesn't make up for trans fat. I think it is about 120-140 calories per serving as well.)
I will admit it. Tomorrow's lunch did take some work. However, I do have leftovers to share with my boyfriend for dinner. I tried a new recipe for Skewered Chicken with Peanut Dipping Sauce. The chicken is excellent, however, the peanut sauce is a little too spicy for my taste. Next time I will be reducing the Thai red curry paste. My lunch also includes organic soba noodles, mango drizzled with lime juice, and red bell pepper slices.
I made Home-Style Meatloaf to bring to lunch. I made this meat loaf with extra-lean ground turkey instead of the suggested ground sirloin. I have not yet calculated the actual calories or fat grams, but I am hoping it will be slightly lighter than this recipe. I have also packed slices of bread, cucumber and an orange to enjoy.
Tomorrow's lunch will be a basic turkey sandwich, small spinach salad with an orange and crackers for snacks. My original plan was Trader Joe's Gnocchi, however the package did not serve three as I had planned for. Instead, it ended up being well under three cups, therefore I had one serving for dinner and my boyfriend enjoyed the rest.
Yippee! I received my Laptop Lunchbox in the mail and it is purple! Tomorrow, I will be having Cold Asian Pasta with Peanut Butter Sauce for lunch. The recipe for this Asian pasta salad can be found in the Laptop Lunchbox User Guide. I also packed slices of an orange and cucumber mixed with red bell pepper slices for snacks. I still had a compartment left and decided to pack a breakfast too. I packed a homemade muesli. I mixed oats and chopped dried apricots with a drizzle of honey, a tablespoon or so of apricot perserves and then stirred in enough milk (soy milk is really good too) to moisten the mixture. It needs to be refridgerated overnight. The muesli shown is before it has been refridgerated and therefore has not yet set. This looks like a ton of food, but I am going to try to eat more throughout the day and less at night. Currently, I drink coffee until 1:30pm. Then I had a small broth soup and a roll for lunch. I ate dinner at 8pm. Usually, I eat more at night, but tonight it wasn't too bad (homemade chili and a GoLean bar).
I have decided to start bringing my lunches to work. Which is depressing, since I would rather leave my building than spend another hour there.
