Life hack: Healthy and easy lunch ideas

Who has the time to prepare lunch when you’re always rushing to beat the traffic and can’t even spare a few minutes for breakfast? And when you do have time for lunch, a quick trip to Mickey D’s is sure to ruin your diet. If you want to eat quick and easy but healthy lunches, it may be time to dust off your lunchbox or stock up on those brown bags to pack meals to work. The key to healthy but easy lunches is to plan ahead. Make grab and go meals to last you a week on Sundays. Find out which ingredients can be frozen or stored in the fridge. It will also serve you well to know which ingredients will go soggy if mixed with other items.

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Fruits and nuts

If you don’t have time to prepare anything at all, at least stock up on fruits. Apples, oranges, and bananas are healthy but easy options to munch on while you’re cramming to beat the deadline. Throw in some nuts to power up on protein. Almonds and pistachios are particularly high on protein.

Soup

A bowl of thick broth, bisque, or bouillabaisse can be an entire healthy meal on its own. Best of all, you can make five different kinds for every work day during the weekend, freeze the batch, and microwave at lunch time the next day. It definitely beats instant noodles. Bean and lentil soups are protein packed meals that freeze well.  If you’re a rice kind of guy, you’ll be happy to know that rice acts as a natural thickener for soup. Broth based, meaty soups, and the pureed ones can also be frozen.

Green salads

A rabbit feast is something easy to prepare over the weekend as long as you separate the dressing. Or if you want everything in one go, prepare salad jars during the weekend. Use mason jars or any canning jar to pack your salad in. Dressings always go at the bottom so that the vegetables don’t get soggy. Wet vegetables like cucumbers and tomatoes also go at the bottom. Then, add moisture resistant veggies like carrots as your second layer. Dry ingredients like lettuce, meats, pasta, and cheese go on top of the pile.

Pasta salads

Pasta salads are great because you don’t have to serve them warm. When making them in advance, make sure to toss in the dressing while the pasta is still warm because it will absorb the flavor better.

Sandwiches

You can actually freeze prepared sandwiches to last you the entire week. When you take them out of the freezer they’ll thaw out in time for lunch. To make sure your bread doesn’t get soggy, condiments and dressings should go in the middle of the cheese and the meat.  Because you can’t freeze vegetables in your sandwich, bring some baby carrots or broccoli for your sides.

Cold noodles

A cold soba noodle salad seasoned with toasted sesame oil, ginger, garlic, and spicy sriracha can be made in advance and stored in the fridge for lunch the next day. You can add cold chicken or shrimp and toss in some crisp green beans and almonds to make it a hearty meal.