An Inspired Life of being CREATIVE, POSITIVE, and PRODUCTIVE
I will be honest: I am not the best at bringing my lunch to work. I should be. It would save me a lot of money, calories, and angst in deciding what to eat each day.
Some weeks I am diligent and bring lunch to work; other weeks not so much.
And this does cause concern because lunch is important to me. By 11 a.m. (actually 10 a.m.), I am already thinking about lunch, trying to ignore the rumbles of my stomach.
I am trying to eat healthier, which — at lunchtime — is not as easy as it sounds. Salads, for example, are not always easy to come by at work.
There have been a few times when I did prepare a fresh salad the night before. Granted, it was for dinner and the leftovers then became my lunch.
I am realist. I will NOT cut, dice, and prep a salad for myself every morning. I am not that motivated. Produce also goes bad, which poses another challenge. I need something that will work for me–a lunch that is healthy, economical, won’t go bad, and EASY to prepare. The following is my attempt at doing just that.
Purchasing bagged lettuce allows me to grab and go with the comfort of knowing the lettuce is most likely fresh. When I have prepared a salad, the lettuce was often brown and wilted by the next day.
In a separate container, you can prepare all the salad toppings in advance. Be sure to check below for some salads to try out.
Tupperware containers or plastic, reusable containers are multi-purposed. You can eat out of them–you need a bowl after all–AND you can store the remaining lettuce (from the bag of lettuce) in it. I do, however, recommend rinsing out your container before storing the remaining lettuce.
As I mentioned, produce goes bad quickly making it difficult to prepare a week’s worth of salads in advance. I lightly pour lemon juice on my salads (especially the ones with fruit) and toss.
Using the above secrets, I was able to prepare salads for the week in advance.
Another option to give you some additional variety is to substitute the chicken or turkey for YOGURT. Instead of a salad, you can make a yummy parfait. Add granola for added goodness and protein.