For many, lunch is one of the more challenging meals of the day when it comes to nourishment.
Without forward planning or preparation, you may find yourself falling back on something ‘quick and easy’ on the go. But preparing lunches ahead of time doesn’t have to be an ordeal. And you don’t have to repeat the same boring salad day after day.
Here are our top three lunch hacks to help you maintain a nourishing way of eating through your work day while keeping your taste buds happy.
1. Leftovers
Get creative with your leftovers and transform them into brand new meals. For example, if you’ve cooked too much rice, add some egg, vegetables and toss in a wok or saucepan to turn it into a high vegetable fried rice. In her latest book Simplicious Flow, Sarah Wilson suggests using a sandwich press to heat or cook a number of different meals—even a piece of rump steak. Think beyond two slices of bread and get creative with your office sandwich press! Many warm meals can be enjoyed cold if you don’t have the ability to heat food at your workplace.
2. Use seaweed wraps instead of bread
Sushi can be a nourishing option, especially if you make your own. Store bought sushi may contain sugar and/or preservatives, as well as relying heavily on rice as the predominant filling. When you make your own sushi, you have complete control over all the ingredients and their quantities. Use brown or black rice instead of white rice, a hearty amount of avocado as a source of whole food fat and loads of vegetables. Making sushi is not as hard as you think. In fact, you can even just take the ingredients all separate and roll them as you eat. Better yet, try the sushi bowl recipe we’ve included and avoid wrapping altogether. This is one of Dr Libby’s favourite lunches.
3. Amp up the nourishment of the old staple, avo on crackers
A staple go to lunch for many is avocado on toast or crackers. It’s quick, easy and who doesn’t like avocado? Although this lunch already provides quite a bit of nourishment thanks to the 19 different nutrients in avocado, you can take it a step further. Try finely chopping kale and mixing it through mashed avocado seasoned with lemon and salt. It’s delicious! You can also add other leafy greens, spring onion and/or capsicum if kale isn’t your thing. Keep some boiled eggs in the fridge too, so you can add some good quality protein to this combo or plan ahead to make sure there is some left over home-cooked cold meat from dinner the night before.
This recipe is taken from my book The Energy Guide which you can find here!
