I’m back with some new lunch posts! I am happy to report that we have dramatically changed our lunch habits. We’re eating greens at nearly every lunch, and we’ve cut out processed snacks like chips and cookies (on the other hand, we’re still plowing through the Easter candy at an alarming rate.  But chocolate is good for you, right?). We still frequently get in a sandwich rut, but carbs are now a smaller component of our lunches.  Here’s what we’ve been eating for the past few months.

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I’m sure you’ll notice we tend to use the same veggies over and over again: spinach, avocado, sweet potato. This is because those veggies are easy to obtain during this season, are inexpensive, and store well. They’re the pantry staples of vegetables. They’re also the veggies that Scribble eats the most, so we almost always have them on hand.  Once our tomatoes and peppers come in, the composition of our lunches will change!

Chicken salad is one of those go-to lunches that can be customized with anything you have on hand. I poached a ton of chicken for a Sunday night supper and had a little leftover to use in this salad. Along with the chicken, I added cucumber, mango, and cashew pieces. It is dressed with greek yogurt, a little mayo (not a lot because my husband hates the stuff), and some lime juice. Curry powder makes it Coronation Chicken Salad instead of the usual grapes-and-celery variety (which I also love!). Another five minute lunch.

Ok, true confession: this was brunch, not lunch! I made this on a Sunday before a long day of hiking. Sauteed spinach, mushroom, onion, and leftover chicken sausage from the night before, with avocado on  top. It was the perfect meal before a day of activity!

Asian style salad. I sliced cold pork chops leftover from the night before (they were rubbed with chili powder and brushed with chutney), on top of greens with carrot ribbons (the easiest way to cut a carrot when you’re short on time!), one avocado half, and a dressing made of honey, lime juice, soy sauce, sesame seeds, and rice wine vinegar. It was a light lunch, which I needed because I had this as a mid-morning snack:

YIKES! (Hey, it was Valentine’s Day!)

Here’s a simple little dish. Quinoa tossed with spinach, mushrooms, feta, and ground chicken sausage.  This was leftover from stuffed peppers I made the previous evening. I took the rest and stuffed it in a lovely avocado. Took three minutes to prepare!

And finally, the very best sandwich I’ve ever had. Adapted from Healthy Happy Life. This was amazing. That morning I had roasted a sweet potato for Scribble. I sprinkled some of the potato rounds with garam masala, chili powder, and salt and set them aside for my adult lunch. After they were roasted and cooled, I smashed the rounds (which amounted to about 3/4 cup of sweet potato) with about 1/4 a cup of canned, drained white beans.  I formed two patties from the mixture. The first time I made this sandwich I tried to fry the patties and had very little success, so the next time I simply baked them on a silpat. The patties still didn’t stay together very well, but the flavor was so out of this world that I didn’t care! I topped the burger with avocado, cilantro, and sriracha. If you wanted to make this really easy, you could just spoon the mixture onto a tortilla and roll it up into a tidy package. My husband prefers meaty meals, but he loved this!

We’re doing so much better with our lunches, but there is always room for improvement! Let me know what you’re eating for lunch these days!