Top 5 Healthy Lunch Choices
Salad in a jar
1.Tomato, avocado, red onion, feta, olives: Avocado and tomato are like best friends. They are what we call ‘companion ingredients’ and work in the similar way that orange juice or vitamin C helps you with iron absorption when you’re taking iron tablets.
2. Japanese style slaw with avocado and cashew nuts: One of my favourites. I get this bag from Countdown and adore the creamy sesame dressing. One bag will normally produce 4 servings for me, so consider it lunch and dinner and remember to add a dash of lemon to prevent it from oxidising as you store it. Cabbage is great as it’s thermogenic meaning you burn more calories by eating it then the number of calories you consume. Take a look at this list of other thermogenic foods
Smoothies
3. Watch store bought smoothies or juice bar smoothies. They can be loaded with extra sugars that can seriously impact your success – and not in a good way. A simple way to smash your own smoothie is to grab a good quality nut milk (you can make your own so easily!) a handful of berries, a good source of plant protein and a little natural sweetener, like Stevia. This recipe is my own and I drink it when I’m time poor but need a good hit of great nutrition and something super tasty / treaty. Seriously, it tastes like a Jelly Tip ice cream! I have a portable blender which is super handy so you can actually take the ingredients in a chilli bag to work and blend in the kitchen!
Wraps
4. Finding low carb wraps can be a real challenge in New Zealand and the only other option is to wrap your food in lettuce! It just isn’t the same! To over come this, I make my own low carb wraps from chickpea flour and water. They are actually technically ‘chickpea roti‘ and lovely to eat with Indian food instead of Naan bread, but their malleable texture makes them perfect for use as a wrap! 1 batch is around 25 grams of carbs and makes 5 wraps, meaning 5 net grams of carbs per wrap and chick peas are loaded with fibre! Recipe here.
Leftovers
5. Leftovers are your friends!! My favourites:
- Rotisserie chicken – 4 servings
- Breakfast frittatas
- Low carb Mac N Cheese
- Low carb lasagne
- My amazing tomato soup!! Hot, warming and you can take it in a thermos to work!
See? Easy as and it all helps you by serving your body!
Hi I'm Monique Bradley.