Monday, January 12, 2015

A Peek Into My Lunchbox


Last week I tried meal prepping for the first time in my entire life.
And I have to say, I am hooked.

I try to bring my lunch to school as much as possible. It saves me money and I know exactly what I'm eating and how much. When things get busy during the weekdays and especially after a long day at work, the last thing I want to do after I cook dinner is pack my lunch for yet another 30 minutes. So many of nights, I'd chose to cuddle with Maci or spend much needed time with my husband instead of putting together a lunch. Which of course resulted in me hitting up the teacher's bar in the cafeteria the next day, eating pizza, burritos or something completely unhealthy for me. But hey, I added a side salad so bonus points for me. Except not really.

Since I know I need to be back on my healthy kick, I decided to prep my lunches on Sundays for an easy grab and go the next morning, forcing me to eat something healthy and nutritious without emptying my pockets.
Here's what I came up with:

A yummy, delicious salad with tons of nutrients and good fats.
I'm digging it.

Here's what's in it:

romaine lettuce || ok. so I really didn't want romaine lettuce this week, but my grocery store is low on leafy greens. Last week, I had a mixture of spinach, kale, chard and some other plant I've never heard of. It was good, but I think next week I'll be mixing my own leafy bunch using romaine, spinach and kale. Tons of vitamins.

apple || I used Gala apples in my salad. And to be honest, I'm normally not a fan of fruit in salad, but this totally works in this one. I cut up the entire apple into small bite sized chunks the day before only. This is the only ingredient that I don't add to the salad on Sunday when I'm prepping because they'll turn brown. But I'd much rather take three minutes from my evening to cut up an apple, than to throw a whole salad together.

cannellini beans || I actually forgot Chickpeas at the grocery store yesterday, so my back-up is cannellini beans this week. Since I don't have a protein in my salad, this adds a little to help fill me up.

walnuts || I don't add a lot of walnuts to be honest, but enough to get a nice crunch. Walnuts have good fat in them which is perfect.

fat-free bleu cheese crumbles || I wanted a cheese that added a different texture, but not high in fat or calories. I used fat free feta last week, which was yummy. So this week I'm trying the bleu cheese.

thyme, salt, pepper || Just for taste.

fat-free raspberry pecan dressing || The perfect sweet dressing for this yummy salad. It balances the sweetness of the apple with the richness of the cheese and walnuts. It's fat free too which means 0 fat grams of course, but only 50 calories per two tablespoons. And that's really all I use. I found tiny dressing containers at the grocery store, so I fill those up on Sunday to throw into my salad containers for the week.

This salad is yummy y'all!
And it holds up the entire week.
I packed five salads (minus the apples until the day before) on Sunday, and had fresh, put together salads all week. Even on Friday!
After the success of lunch prepping last week, I prepped all our dinners for this week also to see how that goes. I can already tell it's going to be life changing and time saving.
I'll let y'all know how it goes. :)

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8 comments :

  1. I find that prepping my meals on Sunday is the ONLY way I'll make healthy choices during the entire week. That salad looks great!!

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  2. I tried to eat healthy for a week... it's so nice having all of the fruits and veggies cut up and prepared. It's much easier to grab and more tempting to eat!

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  3. I love meal prepping on Sundays. That or leftovers is the only way I will eat healthy at school. Also, You have a teacher's bar at school? We have to eat whatever they are feeding the kids.

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  4. Oooh yum, that looks amazing! I love spicing up salads with fruit, and that dressing looks amazing. What brand is it??

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  5. Your salad sounds yummy! I love apples in my salad! Another fruit I like is pears. Pears pair well with blue cheese too!

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  6. Sounds yummy, though I'm not used to having fruit in my salads just yet. I'll have to try more of them!

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  7. yay teachers! :) hello, hello!

    i love these lunch ideas. i am procrastinating on packing mine for tomorrow (ugh) but I love the idea of the apple and the salad, very healthy indeed. this is a neat idea! i LOVE fruit salads and this is pretty simple, so maybe I should try! love your blog, now following you! ciao
    bloganticipation.blogspot.com

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    xoLiz
    http://theliterallyliz.blogspot.com

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