22 healthy lunch ideas

I love peanut butter sandwiches, a lot, but sometimes a girl has to mix up lunch. It's hard to find exciting, healthy options to pack for work, but Cooking Light has come up with 22 unique lunch recipes that are perfect for to pack for work.

I've had this Vera Bradley lunch box for almost a year and it motivates me to pack my own lunch (so I can show off my cute lunch box). Sounds silly, I know, but if it gets me to eat better quality food, I'm all for it. There are almost 30 patterns to choose from--Jesse's mum has a teal and brown one, too.

Now, back to the contents inside the lunchbox: food. 

Some of my favorite from Cooking Light's lunch recipe round-up:

• Spelt Salad with White Beans and Artichokes
• Curried Chicken Salad with Apples and Raisins
• Roasted Red Pepper Spread Sandwiches
• Chicken Salad with Olive Vinaigrette

Pineapple Chicken

Have you ever seen the Broadway show Caberet? It's a beautiful show about Germany in WWII. One song from the show is when a produce vendor brings his sweetheart a fresh pineapple, virtually impossible to find during the war. The seranade about the pineapple is precious and sweet and I always sing it when my dad brings home a fresh pineapple from the store. :) Which, brings us to tonight's dinner: pineapple chicken.

Here's a video of the pineapple song, featuring the Broadway revival cast. I couldn't help but share.

Back to dinner...

Ingredients:
enough chicken for 4
20 oz can of pineapple chunks
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 t red pepper flakes

Get Cookin'

Throw everything in the crockpot, (pineapple juice, too). My chicken was completely frozen and it still cooked super fast. I suggest cook on low for 4-6 hours or on high for 3-4.

I served this with brown rice and a vegetable stir fry.

Chicken Noodle Soup

During the winter my family always makes noodles from scratch, it's a tradition. It's a lot of extra work, but the flavor is so worth the labor. We still had some ready to cook and I wanted to make something that would really feature the noodles: chicken noodle soup (from scratch!).

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons EVOO
1/2 white onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves
4 carrots, chopped
4 celery ribs, chopped
2 quarts chicken stock
1 1/2 cup of chicken (shredded or chopped)
1 handful of fresh parsley, chopped (don't substitute dried parsley in this recipe, the fresh stuff really makes it great)
salt & pepper
1 tablespoon thyme


8 ounces of noodles (homemade or from the store)

Get Cookin'
Add everything except for the noodles into the crockpot. Cook on low for 8 hours, or until dinner time. About 30 minutes before eating, add in noodles, if store bought. If using homemade noodles, add the last 10 minutes of cooking.

Salsa Chicken & Black Bean Soup

This is a favorite around my dorm! It's easy, cheap and pretty healthy. Thanks to 365 Days of Crockpotting for this recipe! 

Ingredients:

--1 pound chicken (can still be frozen)
--1 cans black beans (drained and rinsed)
--4 cups chicken broth
--1 cup sliced mushrooms ( I used canned ones)
--1 cup frozen corn
--1 jar prepared salsa (16 oz)
--1 1/2 tsp cumin
--1/2 cup sour cream (to stir in at the end)
-- avocado slices, cilantro (all optional)

Get cookin'

Throw everything except the sour cream, avocado and cilantro into the crockpot and cook on low for 8 hours. If you'd like to thicken the broth use an immersible blender to blend a bit of the beans and chicken. If you don't have one, scoop out 2 cups of the soup and carefully blend in your traditional blender. Stir the mixture back into the crockpot.

Stir in the 1/2 cup of sour cream before serving, and garnish with cilantro and avocado slices.

Mulligatawny Soup

Last semester the dining hall served mulligatawny soup for dinner one day--I was skeptic, but tried it. It was amazing, and I've been looking for a recipe to recreate it. Stephanie O'dea at A Year of Slowcooking has the winning recipe for mulligatawny soup! 

I thought this was fitting for the first day of fall. The leaves don't change color in Arizona, but a girl can live vicariously through NY pictures!

photo from here

The name is weird and the ingredients may sound weird, but it is superb! Give it a try, please!
 

Ingredients:

2 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1 cup peeled and chopped apple
1 cup chopped carrots
1 (15-ounce) can fire roasted tomatoes
1 tablespoon dried minced onion flake
1/4 cup raisins
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons curry
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
3 cups chicken broth
1/3 cup long grain white rice (to add later)

Get Cookin'

Put the chicken thighs into the bottom of the crockpot--add apple, carrots, tomatoes (juice, too), onion flakes, and raisins,lemon juice, spices, and broth.

Stir to mix the spices.

Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours. 

Turn to high and stir in the uncooked rice about an hour before serving. 

Grilled Chicken and Pineapple Sandwiches

photo courtesy of: cookinglight.com

Ready for summer? Today the high is 83 today. YAY! Jesse's sister went swimming this weekend, I'll wait for the water to get to the high 70s, but it's potentially warm enough for some of us to go swimming. I found this sandwich recipe from Cooking Light that looks amazing and just right for spring weather. Grilled Chicken and Pineapple Sandwiches




Update: 7/23/10--I finally got to make these burgers for dinner (sans the whole wheat bun) and they were delicious! My family loved them.

Mediterranean Stew

This is a dish that is perfect for the beginning of fall. Now that we've made this, I can consider it fall. It's pretty versatile, throw in whatever veggies you have on hand--except potatoes. I tried that once last year, and they soak up all the extra virgin olive oil. :(

I didn't get to take a picture of the finished stew because Jesse and I were famished when we got home from class today. We had to dig in. Sorry.

3 T EVOO
1 onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves
4 c. chicken stock
1 can diced tomatoes (14.5oz.)
1 can tomato sauce (I used low sodium)
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut up into cubes
handful of baby carrots
2 celery stocks, chopped
1 T Italian seasoning
3/4 c. frozen mixed veggies

Get Cookin'

Throw in all ingredients except frozen veggies into crockpot. Cook on low for 7-9 hours or high for 4-6. Add the frozen veggies about an hour (or half hour) before eating.

HINT: Soups and stews taste best the longer they cook, so try to opt for cooking the stew on the low setting.

Chicken Salad Panini

I love chicken salad. I love panini sandwiches. This is the best of both worlds.

2 1/2 c chopped, cooked chicken breasts
1/4 c light mayo
2 T bacon bits
1 green onion
1 T ranch dressing
8 slices of bread
1 tomato, sliced
4 cheddar cheese slices

Mix first 5 ingredients and spread onto 4 bread slices. Top with tomatoes, cheese and other bread slices.

Use good old George Forman to grill the sandwich until golden.

Hawaiian Crock Pot Chicken

This was my first crock pot meal, thanks to A Year of Slow Cooking!I love Stephanie's recipes! Anyway--here it is:

Ingredients:

Enough chicken for 4 (it can still be frozen)
20 oz. can of pineapple chunks
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Plop the chicken into the crockpot. Drain pineapple, add the chunks, soy sauce and red pepper flakes.

Cook on low for 4-6 hours, or on high for 3-4.

Serve over rice, quinoa, or fresh spinach.