Our Lunch Challenge...Two Weeks In!

It's hard to believe we are into the second week of school and our lunch challenge - which is going surprisingly well!
My daughter is totally on board with the idea and loves how much easier it makes our mornings and getting out the door.

I have asked her to come up with one lunch idea each week (for two lunches) - sometimes the hardest part is coming up with the ideas! She is also involved in making at least one lunch.

Our goal for this challenge was to eat less sandwiches and in particular processed meat. Although one of our ideas was ham and turkey subs - I feel that 2 out of 10 lunches is a step in the right direction!

Our goal is to pre-make 4 lunches each week, our 5th lunch is usually other leftovers from dinners that week, kind of a clean out the fridge before the weekend ritual.

So over the last two week we made (recipes and notes are below):

Chickpea salad

Ham and Turkey Subs with hummus and vegetables

Taco Salads

Chicken Pesto

Each day we included a couple snacks either a piece of fruit or fruit salad and a homemade muffin - check out some of our favourite muffin recipes.

Please share your favourite lunch ideas - you really can never have too many ideas!

Shannon RD
Registered Dietitian


Recipes:

Chickpea salad

• 2 cans of chickpeas drained and rinsed
• 2 cups of cherry tomatoes, cut in half
• 1 cucumber, chopped (we added the cucumber in the morning to avoid it going bad)
• 6-8 leaves of fresh basil
• Balsamic vinaigrette

Ham and Turkey Subs with hummus and vegetables.

• We put sliced tomato and lettuce in small containers to add to our subs before lunch.

Taco Salads
We actually had enough to make six lunches and I froze the remaining ground beef for another time.

• Ground beef sautéed with onions and mushrooms, with taco seasoning
• Best black beans ever!
• Corn
• Cherry tomatoes
• Arugula
• Plain Greek yogurt
• Salsa

Pesto Chicken

• 4 chicken thighs, boneless and skinless
• 1 lb of green beans
• 2 cups of cherry tomatoes, cut in half
• 1/2 cup pesto

Directions

• Heat 1 tsp of vegetable oil in a frying pan on medium heat
• Add chicken and flip occasionally until cooked through, chicken is done when it reaches an internal temperature of 74C (165F).

• Remove chicken from the pan and slice
• Add the green beans to the pan and cook until tender crisp, about 5 minutes

• Add the chicken, cherry tomatoes and pesto to the pan and toss until well mixed.

 

Original Recipe from https://www.tasty.co/recipe/weekday-meal-prep-pesto-chicken-veggies#.evzdx3QlV