Mornings are typically a hectic time in most households. The snooze button on the alarm is tempting and time seems to slip away with all jobs to do before you head off to work. Too often, thinking ahead and planning something suitable for lunch is not part of the busy morning schedule. Lunchtime rolls around and you are left heading to the local deli, bakery or café, navigating menus and trying to dodge the many tempting options on offer. Not only does this cycle take its toll on your wallet, but also makes it very hard to stay on track with your health goals.

Now is the time to step out of the above cycle and start planning and preparing some tasty, fresh and healthy weight loss surgery friendly lunches. The trick is to PLAN AHEAD, so that all you have to do during the morning rush is ‘grab and go’, making taking your lunch to work the easy option.

To ensure your lunch is going to keep you satisfied, use the following formula:

lean protein + low GI carbohydrates + salad or vegetables

Prepare Ahead Options

I like to put time aside on a Sunday to prepare lunch items for the week ahead: salads, frittata, mini quiches, meatballs and patties all work well.

Some ideas to get you started include:

• Rice salad: Combine prepared ‘Rice Plus’ (a blend of white and black basmati rice, quinoa, barley and other grains), finely diced capsicum and celery, dried cranberries and mixed seeds (including sunflower and pumpkin). Dress with soy, fresh ginger, lemon and a little oil and top with a grilled chicken tenderloin.
  
• Meatballs: Prepare lean mince, chicken or turkey meat balls and bake in the oven. These can be frozen then taken for lunch with a fresh prepared salad.
  
• Vegetable and egg crustless quiche: Grate zucchini and carrot, dice capsicum, tomato and mushroom and place in baking dish. Pour in a tub of cottage cheese, half a cup of grated cheese and a mixture of 6 eggs with one quarter cup of low fat milk. Bake for 30 – 40 minutes until golden.
  

Leftovers

Leftovers can make great lunches, when serving up your dinner get into the routine of dishing up an extra serve into a container ready for the next day – just watch your portion.

Grab and Go

There are lots of options you can either have on hand at work or quickly grab in the morning for days you haven’t been able to be prepared. Following are some ideas to get you started:

• Grainy crackers with:
  
  • small (approximately 100g) tin of flavored tuna
    
  • cottage cheese
    
  • sliced cheese
    
  • nut paste
    
  • hummus.
    

  [*]Wrap or grainy bread with:

  • tinned tuna or salmon and salad
    
  • hard boiled eggs (boil ahead and keep on hand in the fridge) and salad
    
  • baked beans and grated cheese.
    

If you need snacks over the day don’t forget to take these too, or that vending machine/charity basket/staff room cake can undo all your hard work. Some ideas to get you started include:

• fruit
  
• yoghurt
  
• 30-40g nuts
  
• hard- boiled egg
  
• cheese and crackers.
  

Good reminders. Funny how you forget things. I used to keep hard boiled eggs in the fridge but forgot all about them recently. Great lists.

Good Article. For those who do food prep on Saturday or Sunday, Soups are also a great "grab and go" during the week. My favorite homemade soups are chicken/vegetable, and lentil. If you like lentil Soup it is also great for the puree/mushy stage as it is easy to mash up and has plenty of Protein.

i dunno seems like a lot of carbs there, i mean bread rice, etc. maybe its geared more for maintenance stages? Oh and if sanyone is wondering, capsicum is a substitute word for peppers, in this case im assuming Jalapenos since bell peppers have no actual capsicum in them, or very little, ( capsicum being the heat generating chemical in peppers.)

@@Stevehud Thank you, you saved me a google search! Good article!

Thanks for these guidelines! Packing a lunch really can be the difference between a healthy diet and a “stall” because if you go for fast food or the vending machine, you can end up with hundreds of extra calories and tons of sugar.

I love the recipe ideas you’ve suggested! Another kind of prepared salad you can make on the weekend is bean salad – it can give you the satisfaction of a grain salad, but it’s a little higher in Protein. It’s easy if you use regular or low-sodium canned Beans, such as garbanzo, pinto, or black. Also, throw in some green beans. Add vinegar and spices such as cumin and black pepper. You can add some sweetener. The night before you want to take it for lunch, or that morning, you can add fresh tomatoes and cilantro, or diced red peppers and onions.

On your list of quick items to grab and snack items, I’d also add soy nuts and edamame. They’re high-protein and fun to eat.