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Want to eat a healthy lunch every day but don’t want to spend a fortune or a lot of time preparing it? I’ve got the best solution to your lunchtime blues!
My husband knows that food is fuel, but it still has to taste good. He also has very little time during the day to prepare and eat lunch so we had to come up with something quick and easy. He’s the type of person that is totally okay with eating the same thing every day so this works really well for him.
If you like a little variation to your diet you can totally mix up the dressing and the toppings. Maybe add 30 calories of something crunchy like croutons or wontons for a Chinese variation? The possibilities are endless and because the base salad only has 170 calories you can make some additions and still keep this a really healthy and low-calorie meal!
Everything is organic too, except for the chicken. Pete really likes Trader Joe’s chicken strips for the taste, no preservatives, and no artificial flavors. So we stick with those.
Okay, let’s get to the salad. Got 5 minutes? I’ll give you 5 yummy lunches!
Ingredients:
- 1 Box of Lettuce {I have a bag pictured and that works too, just buy 2, or use loose lettuce from the bulk area} $1.99
- 1 container of cherry tomatoes $.99
- 1 bag of chicken, each potion is 3oz $4.99
- 1 bottle of dressing $1.99
Total cost $9.96
I love these containers. They are really easy to clean and BPA free. They came in a set and work perfectly for this. You will need 5 of each, large container, small container, and a really small container.
Fill up your first container with lettuce!
Divide your chicken into 5 portions in the smaller bowls. Leave it frozen. These go straight back into the freezer! When you are ready just heat them up and top the salad with them.
Now back to your lonely lettuce… grab a handful of tomatoes and add them to the lettuce.
Salad dressing can get caloric. <— is that a word? What I mean is it can get pretty calorie heavy so you have to be careful. Pick one that is low in calories to start with and then measure out the serving size into the littlest container. Close it up and add it to the salad container. Then close up the big guy and tuck him into the fridge!
You are done! Every morning grab a big container and a frozen one and you are set for the day! Pete has a refrigerator and microwave at his office so he transports these in an insulated bag to the fridge first thing in the morning. If you don’t have a fridge you could totally keep them in the insulated lunch box till lunch time… and if you don’t have a microwave you could heat it up in the morning and keep it warm in a thermos or chill it and eat a cold chicken salad.
If you are a Vegetarian or Vegan I’ve had this with meat alternatives and it was delish too!
Happy eating!
PS. Did you notice that I only have 4 containers in the pictures? One salad already was eaten LOL!