Let’s be honest, for about a month straight now, we have all been absolutely stuffing our faces full of goodies, and we even had the spend the first 2 weeks of January finishing off all of the chocolates, and the alcohol.Then there is the nightmare of coming in to work, and everyone has had the same idea to palm all of the rubbish chocolate and biscuits off on the office – which we of course HAVE to eat. So here are 5 healthy, easy lunches you can take to work to kick start the 2018 diet!
1. Spicy chicken & avocado wraps
Ingredients
1 x chicken breast – thinly sliced
½ Lime – Squeeze the juice out
½ tsp chilli powder
1 x garlic clove – crushed
1 x tsp olive oil
2 x wholegrain wraps
1 x avocado – halved and de-stoned
1 x red pepper
Instructions
1. Mix the chicken with lime juice, chilli powder and crushed garlic
2. Heat oil in a pan, add the chicken and pepper, cook through
3. Scoop out the avocado, and add to each wrap – add in the chicken and peppers
4. Roll up and enjoy!
TOTAL KCAL: 403
2. Store-cupboard Pasta Salad
Ingredients
¼ x red onion – diced
1 x tsp caper
1 x tbspn pesto
2 x tsp olive oil
185g tin – Tuna (drained)
100g x pasta
3 x sundried tomatoes
Instructions
1. Cook Pasta in salted water until soft
2. Mix red onion, caper, and oil together
3. Flake tuna in a bowl, and add the onion mix, sundried tomatoes, pesto and pasta. Mix together and eat!
TOTAL KCAL: 189
3. Red Lentil & Carrot Soup
Ingredients
1 x white onion – chopped
2 x tsp olive oil
3 x garlic cloves
2 x carrots – sliced
85g x red lentils
1 x veg stock cube
Chopped parsley
Instructions
1. Slice onion and fry in the olive oil. Add the carrot and garlic and cook through for 4 minutes
2. Add 1 x litre of boiling water from the kettle, stir in the lentils and stock cube – cover the pan and cook on medium for 15 minutes until lentils are tender
3. Take off the heat and add the chopped parsley – ladel into a bowl and enjoy!
4. Steak, roasted pepper and pearl barley salad
Ingredients
85g Pearl Barley – rinsed
1 x red pepper – sliced
1 x yellow pepper – sliced
1 x red onion – cut into wedges
2 x tbspn olive oil
1 x large lean steak – trimmed of any excess fat
50g watercress – chopped
½ x lemon juiced
Instructions
1. Put the pearl barley into a pan of boiling water and cook on high for 25 minutes – drain and transfer into a bowl
2. Meanwhile – heat the oven to 180 degrees – add peppers and onion into a baking tray, season and drizzle over 1 tbspn of olive oil – roast for 20 minutes
3. Whilst roasting – season your steak and cook in a hot pan with olive oil until cooked to your preference
4. Mix the cooked peppers/onion into the barley. Stir in the watercress, lemon juice and season lightly
5. Slice the steak and add on top of the salad – throw in a lunch box and off to work!
KCAL: 498
5. Green Club Sandwich
Ingredients
3 x sliced wholegrain toast
3 x tbsp houmous (readymade)
1 x avocado (de-stoned and sliced)
Rocket leaves
8-12 cherry tomatoes
Instructions
1. Toast bread – spread houmous evenly on each side. On one side of the bread, lay half of the avocado, rocket and tomato, season with pepper and cover with another slice.
2. Pile on the rest of the avocado, rocket and tomatoes – season again and top with the 3rd slice of toast. Enjoy!
KCAL: 583
Thanks goes to the BBC Good Food | Recipes and cooking tips for these.