Readers, let me first apologize for my unannounced absence from the blogosphere over the past two weeks. I had a weeklong conference and a much anticipated job offer looming that was keeping me from producing any useful thoughts. So the good news is I got the job! The bad news is that starting August 2, I no longer get to go home for a healthy lunch every day that I can cook or assemble at my leisure with fresh fruits and vegetables I have on hand.My new job is a 45 minute commute away, so it is time to dig the insulated lunch box out of storage and start planning ahead. I am plagued by the commuter’s quandary!
I don’t have time for coffee and breakfast now—I have to hit the road
Loading the coffee pot the night before and setting the brew timer…check. Travel mug…check. But the time for omelets and half-hour bouts of the Today Show are completely out of the question. So what is a gal to do? And while I can shovel cereal down my gullet on the way out the door or eat a banana and a Fiber One bar in the car sometimes, I really find a protein-rich breakfast keeps me full until lunch and sets me up for a more successful day of eating on Plan. So I am breaking out the old commuter breakfast egg recipes (e.g. the ones you can freeze, reheat in 2 minutes, and eat on the way) I love best—keep in mind I always substitute any type of sausage with Morningstar Farms veggie sausage patties crumbled and Southwestern Eggbeaters for eggs (1/4 cup egg beaters equals one egg) to save on fat and calories:
Sausage and Cheese Breakfast Cups
Vegetable Quiche Cups to Go
The breakfast cups are delicious on their own, but if I’m super hungry or know I’m in for a late lunch, I’ll pop a Western Bagel in the toaster while I’m preparing my travel mug of coffee. I’ll spray-butter the bagel and squish the egg cup in between the bagel slices for a supper yummy and even more portable breakfast sammie.
I don’t want to eat turkey sandwiches every day
When you get bored with what you are eating, it is tempting to go off Plan. For four years I packed my lunch, and I would fall into the easy “turkey on wheat + apple” trap way too often. I eventually found myself saying, “I brought my lunch, but I don’t want it. Let’s go out to eat!” While one healthy sandwich + apple a week is fine, I am going to try really hard to mix it up as much as possible to prevent myself from hitting every diner, drive-in, and dive in a five-mile radius of my new job.
The best way I found to combat the sandwich routine is to cook one more serving of dinner (or two or three if your husband/child/roommate needs to pack a lunch, too) than you need for one evening. Portion the entire meal out, and put your lunch portion in Gladware or Tupperware or Whateverware you use before you even sit down to eat. Let it cool with the top off on the counter while you enjoy your healthy creation. Honestly, it makes me want to create the healthiest, yummiest dinners, because I know I’m going to get to eat it again tomorrow for lunch.
I will also spend some weekend mornings making big batches of low-calorie soups or casseroles and freezing them into one-cup or one-serving containers. I make a different one every chance I get, so I have more choices from which to pick. So at least I’ll have something packed with fiber, filling veggies, and FLAVOR to compliment my boring turkey sandwich and keep me away from the vending machine later that day.
Woman cannot live on Lean Cuisine alone
While there are plenty of low-calorie and low-fat frozen entrées out there, I take serious issue with most of them—and for very good reason:
Sodium: a frozen dinner should deliver no more than 200 milligrams of sodium for every 100 calories of food, to keep you within the 2,400 milligram daily limit for healthy people recommended by the American Heart Association. So read your nutrition labels! The Lean Cuisine Jumbo Rigatoni with Meatballs (tell me again how this can be lean? Oh yeah, their concept of “jumbo” means the size of a nickel) will cost you 400 calories and 830 mg of sodium, which is 35% of your necessary sodium daily values on a 2,000 calorie diet—and most Weight Watchers or calorie counters are eating even fewer calories than that. This culprit is 30 mg of sodium over the limit at minimum.
Portion Size: There is good reason my blog is called EAT MORE weigh less please. I don’t want to waste my entire lunchtime caloric intake on a teaspoon of some green flecks that might have once been broccoli, three rubbery noodles, and a salt-laden cream sauce that has more fat than flavor. I could make a Texas-sized veggie wrap with a La Tortilla Factory large wrap, two full cups of fresh shredded veggies and greens, one tablespoon of 1/3 reduced fat Kraft Philadelphia Garden Vegetable Cream Cheese, and some spicy sriracha that totals a negligible amount of fat and a third of the calories in these frozen concoctions. When your plate appears fuller, it sends signals to your brain that you should feel fuller—take a note Healthy Choice!
FATTY FAT: While you are examining the amount of sodium in these bad boys, please take a look at the percent of calories from fat. You will be surprised and appalled. While the amount in grams might not look bad, consider the whole picture. Look at the calories FROM fat. The Lean Cuisine Stuffed Cabbage with Whipped Potatoes (sorry I’m picking on them, but they make it so easy!) only has 210 calories. Fantastic. But 50 of those calories are from fat, which is almost a quarter of the entire dish's caloric composition. YUCKO!
Can I get a vegetable please? There are just not enough veggies in your typical frozen entrée. While some varieties are better than others, there are some serious offenders out there—Budget Gourmet's Low Fat Rigatoni in Cream Sauce with Broccoli & White Chicken, for instance, has only about a teaspoon and a half of broccoli—no I’m not kidding. Commuters take heed: Pack a half cup of additional frozen veg to heat and toss in the mix if you must eat a frozen meal.
I aspire to NOT have to rely on frozen entrées for lunchtime sustenance at all, but I know that sometimes time gets the better of all of us. I will keep a few on hand but will try to eat a maximum of one per week. I am pretty much wholly against these salty, processed nightmares, but there are a few that do not entirely creep me out:
1) Amy’s Kitchen makes delicious organic frozen and canned meals and soups that make me a little more comfortable with the idea of a pre-fab lunch. It’s a family business, the food is vegetarian and preservative free, they offer an entire lower sodium line, and the entrées are packed with filling fiber.
2) Kashi makes 13 different frozen entrees that are all natural and have a lot more vegetables and fiber than your typical frozen meal. My favorite is the Lemongrass Coconut Chicken.
I can’t wait to start my new job and bring my healthy habits to a whole new workplace, and I am determined to not let this new commute deter my nutritious lunch routine. I am totally bringing my Ooey Gooey 2 WW Point Chocolate Muffins on the first day for all of my new co-workers!
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