Winter Work Lunch Ideas
Summer lunches are easy; fresh salads, sandwiches, and wraps. But at this time of the year salad ingredients can be pricey, and let's face it, it is nice to have a comforting hot lunch in these dark cold months. Try to avoid the takeaway trap. These are often unnecessarily large servings of foods, and can be high in fat. Wattie's have come up with five easy nutritious lunch ideas to get you through the winter. Both your waistline and your wallet will be thankful!
The trick to a perfect lunch is to include some carbohydrate (e.g. bread, rice, potato and pasta), some protein (e.g. egg, cheese, meat, beans) and some fruit or vegetables.
Toasted sandwiches
Toasted sandwiches are a classic kiwi favourite. Use wholegrain bread and only a thin spread of margarine. Some tasty fillings include: creamed corn, onion, shaved ham, baked beans, cheese (low fat), spaghetti, pineapple, and tomato.
Stuffed Potatoes
Stuffed potatoes are so easy. Just wash, pierce with a fork and bake in the oven or the microwave. When cooked, slice in half and scoop out the middle of the potato and mix with your favourite fillings (all of the toasted sandwich fillings above work here too). Fill the potato halves with the filling mixture and pop back in the oven/microwave until hot. Yum!
Mini quiches/frittatas
Most pantry's have the ingredients required to whip up a quiche. If you use muffin trays instead of a quiche dish you will produce perfect lunch-size treats. It is a great way to use up leftover meat or vegetables, or you can use canned or frozen vege as suggested in this Food In a Minute recipe:
Asparagus Vegetable Mini Frittatas
Soup
Soup has got to be one of the best things about winter - comforting, tasty and full of goodness. Partner with some grainy bread and voila! Try making your own or let us do the work for you. Wattie's has a huge variety of tasty soups to choose from. Our range of microwave bowls is especially convenient. Simply heat for two minutes and eat from the bowl.
Leftovers
Leftover dinner makes a perfect lunch. It prevents wastage and saves you having to organise or buy the next day's lunch. Too easy. You may have noticed that some food even tastes better the next day. Tuna pasta bake is my favourite leftover lunch meal! Just always make sure that you reheat the food until steaming hot throughout, and don't reheat twice.
