My Favourite Lunch Part 2

Back in September I wrote about my favourite lunches because I'm always on the hunt for ideas for healthy and cheap things I can take to work which can be made easily the night before or in a big batch that I can just portion out each day.

Well, I'm still on the quest for delicious lunches that you can make in advance or use leftovers for but here's my latest instalment!  These are great lunches for grown ups but you can easily fun then up for kids with some cute lunch accessories like food picks, silicon dividers or even pens that you can use on food!

Black Bean Burgers

These are really, really easy to make, high in protein, low in fat and so delicious that even if you're not vegetarian you will still enjoy them!  I made a batch of 6 so after eating a couple over the weekend I had some left for lunches in the first part of the week.  It fit perfectly with a bun in my Nude Food Mover mini lunchbox (which you can buy in the UK from Wilkos) and I used the side section for a rocket salad.  Once lunchtime came around I just microwaved the burger separately then put it back in the bun.

Risotto

Another vegetarian meal but the recipe is so versatile that you can add pretty much anything you want and would even work well with any leftovers - chicken, roasted veggies... I made a big portion, had part of it for my dinner and used the rest for 2 days worth of lunches!  It can be a little stodgy when you re-heat it but if you add a little water after microwaving it's perfect!

Turkey Meatballs

I made these a week ago for dinner, made way too many so had leftovers but thought "hang on...perfect lunch food!"  I had absolutely no idea what to have them with though so had a rummage around the cupboards...I recently discovered bulgar wheat so thought it would be a great base for a cold salad, like a rice or cous cous salad and then had a look around the fridge.  I still had some courgette and asparagus leftover from making risotto so finely diced those, added some finely diced red onion, a little coriander and a squeeze of lime - perfect!  Really light and fresh!  I made a little fresh salsa and packed everything up with some tortilla chips on the side.  Somehow I'd managed to throw together a really healthy Mexican inspired lunch which I really, really enjoyed!

Rocket Salad

Yet another lunch which I just scraped together from leftovers but so delicious that I had it every day for about 2 weeks!  Rocket and watercress salad with diced tomato, a slice of white bread (which didn't fit in whole!), a little brie and a hard boiled egg which I used one of my new egg/rice presses on (it's a fish...).  For the dressing I just mixed about half a teaspoon of English mustard with 1 1/2 teapoons of honey to make a sweet and spicy sauce.  If you have one of those little jam jars they are the perfect size for transporting dressings!  I used the bento box my sister got me for Christmas and it worked perfectly to keep everything apart until I was ready to eat!