More fun lunch adventures today!

By far the best tip for creating a healthy lunch the night before without spending your whole evening in the kitchen is leftovers.

Often this just means making a larger portion of what you plan to eat for dinner. Doesn’t get more simple than that. Sometimes, however, I don’t portion out as much as I need to and my lunch serving ends up being a little unbalanced.

Take last night for example. Dinner was a rather unimpressive baked tofu with sautéed veggies on the side. Since I only had a half block of tofu to begin with, there was none leftover to bring with me today.

But that’s where Monday’s advice comes back around. Since I only used half my pot of quinoa, there was still a half waiting for me in the fridge because I know myself well. Every week, without fail, I end up needing this back up item that took no extra effort of Sunday.

While the tofu was not portioned for two meals, my veggies were. I chopped up two white squash (a new item to me), and a ton of crimini mushrooms to sauté in a drizzle of balsamic.

Even though quinoa is a complete protein, I felt like adding another element. But I didn’t want going to cook something else

Enter your new best friend, canned items.

I’m all for making your food from scratch to the fullest extent possible but sometimes convenience wins out. Canned beans are just as good for you, just a little more expensive. The one thing is that you really need to rinse them off. Can juice is yucky!

The rest could not be easier. After separating out the veggies I planned to eat for dinner I tossed half the rinsed beans with the leftover quinoa.

Mix together and then spoon into a container. I spooned quite a bit of salsa on top and added chopped cucumbers and a tomato for crunch and color.

I really like making bowls for lunch because it’s one item with all my food groups in one. It saves time because I don’t have to worry about multiple dishes to prepare. They are also endless customizable. I often don’t know what I’m going to include until
I look in the fridge. But that’s half the fun!