Replacing that bad "food" day 3~Lunch

First of all there is something I would like to make clear. I am not a doctor/nutritionist/dietitian or anything of the like! I do not nor have I ever counted calories, fat, or anything else for that matter. I live and eat based on eating good nutritious whole foods with as much fruit and veggies as I can. My basic philosophy is to eat food as close to the way God originally made it as possible. I am not vegetarian I do eat meat although I do my best to eat good quality meat that I trust! With that said if any of the meals I post do not fall under a pattern of a protein two veggies and a starch or any other pattern it's because I don't follow one. I feel that if you are eating a variety of good healthful food you will probably be fine. If you have been advised by your doctor/ nutritionist to follow a pattern or count calories please do. This is a site dedicated to thinking about what goes in your body and not meant to be the final say.
Thanks just wanted to get that said=)
Now onto lunch!!!

Lunch might look different for you than it does for me. I stay home with the kids so I have a great deal of flexibility with lunch. If you work outside the home or go to school you will not have that flexibility as an option. Ideally if you do work outside the home your best option is going to be to bring a lunch with you. If you must go out I would suggest getting a salad or sides of veggies ask them to keep any dressing on the side so you can use very little of it. A lot of people think that they are doing good by eating a salad when really they could be eating more calories than if they got a burger! Use as little dressing as you can lemon juice is good as a dressing and using a vinaigrette is going to be better than ranch! The darker the lettuce the better. Iceberg is nothing it's nutritionally void Romaine is a much better option most restaurants have this and can use it for any salad. Spinach salads are a great way to get some great nutrients in for lunch!!! Just remember when going out to be conscience of portion and to only eat real food.
I am going to go out on a limb here and say if you send your kids to school you need to be sending them with lunch and a snack and making sure they have a good breakfast before they head out. You also need to be talking with them about the importance of how they treat their bodies. If they are older children and this is a new change apologize for the way you have been eating and talk to them about this new way of doing things and how it's better for everyone. You can not trust the schools to feed your children real food or to even teach them about it. This is your responsibility!!!

Now if you can take your lunch or you are eating at home the absolute best thing is leftovers! We love leftovers for lunch add a steamed veggie or a salad if you don't have enough and it's great.

If you do sandwiches make sure you are only using good ingredients check that bread label it should not have chemicals or HFCS in it and the first ingredient should be whole wheat just because it is dark in color does not mean anything. Some add coloring or molasses to get that dark color you want to see the word whole as the first word. Also you can look for the label that looks like a bail of hay standing up that says the wholegraincouncil Any peanut butter should just have peanuts and go for good quality jam and check the label for added sugar or chemicals(jelly is just sugar it doesn't use the whole fruit just the juice) Grilled veggies make nice sandwiches or lunch all by themselves. I like to use my panini press to grill the veggies right on it asparagus is delicious this way! If you like meat on your sandwich I suggest getting the meat and cooking it yourself vs buying deli meat. It is going to control the quality of your meat as well as being less expensive. Take the time to do this once a week or less and you can freeze it in individual bags to take out as you need it you could even make the sandwich ahead of time and freeze it but depending on the bread and filling it may get a bit soggy. This is a great technique for taking your lunch though because by lunch time it's thawed out but it kept well during the morning.

Sometimes one of the best lunches is just several kinds of raw fruits and veggies it's just so clean and can really be fun!

Beans make a great lunch make a huge pot at the beginning of the week and you can freeze this in batches as well just make sure they are fully thawed before warming or they can get kinda mushy=) serve them with a little cornbread muffin and you are good to go.

Eggs...they are not just for breakfast serve up some green eggs(scrambled eggs with frozen chopped spinach) or a veggie omelet yum!!!

Lunch can be fun but there are some things to stay away from such as those prepackaged lunches in the deli isle seriously walk away! Apple sauce that's filled with HFCS and other additives! Just remember lunch should be food to! Just because you need convenience does not mean you have to sacrifice quality!

Tomorrow is going to be dinner and I want to talk about taking foods you love to eat and turning them into real food so if you have a recipe that you love that's full of cream of chicken soup and butter crackers send it to me and I'll see what I can do!

Remember you can do this! You and your family are worth it!!!