Lunch in a Hurry
I’ve built my little Green Drink and Cleanse/Detox empire over the last decade in part by telling people what to eat. A big reason why I created my Making Cleansing Easier E-Cookbook along with all the other Healthy Eating Resources you get when you’re on a Green Drink Plan is because when I first started Chef V, I was asked the question so many times, “Hey Veronica, what should I eat?”
But I can’t believe that in all this time, I haven’t really addressed the more specific question, “What should I eat if I’m always in a hurry?”
I’ll provide you with some healthy on-the-go eating tips in a bit. First, though, let me start with the obvious….
Healthy Lunch For the Type A Corporate Go-Getter
I have dozens of healthy recipes in my cookbook, Making Cleansing Easier, which you get as a bonus when you purchase a Green Drink plan or do one of my Cleanses or 21 Day Detox.
But let me just give you some general guidelines for what I consider a healthy lunch. Before I give you some concrete ingredients, let’s cover the key elements of a healthy lunch. As a certified nutritional therapist, here’s what I consider essential criteria for a healthy lunch:
- It’s nutrient dense
- It keeps you full for hours (no snack needed in between lunch and dinner)
- Fills your belly but doesn’t bloat it
- Doesn’t make you feel tired after eating
- Doesn’t make you crave carbs or a sugary snack after eating
In order to achieve all these goals, here are the 4 general things that you’ll need:
- A low-starch grain
- Low-starch vegetables
- Lean, high-quality protein (organic, grass-fed, wild)
- Healthy natural fat
Although everybody is different, most people do well when they have the following ratio of the above 4 components of a healthy lunch:
- 2-3 fist-size scoops of healthy grains
- Half a dinner-plate size of veggies
- 1-2 fist-size portions of lean protein
- 1-2 tablespoons of oil and/or a quarter of an avocado (the healthy fats)
Now then, let’s create a simple recipe:
- Quinoa, brown rice, wild rice, 100% whole wheat couscous, millet, amaranth, buckwheat
- Steamed or lightly stir-fried broccoli and/or any other low-starch veggies like asparagus, cauliflower, etc.
- Organic chicken, wild salmon, free-range bison, etc.
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- Herbs and spices to taste
Check out my Super Food Power Salad from my book, below.
Making Lunch Healthier & Easier
OK, so maybe by now you’re thinking, “But Chef V, ain’t nobody got time to make lunch like that every single day!” And you know what? You’re absolutely right. Hopefully, though, you have at least some free time just one day a week to make a huge serving of this healthy lunch.
Devote a certain time to cooking on the weekends, say Sunday afternoon. Listen to your favorite music, or a podcast, or get your Netflix on. It shouldn’t take you more than about a half hour to make this meal. Store it in a reusable container that you can take to work and quickly heat up.
In a perfect world, you’d eat your lunch slowly, concentrating on nothing but the repeated act of chewing, meditating on how each bite tastes. But again, ain’t nobody got time for that, right? Well, if that’s the case, it’s better to chow down for 5 minutes with this healthy lunch than it is to shove some PFAS-laden fast food down your throat.
The truth is that the answer to the question, “What should I eat for lunch if I’m in a hurry,” is the same as for the question, “What should I eat for lunch?”
In addition to my E-Recipe Book, I have tons of recipes for you on my blog.
To your health,
Veronica
Founder, Chef V
