Luscious Yet Easy Lunches: Planning your lunch menu for the week, Savoring some delicious make-ahead chicken and tuna salad recipes, Creating casseroles for healthy hot lunches and Indulging in salads and Mexican-inspired day-of lunches.

Luscious Yet Easy Lunches

In This Chapter

▶ Planning your lunch menu for the week

▶ Savoring some delicious make-ahead chicken and tuna salad recipes

▶ Creating casseroles for healthy hot lunches

▶ Indulging in salads and Mexican-inspired day-of lunches

Eating a healthy lunch may seem like a simple task, but lunch is one of those meals people often put little thought into. Why? Because grabbing something from a restaurant near the office or snacking all the way through the noon hour is easy. Don’t get me wrong. Occasional takeout or snack-based lunches are okay, but eating too many lunches this way can cause you to fall off track with your diet guidelines and end up seeing the same number each time you step on the scale.

The trick with following a low-glycemic diet is to be prepared for all of your meals — including lunch. This chapter shows you several quick and convenient lunch ideas so you can stay within your low- glycemic diet plan and get the weight-loss results you’re looking for.

Preparing Healthy Lunches for the Week Ahead

Being prepared for your lunches at the beginning of the week can actually save you more time during your busy weekdays and help you stay on track with your weight-loss plan. After all, you can’t really follow your food goals unless you have the right foods around you. Also, everyone has those hectic mornings when trying to decide what’s for lunch six hours from now just doesn’t seem worth it. Having healthy, low-glycemic lunches that you’ve pre- pared ahead of time can help out.

Although I’m a fan of preparing lunches for the week ahead of time, I’m not a believer in making tons of difficult recipes all day long. To be quite frank, unless you have loads of time, expecting you’ll make a full recipe for lunch and dinner every single day is somewhat silly. Heck, I’m sure there are weeks when you can barely find time to make two dinner recipes let alone seven lunch recipes and seven dinner recipes.

Life is very busy for most people. Making an actual recipe for lunch each day therefore isn’t that realistic. However, taking a Sunday and whipping up a couple easy recipes that produce a bulk amount of food is realistic. Sure, it may take you a little more time on Sunday, but you’ll love how quickly you can throw your lunch together during the week.

I’ve found that this make-ahead trick works best with salad-type sandwiches and casseroles, which leave you with food for the week (or at least part of the week).

There’s nothing better than opening up your refrigerator during the week to have your lunch ready to go. All you have to do is package it up! You’ll also be happy about the delicious lunches you get to eat as opposed to the ol’ last-minute peanut butter and jelly sandwich. The next sections present ideas for low-glycemic salad-based sandwiches and casseroles that can get you started on your make-ahead lunch adventure.

Sensational chicken and tuna salads

The sandwich is a staple for most lunches, but that doesn’t mean you have to eat the same boring one each and every day. One of my favorite routines is making a batch of chicken or tuna salad on Sundays to use during the week. Both salads are simpler to prepare than other recipes and incredibly versa- tile, so you can change up your lunch each day.

You can use chicken or tuna salad to

✓ Make a basic sandwich

✓ Top off a big bowl of mixed greens

✓ Fill a tortilla or wrap

✓ Pair with a side salad or a bowl of soup

✓ Spread on top of some low-glycemic crackers with a side salad or a bowl of soup

Following are a few delicious (and easy!) low-glycemic chicken and tuna salad recipes for your cooking pleasure.

Lemon Chicken Salad

Chicken salad recipes are my favorites, and they never get boring. You can always have something new and fresh thanks to the many different ways of preparing chicken salad. This recipe is a great twist on a traditional chicken salad. It uses fresh lemon and spices to create a unique flavor.

1 Mix the celery, mayonnaise, yogurt, green onions, tarragon, lemon juice, and lemon zest in a large bowl to blend.

2 Stir the 1⁄2-inch chicken cubes and 1-inch apple chunks into the mayonnaise mixture. Season with the salt and pepper.

Tip: Save time by using about 3 cups rotisserie chicken or 3 cups leftover grilled chicken in place of the chicken breasts.

Vary It! To add some variety to this tasty chicken salad, replace the green apple with 1 cup dried cranberries or 1 cup halved grapes.

Curry Chicken Salad

Don’t let the curry fool you. This is a very light curry salad that isn’t as strong as some of the traditional curry recipes. It’s one of my favorites.

1 Add the curry powder, mayonnaise, yogurt, honey, ginger, orange juice, and orange zest to a medium-sized mixing bowl. Whisk to blend.

2 Stir in the chicken, grapes, green onions, and walnuts. Season with the salt and pepper.

Tip: For speedier preparation, use 3 cups rotisserie chicken or 3 cups leftover grilled chicken.

Tuna Salad with Olives and Red Peppers

Tired of plain tuna? Well, those days are over thanks to this simple recipe. If you really want to take it to the next level, you can use fresh tuna (rather than canned) and lightly sear it. Delicious!

1 Whisk together the mayonnaise, yogurt, mustard, and lemon juice in a large bowl.

2 Add the next six ingredients and stir together gently. Season with the salt and pepper.

Tasty timesaving casseroles

Casseroles are another timesaving make-ahead lunch option, especially if you prefer a hot lunch to cold salads or sandwiches. Casseroles often take a little more time to prepare, but they’re usually still quick and easy enough to put together on a Sunday as a way for your family to liven up its lunch menu. The best part is you get a whole lot of food for the week, as you can see from the following recipes.

Storing your leftovers safely

When cooking meals to have on hand for the week, safe storage becomes a priority. Leaving foods, especially homemade chicken or tuna salads and casseroles, well past their due dates is all too easy. Case in point: My husband and I were spending time at the home of a relative who had to leave for a bit. She told us to make ourselves a sandwich, so we took out some turkey and cheese and ate. When she got home she had a blank stare and said, “Oh . . . you used that turkey.” Oops! Luckily we didn’t get sick, but we easily could have.

Protecting yourself and your family against food-borne illnesses is essential to a healthy kitchen. That’s why I’m sharing the following tips for safely storing food. (This way you don’t have to worry about someone grabbing a science experiment from your refrigerator and thinking that the recipe naturally comes in that mossy green color.)

✓ Keep your refrigerator in the “safe zone .”

Cooling temperatures should be between 34 and 40 degrees Fahrenheit. Within this temperature range, bacteria grow more slowly, so you can keep your perishable foods for a longer period of time. If your refrigerator doesn’t have a thermometer reading, you can easily buy a thermometer and periodically check that your temperature is in the right place.

✓ Store your leftovers in covered containers . Although plastic wrap can do an okay job, sealed storage containers work better to prevent moisture loss in your food. They also keep the food from absorbing other odors so your leftovers stay tasty the second and third time around.

✓ Avoid storing foods in decorative ceramic dishes or leaded crystal . Lead can leach out when acidic foods come into contact with the glaze or lead. Look on the bottom of the bowl to see whether it’s strictly for decorative rather than serving or storing purposes.

✓ Store cooked foods quickly . I often cringe at potlucks when I see the potato salad sitting in the sun for four hours. This is far too long a time for something like mayonnaise to sit out without being cooled somehow. Don’t leave your perishable foods at room temperature for longer than two hours.

✓ Use your leftovers within three to four days . If you have a hard time remembering when you first made a dish, label your container with the date that you cooked the meal. If you’re single or if there are just two of you in the household, you may want to freeze half of your leftovers if you can’t eat them all within three to four days.

✓ Use the appropriate compartments in your refrigerator . Those different drawers really do have a special purpose. The meat bin is a little colder to keep your meats fresh for a longer period of time, and the crisper helps to retain moisture in your produce. Use’em.

Mexican Casserole

Who doesn’t love a good Mexican casserole? They’re the best because they’re easy to whip up and you can be creative with them, throwing in your own personal touches as you see fit. Case in point: Most Mexican casserole recipes call for you to cook the chips mixed in. I prefer to serve them separately because they tend to get soggy, especially when you reheat the dish.

1 Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease a 13-x-9-inch baking dish.

2 Heat the canola oil in a small skillet and sauté the onion and bell pepper until soft. Remove from the heat.

3 Combine the chicken, beans (both kinds), corn, salsa, cilantro, lime juice, salt, and pepper in a bowl. Add in the sautéed onion and bell pepper. Place half the mixture evenly in the baking dish.

4 Combine the Monterey Jack and Cheddar cheeses and sprinkle half over the mixture.

5 Cover with the remaining half of the chicken and bean mixture and sprinkle the remaining cheese over the top.

6 Bake for 30 minutes and let stand for 5 minutes before serving. Serve with a handful of tortilla chips (you can crush them and mix them in or just scoop with them).

Polenta Casserole with Tomato Sauce and Mozzarella

Polenta is a very tasty low-glycemic grain made out of cornmeal, so it offers a sweet taste. This is a simple vegetarian casserole you can put together and have for the week. Enjoy it with a side salad for a light lunch.

1 Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan on medium heat. Add the onion, carrots, and bell pepper. Cook until the vegetables are just tender, about 5 to 10 minutes.

2 Add the garlic to the saucepan and cook 1 additional minute. (If you’re unsure of how to peel and mince garlic, see Figure 17-1.) Then add the tomatoes and their juice (breaking up the tomatoes as you put them in), as well as the parsley and oregano. Bring to a simmer, reduce the heat, and cook uncovered for 15 minutes, until the sauce is reduced to about 3 cups. Mix in the fresh basil and season to taste with the salt and pepper.

3 In another large saucepan, bring the water to a boil and add 1 teaspoon of salt. Slowly whisk in the corn grits polenta (or coarse cornmeal). Reduce the heat to low and simmer, stirring often, until the polenta is thick and cooked through, about 10 minutes.

4 Lightly grease an 8-x-8-x-2 glass or ceramic baking dish with olive oil. Spread one-third of the sauce over the bottom of the dish. Pour half the polenta over the sauce and sprinkle with half the cheese.

5 Pour another third of the sauce over the cheese and then pour the remaining half of the polenta over the sauce. Sprinkle with the remaining cheese and cover with the remain- ing third of the sauce. Refrigerate for 2 hours.

6 Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

7 Bake the casserole until it’s completely heated through, about 25 minutes. Let it cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Vary It! Add 1-inch pieces of rotisserie chicken to the tomato sauce for a nonvegetarian meal.

Freezing casseroles and other leftovers

If you’re single or if you have a small family, you may find that casseroles make too much food to eat within three to four days. Freezing casseroles (and other leftovers) is a great way to avoid waste and to have your own prepack- aged frozen meals for later use. Naturally, some foods don’t freeze well (such as fresh mushrooms and fresh tomatoes as well as overcooked pastas and milk-based sauces), but most cooked casseroles, stews, and soups do freeze well. Follow these tips to create your own homemade frozen meals:

✓ Keep your freezer temperature in the safe zone of 0 degrees Fahrenheit or less . If your freezer compartment doesn’t stay that low, just know you’ll need to use up your frozen foods a bit quicker.

✓ Package your leftovers so they’re air tight in plastic bags or freezer containers . If you’re planning on eating your leftovers in one sitting, then you can freeze the whole amount together. But if you want individual servings, then portion out your leftovers and wrap them individually. This is a great trick when you want to grab something for a quick lunch. Instead of reheating an entire half casserole, you have just one serving that’s ready to go. (Note: Whatever you do,

don’t thaw a large amount because you expect to finish it in a day or two and then decide later to refreeze it. That isn’t good for the quality of your food.)

✓ Label so you remember . Do you ever wonder whether some of the items in your freezer have been there for years? Avoid losing foods in your freezer compartment by grabbing some masking tape and a marker and writing down the date that you put the leftovers in the freezer. Doing so makes it easy to know how long the food has been in there so you can discard ancient entrees. You can also keep a log of what you have in the freezer along with the date it went in there. This way you can easily see what you have in the freezer without having to rum- mage through the cold.

You should also know that even frozen foods have a limit on how long they’ll remain good. Here’s how long certain leftovers will last in your freezer:

✓ Casseroles: Two months

✓ Cooked meat dishes, soups, and stews: Two to three months

✓ Cooked poultry and fish: Four to six months

Making Lower-Glycemic Lunches on a Weekday-to-Weekday Basis

If you have a little more time on your hands during the week, or if you don’t like the idea of preparing your lunches in advance, then you can make yummy lunches out of salads or even tacos and burritos. These dishes often require less cooking time and produce some very healthy, lower-glycemic meals. The sections that follow share some simple recipes to get you started.

Powerhouse salad entrees

Salads are a perfect choice for lunches, especially when you’re short on time. You can easily load them up with veggies and lean protein sources for a low- glycemic, low-calorie, and highly nutritious meal. Even better, if you choose to use vegetables that have a high fiber content and then add some lean protein, you’ll feel full for a longer period of time (perhaps shocking from a salad, huh?). Salads also take a little longer to eat, which in turn helps you slow down during your meal. Put all that together, and you realize that salads are (generally) superb for successful weight loss.

Not all salads are healthy. Watch out for what and how much of an ingredient you’re putting on your salad. Regularly adding too much meat, cheese, or salad dressing (or all three!) to your salads can hinder your weight-loss goals.

Following are a few trusty salad recipes I turn to often. They’re so good that I bet they wind up on your go-to list as well.

Mixed Greens with Walnuts, Pears, and Goat Cheese

This is one of my absolute favorite salad recipes, and I use it all the time. I love the combination of walnuts, pears, and goat cheese. This is one recipe you can make for a light meal or add as a side with some soup or an entree. If you want a heartier salad, just add some grilled chicken slices.

1 Whisk together the vinegar, mustard, salt, pepper, and olive oil in a small bowl and set aside.

2 Combine the mixed greens and pear chunks. Toss with enough of the dressing to coat everything evenly.

3 Top the salad with the goat cheese and toasted walnuts. Serve.

Vary It! For a little extra flavor, top this salad with slices from one avocado.

Grilled Chicken Spinach Salad

One of the simplest lunchtime salad ideas, this recipe incorporates grilled chicken. Chicken cooks faster when you grill it than when you bake it, so this recipe is an option when you have a little extra time during the day. When you don’t have the time for grilling, simply use leftover grilled chicken.

2 Whisk together the olive oil, oregano, and vinegar in a medium-sized bowl. Pour out 1⁄4 cup for basting the chicken.

3 Lightly brush the chicken with the dressing you just made. Add the salt and pepper to taste and cook the chicken on the grill until it’s fully cooked through, about 7 minutes per side. Transfer the chicken to a cutting board and let it cool.

4 While the chicken cools, combine the spinach, tomatoes, olives, and feta cheese in a large bowl. Toss with enough of the dressing to coat evenly (you may not need to use all of it). Season with the salt and pepper.

5 Cut the grilled chicken into thin 1⁄2-inch-thick strips. Top the salad with the grilled chicken strips and serve.

Don’t like spinach? You may be a supertaster

Do spinach and asparagus taste pungent and bitter to you? Ever wonder how in the world sane people enjoy these foods? Well, you just may be a supertaster. People experience taste differently depending on the number of fungi- form papillae on their tongues — also known as those little red bumps you see on your tongue. People with a lot of papillae have a very strong sense of taste (in other words, they’re super- tasters!); people with the average amount of papillae enjoy the flavors of all kinds of foods; and people with fewer papillae don’t notice much difference in flavors.

Your child’s number of papillae may explain why he’s a picky eater. Kids have more papillae than adults, so their taste buds are hyper sensitive. Giving them some time and reintroducing foods as they get older is a good way to expand their diet choices. They may begin to enjoy foods such as spinach and asparagus more as their taste sensitivity declines with age.

If you suspect you’re a supertaster, don’t fret. You can replace spinach in salads with milder lettuces, such as mixed baby greens or romaine. Don’t feel that you have to abandon a recipe completely. You can always find some simple replacements.

Speedy south-of-the-border options

Tacos and burritos are ideal for quick, healthy low-glycemic lunches. Tortillas, specifically the whole wheat and corn varieties, are lower-glycemic, making them a better choice than higher-glycemic breads. You can load tortillas up with healthy foods for a satisfying lunch, like in the two recipes that follow.

The Mexican dishes you cook at home are far different than what you receive in a Mexican restaurant. You ultimately take in far more calories and fat at the restaurant. Making Mexican favorites at home helps you to enjoy the Mexican food you’re craving while keeping it off of your thighs.

Fish Tacos

You can make tacos with just about any type of meat. This recipe calls for fish and is a great way to use any white fish you have on hand. Don’t let the long list of ingredients fool you. These fish tacos are quick and easy to prepare.

1 Preheat the grill or grill pan to medium-high.

2 Cut each piece of fish into 4 pieces for a total of 16 equal slices.

3 Combine the 3 tablespoons of lime juice with the canola oil, chili powder, cumin, coriander, oregano, garlic, and salt to make a marinade. Coat the fish with the marinade and set aside.

4 Mix together the green cabbage and the 2 teaspoons of lime juice, as well as the honey, green onion, and cilantro, in a small bowl and set aside.

5 Place the fish and a small amount of the marinade in aluminum foil and grill the fish for about 2 to 3 minutes on each side, or until cooked through.

6 Warm the tortillas in the microwave for 10 seconds.

7 Center 2 pieces of grilled fish on each tortilla and top with the cabbage mixture. Fold and serve.

Chicken Burritos with Poblano Chiles

Burritos are another quick fix for lunch that nearly everyone loves. The medium chiles in this recipe make it unique and special enough for a luncheon or when you want to indulge in a great lunch.

1 Heat the olive oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the poblano chiles and sauté until they begin to soften, about 3 minutes.

2 Add the chicken, cumin, coriander, chili powder, and lime juice. Season the chicken mixture with the salt and pepper to taste. Sauté until the chicken is almost cooked through, about 2 to 3 minutes. Mix in the enchilada sauce and cook for 1 minute.

3 Stir in the corn, black beans, and bell pepper, and sauté until heated through, about 1 minute. Remove from the heat and cover to keep warm.

4 Warm the tortillas in the microwave for 10 seconds. Then spoon the chicken mixture in the center of each tortilla and top with the cheese and cilantro. Fold the sides of the tortilla over the chicken filling and roll up so the filling is enclosed.