Preparing Tasty Lunches: Brown-bagging your lunch, Dressing up salads, Fixing simple sandwiches and Putting on a pot of soup.

Preparing Tasty Lunches

In This Chapter

� Brown-bagging your lunch

� Dressing up salads

� Fixing simple sandwiches

� Putting on a pot of soup

Finding and eating a low-calorie lunch when you’re at work can be a challenge, especially if you don’t take a full or regular lunch hour or you wait until you’re absolutely famished to take a food break. When you’re first starting out on a structured, low-calorie diet, the smartest approach is to bring your lunch from home. You have the most control over how many calories you consume at lunchtime when you prepare your own lunch.

After you have a good sense of how many calories are in the different types of food you eat, and how much food is a reasonable amount of food to eat at one meal, then a trip to the salad bar becomes a great option. You can quickly pick up prepared foods at a salad bar and put together a balanced meal.

In this chapter, you find tips for making healthy, delicious lunches and 15 recipes for portable, 300- calorie lunches, including salads, sandwiches, and a few homemade soups, plus “add-ons” to the menus when calories allow.

Putting Together Midday Meals

Lunch supplies the energy you need to move into your afternoon activities. For a continuous energy flow, have your midday meal no more than 5 hours after breakfast. When you’re following a low-calorie diet, a small mid-morning snack can help bridge the energy gap between breakfast and lunch.

Packing a low-cal lunch

If you prepare two or three of the recipes in this chapter over a weekend, you’re set with lunch entrees for the entire week. Try pairing some of the recipes and bringing half a serving of a salad and a half-portion of one of the soups one day and a soup-and-half-sandwich combo another day. That way you aren’t eating the exact same lunch every day.

Make sure you have a variety of storage containers on hand to use for packing lunches to go. A wide-mouth thermos is best for soups, stews, and other liquid lunches. Invest in a small assortment of lidded containers made for carrying food. (You can find many decent, affordable ones at your local dis- count store. Look for brands that are microwave-safe if you plan to reheat your lunches.) Keep a set of utensils at work so you don’t have to remember to pack plastic forks and spoons.

You always have the option of following the menu plans in Chapter 6 or using them as a guide to preparing lunches that contain just the right number of calories. Remember that the meals on these menu plans are interchangeable so you can eat any one of the meals at any time of day. If you’re sticking to 1,200 calories a day right now and you see a breakfast menu on a 1,200- calorie plan that you want for lunch tomorrow, pack it!

Using low-cal leftovers

The easiest lunch you can make is last night’s leftover dinner. If you have a microwave oven at work, you can pack pre-portioned leftover food and quickly heat it up at work and eat it before you have time to consider any- thing else for lunch. Doing so is an especially good idea if you tend to get very hungry by the time you eat lunch so that you’re not tempted to run out for higher-calorie fast food just to quickly satisfy that hunger. (See Chapter 14 for delicious dinner ideas that you can use as lunch the next day.)

When you’re eating dinner out or ordering in, think about leftovers for your next day’s lunch. One of the most common restaurant tips for dieters is to ask for your “doggie bag” in advance so that you’re not tempted to eat the entire meal that’s served to you. Ask the server to divide your entree in half, serve half now, and bring the leftovers at the end of the meal for you to take home.

Mixing Salads

Main-dish salads are a staple in a low-calorie diet plan because they help fill you up with plenty of nutritious low-cal veggies and still satisfy your hunger because they contain a balance of ingredients that keep you feeling full throughout the afternoon. I give you ideas on salads with chicken, meat, seafood, grains, and fruit in the following sections.

Most foods lack flavor when served ice-cold, so try to remember to take your salad out of the refrigerator at least 30 minutes before you’re ready to eat. This step is especially true for pasta and rice salads.

Making salads with meat and poultry

Adding chicken, turkey, or any variety of meat transforms a side-dish salad into an entree. You don’t have to add anything else to the dish because you have everything you need for a balanced meal — protein, vegetables, and grains or other starchy carbohydrates such as pasta or rice.

Beefy Romaine Salad with Basil Vinaigrette

This hearty salad is a one-dish lunch that also makes a great light dinner in warm weather months. Use your own leftover meat or use thickly sliced roast beef from your supermarket’s deli section.

1 Combine the basil, olive oil, water, lemon juice, salt, and garlic in a food processor or blender. Whirl until smooth, about 30 seconds. Pour the vinaigrette into a large serving bowl.

2 Just before serving the salad, add the beef, lettuce, pepper, and onion to the bowl with the vinaigrette. Gently toss.

Meaty Potato Salad

This recipe demonstrates an age-old method of cutting fat to cut calories in a creamy salad dressing by replacing half the original amount of mayonnaise with lowfat plain yogurt.

 

1 Combine the potatoes and enough lightly salted water to cover by 1 inch in a large saucepan. Bring the water to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to medium- low and simmer for 10 minutes or until the potatoes are just tender. Drain the potatoes and place in a large bowl. Gently toss the potatoes with the vinegar. Set aside to cool.

2 Meanwhile, in another large bowl, combine the mayonnaise, yogurt, mustard, salt, and pepper until blended. Add the ham, onion, sweet pepper, celery, and parsley. Toss gently to combine. Gently stir in the potatoes. Serve at once or refrigerate to chill before serving.

Vary It! Substitute an equal amount of any lean meat, poultry, smoked poultry, firm- fleshed fish, or egg white for the ham in this tasty, satisfying lunch entree.

Chicken Salad with Roasted Peppers and Toasted Pine Nuts

Packaged salad greens that include fresh herbs in the mix are a tasty addition to any salad. They also make your cooking life easier by eliminating the need to season your dressing; a simple oil and vinegar mixture works just fine. If you don’t have leftover chicken for this recipe and don’t feel like cooking, you can use precooked chicken from your supermarket’s deli section.

1 Place the pine nuts in a small heavy skillet over medium heat. Toast, stirring often, until the nuts just begin to turn golden brown, about 3 minutes. Remove the nuts from the skillet and set aside to cool.

2 Whisk together the olive oil and vinegar in a large salad bowl. Add the chicken, peppers, and pine nuts. Toss to mix. Add salad greens and toss again. Serve at once.

Vary It! Fresh cherry tomatoes work just as well in the place of the red peppers.

Chinese Chicken Noodle Salad

This recipe is a simple pasta salad with a tasty Asian twist. If you don’t have leftover chicken, you can use precooked chicken from your supermarket’s deli section. You can use the basic dressing — a soy sauce, sesame oil, and rice wine vinegar combination — on any green salad or side-dish vegetable that you prepare to go with an Asian-style meal. The dressing alone contains 50 calories per tablespoon, which is equivalent to a light dressing. You can serve this dish warm, cool, or at room temperature.

1 Cook the pasta in a large saucepan of boiling salted water according to the package directions until al dente, or firm to the bite. Add the broccoli to the saucepan for the final 2 minutes of cooking time. Drain thoroughly.

2 Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine the sesame oil, vinegar, and soy sauce. Stir in scal- lions and set aside.

3 Add the drained pasta and broccoli to a bowl with the chicken and the reserved sauce and gently toss.

Vary It! You can substitute an equal amount of leftover pork or cubes of tofu for the chicken in this recipe, if you prefer.

Diving into seafood salads

Just like meat and poultry, fish and shellfish add the protein necessary to call a low-calorie salad a meal. Compared to other forms of protein, seafood is often lower in calories and fat. And even when you choose slightly fatty seafood such as salmon or albacore tuna, the additional calories aren’t usually significant. Furthermore, with these fattier fish you get an added bonus of health-enhancing omega-3 fatty acids that help protect your heart from dis- ease. If these recipes look interesting but you don’t eat seafood, you can try them with chicken, turkey, or pork.

Tuna Nicoise Salad

If you bring this salad to work or on a picnic, pack the croutons separately and add them just before eating, or have a small breadstick on the side.

1 Steam the green beans in a steamer basket until tender-crisp, about 4 minutes. Set aside.

2 Meanwhile, stir together the oil, vinegar, garlic, anchovy paste, and salt in a large bowl until well mixed. Add the tuna, tomatoes, onion, and olives. Gently toss. Divide the green beans evenly among four serving plates. Serve the tuna mixture over the green beans and top with the croutons, if using.

Salmon and Asparagus Salad

You can use fresh, canned, or smoked salmon for this recipe. Serve with four saltine- style crackers or a small breadstick on the side, or top with 1⁄3 cup croutons.

1 Place the asparagus spears in a steamer basket over boiling water. Cover and steam for 4 to 5 minutes or until bright green and just tender. Remove steamer basket and rinse asparagus under cold running water. Drain well.

2 Meanwhile, cook the potatoes in lightly salted boiling water to cover for 10 to 12 minutes or until tender. Drain, cool, and cut the potatoes into bite-size chunks.

3 Arrange the watercress, corn, and potatoes on individual salad plates. Place asparagus spears in center of plate. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Top with smoked salmon.

4 Combine mayonnaise, lemon juice, and dill in a bowl. Drizzle over salad.

Tossing together grain and fruit salads

Salads made with pasta, rice, or even fruit add variety and interest to a low- calorie diet, not to mention numerous nutrients and much-needed fiber. You can fiddle with the three basic recipes in this section by substituting different fruits and vegetables, trying different cheeses, and using different pasta shapes and different types of rice.

Italian Rice Salad

The calories from regular cheese are factored into this recipe so that you’re not limited to eating only cheeses that have been modified to reduce fat and calories. If you want to substitute reduced-fat/reduced-calorie cheese such as Swiss or havarti, you can add an extra ounce to the recipe and still come in under 300 calories. If you stick with lower calorie reduced-fat cheese, you can have a 1⁄4 cantaloupe or a slice of honeydew melon on the side.

Combine the rice, tomatoes, cucumber, capers, olives, cheese, and basil in a large bowl. Toss the ingredients to mix well. Just before serving, drizzle in the olive oil and lemon juice, if using, and toss again. Season the salad with salt and pepper to taste.

Tip: Whenever you cook up a pot of rice for dinner, prepare a double batch so that you can use the leftovers to make rice salads such as this one for lunch during the workweek.

Pasta Salad with Tomato, Mozzarella, and Basil

Whenever you’re cooking pasta for dinner, make extra so you’ll have it on hand for pasta salads such as this recipe. You can use any stubby-shaped pasta for this recipe. If you like, serve this salad on a bed of fresh spinach leaves without significantly changing the calorie count.

Whisk together the olive oil and lemon juice in a large bowl. Add the pasta, cheese, and basil. Toss well to combine. Add the tomato and gently toss again. Season the salad with salt and pepper to taste.

Whenever you make a rice, pasta, or grain salad in advance, reserve half the dressing to add just before serving. Otherwise, the starchy ingredients soak up all the dressing overnight and dry out the salad. If that happens, you have to add more dressing (and more calories!) to make the salad palatable again. If you’re making the salad to take to work, you can still prepare it in advance. Simply carry the leftover dressing in a separate container until you’re ready to eat.

The same idea holds true for green salads, mixed vegetable salads, and fruit salads. Add the dressing just before eating so that the ingredients don’t soak up the liquids and get soggy.

If your recipe makes more servings than you’re going to use in one sitting, dress only the portion you’ll be eating at that meal. Pack the leftover salad and dressing separately.

Pear and Blue Cheese Salad with Walnuts

This recipe is a little treat for blue cheese lovers. Serve with a small roll or a couple of thin breadsticks to round your calories up to 300.

1 Toast the walnuts in a small, heavy, nonstick skillet over medium heat, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes, or until just fragrant. Remove the nuts from the skillet and set aside.

2 Whisk together the mayonnaise, 2 teaspoons of the lemon juice, and the honey in a large serving bowl. If you’re not serving or eating the salad right away, refrigerate the dressing until ready to use, up to 5 days.

3 Thinly slice the pears and drizzle them with the remaining lemon juice. Divide the let- tuce, pears, celery, and green onions between two serving plates. Drizzle with dressing and sprinkle with blue cheese and toasted nuts.

Serving Up Sandwiches

Any type of food that helps you feel full is helpful when you’re on a low-calorie diet. Sandwiches certainly fit the bill because, like main dish salads, they often include all the components of a full meal — protein, grain, and vegetables. Any meal or snack that contains several different foods from different food groups can help you feel full longer and provide more sustained energy than if you were to simply grab one type of food for lunch. That’s why a sandwich makes more sense for lunch than, say, an all-vegetable salad or a couple of slices of ham on their own.

When you follow the sandwich recipes in this section, you’ll know that your lunch contains up to 300 calories. But what about ordering a sandwich at a deli or sandwich shop? When in doubt about the number of calories, eat just half the sandwich and fill up on a green salad with light dressing. You can always have the rest of the sandwich later as a snack or save it for the next day.

Pita Pizza with Artichokes and Mozzarella Cheese

You can prepare these pita pizzas up through Step 2, and then wrap them tightly in plastic wrap to carry them to work. Unwrap the pizza and microwave each at full power for 1 minute to heat through and melt the cheese. Serve the pizza with a 1⁄2 cup serving of soup.

1 Preheat the oven to 450. Place the pita breads on a nonstick baking sheet.

2 Whisk together the olive oil, lemon juice, and oregano in a medium bowl. Add the artichoke hearts and tomato. Toss gently to coat. Spoon the artichoke mixture evenly over the pita rounds. Sprinkle evenly with the cheese.

3 Bake the pita pizzas for 6 to 8 minutes or until the cheese is melted and the pitas are heated through.

Many sandwich shops pride themselves on the amount of filling they can stuff into a sandwich. They want their customers to feel they’re getting a good deal for their money. An overstuffed sandwich is rarely a good deal for a dieter, however, and sometimes even a half sandwich contains too many calories. Remove at least half the meat or other filling in an overstuffed sandwich before you eat it; ask the sandwich maker for a clean piece of foil, if possible, and wrap it to use another time.

Herbed Roast Pepper and Goat Cheese on Crusty Rolls

You can broil these sandwiches at home, cool and wrap them, and then gently reheat them in a toaster oven or microwave oven at work. They’re also good cold. To save a little time, you can use jarred roasted red peppers instead of roasting your own.

1 Preheat the broiler. Place the rolls, cut-side up, on a broiler rack or pan. Broil the rolls for 1 minute or until lightly toasted. Set the bread aside.

2 Place the onion slices and pepper halves, cut-side down, on a clean broiler pan. Sprinkle the rosemary evenly over the vegetables. Drizzle evenly with the olive oil. Salt and pepper to taste.

3 Broil the vegetables 4 to 6 inches from the heat for 5 minutes or until the peppers are charred. Turn the onions over after 2 minutes or when they begin to brown. Remove the charred peppers from oven. Set aside to cool slightly, and then peel off the charred skin and cut the peppers into thick slices.

4 Arrange the peppers and onions over the bottom halves of the toasted bread. Sprinkle the sandwiches evenly with the cheese.

5 Broil the sandwiches side-by-side for 3 minutes or until the cheese is slightly browned. Top the sandwiches with the remaining bread halves, cut in half, and serve.

Tip: If you can’t find lower calorie, reduced-fat goat cheese, use regular semisoft goat cheese and reduce the amount to 1 ounce.

Concerning sandwich condiments and ingredients, mayonnaise may not always be a wise choice because it’s so dense in calories. Some diet plans recommend eliminating mayonnaise altogether and choosing lower calorie spreads such as ketchup or mustard, while others recommend using reduced-calorie (light), reduced-fat, or fat-free mayonnaise or a combination of mayonnaise and yogurt.

Because it’s a matter of taste as well as a matter of calories, you have to decide what to eat and when. If you’re preparing a sandwich made with low-calorie bread and a low-calorie filling, you may well be able to afford the almost 100 calories that come with a tablespoonful of mayonnaise.

Table 13-1 shows a tablespoon-for-tablespoon comparison of the calorie counts of different bread spreads and different combinations that help reduce calories in the creamier condiments.

The following recipe uses light mayonnaise to create a delicious spread for toasted bread.

Toasted Italian Bread with Herbed Tuna-White Bean Spread

This recipe makes 2 cups of topping, which, on its own, provides 25 calories per table- spoon. Plan to make this spread in advance, because it needs at least two hours in the fridge for the flavors to marry. You can also toast the bread in advance and store the slices in an air-proof container until ready to use. This recipe also makes great party fare.

1 Combine the parsley and basil in a food processor. Process 30 seconds or until finely chopped.

2 Add the onion, beans, lemon juice, mayonnaise, ricotta, capers, and salt. Process with on/off motions for 30 seconds or until the mixture is finely chopped but not smooth, scraping down the side of the processor container with a spatula, as necessary. Add the tuna and process with on/off motion just once or twice to combine.

3 Scrape the mixture into a serving dish or storage container. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours to allow the flavors to blend. Spread the topping on the toast just before serving. Top with pickle slices, if you like.

Tip: For a snack or a lighter lunch, spread this savory topping on cucumber rounds, which are practically calorie-free.

Savoring Soups

Soup is a great choice on a low-cal diet because broth provides so few calories — it’s almost like filling up on flavored water. Each of the recipes in this section comes with side-dish recommendations. Of course you can always skip them and pour yourself another ladleful of soup.

Turkey Noodle Soup

If you’ve ever wondered what to do with the packaged collection of vegetables in your supermarket called “soup greens” (the package that usually includes an onion, some carrots, some celery, and a turnip or parsnip), this recipe is it. You can pick up that package instead of selecting the individual vegetables used in this soup. Sprinkle a dozen oyster crackers over this soup, if you like, to use up the remaining calories.

1 Heat the oil in a large nonstick saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and sauté

5 minutes or until tender. Add the carrot, celery, and garlic, and sauté 5 minutes longer.

Add the turnip, chicken broth, tomatoes, turkey tenders, and sage. Simmer 20 to 30 minutes or until turkey is just cooked through. Remove the turkey from the soup to a cut- ting board.

2 Bring the soup to a boil over medium heat. Add the pasta and cook for 4 minutes or until the noodles are tender.

3 Meanwhile, cut the turkey into bite-size pieces. Stir the turkey back into the soup. Season the soup with salt and pepper to taste.

Obviously, different types of soup are going to contribute different amounts of calories, depending on the ingredients, so when you eat soup in a restaurant or order it for take-out at a deli, you’re not going to know exactly how many calories it contains. The only thing you can do is think small, especially if it’s a creamy or dense soup such as lentil or puréed winter squash soup. In that case, always ask for a cup instead of a bowl and order the small size to go, rather than medium or large.

Spicy Corn Chowder with Ham

Whole milk adds extra creaminess to this hearty classic, but you can stick to skim if you prefer. With a one-cup serving, you can have a small (1-ounce) square of cornbread or half of a corn muffin on the side.

1 Heat the oil in a large nonstick saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and sauté 5 minutes or until tender. Add 1 can (2 cups) of the broth and the corn. Heat the mixture to a boil over high heat. Lower the heat to medium-low and simmer for 5 minutes.

2 Using a slotted spoon or small sieve, transfer 11⁄2 cups of the corn-broth mixture from the saucepan to a food processor or blender. Whirl until almost smooth. Return the pureed mixture back to the saucepan.

3 Stir in the remaining chicken broth, sweet pepper, jalapeno pepper, potatoes, ham, and salt. Bring to a boil over high heat. Lower the heat to medium-low, stir in the milk, and simmer the soup for 15 minutes or until the potatoes are tender.

Vary It! You can substitute an equal amount of lean turkey bacon or Canadian bacon for the ham in this recipe.

White Bean Soup with Kale and Sausage

This recipe calls for kale, which is a leafy green vegetable that’s sweeter than spinach and even more nutritious. You can substitute fresh or frozen spinach, collards, or other leafy greens for the more traditional kale used in this recipe, if you like. To chop fresh kale, be sure to slice across the leaves, as shown in Figure 13-1.

Round out this soup with a slice of light rye bread or sliced tomatoes drizzled with light dressing.

1 Heat 1 teaspoon of the oil in a large nonstick saucepan over medium heat. Prick the sausages all over with a fork. Add the sausages to the saucepan. Cover and cook for 8 minutes or until well browned and cooked through. Transfer the sausages to paper towels to drain. Carefully wipe out the skillet with a paper towel, if necessary.

2 Heat the remaining 2 teaspoons of oil in the same skillet over medium heat. Add the onion, carrot, and garlic and sauté, stirring often, for 5 minutes or until the vegetables are tender.

3 Meanwhile, thinly slice the sausages. Add the beans, kale, broth, and sausage slices to the soup. Simmer, partially covered, for 15 minutes. Uncover and stir in the vinegar and salt and pepper to taste.