To ask for healthy whole food lunch ideas

[kellykapowskiismyidol]

I'm trying to eat healthier with an emphasis on less processed food and more natural, whole foods. I'm not very knowledgable in the kitchen though! Can anyone give me any simple but healthy lunch time inspiration? Salads, soups, wraps etc all good. Thank you

We eat a lot of stir fry and soup.

LOADS of veg (mostly green) and tofu. Make a sauce from soy etc. Takes about 10 mins. You could add brown rice if you wanted more carbs.

For soup - so easy to make your own. Double/ triple quantities and freeze etc for another day. Try lentil soup or serve it with rye bread and hummus for more protein. Try pea and kale, broccoli and cheese, butternut squash, coconut milk and chilli, this is my favourite lentil soup.

www.abc.net.au/radio/recipes/puy-lentil-soup-with-parmesan-toasts/8934824

Sushi?

Do you have a fridge or microwave available?

You can make a soup out of pretty much anything, or a jacket potato, or a tuna & bean salad, chilli.

Roasted med veg, chicken (I buy the ready cooked packets), salad leaves and if you fancy bulking it out a microwave pack of quinoa and brown rice. I usually mix with some sort of salad dressing or a bit of pesto but you could skip that to be healthier

Homemade vegetable soup, (homemade) wholemeal bread and cheese, piece of fruit.
Home-cured or ceviche salmon, asparagus, new potatoes (just scrubbed, not peeled).
Baked potato, herb quark, green salad.
Scrambled (organic) eggs, creamed potato, spinach - accompanied by a small glass of freshly-squeezed orange juice.

I like these flapjacks www.sainsburysmagazine.co.uk/recipes/baking/cheese-and-onion-flapjacks

Whole foods can be very simple, just cook them separately if you are starting out.

Wraps are not wholefood IMO.

Whole foods to me primarily means lots of unrefined carbs (e.g. brown rice, potatoes), fruit, veg, pulses.

You can add any dressing or whatever you fancy, but avoiding non-basic ingredients again. My mum had the Cranks cookery books, they were very whole food-y, they might be a good place to start.

Some whole food things we eat a lot are:
Veg chili with brown rice
Stir-fry
Veg curries
Lentil Dahl
Carrot and lentil soup
Pilaf (spelling?)
Baked potatoes, roast veg & houmous
Tagines
Veg stew or soup

Lots of these can be eaten cold or reheated for lunch (except I never eat cold rice due to food poisoning risk, although my mum would think that over-cautious!)

To make it really easy you could just choose one each from the following, precooked and chucked in a lunchbox:

Protein (non processed if poss)
Whole carb (brown rice, sweet potato, quinoa all good options)
Veg (green)
Veg (other colour)
A sauce or dip

Can't go wrong really.

One of my favourites lunches is to roast a load of sweet potato wedges (you can do this a few days before), then portion up with salad leaves (faves are rocket and baby spinach), tomatoes, cucumber, red onion, capers, seeds (pumpkin, sunflower, chia) and feta (probably too much of this!). Throw in a wedge of lemon to squeeze over before eating.

You can portion it up for the week and mix up the salad bits you add –I tend to keep things in like peppers, beetroot, celery, carrot for grating. The sweet potato adds some substance and texture to the salad, filling and yum!

Tabbouleh is my favourite salad
Soups with sweet potato or curried parsnip are lovely although maybe not that summery