HEALTHY LUNCH IDEAS | 5 easy healthy meal prep recipes for work or back to school!

If you're looking for some healthy lunch ideas that are perfect for back to school or work, that require minimal but just a little bit of meal prep, then you're in the right place. We're gonna get cooking. These are five delicious recipes that you can have all throughout the week. To make things quick and easy, we're gonna start out with some basic prep. So first of all, we're gonna do this delicious pesto. So just take two cups of fresh basil, half a cup of freshly grated Parmesan Reggiano, two cloves of garlic, a crack of pepper, and a nice generous pinch of salt. And then measure out 1 1⁄4 of a cup of extra virgin olive oil. And this would be so much easier to do in a food processor, but we don't have a food processor. I actually went out and bought the attachment to this right afterwards, but it can be done with a blender. It is possible. And there we have our delicious pesto. So now we're gonna prep our protein. This is super easy as well. You're just gonna bring a full pot of water to a boil and then lower it down to a simmer and then add in your chicken. You can use chicken breast. I'm gonna use chicken tenderloins. And then you're just gonna go ahead, add that into the simmering water with a little bit of salt and cover with a lid for eight to 12 minutes. And then that's it. It's really, really easy to make this chicken. And then a little tip, you can just throw it into your mixer and that will shred the chicken in no time. So now we're gonna go ahead and prep out our carbohydrates. So I'm using this organic brown rice pasta. Add a little bit of salt into your boiling water, and then you're gonna cook it just to the package instructions. So I actually like the Jovial brand. I'll leave a link to it in the description box. It's my favorite, but they were out of it. And then go ahead and just set your pasta aside. Now we're gonna make my favorite rice. This is our last carbohydrate that we're prepping out. You just need two cups of bone broth. Bring that to a boil. And then one cup of rice, which I'm just gonna rinse out, but you can actually soak it overnight or for a couple of hours beforehand. So once your bone broth is brought up to a boil, go ahead and add in your rice. And then you're gonna lower the heat down as low as you can for 15 minutes with the lid on. And once 15 minutes is up, turn off the heat and leave it for 10 minutes minimum. And that's it. So now we're gonna move on to this amazing recipe. So this is actually a half-baked harvest recipe. So shout out to Tegan. I will leave a link to it in the description box. She is amazing, but I figured I would share this recipe from her with you because we absolutely love it. And it's such a perfect, easy recipe for back to school or work. So we're gonna start out with the dressing, which is a quarter cup of olive oil, one squeeze of a whole fresh lemon, and then three tablespoons of red wine vinegar along with two tablespoons of mayo. And I love this avocado oil mayo. Actually really like the MCT oil mayo the most, but they were out of it at the store. So that's a great option. And then two teaspoons of Dijon mustard along with two teaspoons of raw honey. And they have this raw honey right now at Costco and it is so good and delicious. And then go ahead and add in your salt and pepper. And I love to use this little handheld blender. It's actually a milk frother, but if you have one, it's really easy to mix up the dressing with it. Now you're just gonna thinly slice one shallot. The recipe actually calls for two, but I just prefer one. And then half a cup of fresh herbs. So I'm using, I used about six sprigs of dill and then five to six large basil leaves. And then I didn't have any fresh oregano. So I added that in as a dried ingredient at the end, but you just wanna heat up a quarter cup of olive oil just until it's warm. And then this is when I went ahead and added in that dried oregano, mixed it up. And then we're going to actually pour this over all of our brown rice pasta. So this is a super easy carb. And now we're gonna chop up the rest of our ingredients. So I did one cucumber sliced in half lengthwise, and then you wanna slice that half in half again, and then just dice it up. And then you wanna dice up two bell peppers. So I did one red and one yellow, and then about a cup of cherry tomatoes, and then one cup of Kalamata olives. And this is really going to add so much crunch and actually hydration with those cherry tomatoes and the cucumber. And then I'm gonna add in one block of feta. So this makes a lot of servings, a lot of pasta, which is so great for meal prep. And so you're gonna add in your feta, and then this is also really a great source of protein. And then this is optional, but I just added in a little handful of pepperoncinis. The recipe calls for a quarter cup, and you can definitely do more or less or leave them out altogether. And then just pour over your dressing, and that is it. So now for a quick protein, we're just gonna take that chicken that we made earlier and add in a little bit of that pesto, and it's so easy and it's so flavorful so that we have your protein and carb, and it's so quick and such a perfect recipe to take for work or for school. This is one of my favorite lunch recipes to meal prep. So you're gonna love it. You're just gonna chop up one apple and then three sticks of celery. And then I measure out a third of a cup of Greek yogurt. I did a little bit more this time just to see if it would make it more creamy, but no. Stick to the 1 3rd cup of Greek yogurt and then 1 3rd cup of mayo. And again, I'm using that avocado oil mayo, and that way we can avoid the soybean oil or canola oil that's typically found in mayo. And then chop up about a cup of grapes, and then all you have to do is add in two cups of that precooked chicken that we made. Add in all of your chopped up goodies and then squeeze in one fresh lemon. And then the trick to this whole thing that makes it so yummy, add in your salt and pepper, of course. But what I really like to do is just take a little tiny bit, we're just talking the tiniest little drizzle of maple syrup. That way it's not gonna taste like maple syrup. It just kind of cuts through the Greek yogurt and really just gives it this, it just gives it this perfect flavor. So it's really, really good. Mix it up. This is my favorite gluten-free bread from Canyon Bakehouse. And you can eat it open-faced, you can eat it just as a normal sandwich, but just so that you can see it. Super pretty, super yummy. I served it with a side of fruit, some delicious figs, and you have an amazing, very yummy lunch. This salsa veritable is so easy and good. You're gonna start out with that bone broth rice, a little bit of our precooked chicken, some fresh cilantro, avocado, and then this salsa verde from Trader Joe's is so good. You can actually cook your chicken in the salsa verde in a Crock-Pot. I'll leave the recipe down below, but just for ease and simplicity, you can do this as well, but it's really good in the Crock-Pot. It really enhances the flavor. And then I didn't have any lime. I used it all up, but don't use lemon. I mean, you could, but lime is really good in that bowl. And that's it, so easy. So now we're gonna move on to our pesto pinwheels. So I'm taking some coconut wraps. These are the Santa coconut wraps. I'll leave a link to them in the description box. Add in your pesto, and then I just did some raw cheese, which is so delicious and good. And then I added in some turkey breast, and then just a little leaf of lettuce. And then you're gonna roll it up. And honestly, you could eat this just as a wrap, but just for fun, you know, we did some pinwheels. So these are actually really fun to eat as pinwheels. It's almost easier to eat them as that. It just makes it more fun. I served it with some raw carrot, a little bit of dates, just about a handful of them, and then some kiwi. So just get in some fruit, more carbs, and that makes a really delicious lunch. So now we're gonna move on to, this is so incredibly fast and easy, and something that I like to have for lunch a lot. So you're just gonna boil your eggs for 12 minutes exactly. It makes perfect hard-boiled eggs every single time, and then add them in immediately following to an ice bath, because that's gonna make peeling them a breeze. And then I really love these precooked beets from Costco. I just drizzle on some oil, vinegar, and maple syrup. It makes an amazing dressing. I ran out of feta, but I love adding feta and a little bit of salt on top as well. And beets are great, especially right before your period, because they increase the body's nitric oxide levels, which helps blood vessels dilate and just helps to promote proper blood flow. So this is really important right before your period. I try to eat this for lunch right before that time of the month. So now that we have all of our meals and our macronutrients and all of that deliciousness done, and you have your recipes, you're ready to go for lunch for the week, now let's chat a little bit about minerals. So we have our macronutrients, protein, carbs, fat, and we have our micronutrients, which is our vitamins and minerals. So if you're like me, when I was in school, I would drink so much water throughout the day that I would have to pee in every single class. And I just always felt like I could never, ever get hydrated. And that is because I did not understand about minerals. So here's the thing. We don't need to be chugging. So I didn't know this for a long time. This is what I did. We don't need to be chugging, chugging, chugging so much water that it's actually gonna flush out our precious and good minerals that really keep us hydrated. And we need those minerals for our hormones. We actually need them for really good sleep. We need them for fluid balance. So we're talking sodium, magnesium, and potassium, even muscle cramps. If you get muscle cramps throughout the day, or honestly really just headaches. I feel like a lot of people can struggle with headaches throughout the day. So we drink so much water to try to fix the problem. We're actually flushing out those minerals. So I absolutely love these little electrolyte packets. These are the Element Electrolyte Mixes. The raspberry is my favorite flavor. It is so good. I wanna say thank you Element for sponsoring this video. They are the best. They are so easy and quick to add into your water. So that way you are actually replacing and adding in those precious electrolytes. And you're getting everything that you need and nothing that you don't. So they don't add any artificial flavors, ingredients. They don't add any dyes or anything like that. It's just your sodium, potassium, and magnesium, which we really wanna make sure that we are getting that because our water's just not the same as it used to be. So we've really lost those really precious minerals that are really gonna hydrate us. I love, love, love the raspberry flavor. So you can go to drinkelement.com slash cambria and you're actually gonna get with any order their electrolyte drink mix pack. So you can try out all the different flavors. This is so amazing. I wish that I honestly had this when I was in school and a good one at that. Something that's not gonna fill your body with anything artificial. You're really just getting your sodium, magnesium, and your potassium and that's what you need. So, and that way you can have your macronutrients and your micronutrients. I love these. So I really wanted to share about this because I think that is so helpful to have at work. I just cannot get enough of these. I always put it in my water bottle. You just pop it in and you're good to go. So I wanted to share that with you. So that way you really are getting in, you know, your protein, which is the building blocks, especially if you're working out, that's so important to make sure that you're getting enough protein, not even if you're working out. Honestly, we need it for our hormone health and we really wanna be making sure that we're getting enough of bioavailable protein throughout the day, but then we're pairing that with a carbohydrate because the carbohydrate is what's gonna give your body fuel, that glucose, that can be broken down and used for energy. So we don't wanna use the protein for energy. We wanna make sure that we're using, because if we don't give our body the carbohydrate, it will break down the protein to use as glucose. So the body needs glucose. We need carbohydrates. And that way when we pair them together, it's just this dynamic duo that really is gonna nourish your body and make you feel so amazing throughout the day. And then of course, with your minerals, we absolutely need those for the fluid balance, hormones, everything. We wanna give our body everything that it needs. So God made us so complex, but it's so simple at the same time, protein, carbs, and minerals. So keep it easy, keep it fun. And I hope you enjoyed these recipes. If you did, be sure to click thumbs up and let me know what your favorite, I would love to hear what your current favorite lunch recipe is. And it's kind of fun because then you can get more meal inspiration. So leave a comment because it'll help all of us out. We can all just feed off of each other. That sounded really weird, but you know what I'm saying. We can feed off of each other's ideas. Okay, that's better. And then I will be sure to leave a link to, I just can't with myself right now. I'll be sure to leave a link to the Element electrolyte packets that you can grab yours and snag that electrolyte drink pack where you can try it all the flavors in the top of the description box. So have a great school year, have a great work, have a great life. But don't leave. I love you. And I'll see you in my next video. Bye.