3 Easy Healthy Protein Packed Lunch Ideas

Hey guys, it's Dani and we are back at that time of year again when summer is winding down and we're all getting back to schedules and routines. So I wanted to make sure you guys had some very simple, clean and delicious, protein packed lunch ideas. So today I'm going to be showing you how to make my avocado egg bowl, a black bean, quinoa, spinach and mango bowl, and then finally my veggie packed turkey sandwich on a pepper bun. Now all three of these lunches can easily be made ahead of time and then packed for work or school. Now let's get started with our first recipe, the avocado egg bowl. Now the first thing you need are some hard boiled eggs and my go to, no fail technique for making easy peeling, perfectly cooked hard boiled eggs is this. I grab a small to medium pot, put as many eggs that will fit on the bottom in a single layer, in this case it's 10 eggs, then I cover that with cold filtered water and you want to come just about an inch above the eggs. Pop that on your stove, turn the heat to high, let everything come up to a boil and then once you've got that boil, you're going to shut the heat off and pop a lid on, set your timer for 8 minutes. Once the timer goes off, drain the water out of the eggs and then top your eggs with lots of ice and cold water. Basically we are creating an ice bath for the eggs because this helps for the eggs to get cold and shrink up and then they peel very easily because they pull away from the shells. Once they are ready to handle, you just give them a little crack and you've got an easy peeler. Now for this recipe, I like to cut all of my ingredients into hearty, chunky, bite sized pieces and then I get them in the bowl in two layers. So I start with half of my hard boiled eggs, then some avocado, beautiful cherry tomatoes that I've sliced in halves or quarters depending on how big your tomatoes are. And guys, whenever I buy cherry tomatoes like this, I always try to find varieties that have multiple colors in them because they just look absolutely beautiful and I find that when my food is beautiful, it's even that much more nourishing. And then I sprinkle in some chopped red onion. Then we are going to do it one more time. Egg, avocado, tomatoes and onion. Then I like to finish this salad off with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. This is when you want to pull out the good stuff. And a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Simple, delicious and could not be any easier to make. For my second recipe, I'm doing my spinach black bean quinoa mangle bowl. Now for this recipe, you are going to need some cooked quinoa. So you can either do regular fresh quinoa, I give it a rinse under some cold water and then when you cook quinoa, remember guys, it's one part quinoa to two parts water. So if you're using one cup of dried quinoa, you would add two cups of water, let the whole thing come up to a boil, then reduce it down to a simmer, pop on the lid until the water has absorbed and you have this nice, light, fluffy quinoa. And you will notice that this little white germ pops around the ends when the quinoa is ready to go. So that is also a great indicator. And guys, if you don't want to make your quinoa from scratch, you can also buy it in the freezer section these days. So remember, all roads lead to Rome. Make it work for you. Then to build this bowl, I start with two big handfuls of washed and chopped baby spinach. Top that with a clove of crushed garlic. Then I add in a heaping half cup of quinoa, fresh chopped pepper, fresh chopped mango, and give it a big, fat squish of fresh lime juice. And then I season it with a little salt, pepper, stir that all together and put it into your serving bowl or your travel container and this lunch bowl is ready to go. This lunch bowl is so light and so fresh. It really is the epitome of clean and delicious. And for my third and final lunch idea, I've got my veggie packed turkey sandwich on a pepper bun. Now I have to tell you guys, I originally saw this idea on Instagram and I wish I could remember who posted it. So if you guys know, make sure to come on down to the comments below and let me know so we can give a little love. But anyway, what you're going to do is you're going to take a pepper, I love yellow because the color, again, is beautiful. And you want to look for the two biggest cheeks on the pepper and just slice straight down. This is going to serve as our bread and the rest is assembly only. So I'm going to start with some red leaf lettuce on the bottom, topped with some red roasted peppers and these are straight from a jar so very easy. Then I've got some roasted turkey breast and you only need about two ounces and you just want to shred that up and pile it right on top of your lettuce. And then I've got some fresh sliced cheddar cheese. I am using a New Zealand grass fed cheddar cheese. Then I'm doing a layer of pickles and the pickles I'm using are spicy dill pickles but by all means use any type of pickle you love. And then the last step is you take the top of the pepper, what's going to be the top of the sammy, and spread some hummus on it and then pop it to seal the sandwich. How beautiful is this guys? And just look at this. You can see all of the different layers and this sandwich is obviously very versatile. You can really use whatever you have and include your personal favorite sandwich ingredients. So there you have it, three super simple, protein packed, clean and delicious lunch ideas that would be perfect to bring along to school or work. Now I want to hear from you. Which of these three recipes do you think you will try first? Come on down to the comments below and let me know. Or if you have your own favorite lunch addiction, let us hear about that too. And if you haven't already, please do me a favor and take a moment to like, subscribe and share this video with anybody else you know who wants to make healthy eating easy. Thanks so much for watching guys. I'm Nene Spees. I will see you back here next time with some more clean and deliciousness. Cheers! So there you have it. Three protein packed, super simple, clean and delicious lunch ideas. Make sure that you... I'm going to do that one more time. So there you have it. Three very simple, extremely nutritious, clean... I'm going crazy right now. Last time. One, two, three. So there you have it. Three protein packed, super simple, three super simple protein packed, clean and delicious. One, two, three. Boom.