custom house: Lunchtime!

Lately I've been on a real salad kick for lunches. There is so much great produce at the store these days and I just get mesmerized by all the bright colours. I can't wait for the local farmers market to start up next month.

Today I had a real medley of veggies from the fridge - red pepper, carrot, cucumber, celery, brocolli, baby spinach and I threw in 1/2 cup of beans for some protein. I didn't take a picture of the dressing I used, but I tend to go for just balsamic vinegar or maybe a low fat Kraft dressing (Cream Cucumber is my fav). If I have some feta in the fridge, I'll toss a bit in with some red onion. It brings back memories of my trip to Greece last spring (they sure know how to make a salad over there). This salad is a nutrition power house with 6.5 servings of veggies, super filing (3.5 cups) and is just 238 calories (not including dressing)

Its easy to eat healthy, but it isn't always easy to chop up all those veggies in the morning, so I tend to chop up all the veggies I'm going to need for about 3 days and divide them up into individual salads using these great Ziploc Twist and Lock containers. All I need to do in the morning is grab my container of salad, a few pieces of fruit for a snack, maybe a muffin and I'm good to go.

My other favorite thing to have for lunch is SOUP! I love soup, and the more flavourful the better. I try to make it as often as possible from scratch to boost the nutrition and lower the sodium and fat levels. To save time, I make a big batch and freeze into 3 day portions in the Ziploc Twist and Lock containers (I seriously love these things). Here are a few of my favourite homemade soup recipes that I've posted here on SHBS: