Monday: Sesame Noodles With Chicken
Toss half of the fettuccine noodles, half the red peppers, and the julienned carrots with half the Asian dressing/noodle sauce. Top with half of the chicken strips. Eat hot or cold. Calories: 568
Fat: 29 g
Carbs: 50 g
Protein: 30 g
Tuesday: Black Bean Burritos
Lay two tortillas out on a plate. Spoon some of the black bean mixture onto each. Add some of the salad, then wrap. Heat in the microwave or toaster oven (if your office has one) for a crisper shell.
Calories: 511
Fat: 7.5 g
Carbs: 69.5 g
Protein: 15 g
Wednesday: Asian Chicken Salad
Put a few handfuls of salad into a bowl. Add the orange, and top with the chunk of chicken that wasn't cut into strips. Bring the other half of the Asian dressing/noodle sauce to work with you to toss in. Bonus: Throw in chow mein noodles or broken tortilla chips for crunch.
Calories: 499
Fat: 28 g
Carbs: 15 g
Protein: 24 g
Thursday: Hummus Salad Wrap
Lay two tortillas out on foil. Add two generous spoonfuls of hummus to the center of each. Add some salad and wrap.
Calories: 447
Fat: 8.5 g
Carbs: 39.5 g
Protein: 7 g
Friday: Lemony Pasta With Chicken
Friday: Lemony Pasta with Chicken
Combine the remaining fettuccine, the diced tomatoes and the remaining red pepper slices with the lemony pasta sauce. Toss to combine, and place the remaining chicken strips on top. Nuke and eat.
Calories: 565.5
Fat: 26 g
Carbs: 49 g
Protein: 32 g
The snacking dividend
You'll have salad, hummus, black beans and tortillas left over, even on your meager budget. One idea: Bake the tortillas until they crisp up; break into "chips" to dip into the beans and hummus, along with any leftover veggies. Make a mini-wrap snack anytime you're hungry.
A few points, from one cheapskate to the next
- Don't cling to the notion that you've got to eat meat at every meal. Getting protein from beans or nuts will cut costs and calories while still filling you up.
- Don't immediately go for pre-packaged produce. Stores try to sell bundled veggies to push inventory -- but they will give you a smaller quantity if you ask. Nobody likes a veggie graveyard in their fridge.
- Cheap, flavorful ingredients like lemon and garlic are essential to making canned and packaged foods taste fresh.
- Multi-purpose anything you can for lunch. A dressing that can double as a noodle sauce, or tortillas that stand in for pitas are perfect. Last night's pasta sauce can make you a pita "pizza" for lunch anyday.
Comments:
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Wednesday 07 October
By giovanna
this article really helped me out. Being unemployed college student on scholarship is hard enough in this economy. I just wanted to say thanks for posting such great meal ideas!
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Wednesday 04 November
By Michelle
Very interesting article. Would appreciate veg alternatives in the future as I do not eat meat and soy "chicken" is very expensive.
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Wednesday 04 November
By Dara
Try O Organics whole wheat linguine sold at Randalls!
It comes in a green box and is by far the tastiest whole wheat pasta I've tried (most are gross), and it's a little healthier than normal linguine!
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Friday 19 February
By Juice
These nutritional totals are insane. I'm on weight watchers and the points for each one of these "healthy" lunches is DOUBLE what the average lunch intake should be. Monday = 13 points Tues= 11 points Wed =12 points Thurs= 9 points & Frid= 13 points . . . The fat content and carbs are through the roof as well .
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Friday 26 February
By amberwitch
With prepping sunday I wouldn't want to eat chicken the following friday.
My rule of thumb says that food can keep for four days, making it difficult to make food for whole week during the weekend unless you freeze it.
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Sunday 28 February
By Momo
I don't use all the recipes, I really did not like the lemon sauce but the asian noodle sauce/salad dressing is actually better the next day. The person who made the comment about chicken on Friday, nothing says you have to follow all the steps exactly -trade off the bean burritos or hummus for Friday or just have the lemon dressing with tuna and some salad. The vegetarian, you can always replace with cooked soy beans, lentils, cubed tofu or tempeh instead of the chicken to get enough protein, I did and some tasted and worked better than the chicken. I did find that if I don't add the tomatoes and sweet peppers to the salad mix especially if made with romaine or a heartier lettuce than iceberg until I'm just about to eat, the salad will last until the end of the week and not look sad, also make sure you get as much water off all the veggies as you can when you rinse them. I did have to make a trip to the dollar store to have enough containers to keep everything sealed until I was ready to eat. Fettucine is really expensive where I live so I ended up using udon and regular spagetthi because that was more affordable.Most times I spent way less than $20 for the week plus I was able to afford a small piece of fruit that was in season with lunch and a cheese stick if I just had salad.
All in all, thanks much lemon drop, that was a helpful article.
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