A Bevy of Healthy Lunch Ideas

When I first started the whole low-calorie recipe quest, I found it fairly easy to find dinner recipes that sounded good. Even breakfast items were fairly simple to come by. Lunches, however, are a different story. The word "diet" or "low-calorie" tends to bring thoughts of salad and raw veggies to mind. Now, while I love a good salad, I can only eat them so many days in a row before losing my mind. I am what you might call a food lover. I mean, I loooovvveee food. I get all excited over a new recipe and start dreaming of how I can change it up and make it better. I think I inherited it from my dad's side of the family. We all love to cook and enjoy a tasty meal.

Naturally, the idea of bland, boring lunches just doesn't sit right with me. I don't think it sits right when anyone. Period. End of story. So, after hours of searching and planning, I have found a pretty good collection of lunch ideas and recipes and I would like to share them with you all.

1. Ok, I'll be honest, my favorite lunch would have to be leftovers! If you have planned well and created a really good, low-cal menu for the week, you should plan for leftovers to take for lunch. You've already figured out the calories and it saves you time and effort in the morning. Plus, there's nothing better than a hot meal in the middle of the day. Makes you feel good inside. :)

2. Laptop Lunches - completely awesome site with portion control lunchboxes, as well as 365 lunch ideas organized by what's in season. It makes my heart so happy!

3. Eating Well Kids Lunch Ideas - I know these are supposed to be for kids, but I think they all sound so delicious. We're all kids at heart, right? So I say let's go for it! (Eating Well is my go-to site for most healthy recipes)

4. Taste of Home - GREAT list of low-calorie lunch food ideas. Combine as you please to create meals that are 450 calories or less.

5. On-The-Go Packed Lunches - another site with helpful lunch planning info.

6. Another Eating Well Lunch Collection - ideas for when you have a little extra time to prepare something special for lunch.

Hope these sites are as helpful to you as they have been (and continue to be) to me. Happy eating! :)