Can we all agree work-life balance can become a headache?
If you are working, once you account for your commute, errands, and other duties, is never only 40 hours. And, if you’re a business owner and work for yourself, you know almost painfully well, how easily your workweeks can become a 50, 60, or 70+ hour work week if you’re not careful.
Balance it all often means burning the candle at both ends and no one said it was easy. Health is the most important thing you can have and of course, taking the time to meal prep It’s not something we can all handle. Plus, have you ever thought about how many dollars are you wasting yearly by those extra Uber Eats delivery? Yes, a lot!.
Before we dive into some tasty recipes! Here are some things we should take into consideration when prepping food ( yes we had no clue before!! ).
Even though you don’t have to reheat meals when you are at the office, they still need to be refrigerated until you intend to eat them. Leaving food at room temperature for longer than 2 hours will increase your risk of developing a foodborne illness according to the FDA (crazy right!?) so play it safe and keep your food cool. Keep in mind that room temperature doesn’t immediately happen when you pull meals from the fridge – it’s ok if your food is out of the fridge for a while because it will still be cold for a few hours, it just can’t be room temperature for more than 2 hours. It’s safe to eat fully cooked food that was stored in the fridge for up to four days without reheating it. If you’re considering eating something that’s maybe been in the fridge for a week, it’s not a bad idea to give it some heat—just as a precaution.
Here at ishine365, we love giving you always the best lifestyle ideas!. Over the next lines we will give some cold and hot dishes so you can balance out the microwave line at the office ( can we all agree sometimes it’s like a traffic jam lol?).
Now coming back to our lunch ideas, here are some cold dishes you must try. Our team has tried them and we swear by these. Here are two of your next best friends: Chickpeas and avocados. These are two ingredients that honestly taste better cold than they do hot ( so you don’t even need to think about heating them). There are so many ways of eating them: from a Greek-salad style grain bowl, a chickpea salad sandwich, and a veggie-packed wrap. They’re super basic, and you don’t even need a well-stocked kitchen to make them.
Also, anything chicken-related is a good idea. You can make a chicken salad which is very easy to prep. There are a bunch of variations that use alternatives to mayo (as dressing) if that’s not your thing, including Greek yogurt, avocado, and even lighter options with vinegar such as balsamic. We found this one we love!: “ Healthy Greek yogurt Salad”.( click to see full recipe!).
If you think you have already found the best egg salad recipe, think again. This one we found makes the creamiest, richest sandwich filling you can never ask for.
Another great idea for your lunch is grain bowls paired with a salad. To make a grain bowl, all you have to do is pick a grain—any grain—and mix it up with your preferred veggies and proteins. It could be quinoa, couscous, rice, and millet are all excellent choices, too.
And if you’re in the mood for a salad, just use the same formula but ditch the grains. We found this Asian quinoa salad super convenient.
Ok so! Going on with our next favorites ideas we got: Tacos. Though tacos might not be the first thing you’d think of meal prepping, they’re ideal for the task. Of course, that’s mostly because you don’t have to heat them before eating them!
The key to meal prepping tacos: put your filling in your meal prep containers and pack two or three tortillas to assemble them at work. That way the tortillas don’t get soggy. We found a way of how to prep sweet potato tacos here!.
Now we will go into a few dishes we love that you can reheat if you want! We are sure that these will help you stop spending $18 on a chicken salad during your lunch break for about 2 pieces of chicken.
1. Pesto Pasta with Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Roasted Asparagus: A quick and easy pasta dish loaded with plenty of veggies and mozzarella cheese. We personally love this one because it feels like a weekend guilty pleasure with a healthy side!. Click here to see the one we love!.
2. Spicy Roasted Shrimp Sandwich with Chipotle Avocado Mayonnaise – A loaded shrimp sandwich with a kick of heat and a double dose of avocado. Click here to see the full recipe!.
3. Chicken Pesto Sandwich – Lightened up with Greek yogurt, this hearty sandwich is one of the quickest, tastiest meals you’ll ever have. Click here to see the full recipe!.
4. Steak Fajita – All the amazing flavors of a fajita conveniently, served with the creamiest cilantro lime dressing Click here to see the full recipe!.
5. Easy Burrito Bowls – Skip Chipotle and try these burrito bowls right at home with an epic chipotle cream sauce. Click here to see the full recipe!.
We hope these recipes help you out as much as they helped us!. Remember to share this blog post with your friends if you liked it!. We are more than happy to always share our best pieces of advice and news to all of our Ishine babes!.