A Week of Work Lunches - Marcella

Working a white-collar job involves the constant presence of donuts, cakes, pizza, candy dishes...My colleagues always express sympathy for me and/or wonder at the discipline I must be exercising when I can't partake but the truth is that I consider myself so so lucky that my principles prevent willpower from ever needing to enter into it. That food never registers in my brain as edible. I work out during lunch, and then eat my container of one of the recipes below, plus a salad and am content.

The only difficulty in having a healthy lunch at work could be prep time, so I thought I'd share some ways to prepare easy lunches in advance. Even simpler than the recipes below: you can always buy some cans of various beans and make about 2.5 cups of brown rice or quinoa over the weekend. Then every day, combine 1/2 can of beans and 1/2 cup of rice or quinoa OR a microwaved sweet potato. Have with a side of spinach leaves and grape tomatoes. Pretty easy.

I'm going to post on a few recipes that you can make on the weekend in one big batch that'll last 4-5 days for one person. Just add a side salad and you'll be set. Here's the first:

Black Beans + Quinoa with Pumpkin Seeds and Cilantro
protein-rich and filling

• 1.5 c water
• 1 c quinoa
• 1/2 c raw pumpkin seeds
• 1 c fresh cilantro OR 1 cube frozen (can be found at Trader Joe's)
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 3 cans low-sodium black beans
  

In a small pot, combine water and quinoa and bring to a boil. Cover, turn heat down to medium-low, and simmer for 15 minutes then remove from heat.

Dry-toast the pumpkin seeds over high heat til they pop or are a little darker in color - not burnt.

Combine with the garlic, cumin, cilantro and salt in a food processor and process til well minced.

Stir into the quinoa.

Rinse and drain the black beans and combine with the quinoa.