Summer holidays are almost over (at least here in Germany they are coming to a close), so it’s time to get back to work! But let’s make this year different than the others, shall we? How about buying less lunches? How about skipping dining halls? This year, we could do something crazy and bring our own lunches! Ok, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We could at least try to bring our lunch more often. Not just because it saves money, but because it cares for our body. It means putting our body first.
Ok, this was a bit theatrical, but isn’t true? With just about 90 minutes of meal prepping on Sunday, you can prepare four lunches that might even last until dinner. My boyfriend and I have tried it out, and together we needed less than 40 minutes to prepare it all. If you’re alone, you can definitely make it in under 90 minutes.
So here comes the grocery list that you’ll need to put your body first four times of the week:
Grocery list for four lunches for one hungry or two medium hungry people:
- 200 g (about 2 cups) of millet
- 200 g (about 2 cup) of quinoa
- 200 g of cherry-tomatoes
- 1 cucumber (you’ll need half of it for the recipes, can you can always make more for dinner)
- 1 bell pepper (red or yellow)
- 1 jar of chickpeas (about 200g drained)
- 1 bag of edamame (frozen, from the organic store)
- 1 avocado
- 1 small jar of kalamato olives, preferably without the stone
- 1 jar of sun-dried tomatoes
- 2 bunches of rocket
- 1 red onion
- 50 g of summer berries (z.B. blueberries, raspberries or blackberries)
- 100 g of blueberries
- 1 spring onion
- 60 g of almonds
- 60 g of walnuts
- 30 g of peanuts, peeled
- 2 EL of raisins
- fresh mint
- fresh cilantro
- olive oil
- balsamico-Essig
- apple cider vinegar
- Dijon-mustard
- peanut butter
- tamari (or soy sauce)
- fresh ginger
- 1 clove of garlic
- 1 lime
- 2 strings of fresh mint
- maple syrup, rice syrup or coconut sugar to sweeten (optional)
- Feta-cheese
- Tofu
- Goat cheese
- salmon
What to prepare on Sunday:
Wash all of the fresh ingredients and cut them into bite-sized pieces. Fill them in air-tight containers such as mason jars or glass containers. Cook the millet and quinoa with twice the amount of water. Millet cooks for about 20 minutes and quinoa for about 10-12 minutes. Let them cool, fluff with a fork and fill into containers.
To prepare the olive oil based dressings, simply combine all of the ingredients in a small, sealable jar. For the peanut dressing, finely chop the ginger and garlic and mix it with the other ingredients using a whisk. Store in a sealable jar in the fridge.
Layer the first two salads in your mason jars, the other two on Tuesday.
If you’re using other protein sources such as tofu, feta-cheese or salmon, you’ll need to prepare it the night before you want to eat the salad.
Stored in a mason jar, the salads stay fresh for at least two days. I hate to admit it, but in my case, they lasted from saturaday until thursday. Please trust your instincts more than my fridge situation. The recipes in this post are supposed to fit into a 950ml Ball Mason Jar and hence, are quite generous in size. Jannis and I had dinner with just one jar and a little bit of feta cheese on top. But if you’re really hungry, then go have one jar for lunch. The ingredients won’t have you crashing after two hours, but keep you satisfied for longer.
Let’s move on to the recipes. The ingredients are layered from bottom to top, the exact measurements can of course vary depending on the size of you jar. You don’t need to follow the recipes 100%. Just play around with it, have fun and don’t stress.
- 4 tablespoons of chickpeas
- 6 cherry tomatoes, halved
- 70 - 100 g of cooked millet
- ¼ a cucumber, cubed
- ca. 4 sun-dried tomatoes, sliced
- 5 olives, halved
- ½ red onion, sliced
- a handful of rocket
- Serve with 4 tablespoons of the olive oil dressing (see below)
- 4 tablespoons of edamame (you can use the frozen ones, they de-freeze in the fridge)
- ½ red or yelllow bell pepper, cubed
- 1 spring onion, sliced
- 70 – 100 g of cooked quinoa
- 30 g of peanuts (or any other nut of your choice)
- fresh cilantro
- a handful of rocket
- Serve with 4 tablespoons of the peanut dressing (see below)
- 4 tablespoons of chickpeas
- 6 cherry-tomatoes, cut in half
- 70 - 100 g of cooked millet
- ¼ a cucumber, cubed
- 2 tablespoons of raisins
- 30 g of almonds, whole or chopped
- a few mint leaves
- a handful of rocket
- Serve with 4 tablespoons of olive oil dijon dressing
- 4 tablespoons of edamame (you can use the frozen ones, they de-freeze in the fridge)
- ½ red or yelllow bell pepper, cubed
- 1 spring onion, sliced
- 6 sun-dried tomatoes, sliced
- 70 - 100 g of cooked millet
- 3-4 tablespoons of blueberries (or berries of your choice)
- 30 g walnuts
- a handful of rocket
- ½ avocado (add the day off or else it might turn brown!)
- Serve with four tablespoons of the berry dressing
- Layer the salads from bottom to top and store in a ball mason jar. Do not open until you want to eat it.
For the dressings:
- 4 tablespoons of olive oil
- 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
- 1 teaspoon of dijon-mustard
- 1 teaspoon of honey, maple syrup or rice syrup (optional, but mhhh)
- sea salt and pepper to taste
- 5 g of ginger
- 1 clove of garlic
- 3 tablespoons of tamari
- the juice of ½ - 1 lime (depending on your taste)
- 1 tablespoons of maple syrup (or rice syrup)
- 80g of peanut butter (use 100% peanut butter without additives such as palm oil)
- 2 tablespoons of water
- 100g of fresh blueberries
- 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar
- 2 tablespoon of olive oil
- 5 mint leaves
- sea salt and pepper to taste
- For the olive oil dressing, mix all ingredients in a small sealable jar. You can keep the dressing in the fridge for up to a week and use it for other salads or bowls.
- For the peanut lime dressing, finely chop the ginger and garlic and mix it with the other ingredients. You can keep it in the fridge for about a week.
- For the blueberry-mint dressing, mix all ingredients in a blender or hand blender. You can keep it in a sealable container for up to a week in the fridge.
Now, if you’ve made one of the salads, please let me know!
Have fun planning you lunches!
xx
Lynn
Leave a Reply