This post is sponsored by Woolworths
I’m a lunch packer from way back. It always takes a little bit of extra effort but any lunches for work that I bring from home are always much better and cheaper than gross cafe sandwiches or stingy takeaway salads. I don’t always have time of an evening to make sure I’ve got a healthy packed lunch the next day, so if I look at my calendar and see that I’ve got a particularly busy week coming up, I’ll spend my Sundays whipping up a few make ahead meals. That way I’ve got no excuse to not eat healthily because I’ve always got a portioned meal ready to pop in the microwave.
Each of these make-ahead lunches for work are about 250 calories per serve, are packed with veggies and can be made ahead and stored in containers in the fridge ready for you to just grab them in the morning on your way out the door. They’re also great to have ready for mid-week dinners if you’ve had a shocker of a day and don’t feel like cooking.
- 400 gms beef mince
- 500 gms of sweet potato, thinly sliced
- 1 bunch of silver beet
- 1 large leek
- 2 tablespoons of macro plain gluten free flour
- Olive oil
- Olive oil spray
- 1½ cups of low fat ricotta cheese
- 2 eggs
- ½ cup of grated parmesan cheese
- A handful of grated light cheese
- Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees. Peel and thinly slice sweet potato. Put sweet potato slices in a single layer on a two baking trays and bake for 15 minutes or until soft. Layer them in the bottom of a large oven proof dish.
- Heat oil in fry pan and fry beef until brown. Add leeks and cook until soft. Layer on top of sweet potato in the oven proof dish. Sprinkle the flour over the beef with a little bit of cheese. This will help to bind the pie together as well as soaking up extra liquid from the beef.
- Strip the green leaves off the silver beat. Bring a large pot of water to boil on the stove. Drop the silver-beet leaves in the boiling water for 30 seconds then drain. Layer on top of the cheese and flour.
- Mix ricotta, eggs and half the parmesan cheese in a bowl. Pour on top of the silver beet. Sprinkle with remaining parmesan cheese and bake in the oven for 30 minutes until brown.
- 3 medium sized eggplants
- ¾ cup grated parmesan cheese
- ¾ cup grated mozzarella cheese
- 800gm can of crushed tomatoes
- 1 tablespoon of dried oregano
- 2 cups of macro gluten free bread crumbs
- Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees. Thickly slice eggplant. Bring a saucepan of water to boil and steam eggplant over the water until it’s very soft.
- Spread the bottom of a large oven proof dish with ½ of the diced tomatoes and layer the eggplant on top.
- Sprinkle with oregano and pour on remaining crushed tomatoes.
- Top with breadcrumbs and cheese and bake in the oven for 30 minutes until brown.
- Olive oil
- 2 brown onions, thickly sliced
- 2 large tablespoons of Madras curry paste
- 6 gloves of crushed garlic
- 1 bunch of coriander
- 3cm square chunk of grated ginger
- 2 tomatoes diced
- 1 cup of plain yogurt (you can also use coconut flavoured evaporated milk if you can get your hands on it)
- 1 large head of cauliflower
- 400gms can of drained chickpeas
- 2 red capsicums, roughly chopped
- A large handful of round green beans, trimmed
- Heat oil in a saucepan and cook onion until soft and brown. Add curry paste, ginger and garlic and cook until fragrant. Add tomato and stir cook for another 3 to 4 minutes.
- Add yogurt, chickpeas, cauliflower (broken into florets) and simmer, covered for 15 minutes. Add round beans and simmer, covered for another 10 minutes until vegetables are cooked. Stir through coriander and serve with a spoon of yogurt.
All of these recipes are very adaptable. You can add some chicken to the curry if you want some extra protein or replace the beef in the pie with a vegetarian alternative like mushrooms. Vegetable bakes and quiches are also excellent make ahead meals as they keep beautifully in the fridge.
