Thursday, March 1, 2012

Easy Lunch Recipe

Those of us who bring our lunches to work often have the same lament: what other options do we have that are quick, easy, low cal, and still delicious? Today I have an answer for you.
This recipe is another brain child of my wonderful husband JD. He just threw it together one day, and boy has it stuck with us!
We call it stir fry, but you can call it something else, if you'd like (since there's no stirring or frying involved).

What we use:
1/2c rice- 121 kcal
60g frozen green beans- 22 kcal
160g frozen normandy veggie mix- 52 kcal
52g frozen shrimp- 43 kcal
1 1/2tbsp teriyaki- 30 kcal
(Total entree calories: 268!)

What you do:
dump everything in a plastic container. shake.

If you put it together at night, set it in the fridge to defrost. If you put it together in the morning, just let it set out. Before eating, warm it in the microwave for about 2 minutes, and it's ready!
Today I have paired mine with a small sweet potato and a fiber1 bar.
Total meal calories: 480 (and fiber to boot!)

Do you have a recipe that's quick, low cal, and delicious? Share it in the comments below and I'll give it a try! (Mind that my ingredient options are limited for the next few months).

4 comments:

  1. This isn't quite as easy as assemble-the-night-before but every few weeks I make a big pot of this and freeze the individual servings and grab them to take to work so that I never have an excuse to buy something. I suppose it's a black bean soup? I don't know, it's just something I make and it's way easy. According to this calorie counting website that analyzes your recipes, if it's divided up into 4 servings then there are 286 calories each.

    1 can black beans
    2 cans no-salt-added diced tomatoes (I use the juice from one can and drain the other)
    1 can low-sodium chicken stock
    1/2 c. brown rice
    any veggies that happen to exist in the fridge/ freezer (usually bell pepper and onion but I've been known to throw in a bag of stir fry veggies as well.
    And seasonings: Sometimes I use 1/2 a packet of taco seasoning but I like to season my own as well with red pepper flakes, black pepper, and garlic salt.

    Dump everything into a pot. Bring it up to a boil. Take it down to a simmer and in 20 mintues it's delicious. If you let it simmer longer, though, the rice soaks up more of the soup and it can be used as a yummy taco or lettuce wrap stuffing.

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  2. I'm a big fan of black beans...I'm excited to try this one! Might have to substitute brown rice with white, though...unfortunately. Amazingly enough, brown rice isn't terribly easy to find here:(

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  3. White rice, quinoa, whateves. When I went through a vegetarian phase I fell in love with quinoa because of all of the protein. Is that accessible to you? If not--it is a true tragedy.

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  4. no quinoa here:( But I've been hearing so much about it lately that I'm DYING to try it, so JD's parents are going to try and send me some with our next package. Here's hoping!!

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