Healthy Vegetarian Lunch Ideas

I shared some lunch ideas with a friend today and figured since they were all typed out, I'd go ahead and post them to share with everyone. 

My go-to lunch is a veggie sandwich; I am using a low calorie Sara Lee multi grain bread. It's pretty darn good for 45 calories a slice. This only takes me 5 minutes to make in the morning, so if I didn't have time to make something the night before, I just slap it together and go. 

Veggie Sandwich

1 cup spinach

1 medium tomato cut into 4 slices

Sliced cucumber (at least 8 slices, more if desired)

Mustard (or whatever spread you want, I love mustard and it has no calories or fat)

2 slices Sara Lee low cal Multi Grain bread

Lightly toast the bread because it will stay more firm until lunch as it soaks up tomato juices. Slather your spread of choice on both slices. Arrange 4 slices of cucumbers, then spread 1/2 cup spinach on top. Arrange 4 slices of tomatoes on top of spinach, then repeat with remaining spinach on top of that. Finish with another layer of cucumbers. Viola!

With these ingredients: 116 calories/1g fat/7.5g protein

The next 3 require preparation the night before. Sometimes I do the spaghettti squash on Sunday then have it for 2 lunches during the week. And when I say liquid butter, I use the I Can't Believe It's Not Butter spray, and pour it into a bowl to make sauces if needed. Yeah, I know it's chemicals, but I don't care. ;)

Spaghetti Squash w/ Tofu Sausage Ragu

1 tsp minced garlic

1 small can of tomato sauce

4 oz tofu sausage

1 regular sz can of tomatoes with Italian herbs (drained)

1 cup mushroom slices

1 cup zucchini slices

2 cups cooked spaghetti squash

Brown garlic, add sausage, mushrooms and zucchini and let it all brown at the same time. Cook until as done as you want them. Then add tomatoes and sauce and stir it all together. This makes 2 servings of sauce. Serve each serving over 1 cup of cooked spaghetti squash, or store with 1 cup of cooked spaghetti squash in the fridge for later lunches.

With these ingredients: 182 calories/.5g fat/12g protein per serving

Spaghetti Squash Carobanara

1 tsp minced garlic

1 cup cooked spaghetti squash

1 egg

liquid butter (optional)

3 slices Bacon (I use Oscar Meyer center cut, 70cal for 3 slices. Turkey bacon has less calories but I don't like it)

1 cup spinach

(This is kinda like bacon and eggs over pasta, plus spinach, but without the pasta. ;) If you don't like bacon, maybe try turkey bacon, or a different type of meat, because this is really, really good. Most people make it with heavy cream and butter, obviously I choose not to. I add a little liquid butter to the egg mixture, but it's purely optional.)

Whisk egg in a medium bowl (add a little butter if you prefer) and set aside. Dice bacon and brown in skillet. Remove bacon but leave grease, add garlic and spinach and cook until wilted (or however you prefer it). If spaghetti squash is not hot, zap it in the microwave or heat in boiling water. It needs to be HOT for the next step. Add the hot spaghetti squash into the egg bowl. Stir and separate and coat the squash with the egg, while the egg cooks on the spaghetti. Add the hot spinach and bacon and stir it all around to combine. The squash and spinach will scramble/cook the egg, so they both need to be hot when you add them to the egg. If the egg doesn't look cooked, you can microwave or return to skillet to help it finish cooking. Once it's all coated, mixed and cooked, either serve or save for lunches.

With these ingredients: 198 calories/10g fat/16g protein

Oven Roasted Summer Squash & Eggplant

1 zucchini

1 yellow squash

1/2 eggplant

dry seasonings or dressing mix (try Italian or Ranch dressing dry mix)

liquid butter, or any oil or cooking spray

I make a little sauce out of liquid butter, lemon juice and low sodium Worcestershire sauce to cook these in, but it's kinda different, so you might try it first to see if you like it. It's about 2 tbls liquid butter and then dash in the other two to your desired flavor. 

Dice or slice all veggies and throw in a big plastic bowl. Coat with butter mix, or oil, or cooking spray, and sprinkle dry dressing mix over the veggies. Toss them around in the bowl and add more of each as needed to coat. Spray a baking pan with cooking spray and spread all the veggies on in a single layer. Cook on 425 for 30-40 minutes. Depends on how done you want them. At 40 minutes, the ones on the edges will start to burn so keep an eye on it. This is a big serving but they do cook down a little smaller, so I consider this just 1 serving personally. 

With ingredients listed: 135 calories/1.5g fat/10g protein