How to cook lunches in the office for the week ahead: 5 dishes from 8 ingredients

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

To provide yourself with delicious and healthy meals for the whole week, you only need to buy groceries and prepare everything in one day.

Step 1. Buy groceries

To provide yourself with office lunches for the week, you will need:

• 450 g chickpeas, white beans or other legumes of your choice;
• 200 g fillet of beef or any other lean meat;
• 5 slices of whole grain bread;
• 1 can of canned tuna, mackerel, or pink salmon in oil
• 1 bunch of lettuce (romaine, Chinese cabbage, iceberg lettuce, or whatever you like)
• 1 ripe avocado
• 1 large cucumber;
• ¾ cups of walnuts.

Supporting materials:

• sealed containers for storing food;
• large plastic bags with ziplock;
• paper towels.

Also check to see if there is olive oil, lemon juice (fresh or diluted with powdered citric acid), salt, pepper, cumin, garlic powder, and grain mustard in the cupboard.

Step 2. Make the blanks

You have to spend a few hours on Sunday, but it's better than going shopping and standing by the stove every weekday. Soak chickpeas and beans from Saturday night. So they cook faster.

Make hummus

Hummus is a chickpea puree made with olive oil, lemon juice and spices. There are many ways to make hummus. The easiest way is to grind boiled chickpeas with a blender along with olive oil, lemon juice, salt and caraway seeds.

In our case, the boiled chickpeas need to be divided into two parts. We pack one in a container, grind the second into a paste, put it in a container and also put it in the refrigerator. If you have tahini in your home, you can add it to your hummus right away.

White bean puree is prepared in the same way, only lemon juice is not added, and instead of cumin, it is better to use ground black pepper.

Prepare the cucumber, avocado, and salad

Lettuce leaves should be rinsed under cold running water and dried thoroughly with paper towels. Then wrap the salad in towels, pack everything in ziplock bags and put it in the refrigerator. In this form, the leaves can remain fresh for up to seven days. You just need to check occasionally to see if the wipes have become wet. If so, replace them.

Wash the cucumber, put it in a container and put it in the refrigerator. Just keep the avocado in the refrigerator. If you cut it open, drizzle with lemon juice and place in a zip bag.

Fry or boil meat

Rinse and peel the beef.

Prepare the meat in a way that is convenient for you. The easiest is to boil it in salted water. When the meat has cooled slightly, cut it into strips, put it in an airtight container and put it in the refrigerator.

Another option is to fry the beef medallions. To do this, the fillet should be beaten off a little, marinated for 15–20 minutes in mustard and lemon juice, and then fried in a hot frying pan with olive oil. Cool the fried meat, put it in a container and put it in the freezer. Defrost it in the microwave or oven when needed.

Nuts and canned foods are best left in the wrapper until needed. We recommend storing the bread in the refrigerator.

Step 3. Fill your lunch boxes

On Sunday night, you make lunch for Monday, Monday for Tuesday, Tuesday for Wednesday, and so on. To remember when to use, print the following menu.

Sunday: tuna and avocado boats

Cut the avocado in half, remove the kernel. Use a spoon to scoop out the pulp. Leather boats will remain. Mash half of the pulp with a fork. Do the same with half a can of tuna. Mix these ingredients together. Season with salt and pepper and drizzle with lemon juice. Fill the avocado boats with the resulting paste.

Place 2 tablespoons of hummus in a separate compartment in your lunch box and chop ¹⁄₃ of a cucumber.

Monday: hummus and beef open sandwiches

Spread hummus on two slices of bread (2-3 tablespoons required). If desired, the bread can be dried in a pan or in a toaster. Top with a leaf of lettuce, fried or boiled meat (160 g) and a few cucumber circles.

Since the sandwiches are open, it is more convenient to eat them with a knife and fork.

Tuesday: nutty tacos

Use a blender or coffee grinder to grind two quarters of the walnuts and mix them with the whole chickpea peas (use about half as much). Add salt, ground pepper and garlic powder. The resulting filling can be heated in the microwave for a minute.

Lettuce leaves will act as tortillas. Spread the nut-chickpea filling in them and add a few slices of avocado.

Wednesday: tuna and chickpea sandwich

Mash the remaining tuna and chickpeas with a fork. Season with salt and pepper. Brush a slice of bread with grain mustard. Place the lettuce and the tuna and chickpea filling on top of it. Cover with another piece of bread.

Thursday: leftover salad

Tear the remaining salad with your hands, chop the meat and cucumber, chop the walnuts. Put it all in the lunch box in rows. Don't forget the chickpeas. Season with olive oil, salt and pepper. And you still have a piece of bread to dip in the remaining hummus.