Healthy foods to eat at work!

Being an engineer typically means working long hours. Combined with trying to float a "normal" social life, keeping up with familial responsibilities,  and doing normal "adult" things like getting your oil changed and seeing the dentist- this leaves you with what feels like very little time to prep food for the week. Sometimes this means that I end up eating not-so-great cafeteria food, or one of those frozen personal meals. I've decided that this lifestyle isn't working for me anymore because:

1. It's unhealthy. The cafeteria food is filled with more salt, sugar, preservatives, and calories than I'd cook with. 
2. It's not great for the environment. Frozen meals mean plastic and paper packaging, and the fuel needed to ship it to me. Cafeteria meals come in Styrofoam plates, which are also all sorts of bad.
3. It's expensive! They are all really overpriced compared to making it yourself.
4. The food I've been buying isn't even that good. It's usually under seasoned and uninspired  - the quality you remember being served for lunch if you went to a US public school. 

So, while I'm not a chef and this is not a food blog, here are some of the things I've been trying out recently (and liked). There are links under each of the photos to the websites where I found the original recipe. 

Breakfast

Overnight Oatmeal

Prep time: ~10 min including copping and cleanup

Calories: 200-300 depending on recipe

Desk eat-ability: High.

Recipes here!!

These are quick to prepare, and are good for two-three days. So you can plan ahead! Make sure to drink plenty of water the same day as you eat them, since they have chia seeds in them


Green Smoothie

Prep time: ~5 minutes ahead of time, ~10 minutes including washing the dishes the day of. 

Calories: Depends on what fruits you use

Desk eat-ability: High. Make sure this is in a spill proof container though, because if you spill this gook on yourself it is NOT a good look.  

Pro tip: blend the greens and liquid first, then add fruit. This will make it less chunky. If you are new to the green smoothie game, start with spinach. And if you are feeling really wimpy you can add a couple of teaspoons of raw coco with sweet fruit, you can feel like it's a milkshake,

Check out more green smoothie tips here!

Cold Brew Coffee

Prep time: ~3 minutes the night before. ~5 minutes in the morning to transfer into a non-spill container and clean the french press.

Calories: Depends on how much milk and sugar you dump in in it.

Desk eat-ability: High. Put in a spill proof container, and you can drink it on your way to work.

Recipe here!!

Why yes, this is the stuff I spilled on myself. 

Lunch/Dinner

Mason Jar Salads
Prep time: About 15 -30 minutes ahead of time depending on how much chopping is involved.
Calories: Under 500
Desk Eatability: Medium. Realistically, it's quite difficult to eat out of the mason jar. It's kind of hard to mix, and an awkward angle for a fork. You can keep the same theory in a better salad container.

Find these recipes here!

Snacks

Oranges!

Prep time: 0 minutes

Calories: ~45 calories

Desk eatability: High. Not super noisy, or smelly, so your coworkers won't hate you. 

Here's an explanation of the different kinds of citrus fruits

Infused water

Recipe here!!!

I've got more options I track on the ever-awesome pinterest here. What is your favorite food to bring to work? What should I try?

Cheers,

Vanessa

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