{Today’s Lunchbox} Heather from Gluten-Free Cat

Today, Heather from Gluten-Free Cat is guest-blogging her lunchbox.  Hummus, soup, quinoa, homemade almond butter – this looks amazing. I discovered Heather’s blog a few months ago and love her gluten-free recipes and approach to whole foods. Enjoy!

I am honored to be Valerie’s guest blogger on City Life Eats and to share one of my recent lunchboxes with you. I am always attracted to {Today’s Lunchbox} because I am the Queen of Lunchboxes. At least I thought I was the Queen until I met Valerie!

When I pack for the day, sometimes I feel like I’m heading out on a mini-vacation.  At least 3 days a week I need to pack one gym bag, sometimes two, a locker room bag complete with professional clothes and toiletries, my bag of grading that I intended to tackle last evening, a refillable water canteen, and a cooler filled with a lunch, snacks, and sometimes even a breakfast.

How do I decide which foods to pack? I consider these five questions:

• What’s fresh from my CSA? (We had gorgeous fresh parsley this week, so you’ll find parsley in three of my lunchbox items.)
• What’s already made? (I tend to cook on the weekends.)
• How many colors and how much variety can I include? (The nutrition and satisfaction factors increase with variety.)
• What can I inhale in a teacher’s 20-minute lunch break? (No further comment needed!)
• What snack is going to sustain me through an afternoon fitness class? (A bunch of broccoli may be good for me, but it won’t be enough fuel to teach an intense BodyPump or Spin class.)

So what’s in my lunchbox today?

• Parsley Hummus with Zucchini Sticks and CSA Carrots – I adapted Kalyn’s recipe from Kalyn’s Kitchen, and it has become a GFC favorite!
• Apple slices and Sweet Almond Butter – This is a perfect combination of carbohydrate and protein right before hitting the gym.  I love Diane’s idea, from The Whole Gang, of filling the apple core with nut butter, and I just learned to make my own almond butter!
• Moroccan Yukina Savoy Red Quinoa Skillet – It’s sweet, spicy, and delicious hot or as a cold salad. The quinoa and cannellini beans provide great vegetarian protein too.
• Parsley, Potato, and Green Onion Soup – I don’t have a recipe for this. But because these three ingredients were the only CSA veggies I had left, I boiled the potatoes, blended them in the VitaMix with the leftover green onions and parsley, added two cloves of garlic and some veggie broth, and came up with a delicious, creamy soup.

Packing a lunch takes some serious forethought, but it’s good for your health, your wallet, and the environment. Check back often for great lunchbox ideas from Valerie. I have her site bookmarked, do you?

Heather, I think packing lunchboxes regularly makes us all Queens Thank you for guest-blogging here.  I love love love the trick with the apple and the rubber band and the almond butter. 

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Disclosures: General Disclosures