This is more of a lunch prep food hack than a recipe. You’re generally going to have a more filling and nutritious lunch and food throughout the work day if you plan ahead and pack food from home. Planning begins with a base for your mid-day meal. I like something with a good mix of protein and carbohydrates, so I’ll start with this:
- 1 fresh red, green or yellow bell pepper diced and sizzled in olive oil in a deep skillet over medium heat
- Add 1 1/2 lbs ground turkey and brown
- Season with chipotle, cumin, chilli powder, or cayenne pepper to taste. (You know how much heat you like. Leave out the cayenne or chilli powder if that’s too spicy for you)
- Add one can each (drained and rinsed to lower the sodium) red kidney beans, black beans, pinto beans
- Add a cooked pouch of boil-in-bag white or brown rice (you decide)
- Add 1 1/2 to 2 cups of medium chunky salsa (you don’t want it to be too soupy)
- Let simmer for 10 min, cool and portion in small plastic containers
Freeze the containers and have them in your lunch box arsenal. This stuff is seriously good and simple and filling. How many calories? How much are you going to eat? Try these easy additions to round out snacks for the remainder of the day:
- Oikos Triple Zero Yogurt (one or two cartons depending on how much protein you need)
- Sliced cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, celery, bell pepper strips…think fresh and snackable
- Banana, apple, grapes, berries…don’t over-do the fruit, but it’s better than candy or cookies to satisfy a sweet craving
Don’t stress by trying to be too fancy or complicated when you’re jumping off the fast food lunch train. Pack your lunch bag and have it ready in the fridge the night before. Get fresh food that you like that’s not from a box or package. It’s a good start.
It’s almost two weeks since I had Mohs Surgery for basal cell carcinoma. Not the big, scary deal you might think – in office procedure using local anesthesia – consuming a few hours of a Thursday morning. The surgery took two rounds of cutting, with a long wait in between each session to examine the tissue removed to make sure all the cancer cells were eradicated. My son provided good company and conversation while waiting. After the tech gave the ‘all clear’ sign, the doctor stitched up my forehead and sent me home with a compression bandage. I’m pretty sure I said, “Don’t taze me bro” to the doctor as he was zapping the incision with a cauterizing device. He laughed. I’m pretty sure I also commented, “Snitches get stitches.”
After the local anesthesia wore off, I had a whopper of a headache and was glad I took the $9 prescription for 6 tablets of Tylenol with Codeine. I took three that first day. Friday, the day after, was a sleep a bunch and rest day. By Saturday I was feeling good and down to a tape strip covering the stitched up incision. Note on stitches: Why do they use the blackest thread possible to stitch up a lady’s forehead? I’ve covered the incision with a bandaid for two weeks just to hide the stitch tracks on my face. Tomorrow, the stitches come out, and having taken heed of the advice of the nurse and kept this thing liberally covered with polysporin, it looks like the scarring will be minimal.
Lessons Learned?
- Fear of facing a challenge is usually worse than the actual challenge
- Be a beast when it’s time to be a beast, but rest when it’s time to rest
- Have anything weird going on with your body checked by a doctor – seriously – don’t procrastinate with your health
- Don’t let a skin cut or abrasion scab over if you don’t want a scar. Keep it soft with polysporin and keep it out of the sun
- Bandaid brand bandaids really are better than generic store brand
- Bangs are great cammoflauge
- Snitches get stitches
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