Forget boring cheese and tomato sandwiches for lunch at work. Why not pack in a salad for lunch? It’s refreshingly cool in the summer heat and healthier for you too. Apart from being good for you, it’s also more cost effective than buying lunch. 

Prepare your lunch the night before so that it’s one less thing to focus during the morning rush. Pack your dressing separately so that you don’t end up with soggy salads at lunch time.

You can use the same base of vegetable ingredients every day and switch up the proteins the way I’ve done in the salads below.

Seafood salad

 

Seafood salad for lunch. #food #homemade #frommyfingertips #summer #salad

A photo posted by Aneeqah (@aneeqahe) on Jan 4, 2016 at 4:15am PST

Tuna salad

 

First day back at work lunch. A simple tuna salad. #salad #summer #lunch #worklunches #frommyfingertips A photo posted by Aneeqah (@aneeqahe) on Jan 11, 2016 at 3:17am PST

Spiced beef salad

 

Spiced beef salad today. #summer #salad #capetown #frommyfingertips #worklunches #lunch

A photo posted by Aneeqah (@aneeqahe) on Jan 14, 2016 at 2:11am PST

Chicken liver salad

 

  Made a salad out of the chicken livers I bought. This day is too hot for anything but a lunchtime salad. Marinated the chicken in yogurt, lemon, and peri peri before dipping into seasoned flour and shallow frying. Dressed the salad with balsamic and olive oil. #homemade #food #salad #frommyfingertips #chickenlivers #summer #capetown   A photo posted by Aneeqah (@aneeqahe) on Jan 5, 2016 at 3:14am PST

I had leftover spicy chicken pizza topping and added it into a salad.

 

Quick “whatever is in the fridge” salad for lunch. #salad #homemade #summer #chickensalad #frommyfingertips

A photo posted by Aneeqah (@aneeqahe) on Dec 24, 2015 at 2:12am PST

Smoked chicken salad

 

Lunch. Simple summer salad.

A photo posted by Aneeqah (@aneeqahe) on Jan 26, 2015 at 3:30am PST

Beetroot, spinach and Camembert salad

 

Beetroot, spinach and camembert salad.

A photo posted by Aneeqah (@aneeqahe) on Oct 29, 2014 at 10:10am PDT

Or you can add some carbs into the mix, by making a refreshing lemon cous cous salad and adding a protein of your choice. A half a cup of cous cous yielded about 4 servings – so you’re set with lunch for 2 days for 2 people. Time saving and delicious!  

 

  Lunch today: Lemony cous cous salad with seared chicken strips. #summer #salad #homemade #chicken #couscous #worklunches #lunch   A photo posted by Aneeqah (@aneeqahe) on Jan 18, 2016 at 2:23am PST

If salads are not your thing you can make pizza bases using the 2-ingredient pizza base recipe, top with desired topping and take mini pizzas along to work.

 

This week’s orders.

A photo posted by Aneeqah (@aneeqahe) on Sep 25, 2015 at 1:31pm PDT

You can also shallow fry the dough and top with chicken and fresh salad and pack that in for a scrumptious lunch.

 

A photo posted by Aneeqah (@aneeqahe) on Jul 25, 2015 at 11:10pm PDT

What are some of the things you pack in for lunch during summer? Share your ideas with me in the comments section below.