Hi everyone! I you follow me on Instagram you may have seen that I am doing a 6 week wellness challenge at my gym. They set daily goals for us to reach ranging from staying active, eating healthy, drinking lots of water, and other healthy habits. It has been an amazing way to start the New Year and I hope to stay in my current routine for the foreseeable future. Since I’ve started the challenge I feel so much better on a daily basis and have a lot more energy!

Other than making time for the gym, one of the biggest things I struggle with is eating healthy. Since I started teaching and have a much busier daily schedule, meal prepping for my week / buying prepped meals has been such a great way to stay on track. This week I thought it would be fun to share a few healthy recipes that I love to use for lunches as well as some cute lunch finds.

I try my best to prep on Sunday evenings to get ready for the week, but when I’m too busy I will use an amazing local service called Jess in the Kitchn. All of her meals are fresh and delicious and I would highly encourage you to check her out if you are local to Buffalo! If you are not local I’m sure there are a lot of wonderful local meal prep services near you!

Lunch Bags:

Containers & Water Bottles:

Favorite Snacks:

• Sliced apples & peanut butter
• Trial Mix (Monster Mix from Target is my fav)
• Nuts like almonds (the smokehouse are my personal favorite), pistachios, cashews, etc.
• Cheese and crackers
• Gluten free crackers and guacamole
• Almond energy bites (recipe here)
• Fruit salad
• Mini peppers filled with light cream cheese sprinkled everything bagel seasoning
• Rice cakes with peanut butter + fruit
• Frozen yogurt covered blueberries

5 Easy Lunch Recipes:

1. Chicken meatballs + arugula salad. I use the recipe below for the chicken meatballs and then the salad is extremely simple! I use arugula, freshly grated parmesan, and a lemon dressing. I typically will warm up the meatballs and enjoy with the refreshing salad!
   • Meatballs: 2 lbs ground chicken, 2 eggs (beat them first), 1 cup breadcrumbs, 1 cup finely grated parm, and a few minced garlic cloves!
   • Bake at 450 degrees for 15 minutes and then brush them with oil ( I like to use basting oil for added flavor) and cook for another 5 minutes.
2. Orzo pasta salad: this has been a great add on for dinner lately and perfect for lunch as well! Linking the recipe I used here. So quick and easy and makes enough to last all week!
3. Sweet potato tacos: such a great alternative to a classic meal! Recipe here.
4. Arugula salad with crumbled bleu cheese, apples, cranberries, and walnuts. My mom makes this all of the time and it’s delicious! Found a similar recipe here.
5. Chicken Breast with veggies and roasted potatoes. This one if pretty straight forward and doesn’t require a recipe! I like to cook chicken and prep bowls that are easy to heat up at work.

Sweet Treats:

If you have a sweet tooth like I do here are a few recipes that are healthy options to typical options!

• Healthy Snickers made with medjool dates, I find my dates at Aldi for a great price! (the ones I made are shown below)!
• Sour candy grapes– I love sour candy so these are a great alternative
• Yogurt bark with berries and granola
• Black bean brownies

Tag me on Instagram @belleoftheball45 with all of your meal prep – I hope you enjoy!