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  3. Make-Ahead Office Lunch: Five Days, Five Ways

Make-Ahead Office Lunch: Five Days, Five Ways

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By Embry Roberts January 15, 2014
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You can do it! Save $ you usually spend on takeout and eat healthy. Here's how: Add one item each day to watch your lunch reinvent itself all week long.
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Layer in Flavor

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A homemade lunch is an obvious health- and money-saver, and as creative culinarians, we ought to be leading the charge toward wholesome bagged lunches. But we, too, often need a few hours to hit our stride -- and the only thing less appealing than fixing lunch in the morning is eating the same leftovers five days in a row.

A quick note: This guide is flexible. Pantry proteins like canned tuna and chickpeas can be stashed in your desk indefinitely; nuts should be stored in an airtight container and eaten in a few weeks or stored in the freezer; and semihard cheeses like cheddar, Swiss, Jack, or feta will keep a couple of weeks in your office fridge.

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Monday: Green Your Consumption

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Come Monday, we’re ready to feast on the type of responsible food we’ve neglected all weekend. Bring a big bag of salad greens, and toss a few handfuls with your veggies (stash the rest in an airtight container for later). The oil and salt from roasting should add moisture and flavor, making dressing obsolete -- but if you’d like a drizzle of something, we’ve got a few ideas. You can also dress things up with the aforementioned nuts and cheese.

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Tuesday: Bowl Us Over

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Ready to ease yourself back onto carbs? High-fiber whole grains will keep your belly full and your mind on the grind. Toss last night’s side of brown rice, barley, or quinoa with your vegetables -- add a handful of nuts and a drizzle of yesterday’s dressing if you so choose.

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Wednesday: Make It Mexican

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Just a spoonful of salsa helps the vegetables go down. Spice up the dreaded hump day with a taco-inspired twist -- salsa acts as a low-cal, high-flavor dressing, while tortilla chips add just enough salt and crunch to keep your spirits high. (We know we said one item per day, but come on -- these two are a package deal.)

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Thursday: Flatten the Bottom Line

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Time to throw some flatbread into the mix, be it naan, tortilla, or pita. As your arsenal grows, your lunch becomes more customizable: Re-create Tuesday’s grain bowl as a hippie-style filling, microwave a quick quesadilla, or -- if you’re lucky enough to have a toaster oven -- load up tostada-style and go to town. You've even got salsa to top it off!

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Friday: Mezze It Up

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Friday’s an open catch-all for your leftover odds and ends. Tote along hummus or sauce to make flatbread pizzas (assuming you've access to cheese and heat), or BYO bread to load up a kitchen-sink sandwich. We won't judge if you use the money you’ve saved to take yourself out to lunch instead. Four out of five days is pretty darn good.

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    1 of 6 Layer in Flavor
    2 of 6 Monday: Green Your Consumption
    3 of 6 Tuesday: Bowl Us Over
    4 of 6 Wednesday: Make It Mexican
    5 of 6 Thursday: Flatten the Bottom Line
    6 of 6 Friday: Mezze It Up

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