Healthy Lunch Options

Sometimes having so many lunch options can be extremely tempting, especially if you’re trying to stick to a specific diet. We’ve surveyed lunch options and have found the healthiest cafeteria meals which will keep your taste buds delighted while still keeping you lively.

Green-leafed vegetables are a staple of any diet: they’re full of nutrients and vitamins. The salad bar offers many options for a unique and tasty combination. We put cherry tomatoes, edamame, mushrooms, chicken, and croutons on our spinach and lettuce base and instead of a cream-based dressing, drizzled on some balsamic vinaigrette (balsamic vinegar and olive oil). The meat carving station has juicy proteins with side sauces – chicken and paprikash sauce, which are made of vegetables and sour cream. A bowl of hearty chicken noodle soup is sure to warm you up, and for dessert, to avoid too much sugar and carbohydrates, plain greek yogurt with fruit, granola, and honey from the salad bar is both delicious and protein packed.

Salad:

Chicken:

Chicken Noodle Soup:

Yogurt:

If you’re not feeling too hungry some day, fruit is a light and sweet meal that is a good alternative to traditional carbohydrates. The salad bar offers a huge collection of fruits – strawberries, cantaloupe, persimmon, pineapple, etc. Most of the main dishes come with a side of vegetables and carbohydrates for a balanced meal. On the side of the Chinese glazed ribs was a serving of bok choy and fried rice; pineapple was added for dessert.

Fruit:  

A visit to the Farmer’s Market will not disappoint – a myriad of salads are available for your choosing. Caesar salad provides a good amount of calcium, essential vitamins, and many different tastes. Continuing on with the Thai theme, Shrimp Pad Thai has rice noodles, seafood, and shrimp, which contains a healthy protein to calorie ratio.

Caesar salad:

If you can eat seafood, fish is probably one of the best sources of protein that you can find. Friday’s meals consisted of quite a bit of salmon: salmon chowder for soup and salmon with spicy teriyaki sauce from the meat carving station. Although chowder is very much a cream based soup, the addition of salmon makes up for its less diet-appealing aspects. From the meat carving station, salmon with some teriyaki sauce will keep you alert. On the side, cold salads are wonderful supplements, and usually they come with the main meal. Cucumber salad has marinated and raw vegetables, meaning that their vitamins have not been been lost through heat. All the better! Additionally, orzo salad with feta cheese is a good calcium and carbohydrate source.

Salmon chowder:

Salmon: