cheap, healthy lunches

Cheese isn't very good for you at all, but potatoes have fantastic nutritional value -- something like the most or second-most vitamins and minerals among all the veggies. A baked potato is an excellent lunch or half-lunch, especially with the skin and without butter or sour cream. (Alternative: salted olive oil and nonfat yogurt.) They do provide simple starch, but that's not something you want to purge from your diet -- the key is that you're getting enough fiber. Pasta, on the other hand, is much less good for you -- it has a ton of simple starch, but very little compensating value.

Jess, cut back on salt, saturated fats and sugar, and up your intake of fiber, complex carbs (beans, barley, chickpeas), fruits and vegetables. Also, drinking water, instead of juice or anything else, is a big help; my girlfriend and I used to polish off a half-gallon of juice between us in a single day -- that's something like 450 calories each. A glass of orange juice in a day is good, but three or four aren't so good, and three or four glasses of grape or cranberry juice are definitely not good -- you'd be better off eating a McDonald's cheeseburger, at least in terms of the effect on your insulin levels.

Personally, I'd go with a low-fat turkey sandwich with whole-grain bread and veggies, without cheese and with mustard. Add to that a baked potato, and/or some sliced peppers and cucumbers. Or, you could try frying up a buttload of zucchini, squash and such in a little bit of olive oil, and having that in a sandwich with a little bit of cheese and some oregano. Finally, if you make a ton of soup or stew over a weekend, that could last you a few days, and can be tailored however you wish -- not to mention can be prolonged as necessary with the addition of leftover brown rice, barley, and so forth. Hummus is definitely great, too. And don't forget chili -- easy to make and to make low-fat, and usually tastes good.

Tons of beans Tons of onions Lowfat ground turkey Tons of spices (cumin, chili powder, cayenne, bay leaves, oregano, etc.) Garlic Tomato paste / sauce Peppers Celery Olive oil

As far as I can tell, the only major fat source was the 2 tbsp. or so of olive oil in which we initially browned the turkey, peppers, onions and celery. That, plus the ground turkey, was spread out over the equivalent of 12-16 servings of chili, so I'd guess the average would be something like 2-3 grams of fat per serving. It'd have been even less if we'd made vegetarian chili. And olive oil is "good" fat -- Mediterranean diet and all that.

You could just eat from the salad cart if you wanted.

I however didn't. *burp*

btw, pizza hut pan pizza (and breadsticks num num) is one of Gods Finest Creations(TM). now, if we could only find some way to cross it with papa john's garlic sauce...

I am eating vegetable chips.

(you lot wouldn't survive 5 MINUTES in the PA suburbs.)

Regarding this Pizza Hut nonsense -- Jess, you are insane. There.

(jess = teenage girl. the shame of it all.)

Lucymadchen, Manetti's even has the same colour scheme as Mangiare, the proprietors of which clearly saw the former and thought, 'ooh, some faux modernism will make this concept really work.' It's good because I can have Recessionata pizza whenever I want but bad because of the bunny turd-sized mozzarella pellets they use whereas Manettis uses proper ones. Manettis is in Noel Street just off Berwick Street so you have to try and get there, but alas is not open at KARAOKE TIME.

so HAH

sez i.

That's anti-pizza propaganda.

I have it on the highest authority that the cheese on PH pizzas is sprayed on with a can. I very much doubt that even a baby fly could crawl through a spraycan nozzle.

Saying that, the concept of spray-on cheeze is a tad disconcerting.

i'm talking like REALLY CHEAP. ramen isn't very healthy. suggestions? soup, salad, fruit, yogurt, what else

oh and hurry i'm hungry =P

bean burrito from taco bell, no cheese.

popcorn.

sack of 50 cent peanuts from convience store.

pork rinds.

ooh peanuts - popcorn! good good

mac and cheese or pasta with basic tomato sauce.

leftover 35 cent chicken wings

apple, piece of cheese (this can be pricey or not), big handful of nuts (should be raw, walnuts or pecans are best for you i think). put some honey on any of these if you like sweet, or add some olives if you like salty. it's one of my favorite things to eat

That does it, I have got to go to the olive bar now.

all sounds good. ms misery i might have to go home, boil some rigatoni and throw some sauce down (i work right up the street).

i think that's actually my fav cheap lunch, not unhealthy

apples, cheese and nuts = heaven

A tub of olives and a block of extra sharp cheddar. This is not cheap. But it is what I am eating.

sounds like after dinner at my parents' house