Healthy Lunches: Back 2 School edition

School has started and as we finally get re-adjusted to our daily routines, we should remeber to stay healthy and keep our bodies in shape. When school starts people often become so busy with their new routines that they often make half- fast lunches packed with things that are not good for them or they simply skip making a lunch and start going to fast- food joints or the school cafeteria (which isn't always so bad if you pick healthy choices).
So I decided to help out myself and any other readers that may need some help balancing their crazy busy lives with a healthy lifestyle. check out below some quick and easy healthy recipes that I have found to hopefully take some of the brain work out of making a delicious lunch!

Recipes

Italian Chicken Wrap
Ingredients
1 chicken breast (skinless)
1 cup of shredded lettuce
1 cup of chopped up tomatoes
4 tbsp of fat free Italian dressing
splash of lemon juice
black pepper to taste

Directions
Dice up chicken, the pan-fry with the lemon juice, pepper and 3 tbsp of the Italian dressing. cook on low- medium heat until there is no more pink in it.
Next place lettuce tomatoes,and cooked chicken into the tortillas. sprinkle remaining dressing onto the contents.
If you are preparing your lunch in advance, keep tortilla separate from the lettuce, tomatoes, salad dressing and chicken.
*Also to change it up you can use this recipe with pita pocket as well!

Lemon Chicken Salad
Ingredients
1 chicken breast, skinless
1 cup of shredded lettuce tomato
squeezed lemon juice and vinegar

Directions
Slice chicken into thin pieces, season with pepper, salt etc. pan fry with a drop of olive oil and squeeze lemon juice over the chicken.
Prepare salad by chopping up lettuce and tomatoes
Prepare a low cal salad dressing by mixing 3 parts vinegar and 1 part lemon juice
If you are preparing your lunch in advance be sure to keep the chicken and the salad dressing separate from the lettuce.

Tuna Pita pocket
Ingredients
Tin of tuna
Caesar salad dressing
Green onion stalk
Pepper to taste
Pita pocket
Finely shredded lettuce

Directions
Empty the tin of tuna into a bowl draining the liquid
Then mix the tuna with about 1tbsp of Caesar salad dressing
Finely chop up the green onion and the lettuce, (you want the lettuce to be extremely fine)
Add the green onion and pepper to the tuna mix and  stir
Stuff the pita pocket with the lettuce and the tomatoes

If prepared in advance I wouldn't prepare it the night before as this is a very quick recipe, it can be made in 5 minutes the morning of.

Okay so for those who have absolutely ZERO amount of time to make a lunch or don't want to feel excluded when their friends go out to fast- food restaurants, here are some healthier (note that I say healthier, not healthy) options below from 5 top fast- food restaurants:

1) Okay so of course Subway is # 1 on my list as they are probably the healthiest fast food restaurant there is ! Offering many low fat sandwiches, how could they not be? So as long as you stay away from any of the more fattening dressings you should be okay! If you don't have a certain sub in mind, I would suggest the 6" Veggie Delite on Italian bread. This sub only has 230 calories, 3 g of fat, 500 mg of sodium, and 5 g of fiber.

2) The Fresco Crunchy Taco at Taco Bell is the second item on my list as this item is much lower in sodium compared to other items on the menu and on this list! It has 150 calories, 8 g of fat, 2.5 sat. fat, 20 mg cholestorl, 370 mg of sodium, 13 carbs, 3 g of fiber and 7 g of protein. And even though its lower in calories and in salt it still comes with great flavour!

3) From Wendy's, the small chili has been said to be quite fulfilling and at only 190 calories, 6 g of fat (although it does have about 830 mg of sodium). it's one of the healthiest things on the Wendy's menu. If your not a fan of chili, they also offer salads and they have been said to have one of the healthiest salads out of all the other fast-food restaurants because they offer low cal salad dressings.

4) At KFC, they offer the roasted Caesar salad which if you skip the croutons and top it with fat free ranch dressing you can definitely save some calories. this salad has 250 calories, 8 g of fat, 1240 mg sodium, and14 g carbs.

5) And finally, we have McDonalds. if you must eat at McDonalds, the best choice would be to pick a salad with nothing fatty or overprocessed on top and a low cal salad dressing or better yet the premium grilled chicken classic sandwich ( without mayo of course!)

So there you have it, these are a few of the healthiest options you can get from a fast food restaurant, I definitely wouldn't suggest going to one of these restaurants more than once a week (at most) because as you can see most of the options include a lot of sodium. I wish you the best of luck with re-adjusting and remember just because you are busy doesn't mean that your body should pay the price! :)