5 Quick Lunch Recipes for Busy Moms
The busy life we are living nowadays, the many responsibilities we have and rushing from here to there every day make it super challenging to take better care of ourselves, let alone eat a healthy diet.
Amidst the chaos, many people, unfortunately, turned to junk food not only because it is always available and can be delivered to their doorsteps in a fraction of time. But it is also super tasty thanks to all the fat, sugar-rich and spicy additives it contains. So, instead of looking for better and healthier options to cook at home, consuming fast food seems to have become the new norm.
This is especially a problem for busy moms who find it incredibly challenging to balance between their personal and professional lives. Yet, when it comes to children, fast food must not be an option. Children must receive healthy, nutritious meals all the time to properly assist their growth development and immunity and reduce their chance of getting common poor-diet diseases when they grow up, such as high blood pressure, diabetes or obesity.
In this article, we are demonstrating five different healthy and quick lunch recipes that moms can make in no time to provide their kids with the nutrients they need on a daily basis.
So, let’s hop into it.
1. Tuna Salad Lettuce Wraps
Seafood, in general, is highly rich in valuable nutrients. It has a high protein content that is essential to building and repairing torn muscles, strengthening the bones and creating enzymes and hormones. It is also abundant with calcium and phosphorus that repair the body’s cells and tissues and assist the creation of DNA.
Tuna, in particular, is abundant in omega-3 fatty acids, which protect the eyes and the brain, lower cholesterol levels and prevent it from causing heart diseases later on. It also provides the body with vitamin B12, which helps the body generate red blood cells. These are responsible for taking oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the body.
As it is cheap and accessible, consuming tuna on a regular basis must be a part of any healthy diet. That is why we have this tuna salad lettuce wrap for you today. It is a quick and super healthy recipe for kids that busy moms can make in a matter of a few minutes. This recipe is also low in carb and keto-friendly. So here is how to make it.
Drain two cans of water-packed tuna, not the oil-packed ones, for those are not that healthy, of all the water, then place them in a large mixing bowl. Add two medium-sized chopped onions, chopped green, red and yellow bell peppers and chopped tomatoes in the amounts you like. Add two tablespoons of light mayonnaise and one tablespoon of yellow mustard. You may also add some pickles if you want, then sprinkle salt and a little bit of ground black pepper as desired. Squeeze in one large lemon and mix all ingredients well.
Use the tuna salad to fill as many romaine lettuce leaves to make the wraps, then top them with shredded cheddar cheese or avocado before serving.
2. Egg Fried Rice
Egg fried rice is another recipe that is great for a quick lunch and super easy to make. It might not be low-carb like the tuna wrap we just demonstrated, but it does have all kinds of nutrients necessary to maintain a good, healthy diet. There is protein and fats from the eggs and carbohydrates from the rice.
In fact, eggs are one of the richest sources of protein, and that is why most people consume them for breakfast every morning. There are also fibres from the vegetables used in this recipe, which provide great minerals and vitamins to promote metabolism and improve overall health.
Although some people might be a bit reluctant when it comes to healthy recipes and frying, this recipe does not deep fry but rather stir-fries the rice. This only requires a small amount of vegetable oil that is still safe to consume. So here is the recipe.
To make four portions, you are going to need four large eggs and three cups of cooked rice, preferably cool rice. Leftover rice is actually perfect for this recipe. You are also going to need a cup of chopped and mixed vegetables. You can use carrots, peas, coloured bell peppers and even green onions, in addition to three cloves of garlic, finely minced, about three tablespoons of soy sauce and two tablespoons of vegetable oil.
In a large bowl, crack all four eggs and whisk them, then add them to a heated cooking pan with one tablespoon of vegetable oil. Scramble the eggs well until cooked, then remove them from the pan and set them aside for now.
Use the same pan to stir-fry your vegetables using one tablespoon of oil. Make sure that you mix the vegetables until they are translucent. When they are a bit cooked or tender, add the cool cooked rice and mix it very well with the vegetables. Add two tablespoons of the soy sauce, salt and pepper and mix. After that, add the scrambled eggs and mix all the ingredients very well until they are all evenly distributed.
Serve the egg fried rice hot in small bowls. You can sprinkle a little bit of chopped green onions on the top as a garnish.
3. Pita Bread Pizza
We all love pizza, and we all have different reasons for that. One of the most common ones, for instance, is the great variety pizza can be made with. Besides the essential ingredients, the dough, tomato sauce and mozzarella, there are endless choices for toppings that suit every taste and make every bite rich and mouthfeel.
This easy pizza recipe works best as a quick lunch to have on a busy day, a perfect snack between an early breakfast and a late lunch or a late-night one when kids are enjoying a movie night. It is easy to make, does not use dough and can be made either with mozzarella only or any leftover toppings you may have in your fridge.
What you mainly need for this recipe is pita bread, which is pretty common in the Middle East. Each loaf makes a small pizza perfect for one serving. So here is how to make this delicious pita bread pizza.
Brush some olive oil on the bread and sprinkle some salt and black pepper. Spread thick tomato sauce; it is better if it is specially made for pizza. Top the pizza with chicken pieces, pepperoni, tuna or anything of your choice. You can also add some green peppers, tomatoes or onions. Then add the mozzarella cheese, lots of it, on the top.
Cook the pizza either in the oven at 180°C for 10 minutes or place it in a large frying pan placed on medium-high heat. Cover the pan and wait until the cheese melts, and voila, you have your pita bread pizza.
4. Avocado and Chickpea Salad
When people think of protein and fats, what comes to their minds is either chicken, meat or seafood and butter. But there are so many other plant-based protein sources, very accessible and cheap, yet not many people seem to know about them. Such as what, you are asking? Well, such as chickpeas, for example.
In fact, for every 100 grams of chickpeas, there are 19 grams of protein. That is equal to the protein found in three large eggs.
Avocado, too, is abundant with healthy fats and fibre in addition to a bunch of vitamins and minerals indispensable in a healthy diet.
In other words, this avocado chickpea salad is one perfect quick lunch meal to feel full and get healthy.
For this recipe, you are going to need about 300 grams of cooked chickpeas. You can either buy them canned and ready to use after you drain all the water, or you can get them uncooked and soak them in water overnight. The choice is yours. You are also going to need to chop one large onion, cut two medium-sized tomatoes into small pieces, chop a cucumber, and peel and cut one large avocado into small pieces.
Combine all those ingredients in a large mixing bowl and add a pinch of salt and black pepper to the salad. You can squeeze half a lemon if you want and drizzle a little bit of olive oil for extra taste. Let your tasty salad cool for 15 minutes before serving.
5. Grilled Potato Spinach Quesadillas
Yes, it is a bit hard to pronounce, but if you noticed, it has a Spanish sound.
Quesadillas are a Mexican dish that, like pizza, has tortillas and cheese as the basic ingredients and can be filled with whatever one wants. In fact, queso means cheese in Spanish, so quesadillas are basically queso and tortillas.
What is super good about quesadillas is that they are stir-fried or grilled. So the crispy bread and creamy melted cheese with the other added ingredients just all guarantee a heavenly distinct taste, and all of this can be obtained in just a few minutes.
These grilled potato spinach quesadillas make the best quick lunch. They are great for a vegetarian diet, low in calories and have a small protein content yet a large number of vitamins and minerals, such as vitamin C, vitamin D, vitamin B, iron, calcium and magnesium.
So here is how to make these delicious potato spinach quesadillas.
For this recipe, you are going to need the following:
- 4 large tortillas
- 2 cups of cheddar or mozzarella cheese
- 2 cups of washed, chopped spinach
- 2 large potatoes, peeled and cut into thin circles
- 1 finely chopped medium-sized onion
- 2 cloves of garlic, minced
- 2 tablespoons of olive oil
- Salt, black pepper, paprika and cumin
Recipe
First, we prepare the potato and spinach filling.
Place a large frying pan on medium-high heat, add around one tablespoon of olive oil and then the chopped onion and garlic. Stir until they turn translucent. Add the potatoes and mix them with the onions and garlic. Cook until they turn brown, then add the spinach and mix it with the other ingredients in the pan. Cook everything until the spinach is wilted. Sprinkle some salt and black pepper, mix, then add half a teaspoon of paprika and another half teaspoon of cumin and mix. Take the mixture out of the pan and set it aside.
On your counter, spread one tortilla, then place a good amount of the potato and spinach, add the shredded cheese, lots of it, then fold the tortilla into half, covering the filling, and making half a circle. Do the same with the three other tortillas.
Spray the tortillas with olive oil on both sides, then place them in a hot pan. Flip the quesadillas on both sides until they turn brown and crispy and the cheese melts. Remove them from the pan and slice each one in half. Let your quesadillas cool for two to three minutes, if you can wait, then serve with pickles or ketchup.
We think we are busy all the time, and the quick rhythm of our lives can sometimes leave us with no options other than takeaways and fast food. But the Internet, especially our amazing website, has so many quick lunch ideas and recipes that can save you on busy days and still give you great nutrients to maintain good health.