Hey all you 9-5ers!  (Ok, no one really works only 9-5….let’s say 8-6…or later…)  It’s Monday again.  Boo.

What’s the lunch situation like near your office?  Do you buy every day or bring your lunch?

Bringing lunch to work can sometimes be a pain or get really boring.  Salads can lose their crunch and sandwiches can get smushed.  Yuck.  And who has time to put together something gourmet that early in the morning?

Who’s with me?

In the last couple years, I had to start bringing my lunch daily– part of it was because it was my only option (now that I’m working outside the City, literally the ONLY place for me to buy lunch without driving ten minutes is a small cafe that serves the exact same things every single day….i got sick of it pretty quick) and I also started being more conscious about saving money (lunch out=$10/day…..that was $50/week, $200/month that I would MUCH rather spend on something more “fun”– you too, I’m guessing).

So, I started getting creative and have a bunch of great weekday brown bag lunch recipes that wouldn’t leave me feeling like I was still in elementary school (hello, pb&j) or with a smushed, smelly, gross lunch that would leave my stomach growling.

I thought I’d share some of them with you.

Here’s my favorite workday lunch as of late.

Chicken Collard Wrap
Take less than 2 minutes to make in the morning, only uses 3 ingredients, stays together and crunchy until lunchtime, and is very filling. 

It’s so simple that I’m not sure you even need a step-by-step, but here ya go anyways.

First Step:  Take a Collard Leaf.

Collards are in the brussel sprouts and cabbage family and have huge amounts of Vitamin C.

Step two: Cut a chicken breast and avocado into slices and place it into the middle of the leaf.  Sprinkle a dash of salt and pepper on top.

If you’re like me and have a big appetite in the afternoons, make two.

Wrap ‘em up like burritos.

Get your other lunchy stuff together.  I brought an apple and some brown rice crackers.

And you’re good to go! 

The Collards are amazing that they stay well-wrapped and don’t come apart very easily, so it will actually look the same hours later.  Sometimes my traditional wheat or corn wraps come “unwrapped” in the bag, but this hasn’t happened to me with collards yet.

Eat happily at lunchtime!

This is a great, nutritious lunch.  It’s technically paleo-friendly and gluten-free, for those who are following those diets.  It’s also really, really simple, so simple that I’m not sure it can count as an actual recipe.  I’m highly recommending it!

Do you work in an office?  Eat out or bring your lunch usually?