The Lunch Diaries: A 24-year-old audience executive shares her creative workday lunches.

Organising lunches for work days isn’t always easy. In our new series, ‘The Lunch Diaries’, we ask Australian women to give us a week-long snapshot into what their work day lunches look like. From meal preppers to last-minute buyers, it’s an interesting look into the lunchtime habits of everyday women. This week, a 24-year-old audience development executive shares her lunch diary.

Age: 24

Job/Role: Audience Development Executive

How would you describe your approach to food?

I want to be excited by what I eat every day. No sad desk salads here!

I also don’t like to meal prep at the beginning of the week because I don’t like the concept of eating the same thing every day, so I usually make my lunches the night before.

I try to eat pretty low carb for my main three meals every day, so that I can fit in the many treats and snacks I consume in between (it’s hot cross bun season, after all!) I follow the rules of balance and I find by eating low carb for my main meals, it allows me the flexibility to indulge at other times. It’s a win-win and makes me feel my best!

Where do you get your food inspiration?

Mainly from Instagram. I love to use the “Collection” feature on Instagram and save recipe inspiration to look at later! It’s kind of like a lunch mood board.

Below is my current Instagram saved collection of lunches:

Some of my favourite Instagram food bloggers I follow for inspo are Liv Kaplan, Luke Hines and Rachael DeVaux.

How much on average do you spend on buying lunch each week?

I don’t actually spend that much. The myth that healthy food costs more money is only true if you’re buying specific ‘health’ foods, but if you just base your meals around veggies and fresh food, it really shouldn’t add up to that much. I reckon I spend $30-40 bucks a week in total!

Monday - Day One

My favourite meal in the world is Caesar salad. Probably because it’s a little bit naughty but it’s still a salad.

I put it in a jar for no other reason other than I was running out of Tupperware because I lose at least three containers a week, so I’ve resorted to jars.

The salad itself is pretty basic; lettuce, boiled egg, chicken, bacon and parmesan. When I’m ready to eat it, I’ll pour in the Caesar dressing and shake it up!

And yes, I’ll usually put it into a bowl after for accessibility... the jar was for transportation purposes only.

Tuesday - Day Two

No, I still haven’t gotten over the novelty of zucchini noodles since they became a thing a couple of years back.

If you don’t have a Spiraliser to make them at home, you can always buy the pre-made zoodles from the supermarket and just steam them in the microwave at work!

For this lunch I stirred through some home-made pesto (my Dad’s veggie garden is EPIC), some cherry tomatoes and some bocconcini.

Four ingredient lunch? Yes please!

Wednesday - Day Three

Look, today was not the prettiest lunch, but when it’s raining you kind of just feel like a bunch of warm and cosy food piled into a bowl, okay?!

This lunch consisted of a monochromatic moosh of green curry and broccoli and cauliflower rice.

I made my own veggie ‘rice’ by using my food processor, but you can also use Woolies' Cauliflower and Broccoli rice (I swear they’ve thought of everything!)

For the Chicken Rendang curry, I roughly followed a recipe but left out the kaffir lime leaves... because who has those lying around the house, seriously.

Thursday - Day Four

Today I felt like something a bit heartier (still super dreary weather in Sydney today) so I opted for a vegetarian pasta.

Instead of regular pasta, I used another great alternative – chickpea pasta. I love this San Remo one but the Lentil Fusilli Pasta from Keep It Cleaner is also great.

I stirred through some tomato and caramelised onion pasta sauce and added in some olives and baby spinach as well.

This is such a filling meal, packed full of fibre and flavour. Also – even though it’s vego, there’s still over 20 grams of protein from the chickpea pasta in it! Woooo!

Friday - Day Five

If this was Masterchef, I’d say that the ‘hero’ of this dish was microwavable eggs.

Except if this was Masterchef they probably wouldn’t be microwaving eggs, they’d Sous Vide them or poach them at precisely 63 degrees.

But alas, I’ve got to work with what I’ve got, and right now, our humble office microwave does the job just fine.

Anyone in the team who has seen me in the kitchen will know that I’m partial to a nifty microwave hack, and have been spotted testing multiple egg-cooking methods.

Note: don’t try and poach an egg in the microwave by putting it in a mug of hot water and covering it in cling wrap. It will explode and everyone will hate you.

I’ve finally perfected scrambled eggs, and even made a Tik Tok about how to make it, all in the name of content which you can view here. You’re so welcome!

@mamamiaausHow to be an eggfluencer... ##cookingtips ##cookingchallenge ##cookingvideo ##fyp♬ Yummy - Justin Bieber

I’ve put it on some gluten-free toast and added some baby spinach and avo as well.

It was so good, even Albie the office dog wanted in too!

I know it can look like I put a lot of thought and effort into my lunches, but cooking is my passion and also my downtime after I finish work. I genuinely love to make up recipes and meals! And finding new and fun ways to mix up my lunches makes me less likely to cave and order delivery to work!

Want to share a week in the life of your lunch diary with us? Send us your Lunch Diary to submissions@mamamia.com.au.

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