Canned Beans (A quest for high protein lunches)

Snako

Now I'm no nutrition expert but it recently occurred to me that my diet of canned beans might not be the best!!

In my quest for convenient high protein lunches, I started making a sort of bean salad at the start of the week.

I usually make a mix of three cans, usually a combination of either; black eyed beans, kidney beans, harlcot beans, butter beans, chick peas, dutch brown beans, and maybe some peas or sweetcorn. (this does about 4 lunches)

My routine it to drain them thoroughly and then divide them into lunch boxes, add a very small handful of rice or quinoa, I usually have two egg whites, maybe some broccoli and either a piece of baked salmon or chicken with.

So in my quest for a healthy high protein lunch, have I foolishly been poisoning myself with sodium?

Is draining them sufficient?

Would love to hear the opinions or thoughts of any nutritional boffins on here?

siochain

As lunches go that's ok, 3 things

1. Might get boring over a week, add in some olive oil and vinaigrette to flavour it up and add good fats
2 what are you doing with the egg yokes ?
3 beans and eggs all week, gas build up could be an issue

Snako

Haha: RE Gass build up: it's all good I have my own office.

I'm terribly wasteful with the egg yolks unfortunately they end up in the bin.

It does get a bit boring, so I do alternate to having lots of greens some weeks, or sometimes I make a wrap with the excess beans and some turkey slices.

Recently Ballymaloe relish or a little salsa, has helped to spice things up.

grames_bond

Snako wrote: »

I'm terribly wasteful with the egg yolks unfortunately they end up in the bin.

It does get a bit boring, so I do alternate to having lots of greens some weeks, or sometimes I make a wrap with the excess beans and some turkey slices.

There's an issue right off the bat - the yolks are the most nutritious part of the egg!

Snako

grames_bond wrote: »

There's an issue right off the bat - the yolks are the most nutritious part of the egg!

Really I was under the impression that more than one yolk a day was excessive?
My rational was to boost the protein content, which I thought was all in the egg white?

RobAMerc

you could try this to break the monotony ?

http://www.food.com/recipe/chickpea-and-tuna-salad-172858

It is really lovely.
sub in some bean mix for chickpeas maybe ?

Col_Loki

That looks all good to be honest especially if you are happy with it.

As has been said you really should include the egg yolk, most nutritious part of the egg and so tasty. No problems eating a number of them every day (I eat 2-5 a day).

I eat a fair amount of beans too, I quite like the Tesco Bean Salad cans (in a slight vinegar oil), add some spinach and a can of tuna and it is very filling and has loads of goodness (including tonnes of protein).

Gummy Panda

I remember reading its a good idea to have sweetcorn with beans due to the incomplete protein profiles.

Snako

Col_Loki wrote: »

As has been said you really should include the egg yolk, most nutritious part of the egg and so tasty. No problems eating a number of them every day (I eat 2-5 a day).

I don't know where I got that notion about egg yolks from, but I've been throwing them out for ages, loads of them!!! Ah well you live and you learn

siochain

your not the only one, it was spouted for years that eggs yokes raise our cholesterol and hense contribute to heart disease. But this has been proven to a load if b*****ks and unfortunitly the GP's haven't really accepted the facts yet.