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Q: Please give me some ideas on what to pack for lunch for an 1,800-calorie-a-day meal plan.

A: Assuming your meal plan includes a snack or two, lunch should provide about a fifth of your day's calories, so budgeting about 380 calories would be a good start. You may have to adjust portion sizes to fit your specific meal plan.

Some easy 350- to 400-calorie lunch ideas include the following:

Chicken sandwich sack lunch

• Whole wheat bread spread with mustard and filled with 3 ounces sliced chicken, spinach leaves, and sliced tomato
• 3/4 cup carrot sticks
• 1/2 cup low-fat fruit-flavored yogurt
• low-calorie beverage (40 calories or less per cup)

Soup and crackers

• 1 cup vegetable-beef soup
• 6 whole wheat crackers
• 1 piece fresh fruit
• low-calorie beverage (40 calories or less per cup)

Chef salad

• 2 cups torn fresh spinach, 1 sliced hard-cooked egg, 1 ounce chicken, turkey, or ham strips, 1 ounce mozzarella cheese strips, 2 tablespoons low-calorie salad dressing, 1/4 cup fat-free croutons
• whole grain roll with honey
• 1/2 cup low-calorie pudding
• low-calorie beverage (40 calories or less per cup)

Fruit salad and cottage cheese

• 3/4 cup low-fat cottage cheese
• 1 cup fruit canned in juice
• 4 cracker squares
• low-calorie beverage (40 calories or less per cup)

Jeannette Jordan, M.S., RD, CDE, is the American Dietetic Association's national spokesperson for African-American nutrition issues and oversees nutrition education at the Medical University of South Carolina.