I try to vary things a little bit, even if it's how I arrange it on the plate, so I don't get too bored with food and return to eating the bad fast food stuff.
But I repeat A LOT anyway. Because I don't like to cook.
I don't do much batch cooking- but I do often eat the same things every day.
Breakfast for me 99% of the time is oatmeal (VERY inexpensive, quick, and easy!!) with a tablespoon of sunflower butter and banana or some other fruit.
Lunch for me is almost always crackers with cheese and some raw veggies & a V8.
I used to do 1/2c rice with some veggies- heat, then crack an egg over it and stir it in- toss back in the microwave a min if not hot enough to cook the egg through.
As has been said- chili & soups are awesome for this. As is a big batch of chicken and rice & veggies.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by IonMoon
I don't do much batch cooking- but I do often eat the same things every day.
Breakfast for me 99% of the time is oatmeal (VERY inexpensive, quick, and easy!!) with a tablespoon of sunflower butter and banana or some other fruit.
Lunch for me is almost always crackers with cheese and some raw veggies & a V8.
I used to do 1/2c rice with some veggies- heat, then crack an egg over it and stir it in- toss back in the microwave a min if not hot enough to cook the egg through.
As has been said- chili & soups are awesome for this. As is a big batch of chicken and rice & veggies.
OMG, I would love that! Never thought to add an egg. I would probably use brown rice, and maybe use egg substititute instead of a whole egg.
Food and cooking is such a pleasure for me and I always say you get 2000 calories a day and they can be different every day! While I, too, love chicken breasts there is a wide world beyond them.
With that said we all fall to favorites. I eat oatmeal often, too and make the steel cut 4 servings at a time adding various dried fruit while cooking (blueberries, cherries, golden raisins) and topping with toasted almonds. I do various toasted nuts in small batches and store in little jars to top on salads, too.
I love arugula. I put a handful on almost an plate even if I don't really make a salad with slices of red onion, halved grape tomatoes, a few shavings of Asiago or Romano or whatever cheese I have, fresh lemon squeezed, generous salt and pepper and a tiny bit of olive oil. Yum.
Another great combo over salad greens is ruby grapefruit and avocado. I use lime plus squeeze of the remaining grapefruit juice after segmenting it, a but of honey, olive oil, the toasted almonds and often chicken. Very good!
I love to cook so I peruse the Epicurious app and search on healthy dinners and add them to my saved list for easy reference before I go shopping, pick out a few and shop for them. I've been doing stir fries this year, got a nice wok and almost anything can be quick prepared.
I have been doing some Thai cooking with the lite coconut milk make up a quick broth with lime and jalapeño over simple sautéed fish or coconut chicken soup. (From epicurious recipes)
If I decide what I want to cook in the morning and just set the ingredients out or chop a few things, it makes dinner prep autopilot that helps me, too.
Last edited by CindySunshine; 03-09-2014 at 09:21 AM.
I eat the same thing for breakfast and lunch everyday during the week. I make sure I have the stuff and just throw it together out of habit now.
I make instant steel cut oats in the microwave with unsweetened vanilla almond milk, and poach an egg.
While the water is egg is poaching, I put together my salad for lunch. I have a square Rubbermaid container, I fill it up with spring mix, add some sprouts, put in a tablespoon of Italian dressing and a table spoon of balsamic vinegar. I bring along either a pouch of salmon, a tin of smoked oysters or an avocado and add that when I'm ready to eat lunch. I take along a couple of pieces of fruit for a snack.
The key for me is having my supplies on hand, my lunch bag and container for salad clean, so in the morning I can make a cup of coffee, throw my stuff together without a lot of fuss and bother, nothing throws me off track like not having stuff prepared.
I have also made the big batch of soup with quinoa, broccoli, etc. and taken a container, again, no problem with eating the same thing for days in a row.
One thing I do as well is when I have a new container, I'll measure out something and put it in to see what that measurement looks like in the container so I don't have to measure everyday. Like with my soup container I measure out cup of water and put it in so I could see where a cup came to in the container, I put a couple tablespoon measuring spoons in the same spot in the drawer and use those to measure out my dressing and coffee creamer...wow am I anal....oh well, it's working
best of luck to you got some great new ideas from this thread, thanks!
kelijpa, I'm the same as you! I use a couple old medicine cups, like for Nyquil, and use those for my creamer and salad dressing.
I must have my food prepared before I leave for work each day. I never did this before, until a few years ago! It's so worth it to make my salad that morning then I either grab a frozen meal or some frozen, cooked chicken, a yogurt, fruit, and I keep my FF/ LF dressings at work in the fridge.
I for sure eat terribly worse if I don't take my lunch and leave to pick up food. I also keep a few frozen Lean Cuisines/ Smart Ones in the work freezer for days when I don't bring lunch. But without taking lunch, I'll eat Wendy's or Schlotzsky's! Don't need to do that at all.
I'm another one that typically doesn't like to cook and is very happy eating a fairly limited variety. Most mornings, if I have breakfast, it's a light yogurt and a cup of tea or hot cocoa. Lunch at work is some combination of sandwich or Lean Cuisine with yogurt or string cheese, a fruit or veggie, and sometimes a sweet treat like a Fiber One bar. Dinners are my most varied meal, but only because my husband HATES having the same things over and over. After a long day at work, I'm very happy to subsist off of a combo of soup, salad, sandwich, and cereal. (and I do on the days he comes home late!)
I noticed the OP says she grows her own yellow squash. Perhaps you grow zucchini, too? I just purchased a spiral veggie slicer on Amazon and it's the BEST thing! Since I got it, I have veggie "zoodles" (zucchini noodles - would work with yellow squash, too) every day!
I just use the tool to 'spiralize' the zucchini into noodles, put them in a bowl covered with plastic wrap and zap in the microwave for about 2 minutes. I then drain them a bit and put some cold spaghetti sauce (made with ground turkey and no sugar tomato sauce) on them, cover again and put back in the microwave. The sauce gets warmed, the "noodles" are cooked, and it's wonderful! If not for the trace of green in them, I would think I'm eating pasta. You can even swirl it on a fork! I can imagine that kids would love it, and it would be so cheap for you this summer with a bountiful garden. The tool cost me about $30 (I watched for it to go on sale), but to me it has turned out to be priceless in how quickly I can achieve a low calorie, low carb, comforting and hot meal.
I also take the raw zoodles with me in a baggie to work along with a cup of sauce. In the office kitchen, I put things together just like I would at home. YUM!
I eat a lot of the same things too....no sugar added hot cocoa, cottage cheese, greek yogurt, pickles, tuna salad, egg salad, squash and zucchini, low sugar mochas, salmon patties, chicken etc....dinner for me is whatever I make for the family and try to avoid most of the carbs/starches