[Quiet Ballerina]

I wanted to share a few things I started doing recently, to help me plan my meals better.

Salads:
I'm honestly not a big salad person. But doing this helped me eat three salads between yesterday & today.
I went to the grocery store to get my salad ingredients, then came home & started washing & chopping. I took 3 tupperware containers and put in all of my salad ingredients (except the dressing). I also put in 1/4 of a paper towel sheet, because that's supposed to help keep the moisture down from the lettuce. Put my tupperware in the fridge and voila! I have a great salad already prepared. I can grab the container, an individual packet of dressing, and I am good to go.

Salad stuff in case you're curious:
spinach leaves
strawberries
raisins
celery
cucumber
carrots

Smoothies:
I *LOVE* smoothies. But when I buy berries, they go bad so quickly! So I saw some great looking blueberries at the grocery store. Brought them home, washed them, and separated them into a few ziploc bags. Stuck them in the freezer. Now when I want some berries for my smoothie, I have some blueberries ready to go! I plan on getting strawberries too.

Oh, and I took some of the leftover spinach (from my salads) and vacuum sealed them and stuck those in the freezer too. I wasn't sure if the spinach would be ok in normal ziploc bags. I love to put a handful of spinach in my smoothies. If you take the stems off, you can't taste it (the stems add a little crunch).

Typical stuff in my smoothies:
banana
strawberries
blueberries
lowfat yogurt
spinach
1/2 cup of low fat soy milk
sometimes crushed ice

[AnnieDrews]

Good job thinking and planning ahead, Ballerina! I have been doing the same thing and it really helps me stay on plan.

I also chop and prep my salad ingredients. I keep mine all in separate containers and pack a ziploc bag with lettuce and throw in the extras to take to work. I will make about 2 days worth to keep in the fridge at work, where I keep fat free dressing in the fridge. Throw in a cheese stick or single serving water packed tuna and it's a filling lunch for me.

My salad ingredients:
Romaine or romaine blend
bean sprouts (love the crunch)
celery
sugar snap peas
green peppers
cucumbers
tomato (usually I splurge on the Cherubs)
sometimes shredded carrot


I also make a batch of 5 servings of oatmeal (I use cinnamon and butter flavor extract) every Sunday evening and pack in containers to take to lunch with me every morning. I keep frozen cherries or blueberries in the freezer at work, along with Splenda brown sugar to flavor it.