I feel like I'm getting in a rut. I'm tired and so cooking is such a chore to me, yet I know it's the healthiest way (and most frugal!) to eat.

So, what do you all eat that's good for you yet still tastes good?

I'm in a rut of cold cereal, oatmeal, and fruit for breakfast. I tried eggs but still, the smell in the morning is too much for me.

Lunch is usually a whole wheat sandwich of some kind. I've been craving this sandwich I had at a restaurant once, and need to go buy the stuff to make it - artichokes, feta, roasted peppers & onions, and kalamata olives on warm italian bread...mmmmm. I have a hard time finishing salads for some reason, so I only eat them if they're small and have a minimum # of ingredients.

I've been tracking my nutrient intake at fitday.com and according to that, am getting pretty close to 100% of my DV for everything every day (for a nonpregnant person of course) plus I'm taking my prenatals more regularly.

I'm not gaining weight yet but I'm not dieting either. If something sounds good, I eat it. I just seem to get full fast, and it feels early for that.

Any yummy pregnancy foods you can share?

I boil up a batch of eggs once a week. That way you don't have to worry about the smell of cooking eggs. I either have the boiled eggs or mix them with some soy mayo and spread them on a whole wheat bagel. You can also cook scrambled eggs in the microwave, less smell again and put them on whole wheat toast or bagel. If you look in your health food sections, see if you can find Wheatstone waffels. They're low carb and whole wheat and I cover them with a fruit spread or low calorie, sugar free syrup. You could also try some whole wheat toast or bagel with canadian bacon.

For lunch, I eat just about anything I might eat for supper. Like whole wheat pasta, chicken, fish, turkey, veggies...kinda limitless. I can grab fish or chicken from the freezer and defrost in the microwave, coat it with seasoning, and toss it on the George Foreman in minutes. I also keep the Green Giant frozen vegetables on hand because they're quick in the microwave. I can fix a meal in 10 minutes and not have to rely on sandwhiches all the time. Sometimes I will also fix tuna or chicken salad with soy mayo and stuff a tomato with it, or just grab a microwaveable WW or SB meal if I'm really not wanting to mess with fixing anything at all.

Try cooking more at the beginning of the week, like fix some extra of everything. That way you have prepared foods already to pick from in the fridge.

For pregnancy...just about anything is yummy. But with a major sweet craving, I'm going through a lot of sugar free items like popsicles and jello. Can't wait til I can get back to being satisfied with the sweetness of fruit and dump the other stuff...and back to when I have a normal appetite again.

thanks for the ideas almostheaven!

i'm not much for leftovers of any sort. it's a mental thing, i always worry about them being too old or having picked up flavors from other things in the fridge, or not being kept cold enough... I know it's silly! To me, eggs from the microwave smell worse, like FARTS! Oh well... canadian bacon on wheat bagel is a good idea. I need to pick up some of that.

I hate making a grocery list or meal calendar. It's always such a struggle in our house! Feels like we end up having the same thing over & over again.

Well... you've given me food for thought here.

You could also try light cream cheese on a whole wheat bagle or a fruit spread on a whole wheat muffin.

I seem to be eating mostly dill pickles and raw cauliflower lately... I truly have no idea why.

I don't manage to eat very well while I'm pregnant, because usually all I can tolerate is the bland stuff. So I eat a lot of carbs--pancakes, waffles, coffee cake. I look forward to having my stomach back to use as I please.

I really don't have any suggestions for you, because the way you're eating is the way I am generally quite happy to eat. I don't worry about variety with my breakfasts & lunches because I want them to be as effortless as possible. Dinner most nights is meat, two veggies, & a starch of some sort, usually toast but occasionally rice or something. Like tonight I'm making pork chops, sauerkraut, baby carrots, & brown rice. I have to go for simple stuff that I can make without heating up the kitchen, since we don't have A/C.

I've had sweet cravings. Worse during the last few months. I try to keep sugar free jello and popsicles. Like yesterday, I went through about 8 sugar free popsicles! For some reason, I keep craving the ice cold and sweet taste. Can't wait to get over this craving though and get back to eating normal myself. Even fruits the last few months don't seem to help the sweet craving anymore.

For a breakfast or evening snack, I love to mix 1/2 lowfat cottage cheese with a SF Yogurt. It's quick and satifying. It seems like a larger amount when combined, so it satisfies me...Could even throw in a couple of berries with it....

I went to the store tonight & bought canadian bacon, whole wheat waffles, cottage cheese, & yogurt!

Today for lunch I made some delicious sandwiches of roasted red pepper & onions, kalamata olives, feta cheese, and olive oil on big toasty, crunchy french bread. Mmmm. It was almost a whole red pepper, so that's good for me, right?! (Of course dinner then was salad, pizza, and a brownie... not so good)

I'm eating anything and everything. Especially cookies...

Hey, you eat a pizza, you get good stuff like lycopene and calcium, and then the brownies have those antioxidants or whatever from the chocolate...

I still try to keep my chocolate semi healthy by getting it in protein bars for the most part. Though I have broken down for the hot fudge oozing cake thingy at Applebee's on more than one occasion. Can't WAIT to get rid of this sweet craving. Arrrrrghhhhh!

I hear ya almostheaven... I have a sweet tooth so bad right now too but mostly it's just for chocolate. I got some Hershey's kisses and I'm doing pretty good about portioning them out so I don't overdo it!

Hey GBMM I like your thinking on pizza & brownies! Reminds me of the Bill Cosby bit where he serves his kids chocolate cake and thinks, "Wheat! Cake has wheat! And EGGS!" LOL

I ate a whole freaking package of li hing mui yesterday. They're salty-sweet dried plums. I'm certain not very good for me, but they get the salty craving out of the way for a while. I did give two of them to Rob, but still... Probably my worst pregnancy-induced eating moment to date.

well I'm sure they had plenty of fiber, so there's some redeeming value to them!

i've been craving desserts so i'm trying to stick with fruit-based. last night we had apple crisp made with fresh apples and today we had banana nut bread. of course, slathered with cream cheese...