Happy Wednesday!  Time for another What I Ate Wednesday.  This was a day I was headed to work.  I get up pretty early on those days and usually drink my smoothie during my commute.

Here’s what I packed for my snacks and lunch.  Yes, packing this much food takes a lot of time but it is so worth it.  I don’t work well if I’m hungry and that’s a fact.

The overnight oats were my morning snack.  The oats were mixed with yogurt, sweet cherries, and cinnamon.  The salad and soup were for lunch.  The soup looks a little weird because it was partly frozen.  It was a sweet potato lentil soup that I had made a while back.  (Tip: freeze a few single servings of soup every time you make a some.)  The salad featured something special – black raspberries that we discovered growing in our yard this weekend! It also had a bunch of other random veggies – cucumbers, roasted broccoli, beets, chickpeas plus sunflower seeds and a little goat cheese.

I also packed a hard boiled egg and some trail mix for my afternoon snack.  But tragedy happened, I somehow forgot my trail mix.  I ate it right when I got home along with some more black raspberries.

Dinner was grilled shish kabobs with shrimp, bell pepper, red onion, and pineapple.   I ate mine with lettuce and quinoa and a side of avocado.  I also made a fresh herb mixture of herbs, olive oil, and salt to add a little more flavor.  The grilled pineapple bites were my favorite, is there anything sweeter than grilled fruit??

So that’s all for that day.  Pretty balanced but nothing too out of the ordinary.  I try to eat balanced when at work but I know that it isn’t easy.  The best tip I can give is to prepare foods in bulk for the week.  For instance I made a jar of oats for everyday that I had to work.  I also prechopped salad veggies that will last the week.  It didn’t take long but makes it a lot easier to throw together a relatively healthy lunch.

What are your tips for packing a healthy lunch??

Be Happy, Be Healthy!

I haven’t done a What I Ate Wednesday in awhile but this week I got my act together in time.  A WIAW is when I document all the food I ate in a day.  This was from one of my days off during the week.  My work eating schedule and weekend eats are usually not so balanced.  But we all do the best we can.

Most days start with a smoothie with berries, greens, chia seeds, and whatever other fresh fruit we have in the fridge.  Looks like sludge but tastes pretty good!

My morning snack was toast with almond butter and strawberries (one of my favorite combos!).

Lunch was homemade bean soup and goat cheese and pesto quesadilla.  We have been eating pesto like crazy lately.  Not sure if it is normal for two people to go through a Costco sized pesto jar as fast as we did but it is so darn good on everything!

Afternoon snack of Babybel cheese and fresh grapes.  There is something about cheese and grapes together that I just love.  Also, not pictured was a handful of pistachios.

Dinner was this beauty of a salad.   It had tomatoes, avocadoes, homemade croutons, walnuts, dates with a basic vinaigrette.  If salads could always be this good, I think everyone would be eating more of them.  I would especially recommend trying dates in a salad, it adds a nice pop of sweetness.

Dessert was a banana almond butter milkshake.  Just frozen bananas, almond butter, cashew milk, cinnamon, and a little almond extract in the blender.

Have a wonderful Wednesday!  Also, Happy National Running Day – if you like to run, hope you can lace up and celebrate today!

Be Happy, Be Healthy!

Another What I Ate Wednesday from my day off yesterday.

Started with a smoothie like usual. Unfortunately this smoothie did not hold me over for very long since it was on the small side.

2nd breakfast of one egg scrambled in coconut oil with Ezekiel bread topped with almond butter and raspberries

Lunch in my favorite soup bowl.  Homemade white bean and collard green soup with a few crackers.

2nd lunch around mid-day after I went for a run of a homemade veggie burger with sweet potato fries.  I’m trying to avoid added sugar this week so I skipped ketchup and made a pesto aioli instead for dipping.

Banana to hold me over until dinner.

Dinner was this Ceasar salad recipe with a side of chicken and a small glass of red wine.

Did you hear that there is new research linking of smaller frequent meals with healthier eating habits?  Here’s a link to the article with more detail.     If you have looked at any of my other WIAWs you know I am all about eating frequently.  I know it doesn’t fit everyone’s lifestyle but it’s what works for me.

Be Happy, Be Healthy!