Friday, November 8, 2013

What I've Been Eating: September & October

I know that I've been missing Heather's link-ups over at Townsend House, and honestly I've been doing a really bad job of coming up with new food options lately. (M asked me a week ago via email what I had been cooking lately....and it dawned on me that I really hadn't made much new! When he's around I'm inspired to try out new recipes on him, but until this weekend, not much new had been cooking/making.)

Mainly due to time constraints I've settled in on a routine:

Breakfast is ALWAYS a Chobani yogurt, a banana, my D vitamins and then either some take on a small bowl of oatmeal, a scramble, toast/english muffin, etc. Coffee w creamer gets drank on the way to class or in the comfort of home on weekends and M/W.

Lunch has to survive five hours in my bag before being (heated up) eaten, so mostly what I've been doing is some combination of the following: veggies & hummus, small oranges/apples, V8, pyrex containers of soup/stew, bagels w/ cream cheese and turkey slices. I also haul healthy granola bars, protein bars, bags of cranberries & almonds as snacks.

Dinner has pretty much been a salmon burger w/ BBQ sauce, a side of avocado & either a tomato, soup, or other sauted veggies on the side. I eat this probably twice a week. The smoothie (frozen fruit, greens, flax seed, coconut milk, vitamins, almond butter) gets consumed 2-4x a week. The scramble or omelet might come into play here with veggies. Other items that have been consumed for dinner: sauted pepper & refried bean fajitas, shrimp & homemade (canned) veggie laden sauce with pasta, various soups, baked potatoes with various toppings, roasted veggies, and one night out for dinner with a housemate.

Honestly the main things I'm eating are variations on scrambles and the crock pot soup/stew is saving me! I make a big pot of something 1-2x a month: it feeds me a meal then, a meal later that week, gives me 1-2 lunches for school, and then lets me freeze 1-3 portions for school lunches later. I've been living off this for most the month! I'm also relearning to make 2-3 portions for dinner and then having left overs to use for lunches the rest of the week.

In September the crockpot and I made a combination of several quinoa & black bean veggie chilis from pinterest. I also made a "root veggie" soup from veggies I had on hand. This last weekend I just made an african sweet potato soup and also did a combo lentil/quinoa/veggie soup/stew. I've also been buying english muffins and bagels in bulk and then freezing half the bag until I actually use them. Left over muffins that I froze this summer have been used for breakfasts and snacks also. And if I'm honest doing this has totally ensured that I'm fed and sustaining most weeks (even if there isn't a ton of variation!). One of the things I'm *hoping* to do over Christmas break is to make several soups, muffins, pizza dough, etc that can be frozen in portions and that will get me through Winter term. :)

Looking through and cleaning out my pinterest recipes (and seeing what my health conscious classmates bring) has been inspiring me to get down on bringing salads/greens with healthy grains, veggies, fruits, nuts, and legumes. So hopefully I'll start putting together a few of these options this month. This one and this one look amazing! (And I just realized this weekend how incredibly simple making lentils is! How did I not know this?!)

2 comments:

  1. My breakfast is pretty much always the same, too. I have been trying to make more soups and stews and things like that so I can reheat them during busy weeks when I don't have time to cook. I was gone about 1/2 of October and will be gone about 1/2 of November, so I am also having to eat out a lot which is tough for me with my gluten intolerance, but I am making it work...

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  2. The last few weeks I've made a batch of veggie bean chili or a lentil/tomato/veggie dish that can give me meals for 4-5 lunches, which has been awesome. Especially on those days when I have to eat lunch and dinner on the go, I need at least one of those meals to be something sort of hearty or warm to feel like I'm really satisfied. And the busier I am, the more okay I am with regularly repeating meals.

    Oh, I forgot to get back to you on the Holiday Half. I've never run it, but have often considered it. I liked starting at Adidas for the pints to pasta 10K and obviously if you're running over the st. johns that will be a bit challenging (it happens during mile 17 of the ptown marathon). Are you thinking about doing it? I don't have your email, but mine is laurenjpeters at gmail if you ever want to get in touch! Cheers!

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