Peek in on my breakfasts and lunches
In case you're new here: since I only share dinner meals in my Friday "What I Spent, What We Ate" posts, I share occasional roundups of some breakfast and lunch meals. Today is one of those days!
Breakfasts
Carrot oats, cottage cheese, and an orange:
I've also been making overnight oats for work breakfasts, but I have no photos for some reason. I know some of you asked for my method, but I'm still kinda tweaking it, and once I have it the way I want, I'll share!
Eggs, a pear, and a toasted slice of the Aldi version of Dave's Killer Bread. Not very colorful, but it got the job done!
Eggs, mashed potatoes, sauteed broccoli, and a pear. What can I say? I really needed to use up some broccoli!
This one is fried eggs on a toasted leftover Panera baguette (because why do you need a baguette as a side when you've ordered a sandwich??), topped with cilantro sauce.
Lunches
Tuna melt, using a whole can of tuna (25 grams of protein!), plus some cucumbers.
Here is what happens when your cat smells a tuna melt cooking:
Kale salad with sauteed shrimp, oranges, popped chips, cottage cheese, and nerds clusters.
A chicken salad made with a Thai mango salad kit (I just cook chicken and add it to the mix!), plus popcorn, grapes, and nerds clusters.
Ham sandwich, oranges, popped chips, nerds clusters.
A chicken salad lunch with grapes and popcorn.
Chicken gnocchi soup, with popped chips, peppers dipped in cilantro sauce, plus grapes and chocolate.
A meatless lunch: cottage cheese and fruit, grapes, popcorn, nerds clusters (ha) and a homemade chia seed drink.
Leftover bourbon chicken, broccoli, and rice.
Leftover Marry Me Chickpeas (There are lots of recipes on the web; I loosely follow the basic idea!), cottage cheese, popped chips, and oranges.
A chicken salad (yep, again!), popped chips, and oranges.
Ok! We've run through my whole collection; clearly I need to do a better job of photographing my breakfasts. I'll improve next time around. 😉
What have you been eating lately for breakfast and lunch? And what is your opinion of Nerds gummy clusters?
(I'm usually a chocolate kinda girl, but for some reason I doooo like this candy!)
P.S. Last time I did this, someone asked if I eat snacks. Here's my answer.
I love Chiquita's expression!
If I take lunch to work it's usually a wrap with chickpeas/black beans, veg and hummus or a burrito bowl, which involves black beans, veg, brown rice and sauce, with some fruit on the side. I've just run out of a mutipack of mini chocolate wafers which I would also include...and now I have to resist temptation to get a snack from the bakery nearby.
If I'm at home I usually have an egg on toast with some sauteed spinach and tomatoes and some cream cheese or cottage cheese. I usually have an apple and a piece of chocolate with some coffee.
I used to like nerds as a kid but I haven't had any since then! I'm not sure if they would live up to memory; I tried some childhood sweets recently and they just tasted of chemicals/overt sweetness! A piece of chocolate and coffee is always a must.
There is something very satisfying and slightly addictive about Nerds gummy clusters!
It all looks delish! And nerd clusters are so good!
I don't like candy all that much if it's not chocolate, although I do like Nerds. Not the gummy kind, the original. I feel like the gummy Nerds have taken over the last couple of years for some reason.
I'm looking at your many, many small containers and all the matching lids and remembering when I packed lunch for my younger two sons. So annoying dealing with all those pieces to be washed when they got home. Between the two of them, it was like 12 or more separate things to wash every school day. I really appreciate that we have an excellent school lunch here that all of them can eat and I no longer pack lunches.
I eat two fried eggs (no soft yolks at all, thanks 🙂 ) every morning with salsa for breakfast. A piece of buttered sourdough toast if I've been running that day. Lunches are mostly leftovers of various kinds.
I recently switched my lunch & breakfast foods so that it’s easier on my yoga days. So, breakfasts are often 2 slices Dave’s killer bread, turkey, Swiss, mayo, lots of lettuce, & pickles. Lunches are always 2 steamed veges with sautéed spinach & an over easy egg on top with whatever sauce I have on hand. It’s boring, but I never vary. I have 4 veges by noon & if I have an apple or cutie in between, I get at least 5 servings everyday- whatever I have for dinner feels like bonus!
your photos are so inviting. chiquita is the most photogenic cutie pie. she could b a cat model.
I work from home so generally try to batch cook something I can eat all week. Currently, I am recovering from my knee replacement, so my husband is doing all the cooking. He went back to the office today so he packed me a lunch box and left it in the table for me!❤️ Sandwich, fruit and chips! I also have the makings of a yogurt parfait waiting for me to assemble and an iced coffee in a tervis awaiting me by my chair. I also have an orange and trail mix waiting for me. I'm well cared for and well fed.
Your food always looks so yummy! I wouldn't normally touch chickpeas with a ten-foot pole, but those actually look good! I, like you, am a totally chocolate candy person. I can't be bothered with Starburst or Skittles or anything sour/gummy. But, oh, those Nerds gummy clusters are DAN-GER-OUS. Don't know what they put in them, but they are so good!
I've made a very similar dish with butter beans (lima beans) and they were so good!
I rotate between two main breakfasts -- greek yogurt with fruit, nuts, and maybe granola -- or scrambled eggs and gluten free Vans waffles. It depends on whether I'm working from home or not.
My lunch is always leftovers. On weeks when I don't see leftovers on the horizon, I make dense bean salads -- I'm having it today! They always come out good and I never follow an actual recipe. For me green olives and mozzarella are a must, with a simple vinaigrette and oregano. It's also a great fridge clean out. I've thrown everything in there -- roasted peppers, sundried tomatoes, sad looking veggies, giardiniera, leftover protein. You get the idea.
I have a friend who makes bean salads for weekly lunches and calls it her "kibble". Wish my stomach would tolerate that many beans all week; they are so good!
For breakfast, I have plain Greek yogurt or cottage cheese with mango or blueberries and a whole grain toast. Sometimes I eat the toast with cottage cheese and sliced tomato with everything but the bagel seasoning.
For lunches, it's leftovers from dinner the night before (even when I had to pack lunch for work, now I work from home). If the leftovers are not quite enough, I will fry an egg to supplement or make a wrap where I toss all kinds of odds and ends. I keep a couple of freezer meals on hand also.
I am vegetarian, so my lunches tend to be beans, chickpeas or tofu combined with a starch and veggie, or pasta with lots of veggies. I love soups but we make them more in the winter, salads in the summer. I feel like a salad alone isn't quite satisfying with only vegetarian protein.
Snacks are more fruit, nuts or some salty cracker type of thing with hummus.
It's hard to get enough protein as a vegetarian and I have started to supplement with some protein powder on days I go to the gym. I don't really like it in anything else but smoothies though.
I also supplement my green tea with a collagen protein powder for joint health (and hopefully hair, which has thinned in pre-menopause).
I am also vegetarian and find protein powder works well in porridge (oatmeal). I have that for breakfast with Greek yogurt and pumpkin seeds sometimes.
Sophie, how do you add the protein powder to the porridge? I find that mine tends to lump up somehow, which was a less pleasant experience 🙂
I bet you could blend some cottage cheese right into the marry me chickpea sauce before adding the chickpeas and would never know it was there...just up the protein even more. I may try that next time.
The lunch I've been eating for YEARS and am still excited to eat everytime is a salad:
- Kale/lettuce
- Cooked quinoa
- Honeycrisp apple (or really any apple I have)
- Feta cheese
- dried cherries
- Pistacios
- Salt, pepper, and evoo for dressing
I've been working in an office for over ten years now and have probably bought lunch ten times in those years. I love making my own lunch!
This week I've been experimenting with wraps, I had some phoney baloney (I'm vegetarian) and wanted to use it up, and it's actually really good! Just hummus, lettuce, onion, and a little cheese. Super filling, but I do miss my salad! My husband calls my signature salad "dork salad" because I love it so much and am a huge dork about it 🙂
I like your story about dork salad, lol! Most days I have a predictable salad for lunch- maybe I'll start calling it a dork salad too.
I usually eat an egg bite as I walk to the barns, lunches are either green salad w/a protein, marinated veg or kimchi. Apple in the afternoon.
Lunch is my main meal, and that is what I report as dinner on this site. I have very little appetite in the evening, and I usually have cheese and crackers, trail mix, protein bar, apple slices and peanut butter, or something like that.
I can weigh in on breakfast, though. I rotate among eggs, pancakes, French toast, fruit and toast, oatmeal, smoothie, peanut butter toast, bagel and cream cheese, granola, and sometimes leftovers from the day before.
Most importantly. Love nerds gummy clusters. They’re addicting.
I work from home primarily and have taken to making salad/rice bowls with whatever veggies are around, adding in leftover protein (or hard boiling an egg, or a can of tuna or… 😉). It’s filling and helps to keep the veggies moving.
I work 5 day a week most weeks so breakfast is 1/2 C cottage cheese, 1ish cup roasted broccoli/Brussel sprouts, and a clementine. Lunch is a green salad with romaine, red/orange/ yellow bell pepper, radish, celery, shaved carrots. Add ins for these are green peas OR feta cheese OR legume of some sort. For protein it is mostly greek yogurt with chia seeds/collagen powder, cinnamon, and a fruit of some type. Sometimes it is leftover chicken, or tuna. But I feel prepping the whole week of breakfast and lunch is crucial. I am not a fan of buying over-priced food from the hospital cafeteria or Panera (in our lobby).
Days that I am not working usually consists of breakfasts of eggs toast and maybe tator tots or bacon or a bagel. It is very random.
My son introduced me to the Nerd Clusters on a road trip, and I do like them. Albanese gummies are my favorite though!
Lately I've been having either chia seed pudding topped with berries/a few dark chocolate chunk/walnuts, a salad, morningstar sausages, egg bites, or a tofu scramble for breakfast. Occasionally it's a hashbrown or I also do a protein shake (25g of protein to start the day is good but I don't love how processed/fake it is). I'm not a huge fan of cottage cheese but since it's a quick source of vegetarian protein, I blended 1/2 cup up to make it smooth like ricotta and then topped it with trader joe's bruschetta sauce mixed with their canned lentils and some pepitas. It was a very filling, savory breakfast. Weird, but pretty tasty.
My high schooler does online school and I WFH so I make lunch for her and me. This week we've had spaghetti squash filled with marinara and cheese, and udon. If there are no leftovers to have, we usually do something quick like a grilled cheese, bean and cheese burrito, fried egg and toast, ramen, fried rice, pasta, trader joe's frozen pasta, frozen pizza, etc. and usually have some sort of fruit with it.
It seems like I'm in the minority here (and I don't want to yuck anyone's yum) but I don't care for the nerds clusters. Something about them reminds me of public bathroom soap. I'll gladly eat other gummies or nerds though!
I'm with you! I will not eat anything nerds, clusters or plain. We all have different tastes. Nerd lovers: enjoy! Just not for me. Chocolate? Always!
My breakfasts would bore you to tears. Almost all the time it's Kashi Go cereal, soaked chia seeds, and low-fat yogurt. Occasionally I'll have leftovers.
I think mixing crunchy candy with gummy candy is abominable. For me. Y'all do you, eh?
Don't like the mix and hard pass on Nerds for me.
I have been logging my meals in a fitness app for 1,495 days as of today, so it's pretty easy to see trends in my meals. Sugar and grease disagree with me in the mornings, so I have one cup of Kashi original cereal with fruit and unsweetened almond milk and 16 ounces of coffee. Sometimes I make some fruit and bran muffins with very little sugar and eat those.
Lunch is my big meal of the day and is almost always a hot meal with a piece of fruit. Sometimes I have crackers or a slice of toast with it.
If I had to venture a guess, you hadn't shared any of that tuna with Chiquita based on the look on her face.
I can hardly stomach tuna in a can these days (oil or water) and prefer the packets. We'll mix a flavored packet with a plain packet as some of the flavor are a bit overwhelming. I wasn't sure I'd like the cracked pepper with roasted garlic flavor but I find it be quite tasty.
Yeah, bread with a sandwich makes little sense.
Doesn't every adult love Nerds Gummy Clusters?? They're so good.
I just bought a bag of salad toppings that has things like craisins, pecans, and sunflowers kernels. I've struggled with taking time to prep my salads lately, so I'm hoping this makes it easier and more enjoyable.
The struggle is REAL for cat owners when it's tuna melt time! haha Can confirm I have seen that look on my kitties' faces many times.
Your meals always look so yummy!
1. Do chia seeds add any flavor to what you add them to? Just curious. I've neber teied them.
And
2. How do they make Nerds Clusters so irresistible? My son and I (and two friends at work) are OBSESSED. Ha.
I often have overnight oats for my workday breakfasts, and my go-to is:
1/2 c oats
1 heaping teaspoon chia seeds
1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
A big pinch of unsweetened coconut
3/4 c milk
A little vanilla if I remember it
I make 5 individual servings on Sunday, and it’s still good on Friday.
I tried Greek yogurt in place of 1/4 cup of milk, but I didn't care for it.
You "weathering" these past two days of storms okay?
Every workday this school year I’ve had overnight oats at 6 am and it holds me past noon (lunch is at 12:40). Night before: 1/2 cup oats, tablespoon each of chia seeds, ground flax seeds, syrup, and cinnamon to my taste. I use 2% milk (3/4 cup). I heat it up in morning and swirl in a spoonful of peanut butter. I usually make 3 days worth at a time.
Lunches are a mix—Frugal Girl granola or yogurt, fruit, string cheese, chocolate! Sometimes I bring an avocado for lunch.
WHY ARE NERD CLUSTERS SO IRRESISTIBLE. I eat almost no straight-up candy but those are voodoo. I love that you pack a little container of them. 🙂
I know! Same here; most candy isn't tempting, but boy, these sure are.
I typically don’t love sour gummy candy, but I tried Nerd Clusters for the first time and liked them!
I saw on Amazon's subscribe and save a deal on the nerds clusters. I thought of you.
I cannot buy Nerds gummy clusters because I will eat the whole bag, no sharing, Mom prerogative. The acid does a number on my mouth. Still have not learned. Irresistible voodoo is accurate. lol.