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A good friend of mine was asking me questions the other day about ideas of what he could eat that is healthy, fast, and easy. He’s a bachelor and like most singles that I know, the refrigerator usually looks like this:

Hate to tell ya, but you’re not going to get very far with a bottle of mustard and some cream cheese, unless of course you’re McGyver! (I just dated myself didn’t I?) But I digress…(my other new word). It’s a new year, you’ve made new goals and one of them is to lose weight, or eat healthier, or both! Well, if you’re out to lose any weight at all, then having healthy eating habits are going to be a must. So I just want to share some ideas that I’ve used when I don’t have a lot of time, or quite frankly, when I’m just too lazy to cook.

A good habit to get into is to get the groceries you need for anything you’ll want to make for at least 3-4 days. That way, not only are you saving trips to the store, but you’re also saving $$, because really,  don’t we all end up with about $20 more in our basket than what we intended most of the time? Now of course I can’t please everyone here with the ingredients I use, but you can always send me an email to tailor it for you if you’d like. this is going to be a basic rundown, then I’ll get into the details, so hang tight!

Breakfast choices: Whole grain waffles, whole wheat english muffins, high fiber cereal w/skim milk, protein shake w/banana or papaya,  egg whites w/ chopped mushrooms, spinach and tomatoes all scrambled, oatmeal with 1 tb of peanut butter, blueberry pancakes w/ 1 mashed banana in it (from the blueberry muffin box), toasted peanut butter & jelly sandwich, and yogurt w/ granola on top. remember these are ideas that I use myself in the morning. You can find more ideas at the Cooking light website. Breakfast is the most important meal of your day!!! If you want to speed up your metabolism, and make losing weight easier, don’t skip breakfast. This should be your BIGGEST meal as a matter of fact, that you consume during the day. It gets your brain ready for the daily challenges, and sets the internal dial of how much energy you’ll be needing and using. I urge you to plan the night before what it is that you’ll be eating. Snack #1 choices: low-fat yogurt, granola bar, nut and fruit mix, apple, grapes, banana, bran muffin, hard boiled egg (which you prepare the night before), raw veggies, almonds, 1/2 avocado, reduced fat pudding cup, baked chips and salsa, pretzels. Snacks are NOT to be eaten just because you’re bored. They are to be eaten so you are not “starving” in between breakfast and lunch. Snacks usually don’t have to be cooked, so don’t make it hard on yourself. Their lot in life is to tide you over.

Lunch choices: salad the way you like it (prepared the night before), leftovers from dinner (ALWAYS easy), sandwich w/ avocado (and any other weird stuff you may like), veggie burger pita, healthy canned soup (watch the sodium), turkey quesadillas. Lunch time is considered to be anywhere between 11-2pm. Personally I prefer to eat lunch no later than 1pm, I also understand that schedules can’t always be followed the way we like. Snack #2 choices:In addition to all the choices you saw earlier for snack #1, you can add an orange, pear, strawberries, protein shake, string cheese, peanut butter pretzels, tuna w/ crackers, popcorn.

Food for thought: snacks are just to tide you over………………………………………….

Dinner choices: By far my favorite meal to cook, only because I love to cook! But not only that, I plan my lunches off of this meal so often as well. A crock pot is a perfect cook while you’re gone to work all day. You get to come home to a wonderful aroma and dinner is ready! But aside from crock pot recipes, there are other things to make that are relatively quick as well. Pizza (make or order), tacos, pasta (about 11 minutes to cook), lean sloppy joe, broiled fish, baked chicken w/ instant brown rice (10 min to cook), sautéed veggies with tortillas, baked potato, ravioli. I can honestly say that my crockpot is one of the BEST investments I’ve ever made for my kitchen, AND my sanity :) There are tons of recipes you can use for the crockpot from breakfast to dessert.

I don’t like food that’s too carefully arranged; it makes me think that the chef is spending too much time arranging and not enough time cooking. If I wanted a picture I’d buy a painting.

~Andy Rooney

He said it very well! This post was supposed to help you get ideas of quick ways to satisfy your hunger with healthy ideas, not how to be hoity toity with your food. There are of course hundreds of other foods to eat and many others that I really spend the time preparing, but that’s either because it’s a special occasion, or because I want to try a new recipe. Hopefully these will help you get started :) Here are more ideas for a little more time consumption, but great nonetheless.

Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are. ~Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

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