Lunch!

Since I stay at home with the kids, what I eat for lunch varies from leftovers and whatever I can scrounge up. Last spring I did a great job of grilling a ton of chicken breast and then eating that for lunch by itself, on a salad, or in a wrap. But a bad thing happened. I ate some while I was a little bit sick and now I can not eat chicken breast very often. I definitely cannot eat it grilled on the Foreman by itself and since it's the middle of winter in Kansas, actual grilling is not happening.

Lately I've been addicted to peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. The kids really like them and I let myself have one and then I was in trouble. I could just stop buying whole wheat bread (I lose weight best when I don't eat carbs or sugar) but I did that for about 4 months last year and when I did finally bring a loaf of bread back into the house, my poor kids devoured a whole loaf, by themselves, in like 3 days. No joke, a 2 and a 1 year old ate slices and slices of wheat bread every day. That's when I realized that while my "diet" was a good way for me to lose weight, it was taking away something that was good for my kids. I don't want to get into what I think is "good" or "bad" and if I follow a "clean" diet or an Atkins diet, ect. I will get to that sometime though, because I think it's important, especially if you have kids.

ANYWAY, back to lunches. Suffice to say, I haven't been eating the best stuff for lunch. Every day for breakfast we have eggs in several different ways, with oatmeal or whole wheat blueberry muffins thrown in once in awhile. I plan dinner every week, so that I have at least 5 or 6 healthy dinners to pick from. Since I do all that planning, lunch gets put on the back burner. I want to change that. My plan is to make two different "proteins" to have on hand so I have a base to go off of. Really when it comes down to it, it needs to be easy or I'm not going to do it. I don't "cook" lunch, I "fix" lunch.

Here are some ideas that I've found and want to try. (I'll put the links to the original sites. I'm not trying to steal anything or pass it off as my own, I just don't know how to site my sources on a blog and am too lazy to look it up. I'm sure you don't mind.)

Turkey Meatloaf Muffins

The name kind of throws me. They sound gross, even though I know they will be good. I like that they are easy to make ahead of time, so I can eat them throughout the week.
Here is the link to the recipe.

Black Bean Breakfast Bowl

Yes, it does say "breakfast" bowl, but I would totally eat this for lunch. Maybe hardboiled eggs instead of scrambled. I might also add some garbanzo beans too (I have a stockpile of them that I got on sale). I have some super yummy Walmart brand salsa I would use, and with the avocado and cilantro…yum! I can get on board with that! A goal of mine is to eat more meals (mainly lunch) that have a non-meat protein and this fits the bill. I also can't wait for spring and all the yummy fresh veggies, fruit, salad, and on and on. Right now though, it's freezing out, so I'm sticking with warm dishes. I have a hard time eating a salad when there is a foot of snow on the ground (which there is currently).
Here is the link to this recipe.



Along with these two lunches, I plan on also eating dinner leftovers, if my husband doesn't take them first. Hopefully all this planning will help make it easier for me to stay on track and meet this month's goals.