What I Eat In A Day

Whenever I ask y’all for content requests, I inevitably have someone ask me to share what I eat in a day. While I like the idea of it, I feel like I’m not very creative with what I consume and fear that you’ll find it boring. So, if you’re not interested, I get it, but if you are, it’s finally here for you.

I’m going to be honest; I have no issue eating the same two meals for an entire week. Because of that, I do just that. I tend to do all of my cooking for the week on Sunday afternoon/night so that making lunch to take to work involves grabbing something out of the fridge and making dinner means placing what I’ve already cooked in the microwave. It may sound lazy, but it’s what works for me and what I like to do. I have shared recipes in the past through my Meal Prep In Your Step series and definitely want to get back to sharing more ideas with y’all, but I tend to either strictly follow a recipe I’ve found online or in a cookbook or make the same things I’ve already shared with you. Either way, here is what I ate + a few extra favorites that I’ll typically eat in a day. 

One of my favorite parts of my entire day is drinking my first cup of coffee. I do my hair and put on makeup and then venture to the kitchen, put a k-cup in our Keurig, and start making my oatmeal. Props to any of you that can drink your coffee black, but I much prefer a bit of creamer in mine. As for oatmeal, I like Publix’s lower sugar maple and brown sugar oatmeal made with just enough 1% milk to make sure all the oats are touching liquid. I usually sprinkle some cinnamon on top to mix in after microwaving the bowl for precisely a minute and a half. I eat my breakfast in bed (I know some people will think that’s weird) while reading for 20 minutes in the morning. Once that 20 minutes is up my oatmeal is gone and so is my first cup of coffee. 

Right before I leave for work (usually 20 minutes after getting out of bed the second time) I make a second cup of coffee and this time opt for the 10 ounces instead of 8. I use creamer again and enjoy that cup on my way to work and as I go through emails in the morning. 

Instead of jumping straight to what I eat for lunch it’s important to cover my favorite snack foods since there is no way I can make it from 6:00 eating my breakfast to 12:30 when I eat my lunch without some sort of sustenance in between. While I don’t eat all of these snacks each day, I’ll usually eat one of them in the morning and one in the afternoon before working out. 

Trader Joe’s Trail Mix: I don’t like raisins so finding a trail mix that excludes them is a challenge since they tend to be a staple in most of the mixes. This mix is good because it has cashews and almonds as well as chocolate chunks without any raisins.

Trader Joe’s Granola Bar: I’ve loved granola bars for as long as I can remember given just how easy they are to bring along with me in case I get hungry (which happens about every 2 hours). This is usually my go-to snack before working out.

Peanut Butter Filled Pretzels: I categorize this as a snack but usually end up eating these with my lunch for a salty but also protein-filled side. 

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Perfect Bar: I’ve proclaimed my love of granola bars already but reach for this bar when I’m especially hungry and need to hold myself over for a while. The only downside with Perfect Bars is that they are best refrigerated so if I’m bringing them along with me, they usually aren’t cold by the time I eat them.

Chocolate Covered Pretzels: Chocolate covered pretzels or a couple of Trader Joe’s dark chocolate peanut butter cups straight out of the freezer are my favorite desserts. I definitely have a sweet tooth so not having something sweet to end the day is seemingly impossible for me. 

Elisabeth and Butter Baked Oatmeal: When I am feeling extra adult, I’ll make baked oatmeal to have as my morning snack. Sometimes I add chocolate chips, and sometimes I don’t, it depends on the day. What I love about these is that they are good cold, room temperature, or warmed up! 

Now let’s jump to lunch. Like I mentioned earlier, I usually have two meal options for each day and will alternate which I have for lunch and dinner depending on my mood while packing my lunch in the morning. Last week, I opted for salads most day as my lunch instead of my dinner. I love putting baked chicken, roasted sweet potatoes, and candied pecans on top of kale for my salads. I use a light French dressing on top and haven’t gotten sick of this combination despite eating it so frequently. You can find my recipe for this meal here.

As for my other meals this past week I revisited an old favorite that I hadn’t made in a while, ground turkey taco bowls. You can find the recipe here, but this week I used frozen Mexican corn from Trader Joe’s and mixed it in with my brown rice before adding peppers, the ground turkey, avocado, and salsa to the bowl. I like to eat this with blue corn chips to add a bit of a crunch. 

I just realized I failed to mention drinks other than coffee which is mainly because aside from that I tend to drink water. I’ll usually have a La Croix with my lunch and dinner and am constantly filling the Tervis I have at my desk with water throughout the day (I find that I am especially encouraged to do this since our office has Chick Fil A-esque ice). Another important note to make is that I’m not a nutritionist and don’t claim to be so I’m in no way saying this is the best food I could put in my body or encouraging you to eat the exact same thing as me. You probably noticed that I didn’t mention fruit in this post because I don’t like the texture of it (although I do love the flavor) and now that I’m an “adult” I don’t have anyone telling me I have to eat it and I’m not dying to put in the effort to make smoothies all the time. That’s just to say that to each his own, but now you know what I may be eating on a given day! 

If you have any recipes that you depend on when making meals leave them for me below since I’m always looking for new ideas!