#WIAW | October

Welcome to another What I Ate Wednesday! Let's jump right in!

6:15 AM Peanut butter and banana quesadilla, almond milk and strawberries

11:45 AM Salad with hard-boiled egg and cottage cheese, side of broccoli and honey roasted peanuts

2:00 PM Hummus and hummus chips

6:30 PM Grilled swordfish steak, grilled asparagus and two slices of whole wheat bread with garlic olive oil and balsamic vinegar

Not Pictured:

7:15 PM Little Lad’s Herbal Popcorn

8 PM 1 Reese’s peanut butter cup

Beverages: Almond milk, coffee w/ skim milk, water, seltzer water

See you all back here soon!

#WIAW | My Dinners This Week

I am not a person who likes leftovers but I also hate wasting food.  I like when I can make something totally different with what I have in the fridge to trick my picky taste buds into thinking their eating something new.  This post isn't a great example of that (I've seen Rachel Ray work some serious leftover magic) but for me it's fun to see what ideas other people have for quick easy dinners so I thought some of you might, too.  This is a somewhat modified What I Ate Wednesday (#WIAW) and just lets me explain my somewhat ordinary, repetitive, yet satisfying dinners I have eaten so far this week.  The struggle is real, people.  Dietitians have to eat, too and we don't always want to cook.

On Sunday I made a salad with the remains of my fridge and pantry. This included the last bits of lettuce, a few fresh berries I had bought for smoothies on their last legs, grilled shrimp from the freezer (yes, the last 5 of them), canned black beans and I made a small cheese quesadilla with the last two tortillas I keep in the freezer and a little shredded cheese.  It was seriously delicious!

Reusing an old photo of a similar salad, forgive me, I was hungry.

I had literally wiped out my stock for dinner on Tuesday so before going to get groceries I ate a bowl of brown rice, beans and grilled corn topped with a little salsa and ranch.  I'll admit it was a somewhat sad little meal and I originally had higher hopes for that dinner but turned out I had no cheese, no tomatoes or lettuce left!  What's a girl to do besides immediately head to the grocery store and go a teensy bit crazy in the produce isle.  No photo necessary, trust me.

Keeping the Mexican theme alive this week, Tuesday I used the remaining rice and beans to make a sort of "burrito bowl on a plate."  I grilled up a piece of salmon and layered it on top of the brown rice, beans and some chopped greens.  I like to keep frozen mango on hand which always makes it easy to whip up my Mango Salsa (see here for the recipe).  

It's amazing how much better I eat the day after food shopping.

 Hope you all enjoyed reading and see you back here soon!

#WIAW | What I Ate Wednesday

Welcome to the first "What I Ate Wednesday" on Lemon Pantry!  This is not a new idea by any means but I thought I would give it a try.  I thought some of you may like to see what kinds of food dietitians eat (disappointingly normal) and I found it also helps keep me accountable throughout the day if I know I'm going to have to photograph it.

So this post contains what I actually ate on Tuesday for a "What I Ate Wednesday" post if that makes any sense.  Looking back I would have loved to add some greens to my dinner but I didn't want to go overboard before heading to 7PM yoga.  If you cross one eye and stand on your head you'll see I still had some whole grains, vegetables and dairy/protein snuck in there so it wasn't a total loss, even if it was pizza.

Otherwise, Tuesday was a pretty uneventful and typical day of what I might eat.  With some feedback I may do another one of these which will show some variations of meals and snacks, so let me know what you think!

6:15AM Breakfast

Whole wheat English muffin

Peanut butter

Small banana

8oz almond milk

1/2 scoop protein powder

9:30AM Snack 

Low fat cheese stick

11:30AM Lunch

Salad - spring mix greens, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, fresh mozzarella cheese, 1 packet chunk tuna fish, olive oil and lemon juice

Non-fat Greek yogurt

Medium Apple

2PM Snack 

Pumpkin Seeds

5:30PM Dinner 

Grilled whole-grain pizza with mozzarella and tomatoes

8:30PM Snack (Not shown)
Spoonful of peanut butter after yoga

Drinks:
 Not pictured is my morning coffee with milk.  I keep a reusable 16 ounce cup at work that I try to refill 2-3 times throughout the day with ice water.  I also typically drink 1 liter of seltzer water from the time I get home until bedtime.

Let me know if you guys liked this type of post and would care to see another one in the future in the comments below!