healthy laps

Well, in this case it was actually Monday Night Prep, due to the holiday, but you get the idea!

While I was waiting for our acorn squash dinner to cook last night, I got a jump start on preparing meals for the week.  I usually try to prepare my lunches the night before to make my mornings less rushed.  I find that when I pack them in the morning, I am running around and therefore, don’t always pack the most nutritious lunch.  Usually, I am pressed for time, and just pull random items from the cabinet and fridge to bring with me.  These are also the days that I end up snacking all day long because my lunch is not filling enough!

This week, I planned out my lunches before we went grocery shopping.  I plan to eat leftovers of our dinners a few days.  I also wanted something a little different for breakfast this week!  I am growing tired of my same old oatmeal or smoothies each morning, so I thought I would prepare something more fun and exciting for breakfast this week!  I have been wanting to make wheatberry bowls from 101cookbooks.com for awhile now, but I never seem to have enough time!  This is just the week to make them!

I cooked 1 cup of wheatberries according to the package instructions.  Wheatberries take at least an hour to cook, so this is definitely something that you need to do in advance!  After my wheatberries were cooked, I just popped them into a container and put them in the fridge to use each morning.

I also cut up some dried fruit – 3 whole dried bananas, 1/4 cup dried ginger and 1/4 cup dried apricots (all of these contain no sugar!).  I mixed all of the fruit together and placed it into an airtight bowl for safe keepings. 🙂

I also toasted some pecans.

The last thing that I did was carmelize some pears!  I sliced 2 pears and cooked them with 1 tsp butter over medium heat until they were soft and a little browned.  They came out so good and sweet!

I woke up this morning knowing that breakfast was waiting for me – no waiting for my oats to cook this morning!

I scooped 1/2 cup cooked wheat berries into a bowl and topped it with 1/2 carmelized pear, handful of mixed dried fruit, a dollop of plain greek yogurt and a drizzle of pure maple syrup!

YUM!  This was the best breakfast ever!  A wonderful change of pace from my normal oats and smoothies.  I was in need of a break for a week.  I love the sweetness of the maple syrup and pears, and the spiciness of the dried ginger!  The yogurt makes everything mix together just perfectly.  This is a delicious breakfast that would be perfect served to a large group for brunch!  I will be eating it all week.

Lunch was also packed last night, since I had some extra time.  I made some tuna fish mixed with stoneground mustard, celery seed and chopped celery.  I hate mayo, so I never use it, not even in tuna!  I much prefer the tangy taste of mustard.

I filled 1/2 white (I know, bad bad!!) pita pocket with some arugula and the tuna.  It was a great tuna sandwich, and just filling enough.

On the side, I snacked on some Roasted Plantain Chips that I picked up from Trader Joes.  I have had my eye on these for a while, but just got around to actually buying them this week!

They are great!  The ingredients say that they are roasted in a little sunflower oil and salt.  That’s right, just 3 ingredients: plantains, sunflower oil, salt!  The flavor is just perfect.  Not too oily and not too salty, just right.  I have previously only had sweet plantains, so this was a nice change.

One serving (about 20 chips) contains 140 calories and 6 grams of fat.  Not so bad!

That was a great lunch!  Very satisfying.

I broke open another You TrailMix for a snack this afternoon.  This mix was Chocolate Trails, which contained organic peanuts, pecans, cherries, pretzels, chocolate chips and chocolate covered raisins.

This was a good mix, better than the first one I tried.  I still prefer to make my own trail mix, but this mix is probably similar to one that I’d make on my own!  It was perfect to hold me over until dinner.

Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: chocolate, dried fruit, Eating Laps, grains, trail mix, yogurt |