It’s What I ate Wednesday and I didn’t even need a reminder!
I’m very aware of what day it is this week because I’m looking forward to a fun weekend celebrating my mom’s 50th birthday!
For now, let’s get to the food. There was some yummy eating going on!
Breakfast -
I thoroughly enjoyed oats in an almost empty Maranatha jar.
I made my oats with:
1/2 cup almond milk
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 sliced banana
1/4 cup egg whites
pinch of sea salt
I topped it with some Crofter’s Superfruit Asia jam and let’s not forget the delicious almond butter waiting on me inside the jar. My favorite part comes at the bottom of the jar when you finally find where most of the AB has been waiting forme. 
Lunch -
I had a salad with heaps of spinach, a Morning Star black bean veggie burger, raw cut-off-the-cob corn, avocado, salsa, and Greek yogurt.
Lunch Dessert -
Needing something sweet, but not too sweet, I nuked some strawberries in the microwave and topped them with Greek yogurt, unsweetened coconut, and a bit of honey.
Pre-run Snack -
I had a whole banana yesterday but wasn’t quite as hungry today, so I settled on half of a banana with a tablespoon of organic peanut butter.
Dinner -
Remember figs a la Claire? I took the taste combinations from this fun treat and put it on a Flatout flat bread. I toasted it a bit too much under the broiler, but will post this quick and easy recipe when I have a less-burned version.
I also had some maple and spice chard on the side.
I ended the night with a sweet treat, eating quite a bit of un-photographed watermelon while working on my latest SavorNC blog post. You should check it out if you love watermelon as much as I do (which is a lot!).
I’m always curious about the thought process that goes behind people’s eating habits, so here’s a question for you:
Do you consciously make sure the meals in your day are well balanced by planning ahead or do you eat what you want and most of the time it turns out what you wanted was well balanced? I personally go back and forth between these two different strategies. Breakfast is always what I want, lunch is typically whatever can be made quickly and includes plenty of veggies, then usually I try to think how I can balance the day out with dinner (extra veggies if I haven’t had enough, easy on the carbohydrates if both lunch and breakfast were very carb-centric, etc.)
My eyes got stuck on something… egg whites.. do you put raw egg whites in your oats??
That caught my eye too!
Yes, I do. I stir them in and they cook pretty quickly. You don’t really know they’re there, except they make the oats more voluminous and they add a little extra oomph of protein.
I love your food ideas! I found your blog through a friend of mine, Jess Daly. We share very similar taste in food!
My meal habits are really similar to what you mentioned – I love to have whatever I am feeling hungry for at breakfast (my favorite meal!), then I try to include veggies from our garden with plenty of protein for lunch, as well as a snack, and then for dinner I just seek to balance it all out with small portions of what I didn’t have throughout the day. I’m a dessert eater, so I try to end with fresh fruit and frozen yogurt rather than ice cream! (which I always want!)
A question: when making your oats, do you just mix all of those ingredients together on the stove as you’re cooking it? Or do you have a particular order/method to it?
Thanks Rachel! I know Liz Daly. Are they related? I do have a method for cooking oats. I cook the water, almond milk, and oats together, bring them to a boil on the stove, reduce the heat, stir in egg whites (usually) let simmer on low for about 10 minutes, then add the banana or some cottage cheese, stir it really well, and you’re done! Sometimes I also add other fruit when I reduce the heat like berries. I put toppings on last.
I generally plan ahead – I make a shopping list for the week, so that helps. I’m not a stickler for total “balance,” but my meals are balanced enough for me, and that’s what counts, right? I do put a bit of thought into my meals though for various reasons, and that’s one of them.
That totally counts! Only you know what balance looks like for you.
I”m not very good at planning ahead. I’ll plan to make certain recipes but I don’t really take into account how they figure into my daily eats.
I used to plan… but now I do more intuition eating and eating what needs to be used up! =) that usually balances itself out <3
Happy WIAW!!! I linked up your post for you cause you forgot silly!
Yes! What veggies and fruit are almost on their last leg definitely go into play when deciding what to eat for me.
yum looks like a great day of eats! that pizza looks amazing. figs are so great i need to eat them more!
LOVE watermelon and basil! so good! love the skewers!
I do sort of plan… since breakfast and lunch are always eaten alone (I mean, not necessarily alone, but like, I only make something for ME) then I usually eat lots of fruits and veggies. That way, when dinner rolls around, if I want to go out with friends or something, I don’t have to try to make sure we eat something or somewhere that has lots of veggies and stuff. Does that make any sense??
That totally makes sense. I do that too if I know I’m going out to dinner somewhere that isn’t known for having a lot of veggies.