I hope you're all having a fantastic summer so far! As most of you know, I love to bake, but I absolutely hate cooking. Maybe it's because I live alone and I don't see the point of cooking for one, or maybe it's because I always get hungry halfway through and start eating the ingredients before the meal is done, but either way, I just can't be bothered to cook for myself. Luckily for me, one of my closest friends and fellow bloggers Vanessa of
Without a Measuring Cup moved right down the street from me back in April, and she just so happens to be a personal chef!
As a vegetarian who hates cooking, it's really easy for me to make unhealthy food choices when I'm left to my own devices. I'll start the day off on a decent note with a greek yogurt and a piece of fruit, but then it usually goes downhill from there. Since I never bring my own lunch, I often grab whatever to-go vegetarian options I can find near my office, which are usually a wrap or salad of some kind. A lot of them seem healthy but end up being shockingly high calorie and high fat -
check out page 6 of this menu to see what I mean. Then when I got home on weeknights, since I never had groceries in my apartment, I would order takeout that was more often than not unhealthy. I noticed that over the winter and early spring, I gained more weight than I would have liked to and always felt bloated after I ate. I wanted to change my eating habits not only so I could look better, but so I could feel better too, and when I mentioned this all to Vanessa, she came up with a plan for me.
Vanessa and I out to dinner together
According to Vanessa, I was making three common mistakes when it came to choosing my meals: I wasn't eating enough foods that were fresh and nutritious; I wasn't eating enough protein as a vegetarian but was eating too much dairy; and I wasn't controlling my portions well enough. Vanessa worked with me to come up with my own customized weekly meal plan for breakfasts and lunches, Mondays through Fridays. Since I have zero "chefing" experience and don't do well with complicated meals, we decided to make all of my breakfast and lunch options delicious yet simple enough for me to bring and assemble or re-heat at work. Breakfast is usually some type of smoothie that's packed with protein but also tastes great and/or an egg dish that I can eat at my desk. My lunches vary, but ALL of them include ingredients that I like and work with Vanessa to select, including mini "pizzas," quinoa salads, egg white & veggie scrambles, spiralized cucumber "pasta," and the stuffed pepper you'll see the recipe below.
one of my favorite WAMC breakfasts: a spinach, avocado, pineapple and protein powder smoothie with a hard boiled egg
