Healthy Eating Staples

Today was a very important day.  It was the first game of the playoffs in office boccia, and it happened to be against one of the four teams from Ontario Basketball (and you know how I feel about Ontario Basketball…)

Sadly, they had the home court advantage, so my coworker Lexy and I headed up to their office around lunchtime with our intern Mary, prepared for battle.  We had been mentally psyching ourselves up all morning, so we were ready for some serious bocciaing (boccing?).  It was a very fun game, with lots of spectators (/trash talkers), and it went on for ages (20 minutes).  Their office is jam-packed with boxes of basketballs and other random basketball gear so we had to boccia around a lot of obstacles.  It was tricky work, and because we are used to our nicely organized and spacious office, I believe this was our downfall.

In the end, we lost 5-4, but it was a really close game and it could have gone either way.  We played well, and were very proud of ourselves.  And luckily we are not out of the playoffs just yet.  We have our second playoff game next week, and it’s do or die for us!

Eats

Ando and I have not been grocery shopping for like a week and a half and our cupboards are in a pretty sad state.  My meals today ended up being kinda random because of this, but it worked out!

I wanted oatmeal for breakfast, but we were all out of both peanut butter and honey, so I switched up my usual combo.

Oatmeal Remix

Oatmeal topped with a splash of almond milk, sliced banana, almond butter, pure maple syrup, and maple flax seeds.

All Mixed Up!

This ended up being a delicious combination!  I’m glad I tried it out.  It might be a new staple oatmeal combination for me.

Lunch was leftover spaghetti from Saturday night’s dinner, but there wasn’t a lot left so I served it with cauliflower that I roasted last night with our pizza.

Tuesday Lunch

And dinner was an interesting combination…

Tuesday Dinner

I opened up a can of whoopass chickpeas and cooked them in a frying pan with some garlic and green onions, before adding a couple handfuls of spinach to the mix.

Spinach Party

Once the spinach was nice and wilty I added a can of diced tomatoes and continued to cook it on medium heat or so until everything was heated.

Veggies + Tomatoes

I served this on top of couscous (I would have gone for quinoa but we are all out), and it was pretty good and super easy.  I think next time I would make it with a yellow onion and add some more spices, but it hit ze spot!

My Plate

Not having my fave foods around today started me thinking about healthy eating staples, and what types of food I like to have around for easy meals and snacks.  If I don’t have something healthy that I like to eat and is readily available, I’ll probably eat badly or order out.  There are certain items that I must have on-hand to make healthy eating a breeze.

My Healthy Eating Staples

• Greek yogurt.  This is a big one for me.  I eat Greek yogurt at least once a day in my snacks, or sometimes for breakfast, and I top it with pretty much anything I have around (fruit, cereal, seeds, etc.)

• Whole wheat bread/bagels/tortillas.  I eat one of those three at least once a day.  My lunch consists of either a bagel or a sandwich often, and sometimes for my snack I top whole wheat tortillas with cheese, heat it in the microwave for about 30 seconds and then fold it over like a quesadilla.  I add salsa to this a lot also.  Very easy and yummy.

• Fresh and/or frozen fruit.  Apples, bananas and blueberries in particular.  I eat an apple almost every day for a snack, top my oatmeal with bananas, and add blueberries to my Greek yogurt.  Big must-haves for me.  I feel lost without them.

• Fresh veggies.  Baby spinach and baby carrots in particular.  I eat spinach regularly and incorporate it into a lot of my meals (sandwiches, salads, sauces, green monsters, etc.)  Baby carrots I eat with hummus often as a snack.

• Nut butter.  Peanut butter is my fave.  I rarely go a day without eating peanut butter in something.  It’s usually found on top of my oatmeal, or on a bagel.  Or I eat it with a spoon.  Or I just dip my finger straight into the jar and lick it off…

• Oatmeal.  I need my oatmeal.  I eat it almost every morning.

• Cheese.  I don’t believe this needs any explanation.

• Protein.  This can include a lot of things, usually for me it’s eggs, chicken, deli meat, or fish.  One of those will make it into one of my daily meals fo’ sho.

Those all curb my urge to reach for chips, fried foods and greasy pizza!  I think I’ve covered all mine, so I’m off to visit the grocery store and pick some up!

What about you?  What are your healthy eating staples?  Did I miss any must-haves?