What What (what what) Wednesday!

Today’s post is brought to you by the letter “W”…remember that from the Sesame Street days? Good times!

More specifically, I wanted to share a few “whats” with you.

What I’m Packing:

The hubs and I are big advocates of packing our lunches for work. Not only does it save a ton of money, as opposed to eating out for lunch, it’s also so much healthier! Here are some thing we have been packing for lunch lately: Almonds are a great mid-day snack and packed with protein. I usually stick to 1/4 a cup, to watch my calories. Plus if I eat much more than that, all that salt makes me crave something sweet – not really what I’m going for. Throw some popcorn in there if you’re feeling funky and make it a trail mix! Summer is a great time to pack a little salad for lunch. Light and refreshing, it’s also a good way to pack in some veggies! This week our veggie drawer is almost empty so all I have are some bacon bits and some feta cheese crumbles. For dressing, I opt for 2 tbsp of EVOO and 1 tsp of balsamic vinegar. Light on calories and fat, but tastes delicious! Another snack option if you’re not a nut fan is some fruit. Since fruit is high in sugar, I try to keep these to a reasonable serving. Half an apple will usually suffice (add some peanut butter for extra protein) and about 5 or 6 strawberries. I will switch up my fruit depending on the season too so there are lots of options! Tuna is such a great option for lunch because of all the healthy fats and oils as well as the protein. These StarKist tuna packets are always stocked in our pantry, the hubs and I are both big tuna fans. The packets are so convenient, you can just rip them open at lunch time and add a little salt and pepper, good to go! If you like to make it a little more exciting, you can add about 1 tbsp of non-fat plain greek yogurt and mix that in.

If I’m meal planning like I should and am making bulk items for lunches on Sundays, I’ll make tuna salad. I’ll add 1/2 a chopped dill pickle and about 1/4 tsp of mustard into the tuna and greek yogurt mixture…makes it a little more flavorful! This tuna recipe is really easy to make a big batch of on Sunday and divide it out evenly to bring each day of the week. If you use 4 cans of tuna, that will be plenty for one person to have for lunch all week!

Disclaimer – I am not a dietician or nutritionist. Also, none of these things are fancy or require any hard work in preparing. I know I personally see all of these really cute and amazing looking snacks and/or lunches to pack for work on sites like Pinterest, but I’m a simple person. A lot of those things take a tremendous amount of prep time and a lot of ingredients. While yes, those ingredients are usually very healthy, a lot of them are expensive and you only use them for that one item. I like to buy things that have multiple uses and that I can use over and over again. I stick with simple because it works for our budget and for my schedule.

What I Can’t Live Without: My Camelbak water bottle goes with me EVERYWHERE! I have anxiety if I’m somewhere and don’t have easy access to water. I think this water bottle is the reason I’m able to drink so much water throughout the day, it’s just so easy and convenient. I drink about 4 or 5 of these guys a day. I’d die without it. Mine is 1 liter – you can get it here on Amazon for $14.99.

What’s For Dinner:

So many food posts today, sorry about that. Here’s what I made for dinner last night. This is one of the hubs’ favorite dinners. I call it tomato chicken. There is no fancy name and this is by no means a fancy or difficult dinner to make. The ingredients:

1lb chicken breasts / 1 can diced tomatoes / mozzarella & parmesan cheeses/ garlic salt / italian seasoning / minced garlic / bread crumbs

All you do is:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Combine about 1cup of breadcrumbs, salt and pepper to taste, and about 1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese. Coat the chicken in the breadcrumb mixture and put it in a glass baking dish. Bake the chicken for about 15 minutes.

While it’s baking, drain the tomatoes and toss them with 1 tsp garlic and 1 tsp Italian seasoning. After 15 minutes, pull the chicken out of the oven and coat the top with the tomatoes. You can leave any extra tomatoes in the bottom of the pan and let them bake. I like to have some with my veggies on the side too. Bake for another 15 minutes.

Pull the chicken out after 30 minutes of baking and check for doneness (is that a word?). If it’s done (or almost done) put the desired amount of mozzarella cheese on top and bake until melted. I love cheese, the hubs isn’t as big a fan. So I put less on his.

Once it’s melted, pull it out and enjoy! I’m making my roasted broccoli with it and some crescent rolls. I know, I know, that’s not on my clean eating diet. But we’ve had this tube of crescent rolls in the fridge for a few weeks and I just needed to use it before they go bad. I hate to waste!

And lastly, What I’m Looking At: I couldn’t resist, Wilson is just so photogenic! He sits perfectly still for me to take his picture and he always looks so adorable! Mila…she’s off bouncing off the walls somewhere.

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Do you prefer to pack your lunch or go out to eat? 

What’s something you can’t live without?