As you all well know, I pack my own food to bring to work every single day. Some days I don’t take photos because I have leftovers that I’ve already shared (or I’m just lazy). Sometimes I take pictures and then forget to post them, and then they pile up on my hard drive. <— I’m pretty sure I’m eerily close to a crash.
Power lunching in 5…4…3…2…and go.
Breakfast: overnight oats soaked with chia seeds, cinnamon and raisins
Snack: Marchini almonds
Not as good as regular almonds in my opinion. They seem waxy or something.
Lunch: spinach, carrots, quinoa, seitan
Lunch dessert: candied ginger and Ghirardelli’s dark chocolate sea salt soiree
Snack: Enjoy Life chewy bar
Breakfast: oatmeal with cinnamon, fresh strawberries, and peanut butter
Lunch: kale, quinoa, delicata squash, tempeh bacon
This was a fantastic meal discovery. So good, in fact, that I had it 3 more times throughout the week.
I usually chop squash to roast it, but I was super lazy with this one.
I wrapped the delicata in foil and threw it in the oven (on 350 for an hour). It was very soft when it came out which made the skin peel off with zero effort.
I love how sweet delicata flesh is. Pairing it with quinoa, kale and tempeh bacon made for some completely wonderful flavor combinations.
If you’re on the fence about tempeh or don’t know how to being to cook with it, Light Life’s fakin’ bacon is a great intro.
You don’t have to do anything to it.
This meal was everything you want in a dish…smokey, sweet, nutty, crunchy, hearty.
Pretty much the definition of comfort food minus the post-grub coma.
Breakfast: plain greek yogurt with strawberries and Udi’s GF vanilla granola
Lunch: kale, quinoa, squash, tempeh
Snacks: carrots, pretzel flats, home made bread
Thickest slice ever (it was legitimately 1/6 of the loaf).
Breakfast: oats with strawberries and peanut butter (aka PB&J oatmeal)
Lunch: spring lettuce, butternut squash, carrots, cauliflower, dried cranberries
This salad was pretty blah on it’s own so I jazzed it up with Follow Your Heart’s vegan poppy seed dressing.
I liked the butternut squash with the cranberries and the lettuce with the dressing, but the cauli and carrots were out of place.
Snacks: homemade banana bread, fruit, bread
I think that’s enough of a recap for now…
nice squash roasting method…LOVE the easy-off skin peelage.
and the slice of bread, even nicer.
Mmm your breakfasts all look so delicious!
And that last salad in particular looks amazing.
I do love squash at this time of the year 🙂
Yum that all looks great!!! How do you make your overnight oats? Yours look way better than the ones I’ve tried.
I was just going to ask the same thing! Do you soak them in almond milk and if so how much per how much oats?
i rarely measure, but i add hot water (not boiling, but hotter than room temp) to just above the oats level. to get them really thick i stir in chia seeds or ground salba (by salba smart). thats the tric to making it thick and yummy. occasionally i add almond milk on top as well to let them absorb more overnight. i also always check the next morning to see if they are too dried out. if it looks too dense i add more almond milk.
Hiya Elise, that all looks so yummy, it totally inspires me to pack super duper nutritious lunches! Silly question but with your grains like the quinoa and oats, what are the serving sizes? Like 1/2, 3/4? Just wondering cuz it looks like you have a perfect amount and i always struggle with portion sizes! Thanks and love your blog xx
I love the smokey flavor of fakin bacon! Mmm! I’ve never tried delicata squash before, but I’m definitely a fan of throwing it in some aluminum foil and popping it in the oven…ahh, the lazy girl’s favorite squash! 🙂
hey shelley, i dont measure. more than that though.
A few years ago when I started reading your blog, I remember thinking you packed a lot of food for work. Now I am a nurse, and the other day I was looking at my bag of food for the day and realized it looked just like yours.
its crazy how much food you need to sustain yourself over 12 hours, right? i dont eat nearly as much on my days off, but im always ravenous on work days.
So true! Its the same with me. Except night shifts. I just transitioned to nights and my eating is all over the place. My body is so confused.