Wednesday Weigh In - Favorite Foods

The cafeteria at my work place went out of business.  This has forced me to better plan my lunches.  Here are some things I found helpful.  The Kashi frozen entrees are excellent - providing lots of whole grains and veggies. (Just don't buy the Chicken & Lemongrass meal - its terrible!)  I offset the added expense of the Kashi meals by buying Lean Cuisine meals when you can get 5 for $10.00.  Another way to keep the cost down is to package your own food.  When we buy prepackaged food, about half of every food dollar is spent on packaging, and later ends up in a landfill.  The stackable Tupperware containers pictured here hold only 1/2 cup - so you really can't overdo it on any one food.  My favorite salad combination lately is walnuts, craisins and mandarin oranges over a bed of spinach, lettuce or tossed greens.  Here I've pictured low fat cottage cheese, but I've also used shredded cheddar (measured out by the tablespoon, of course). Another option is to pack a sandwich.  I make mine up when I'm putting away dinner leftovers.  Then its ready to roll in the morning.  I'm on a turkey and cranberry mustard kick right now. And don't forget dessert.  What could be better than fruit?  Fruit dipped in chocolate, of course!  Diana's Bananas come in milk chocolate or dark chocolate.  Only 110 calories. 

One word of caution: most of us truly NEED to increase the amount of dietary fiber from whole grains, fruits and veggies in our daily diet.  Either increase the fiber gradually over a few weeks time, or take some Beano with high fiber foods, until your system adjusts to the dietary change.  Its a whole lot easier to stick with a diet if the food agrees with you!  :)