What I’m Eating + Thai Chicken Pizza

I’ve been on a real big push to eat healthier meals at work. Part of the problem is that bicycle commuting has me leaving the house quite a bit earlier than I used to leave when I was driving and that means less time to stand in front of the fridge for all eternity and ponder my lunch options. It also means that I’m no where near ready to eat breakfast by the time I leave the house and find myself famished by the time I arrive in Salt Lake City.

I was eating crap food day in and day out – breakfast sandwiches from Starbucks, five dollar foot longs from Subway or enchiladas from Frida Bistro. None of these are “bad” per-se but it’s not how I want to eat every single day and it is certainly not how I want to spend all my hard earned money.

Back in the beginning of this blog, I would post breakfast, lunch and dinner and so there was a lot of accountability about healthy eating. Since then, I’ve realized that while that format works for PBfingers and SweetToothCourt, it’s just not me.

Instead you usually see the dinners I feel like sharing with you – because its a good recipe or because it is picture worthy.

Well, today, I’m sharing a week’s worth** of packed meals – breakfasts and lunches. Why? Well, god knows I’m not the only one who struggles with the lunch packing thing and everyone at work gets all worked up about how good my lunch looks every day I figured I’d share what is working for me.

** I only work M-Th so there are only four days to pack for BUT, this is over a Holiday week (4th of July) so there’s only three. Bare with me.

Monday

Breakfast: Strawberry Banana Chobani, Chocolate Dipped Coconut Luna Bar and black coffee

Lunch: Leftover Caprese Stuffed Chicken, Spinach topped with red and yellow cherry tomatoes, a few carrots, and some Noona’s Dipping Sauce as dressing

Tuesday

Breakfast: Strawberry Banana Chobani topped with rice krispies and an iced latte (not pictured)

Lunch: Left over Chinese Chicken Salad and Chicken Stir Fry over rice

Thursday

Breakfast: Mango Chobani and a side of sliced strawberries

Lunch: Michelina’s Fettuccini Alfredo with Broccoli and a side salad of baby arugula topped with feta cheese, red and yellow cherry tomatoes and a little balsamic.

*Please note that the photos do no show the various snacks I enjoy throughout the day – nor do you see my commuting tide-me-over til dinner. In short, this is not all that I eat in a day.

Best Practices

1. Buy with the meals in mind. On Sunday, I buy four yogurts – knowing that I will take all four on Monday and put them in the fridge at work. This way, I don’t have to remember to grab one each morning AND then I have no excuse to eat crap between the house and the office.
2. Buy multi-meal ingredients. Often times, I will buy a big bag of lettuce (blend of greens) and some veggies to keep in the fridge at work. Then I can throw together a salad with whatever toppings – cherry tomatoes, feta cheese, carrots and dressing. I like this because I really hate having to pack salad with dressing – it either spills or my salad gets soggy. Keeping the prep stuff at the office avoids all of these hassles.
3. Stash some bars. I keep a box of protein bars (actually several kinds) in my desk. Then if I get a craving for sweets I simply have a chocolate bar. My current favorite bar: Luna Protein in Peanut Butter Chocolate.
4. Back up plan. I have a stash of Michelina’s frozen meals in the freezer just in case. These frozen “dinners” are usually a buck a piece ($1.00!!) and I buy ten at a time – throw em in the freezer and that way no matter what I remember to do or forget to do in the morning, I have some thing healthy to eat come lunch time.
5. Plan for Snack Attacks. I know that I’m bound to get a sweet tooth or a hankering for something crunchy around 2:30 most days so instead of packing myself potato chips or giving in to my cravings and heading to the nearest bakery – I have a cupboard full of go-to goodies that I’m OK with snacking on. Goldfish, granola, peanut butter crackers – these all help fill that need for something crunchy. To ward off any sweet tooth cravings I like to keep some fruit on hand as well: apples and carrots fill the void, as do my current in-season friends peaches and cherries.

What are you packin?

Alright, it’s about time I FINALLY shared this recipe!

Thai Chicken Pizza

*This recipe is not a real recipe – you can add or detract any veggies as makes your heart happy I just put this together as a reference. Happy pizza tossing!

Prep Time: 10 minutes Cook Time: 20 minutes Serves: Makes 1 full size pizza (one pizza per package of dough mix)

Ingredients:

• 1 Chicken Breast
• 1 Package Jiffy Pizza Dough Mix (find it on the baking aisle – $1.00)
• 1/4 Cup Broccoli, cut to bite size florets
• 4 Cloves Garlic, cut in large chunks
• 1/4 Cup Red and Yellow Cherry Tomatoes, halved
• **I added a few extra chunks of red and yellow bell pepper – not even enough to list an amount** in small strips
• 2 Tbsp Curry
• 1 Tbsp Coconut Oil
• 2 Tbsp Peanut Butter
• 1 Cup Mozzarella
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Method:

• Prepare the pizza crust as directed – while waiting for dough to rise, prepare your toppings.
• In a kettle, add chicken breast, salt, pepper, coconut oil and curry with a cup of water. Heat over a low to medium heat until chicken is full cooked and you can shred it with two forks. Shred the chicken using this method. *Alternatively, you can put everything but the water in a crock pot and leave to cook on “low” all day (8 hours) while you’re at work. Either way.
• Roll the dough out and cook for about ten minutes. You want the dough to be close to done but not yet golden.
• Spread the peanut butter over the crust, then add your toppings: first the chicken, then garlic, broccoli, bell peppers and tomatoes.
• Place bake in oven, or on BBQ as shown below, and cook roughly 8 minutes.
• Add the cheese and bake until melted.

Jiffy Pizza Crust Mix – and that’s my curry waiting to be added in…

*before and after the dough “rose”*

Yumm!

I am using a pan specifically designed for BBQ’ing pizza on the grill – I bought it from The Pampered Chef. If any of you guys are Pampered Chef retailers and would like me to use your link (I bought mine at a random event in Ogden), email me at thefamilypracticeblog@gmail.com – thanks!