Advice needed & would be greatly appreciated :)

chicken is good for you. but i would go with non-breaded things. salads are good too but you need to count that as some of your water intake. just try to watch your calories and what you're burning and what your intake is.

I'd suggest keeping more fresh fruits around, and even some vegetables that make good snacks (carrots, celery with cream cheese, etc.). Just a thought...as for the actual meals, I like some of the ideas that have already been put out there.

Good luck!

fresh fruits and veggies! And maybe look up cookbooks for microwaves? I know there's this one called a man a can and a microwave, but IDK how healthy their food is

Just for your information, this is what chicken nuggets look like:

For lunch I tend to make myself some rice pudding or tuna salad wraps. Rice Salad is also nice to go

Breakfast: as another person suggested microwaved scrambled eggs but instead of cheese add salsa; it's quite tasty
Breakfast: 1/2 banana, 1-2 tbsp natural peanut butter on a slice of martin's 100% whole wheat bread with coffee (1 cream)-- that's if you like coffee
Lunch or Dinner: squeeze a little lemon on salmon and a pinch of salt cook it in the toaster oven
Lunch or Dinner vegetable options: vegetable steamers; fast and delicious
Good Carb: Uncle Bens 90 sec Brown & Wild Rice; You microwave it for 90 secs

If you can use a crock pot, i highly recommend a healthy soap divided into tupperwear for the freezer. i do turkey chili once a week, makes 10, 1 cup servings. my go-to food

In the freezer section, the Green Giant "Steamers". Have them everyday at work for lunch. :bigsmile:

I hardly ever cook in the microwave now.. only for steam fresh bags of veggies. Stock up on them! I buy big family packs of chicken breast, and separate it into smaller bags, and freeze them. I use light italian dressing and cook the chicken either on top of the stove in the dressing or in a dish in the oven, add a few veggies from the steam fresh freezer bags.. and you can have leftovers for lunches also. Take some chicken and bake it with a jar of salsa, super yummy and you can even top with mozz cheese. I also make wraps with low sodium ham, and turkey bacon...lots of veggies. Breakfast for me is usually cereal (Special K o Cheerios) peice of fruit and a yogurt.. or light wheat toast. Watch the sodium in alot of the freezer meals, thats a killer! I have salads sometimes with dinner, as a side but salas does not stay with me long enough for me to have just that for dinner.

Go to the grocery store sometime when you have some free time.. and just look at all your options. IMO.. healthy eating shopping takes alittle longer.. actually read the lables... think of meals you can make.

What are your grocery shopping habits? What are the storage options in the fridge for fresh food? Generally, microwave meals are super processed, very high in sodium, and much more expensive per meal than cranking out something fresh.

If you can hit the store at least once or twice each week and have a way of storing your food so others don't snag your stuff, then there are definitely a number of inexpensive easy things you can make for yourself to help you eat healthily. (I have a daughter in college, so I understand about crazy hours and oh-so-little cash.)

At minimum, make sure you are getting some fresh fruit and veggies. Even just carrots and apples. Obviously they are also great for snacks. But adding fresh food to each meal should be a goal.

Do some prep work ahead of time and store stuff in the fridge to be used in recipes in the coming days, or the freezer for next week. Examples could be steaming veggies like broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, zucchini, etc. Flashing some peppers, mushrooms, and onions in a pan with a drop of olive oil. Whipping up some rice, pasta, couscous. Baking a couple of potatoes. I always keep a jar of pesto in the fridge (HUGE flavor for a small amount). Toss your veggies in some pesto, and put them over the rice, pasta, couscous or baked potato and warm in the microwave. Sprinkle with some shredded low fat cheese if you want. Even if you did this just a few times each week you'd save money and get better nutrion from the fresh food.

And, look at the kinds of microwave meals you gravitate toward regularly. I bet you could whip up an approximation pretty easily by using fresh food.

Bless you!

I like the dannon fruit on the bottom nonfat greek yogurt for breakfast. It has so much protein its filling. Then snack on fruit. For lunch Im getting into the healthy choice steamers. Only 200 calories and really good. I then eat some fruit or a cereal bar of some sort as a snack before dinner. I try to work out in the evening and for dinner I eat some sort of baked chicken, minimal amount of a potato or pasta (i gotta allow myself a little something bad) and salad. Last night I did sliced tomato with parm cheese, oregano, salt and pepper drizzled with olive oil. Stuck it in the oven for 15 min - delish and EASY

The pre-packaged stuff is horrible for you...loads of sodium and a lot of them substitute sugar for the fat. A little prep work in the beginning of the week goes a long way.

If you have a little pyrex or non-stick pan that will fit in your toaster oven you can make a weeks worth of breakfast (or you can substitute it for lunch or "brinner") You can also do this in the microwave, but you have to stir it pretty often so it doesn't explode!

6 eggs (or 3 eggs + 3 egg whites)
Salsa (I use a fork to "strain" it out of the container so there's not so much water)
Handful or 2 of fresh spinach
salt & pepper
a little shredded cheese (if desired)
1/2 onion chopped
Handful of mushrooms

Put spinach on a few paper towels in the microwave for about a minute or 2. Squeeze out the excess water.
Mix the eggs (like you are making scrambled eggs)
Put all the ingredients into the pyrex pan (or nonstick pan)
Bake in the toaster oven at 350 for about 30 min (or until the eggs rise and when you lightly press on them, they pop back up)

I usually double this recipe and make 6 - 8 squares and eat a square for breakfast. You'll probably get about 4 squares. It's a little bit of prep, but it will save you a lot of time in the long run. You can store the leftovers in the fridge for about 5-7 days. Serve with avocado, hot sauce, black beans (rinse the beans thoroughly first) or you can even put it between 2 slices of sandwich thins. It's a pretty versatile dish.

I'm sorry the measurements aren't exact, I usually combine everything to taste. But it is important to cook the spinach first and get out most of the water, otherwise you get watery eggs.

Just for your information, this is what chicken nuggets look like:

For lunch I tend to make myself some rice pudding or tuna salad wraps. Rice Salad is also nice to go

This is supposed to be mechanically sepparated meat. Look on the package as they have to list this. EG McDonalds uses all white meat chicken, not this. Not saying Mcnuggets are healthy but not all nuggets are the same

Personally I choose not to eat processed foods and find I can cook most things from scratch using simple tools, as you indicate. For instance, chicken and fish cook beautifully in the microwave (toaster oven too).. Apply a bit of soy/paprika, if you want a bit of color. Just don't overcook or will be tough. Start at one minute increments. Broccoli does well in microwave. Add a touch of water, and cover a bit. about one minute for a large serving. Ditto for a lot of fresh veggies. Scrambled Egg in a cup. Of course the potato. Good luck.