I like apple cinnamon instant oatmeal packets. Not the healthiest things in the world, but could be worse. Sometimes I scramble one egg in a little dish in the microwave, with some cheese and freeze-dried chives. Sometimes I just have a piece of high-fiber toast with just a little butter, no jelly. Oh, there's yogurt, too!

Try this lot:

I do not especially dislike cooking but tend to be lazy. Nevertheless it is quite easy - and cheap - to make a simple, reasonably nutritious meal with little effort.

I do not believe in the "one-ingredient" concept. Ready-cooked meals do need selecting with some care and are not for everyday use, if only on cost grounds (I do use them).

I am an omnivore but the following concentrates on fish and vegetables, including fruit. You can replace the fish with tinned or cold meats:


Some examples of my own:

- A fish fillet or fish-cakes... with a boiled potato and (tinned) peas, baked-beans or fresh salad.

- A small, one-serving, basic pizza from my local bakery...

- Tinned fish (one of those small, rectangular tins of mackerel, tuna or sardines in oil or sauce)...

Each served with a boiled potato and (tinned, frozen or fresh) peas, baked-beans or fresh salad. The fish also goes well with a micro-waving packet of rice instead of the potato, though the portion of rice is a bit large (probably intended to serve two!).

- One or two eggs, boiled and accomanied by bread-and-butter; or scrambled or poached and served on toast. Add salad if wished.


Potatoes: No need normally to peel spuds: just wash them, cut off sprouts and damaged bits. I don't add salt.

... BUT...

You do need remove any green part; caused by exposure to light. This is chlorophyll as in lettuce or cabbage, itself harmless; but the tuber accompanies it with solanine, its natural pesticide. The affected spud is trying to survive as what it is: a plant. The solanine is toxic, in extremis a potential "homonidicide" too, and concentrates in the green bits and the sprouts. Luckily the green colour and the solanine's own bitter taste warn us off, and the affected layer develops from the peel inwards so can usually be removed.

[Source: https://www.ndsu.edu/agriculture/extension/publications/garden-table-my-potatoes-turned-green-now-what ]


Salads: Preparing salad just for yourself is very simple: wash it thoroughly, cut as wished. Do that while the spud or egg is cooking, or the bag of rice is being microwaved (2 minutes). Remember some fruits can be added to salads: apple, pineapple, strawberries, perhaps banana. Grapes too, fresh or the dried form as cake-making fruit. (Botanically of course, the edible parts of the tomato, cucumber and marrow plants are fruits anyway.)


Frozen, tinned and pickled foods; fine!

Pizzas: Ignore the would-be food-faddists! A basic pizza is essentially cheese-on-toast, so very flexible. I sometimes buy the part-cooked, fancily-topped ones from the supermarket, large enough to be two portions. (I halve it, cook one half, keep the other in the 'fridge for the next day, with different accompaniments.)

So is a Yorkshire Pudding, which is even more basic. Like a pancake, it can be used as a sweet or savoury base. You need normally make your own Yorkshire Puds and pancakes, but I have not tried doing so.


Salt: We do need salt and certain other metallic compunds but in very low levels we can normally obtain from a reasonably good diet, naturally. Too much is bad for us. I never add salt even to fish-and-chips, never have a salt-cellar on the table.

Sugar: Nice but of very little nutrional value. I have cut down on sugar to some extent but am still partial to cakes and biscuits! The type of sugar - fructose, maltose, etc is irrelevant unless your are intolerant to lactose (milk-sugar). Honey is mainly sugar, by the way. Most carbonated drinks are sugar solutions with colours and flavours: the brown of colas is from the sugar having been roasted to caramel.

.



I have seen scare stories about "processed" foods on SW and elsewhere. Errr, meaning what? Tinned peas are "processed": the seeds are extracted from the pods, washed and sealed into slightly salty water in cans. A sponge-cake is "processed": a baked mixture of wheat flour, eggs, butter and sugar. Flour is "processed": harvested seeds milled to extract the flour.

The scare comes from artificial and natural additives added excessively or gratuitously (mainly salt and some types of sugar - all natural) to some very heavily "processed" foods, but the ingredients lists on different types of foods in my kitchen revealed nothing to worry about. The salt and sugar levels are in the Nutrional Information on the packet anyway - and I never add salt unless according to a recipe.

I do though live in a country in which a combination of strict laws and customers' demands on food-safety, advertising and information, has been honoured accordingly by the manufacturers.

The ingredients lists seem to have dropped the notorious "E-Numbers", too. Those are international, or at least EU-wide, designations for additives; but although simple and well-meant they frightened buyers unable or unwilling to look up the designations, hence the notoriety. Most "E-numbers" are nothing to worry about.

So I generally eat sandwiches for lunch at home if I haven't got left overs.

That's cheap and cheerful. Cheese and tomato or cheese and salad.

I love oranges so it's rare to not find those in my fridge.
I like picking too so grapes, kiwi, mangoes. Oh I love it.

So the other day I really didn't know what to have for dinner, I had a packet pasta (cheese and broccoli) I cooked that then cut up tomatoes, some mixed peppers and through those in uncooked.

It was nice to have the contrast.

If I don't have fruit and veg I feel really unwell. Mentally and physically.

Fish... So it's essential for me not to overload on meats like chicken and beef.
Omg I need fish, or just vegetarian dishes.

I also try to cook in excess so I can refrigerate or freeze food.

I do try to be consistent with my meal times.
Eating too late or too closely together leaves me feeling bloated and unwell.

You sound like me! My meds made me gain a lot of weight! And I eat like you! If it wasn't for this post I would have forgotten to have eaten! So I had an apricot! Just now! I have things like watermelon and banana's too... I usually only cook for my family, but my family went out East for the month so it's just me and simple meals, yesterday I grabbed a green pepper from my garden and made myself an omelette! I try to get in my proteins, fiber, and fats and vitamines and minerals! I love nothing more than natural whole foods rather than processed foods, but I still cheat and will eat a bag of dorretoes chips, or have a slushie! Or some chocolate! Just don't forget to eat healthy and don't eat too late at night!

It’s good you like fruits and veggies. Bananas are easy to eat. So is oranges and tangerines.
Berries you can just wash and eat. Any fruits.
I like salad in summer. Just cut whatever you fancy, mix and eat.
It’s all about habit and choosing healthy food. Make raw nuts your go to comfort food.
Sometimes it’s having someone keep nudging you to stay healthy.

There is nothing wrong with fruit or a choice of fruit for lunch.. However I have a couple of go tos. Canned tuna, with some canned 4 beam mix, scooped up on crackers is as easy as it gets. Or scoop out an avocado, mix in some salsa from a jar and you have a cut down guacamole to consume with Doritos or corn chips. Both simple. out of the pantry or fridge and healthy enough.😷

Are these lunches done at home or at work outside your home? I understand having something simple when you're at work or on the go. When you're at home, really try to get yourself to cook more. Even those one ingredient meals which aren't just one will get you eating better. Try to step out of your comfort zone for this.

I hate cooking. Today I had an apple and half an avocado for lunch. I made three breakfasts to get me through half the week on Monday, and so I just reheated one of those.
Lately for most of my meals I just cycle through the protein I like. Chicken, turkey, tofu, eggs, tuna, beans, and Greek yogurt.
Since I cook the chicken, turkey, and eggs, I’ll cook enough for like 5ish meals to be eaten over a few days. By the time I’m sick of it, I switch to a new one.
I see you like tomato and cucumber, I’d chop a bunch at one time, and then every day just get a portion out, and add a dressing and some protein. Throw in some grilled chicken, or a boiled egg, or even some canned beans.
Those microwave vegetable pouches (like sauced broccoli, cheesy cauliflower rice etc) are easy and even the sauced ones are low cal.
If it’s not enough I’ll add fruit in as a snack.

Your diet is totally to blame for most of your issues. You should try fasting. Spend the money buy a good electrolyte powder off Amazon with zero sugar that won’t break your fast. You can start by eating your last meal at 6pm then don’t eat until noon the next day, that’s 18 hours. Do this 3x a week and you’ll start seeing results in your mood and body . Try supplementing and go to either a carnivore diet or a liquid diet but try to avoid glutton and snacking. Be strong most people are very misinformed by the role nutrition plays.

I'm sorry, my choices are always unhealthy. It's either a store bought filled baguette or a piece of bread with butter and whatever I find at home (ham/salami, cheese, fresh vegetables) or bread with canned fish.
I always feel weird after lunch like that, which is probably rather a psychological thing but...yeah. I always prefer a cooked/baked lunch.

I have been cutting carbs and helping. Salads are always good and can get them pre-made.

what about like lean cuisine type meals? just pop in microwave

also, if youre gonna eat pb&j at your age at least use good whole grain bread and reduced sugar jelly lol. you cant be that lazy as to not be able to make a pb&j sandwich lol (lil tough love pep talk)

eta- they also sell premade salads at the grocery store. theyre usually very good and come with toppings and dressing and everything

Sam's Club rotisserie chicken - de-skin and pull from the bones .. eat as-is or in pita bread sandwiches, low carb tortilla wraps, etc

Canned tuna

Bagged prepared salads with tina or chicken added

Baby carrots and celery and dip

Protein Ranch dip .. mix ranch seasoning into plain, non-fat greek yogurt

etc

Sometimes just opening a couple cans can be healthy. Mixing a can of garbanzo beans and a can of tuna with a little oil and vinegar, salt and pepper is an easy lunch that can last 2-3 days. High protein, high fiber. No real cooking involved.

I'll have veggies and hummus, a piece of fruit. I like to do sandwich wraps which usually is chicken breast and some veggies in a low carb wrap. Salads are also a go to for me.

Salad bar. Then you get fresh greens and can control portion size.

My office cafeteria charges by the ounce.

Sandwiches are easy meat,cheese, condiments of choice you can and pickles,lettuce tomato to it.
Add an apple possibly or soup.

I need to change my eating habits too 😬 I'm working on it tho gradually 😬

People eat out. People love food. People love to eat.
Just stick to regular fruits and veggies that you like per meal.
Simple.

Soup.

Protein shakes

Sandwiches are my go-to.

Apple and some cheese or piece of bread and some mixed nuts. Lots of water

Reducing sugar is good, eat whole foods and stay away from processed foods, because you have no idea what they did and what they put in them. Grains are bad because they are genetically altered

Nitrate free lunch meat. Dave's killer bread, thin sliced "good seed", Swiss or provolone cheese.

Turkey and mayo on whole wheat.
Sandwiches of all kinds.

Skip it...

sandwich, fruit, celery sticks/carrot sticks. Eat raw foods and forget the "middle man" who has to turn them into a "recipe/dish".

I eat the yard

Buy you a salad in a bag in the produce department and make you a ham sandwich

Tuna, Roast Turkey & Egg sandwiches

I like to eat pussy for lunch. No Carbs