With her day in food, Reader Catherine proves she loves pizza and Trader Joe’s as much as I do. Catherine is an on-the-go retail worker who still manages to eat delicious, healthy food. Drool over all her meals below along with her comments (mine in italics).

breakfast: two ‘poached’ eggs on toast.  normally i’ll eat them on ezekiel bread, but i forgot how old mine was and it was all moldy! so roomie ‘lent’ me a slice of her high fiber bread - not as hearty, but still filling. and by ‘poach’ i mean the awesome microwave poacher i got via my mom from walmart for two bucks.  just spray a little olive oil, crack eggs, microwave about a minute, and presto! easy, quick, yummy eggs! i’m in love. Those eggs look perfect! I need to get my hands on this microwave poacher.

also pictured, my coffee with vanilla rice milk and stevia and an apple.

below: my beloved trader joe’s grapefruit juice! descriptions and ethics like this are why i love them so much! Totally agree! i love grapefruit juice, and when i have time to sit and have breakfast (as opposed to fruit and a bar on the run) i love a small glass of this pure yummyness!

lunch: so, this is my ‘crap i forgot to pack lunch but thank god i just went to trader joe’s lunch’. this pizza is a great quick option from trader joes, and really cost effective (two pizzas for five bucks!).  it has roasted red peppers, kalamata olives, and feta in a perfect size.  also i’m in love with spicy ‘rocket’ and sweet pear champagne vinagrette as a big side salad. can you tell i’m in lust with tj’s? also pictured, a clementine…mmmm!

snack while preparing dinner: a laughing cow cheese with some whole grain flax crackers. tj’s now has these cheeses, but i’ve loved them forever.  only 40 calories, and a great flavor, perfect on crackers.  the crackers are only 99 cents for the box, and are made with whole grains, quinoa, spelt, among other great things. I love Laughing Cow cheese, too! You can do so much with it… melt it over veggies, use in an omelet, spread on a sandwich, etc.

dinner: this was a gourmet yum yum night.  the benefits of having a personal trainer roomie means someone to share my concoctions with! so this is trader joe’s pre-made whole wheat pizza dough, with caramelized onions, some chopped arugula, red peppers, some ‘just chicken, grilled’ from the tj’s freezer, portobello mushrooms, and low fat mozzarella cheese.  and it is just yum. you can make a huge batch of caramelized onions and freeze them for salads, pizzas, and anywhere you need them! it was SO GOOD. best though with pizza when you make it is thin crust, heavy toppings, mostly veggies, light cheesing. Drooooool. I love TJ’s whole wheat crust and this pizza sounds fab.

Janna’s Day in Food looks absolutely scrumptious. I see she’s a fan of the SIAB (Smoothie in a Bowl) I’ve seen around the food blog world. I have yet to try it, but this might be the motivation I need! See the rest of her eats below along with her commentary (my comments in italics).

Breakfast: I usually alternate between oats, cold cereal or a huge smoothie for breakfast. Today I made a SIAB (Smoothie in a Bowl) with 1 cup of almond milk, frozen berries, mango and papaya, 1/3 of a banana and 1/2 scoop of Amazing Meal Chocolate Infusion.  It was topped with Kashi 7 Whole Grain Nuggets.

I also had a slice of Millet Bread and Barney Butter on the side. I managed to snap a shot of the brand of bread, but not of my actual bread and BB itself! I need to try this bread! I went gluten-free for awhile but didn’t get a chance to sample this.

Lunch: I made a big batch of lasagna the other night. But I like leftover lasagna so much more. So I made sure to save lots to have for the next couple days. My lunch was 2 delicious pieces of my veggie lasagna. Lasagna is one of those foods that seems to get better as leftovers. All the flavors have time to marry.

Dinner: Whole Foods Hot/Cold Bar. I probably get this way more than I should, but I just love the variety and choice!  I loaded up on: Soba noodles, heirloom beans, lentils, seafood salad and veggies, quinoa and wheatberry salads and chana masala. Who doesn’t love Whole Foods hot/cold bar? I mean, besides the sky-high price!

Dessert: A medium container of pineapple. My second favorite fruit (my first is mango).

Reader Wendy says she tries to make the week days count, since the weekends tend to bring more celebratory eating. She seems to love Trader Joe’s as much as I do. Her day in food and comments (my comments in italics):

Breakfast: Steel cut oats (love me some steel cut oaties!) with blueberries, raspberries and blackberries. I added some flax seed meal as well. Sometimes I add a banana which is really yummy; Lipton’s Green Tea with Citrus. (This green tea doesn’t seem as “earthy” as others.) I had about 3 cups of green tea today. It was cold in the office! It’s always cold in mine, too.

Mid-morning snack: Pear

Lunch: Veggie burrito (beans, rice and cheese) from Trader Joe’s (it tastes a lot better than it photographs); Salad with feta, cucumbers, red pepper, cherry tomatoes topped with balsamic vinaigrette from TJs; Chocolate bar from TJs. Chocolate rounds out many meals for me, so these 100-calorie bars are great!

Afternoon snack: Orange; Cashews, almonds and cranberries (TJ’s of course)

Dinner: Dinner was random as I am moving next week and trying to use up whatever I have. I love sauteing spinach in olive oil, garlic and slivered almonds. It’s quick and a great way to use up spinach that is wilting; Leftover roasted red peppers and red onions; Black beans with corn and salsa; Glass of skim milk So many pretty vegetables!

Thanks, Wendy! Your day in food looks delish.

Katie is a nutritionist based in England who says she’s “juggling fitting in healthy food with raising a baby daughter.” Here’s what her day in food looks like, along with her comments.

Breakfast: I always start the day with a big glass of water and bowl of fruit. Today it was melon - so refreshing!

Snack (not pictured): I was out on the go so didn’t take a photo but I had an apple and some raisins - handy handbag food!

Lunch: a white pita bread (I’d usually have wholemeal but we’d ran out) with smoked salmon a little soft cheese and black pepper, some home-made coleslaw, some olives and a mozzerella ball!  And a banana for afterwards. Ed. Note: I love her idea of using smoked salmon in a wrap… Mmmm.

Dinner: no afternoon snack as I eat dinner pretty early so my baby can eat with me. Tonight, I had spinach and mixed leaf salad with boiled eggs, onion, grilled courgette and asparagus - my partner had bacon too.

Thanks, Katie! Have a day in food you’d like to share? Email me!

Dinner: TJ’s gnocchi alla sorrentina with roasted broccoli and cauliflower

Fridays and Saturdays usually involve minimal cooking for me and this dinner was hands-off enough, for sure. It consisted of this:

The ingredient list:

I was inspired by the Gnocchi with Roasted Cauliflower recipe from Real Simple to add my own roasted cauliflower and broccoli to the dish. I just stuck a mix of the two in the oven on a baking sheet for 25 minutes at 400 degrees and then threw ‘em in the pan when I heated up the gnocchi. All together (with a little parm), it looked a little something like this:

For dessert, I enjoyed a tiny bowl full of chocolate-covered ginger perfection.

The perfect palate cleanser. And that concludes My Day in Food! Did you eat something delicious today?

I went from old faithfuls for breakfast to new-and-excitings for lunch. I ate my lunch in stages today. Follow along with my on my lunch journey!

First up, a salad. Nothing fancy, just spinach, bell pepper, snap peas, and cuke (with Newman’s Lighten Up balsamic vinaigrette, of course):

I took that pic halfway through eating, so imagine that container doubly full.

I had to repurpose the same tupperware for my next stage. Once I finished my salad, I wiped out the excess dressing and poured this new soup in:

Into the tupperware it went:

The people at Right Foods McDougall’s were nice enough to send me a sampling of their new line of soups. You’ve probably seen these popping up all over the foodie blogosphere. I’d say they’re a mixed bag. The good:

• Eco-friendly packaging, no “canned” taste.
• BPA-free packaging (which the makers claim is a concern in cans).
• Many of the soups are gluten-free.
• Highly portable… no can-opener needed!
• Low sodium.
• Vegan.
• They come in lots o’ flavors: Chunky Tomato, Black Bean, Vegetable, Lentil, Roasted Pepper Tomato, Minestrone (the one I sampled today), Split Pea

The bad:

• Bland, bland, bland! If I were at home, I would have doctored this soup up with a bit more salt, some crushed red pepper, and maybe even some parmesan.
• The consistency wasn’t great. Everything sort of tasted the same in my mouth, which is not what I look for in a soup.

Overall? I’m definitely planning on plowing my way through all seven flavors, but I’m not super excited about it. Oh well, it still warmed me up and did the job.

For the next stage of my lunch, I tried another new-to-me food: Popchips! I’ve seen these on some blogs, too, but didn’t get a chance to try them until recently:

Okay, love. I’m in love with these bad boys. Popchips aren’t baked or fried, but rather (as the name implies) popped. This means they’re really low calorie (120 calories, 4g fat, 1g fiber, and 1g protein for a very reasonable serving). If you eat a whole bag in one sitting — which I feel isn’t an unrealistic possibility — it only packs 360 calories. The company also has an all-natural pledge:

No fake colors, no fake flavors, no preservatives, no fluorescent orange fingertips, and no wiping your greasy chip hand on your jeans. No, really. We only use ingredients you can feel good about eating. And we leave out the bad stuff, like hydrogenated oils and msg, that give snacking a bad name.

I tried the salt and pepper flavor. I definitely want to try some of the other flavors (there are seven!), but the S&P Popchips are pretty darn tasty… the perfect combo of savory salt and peppery punch.

These are definitely going to become my snack chip of choice. Check your nearest Whole Foods or Target (that’s where I got mine!) to get your own bag.

I stuck to an old stand-by this morning:

• Trader Joe’s Multigrain Cereal (of this post fame)
• banana
• heaping spoonful organic peanut butter (also of this post fame)
  
• ground flax

And then I just add water and microwave. The banana gets mushy when microwaved, so you can blend it pretty well with the other ingredients. No need for sweetener at all!

Before microwave action:

After microwave action:

Kitten trying to climb into my bath last night:

My sister wanted me to clarify that Charlie’s real name is actually Charlie Pepper, which to me sounds a bit like a British gay man. I still call him Charles.