Things I eat every day

My inspiration for this post came when my trash at work didn't get collected for a few days and I noticed the same food-related trash piling up!  During the work-week, my eating habits are pretty predictable as far as what I eat and the times I eat.  Weekends are a little different based on my family's activities, plus if we eat out it's usually on a weekend.  I currently eat the healthiest I ever have, and I find that I've gotten into a positive cycle with eating well, running hard, craving nutrient-dense foods, etc.  I used to crave sweets, but now I crave foods like peanut butter, cashews, coconut milk, and avocados (I notice the pattern in this is high fat content) - I would not have believed this day would ever happen!

These are the things that not a "normal" day goes by without me eating:

• Spinach.  I put this in every slow cooker meal, every smoothie, and every omelet I make, and I eat at least one of these every day!
• Greek yogurt with chia seeds.  This is nearly always my second/third breakfast.  Sometimes I stir in some chocolate peanut butter protein powder when I have vanilla yogurt too.
• Apples.  They are so portable, and like they say, they keep the doctor away!
• Seasonal fresh fruit.  We buy whatever fruit is on sale each week, usually price matching Aldi's deals (start doing this if you don't!!), and I eat a ton of it.  Recently this has included mandarins, pears, pineapples, and oranges, and we also have a lot of frozen grapes and blueberries that we've stocked up on during past sales.  We have a second huge freezer in our garage that is extremely helpful in keeping extra food on hand!
• Hard-boiled eggs.  I usually eat one of these on my drive to work and a second one with my lunch.  Sometimes a third with dinner!
• Nuts.  Almonds are my top choices, but I also eat a lot of mixed nuts and peanuts, and more recently we've been buying pistachios.
• Almond milk.  This is always involved in my first breakfast, and also what I put in my coffee.
• Coffee/tea.  I'm a 1-2 cups a morning person, so I don't have a ton of this, but I do have some daily.
• Whole grains.  This is kind of a catch-all, but I'll always have whole wheat bread, quinoa, whole wheat cous cous or pasta, and/or brown rice.
• Beans/legumes.  I put these in every slow cooker meal I make.  I use several varieties:  red lentils, brown lentils, pinto beans, black beans, chick peas, etc.

These are things I eat many days but not quite every day:

• Fish.  I mainly eat salmon, tilapia, and tuna.
• Roasted vegetables.  I make these most evenings; it's so easy to coat a baking sheet with olive oil and throw some veggies and seasoning on it, and roasted veggies are so delicious!  If anyone tells me they don't like veggies, I tell them they must try roasted ones.
• Cottage cheese.  This is a carry-over from my vegetarian days, as it's high in protein.
• Sweet potatoes.  I love them!  I eat them baked, sauteed, or cut up into "baked fries".  I eat white potatoes quite a bit too, but not as often as sweet.
• Pretzels.  I crave these sometimes, probably for the salt.
• Peanut butter.  This is one of my top cravings when I am training hard, and really fills me up!  Sometimes I put it on an apple, sometimes whole grain bread, and sometimes just on a spoon straight from the jar.
• Electrolyte supplements.  I use nuun (pronounced "noon"), generally before/during/after hard/long workouts or when I've sweat heavily. 
• Protein bars.  I've been baking homemade protein bars with texturized vegetable protein (TVP), oatmeal, protein powder, and varied mix-ins (nuts and dried fruit usually).  They are held together with a mix of eggs and either canned pumpkin or applesauce, although I made them once without the eggs for a vegan friend and they held together fine with pumpkin alone.  I found a base recipe online when I was trying to figure out how to use some TVP I had, and I've tweaked it several times.  It's really easy, and the bars are very portable.