Hello from Durham. I’ve been here for the past few days accompanying my mom to Duke for some routine procedures and appointments. All is going well, and I’ll have more on that in post to come later this week.

For today…recent eats! A few notes before we dive in.

• It’s been almost a month since I wrote a recent eats round up so meals are all over the place. You’ll even see two breakfasts that I had on my last trip to Florida.
• Lots of Trader Joe’s items in this post. I love their frozen foods section and recently restocked my freezer for the first time in a long time. I didn’t do grocery haul pictures for this trip but you’ll see a lot of what I bought in the meals.
• I laugh at myself sometimes when I’m writing these posts because I can be so cyclical with foods. Example…I distinctly remember saying a few months ago that I was over my sandwiches with pickles phase and I’m fully back in it again. Another example, I recently said I’d been enjoying eggs and toast for breakfast and now I’ve been drinking smoothies every morning for the last three weeks. I really focus on eating what appeals to me so I’ve learned to just roll with these kicks and cycles.
• I tried writing this post last night in my hotel room bed but I was too full from our delicious dinner at Bleu Olive. I had to close my laptop because I couldn’t keep looking at photos of food.

BREAKFAST

Cottage cheese scrambled eggs, a mini blueberry scone from Panera and fresh fruit.

Overnight oats made with Siggi’s vanilla and cinnamon yogurt, old fashioned oats and 2% milk. Topped with PB and strawberries. I’m apt to change my mind next month but I’m kind of off overnight oats right now. I would really prefer to just eat yogurt with granola and fruit on top.

These are the only two breakfasts that I have for you because I’ve been drinking smoothies every morning for the last few weeks. It’s been years since I’ve craved smoothies in a glass with a straw instead of smoothie bowls with granola but that’s where I’m at now!

LUNCH

Nature’s Own Honey Wheat Bread, Duke’s mayo, avocado, ham, colby jack cheese, bread and butter pickles and spicy mustard. Apples and cheddar Sun Chips on the side.

Another sandwich lunch…same thing but sub turkey for ham, muenster for colby jack and lose the spicy mustard.

This was an amazing lunch that I will definitely be repeating soon. A tasted honey wheat bagel from Poppy’s (local bagel shop) topped with veggie cream cheese, avocado and smoked salmon. Champagne mango on the side.

The next few lunches feature this multigrain blend with vegetables from Trader Joe’s. I really like this frozen mix a lot. I usually prep it by heating it through in a skillet with some olive oil and then keep it in a container to pull out for meals. You can eat this warm, cold or room temperature.

Sautéed spinach topped with the multigrain blend, feta, cherry tomatoes, avocado and hummus. I drizzled it all with Trader Joe’s Cilantro Dressing which is a new find for me and I’ve been putting it on everything! Served with pita chips for scooping up the salad.

Here’s that Cilantro Dressing. You can find it in the refrigerated section near the salad greens.

Another multigrain blend lunch. Similar to the last but with arugula tossed in olive oil, lemon juice and sea salt as the salad base instead of spinach.

Here’s another bowl with pita chips but this one was quinoa, air fried tofu, air fried chickpeas, sautéed zucchini, onions and cherry tomatoes, feta, plain greek yogurt and hummus. I don’t do a ton of warm bowls for lunch but this one was excellent.

Here’s the tofu in salad form. Chopped spinach, air fried tofu, air fried chickpeas, cherry tomatoes, dried cranberries, feta, quinoa, pepitas and homemade lemon maple tahini dressing.

Last lunch! We had a few days of cold weather a couple of weeks ago (likely our last) so I made a pot of my favorite lentil, sweet potato and kale soup. You can find the recipe here. Avocado toast on the side.

DINNER

Sooooo many good dinners for ya! Braised red cabbage (this recipe, minus the apples) with sautéed chicken Italian sausage and roasted potatoes over rice with a little shredded cheese and hummus.

The Incredulada Enchiladas that I shared last week served with corn and a side salad. These are great sides for the enchiladas.

Roasted salmon over brown rice with tzatziki and sautéed balsamic zucchini and cherry tomatoes. The salmon was seasoned with Dizzy Pig Rubs…I think I used Raging River.

Baked turkey burger (frozen from Trader Joe’s) topped with goat cheese, braised red cabbage and roasted potatoes and ketchup.

A “breakfast for dinner” kind of meal. Whole wheat sourdough topped with melted butter, mashed avocado, cottage cheese scrambled eggs and sauerkraut and served with roasted potatoes and ketchup. (Really made that bag of potatoes work for me!)

Chopped salad kit topped with air fried Trader Joe’s gluten-free chicken nuggets. I know I’ve said this before but it bears repeating. I don’t care about buying gluten-free but I think these are the crispiest and best tasting nuggets to top a salad with!

Here’s a situation where I had a lot of leftovers I didn’t want to waste so made a hybrid salad/grain bowl with them for dinner one night. Baby spinach, brown rice, roasted cauliflower, roasted salmon, roasted sweet potatoes, feta and the Trader Joe’s Cilantro Dressing.

The base of this skillet dinner was a bag of Trader Joe’s frozen riced cauliflower stir fry to which I added frozen edamame, chopped shrimp and a scrambled egg (to make it like fried rice). Finished it off with coconut aminos and sriracha.

Lastly, one can never go wrong when you make a meal out of meats and cheeses. This was at Dilworth Tasting Room in Charlotte.

And that does it for today!

QUESTIONS

Do you find yourself going in and out of cycles/phases with the foods that you eat and what sounds good to you? 

What’s your current breakfast of choice? 

Any favorite spring Trader Joe’s finds?