Clean Eating Meal Ideas

mraulston

Hey guys,

I have been eating clean for about 2.5 months now and have lost 15 pounds. I want to continue my clean eating lifestyle into the school year, but it's almost time for me to go back to college. Since I eat every 2.5-3 hours, much of the time I will have to bring 3 or 4 meals with me to school. I am in Nursing school and have 12 hour clinicals this semester. For any of you clean eaters out there, what do you pack to take with you to work/school? I find it easy to eat clean when I am at home all of the time but it might be a little difficult when school starts and I eat mostly away from home. I follow heandsheeatclean.com and they have some good ideas, but I wanted to know yours, if you have any! Thanks!

Starqueg

I like the idea of the homemade protein bars.  Could you also make oatmeal bars?  Those can travel easily.  Are you going to be able to pack a cooler each day for your clinicals or have access to a fridge?  That would change what you're going to be able to bring.  

I'm not doing clean eating, but I do pack healthy meals to bring to my evening classes.  Often, I bring a large salad with cheese (goat, feta, and blue usually), veggies (tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, peas, corn, black beans), fruit (watermelon w/ red onion and feta is amazing), and dressing.  Sometimes it's just balsamic vinegar and olive oil, other times it's a packaged dressing that has way more than 5 ingredients.  I also am more than willing to eat cold pasta, so I make different variations of pasta.  

I used to have days where I was out of my house from 8am-10pm, but I didn't pack both lunch and dinner.  I ate out lunch on those days, usually only twice a week, and brought dinner and snacks with me.  

I'm sort of obsessed with these (click) right now.  It's pouches of apple sauce that are single serving and contain just apples and cinnamon.  They're made for little kids, but are fabulous for commuting.  

mraulston

Yes, I plan on making some of Jamie Eason's protein bars to take with me. I bought a cooler/lunchbox to take to clinicals with me, and I think it will easily fit all of my meals. Those are great ideas - the watermelon salad sounds amazing (I am so sick of plain watermelon, and my uncle has a watermelon farm!). I also love feta Thanks for the ideas!

cnf2013

You can buy those fruit pouches in the baby food in aisle and they come in lots of different flavors and are still only one or two ingredients. But, I'm kind of weird like that and consider those fruit pouches, as well as baby food, to be perfectly acceptable snacks. 

Starqueg

LIke I said, I love the fruit pouches.  My fiance won't let me buy any that say baby on them though.  The one I had as a snack today was Tropical (apple banana, pear, and mango purees + citric acid).  So good!

OP: Add some balsamic to the watermelon, feta, and red onion.  It's my summer obsession.  You can make it a salad with whatever greens you like, or have it with pasta as a cold pasta salad.  

shaina925

I have made home made protein bars before, I really liked them.