Ask Lemmy

The eggs are fine. You could replace the bacon with a veggie burger patty, or 96% lean burger patty, occasionally tuna salad. Or chicken salad.

Buy a pork belly. Make your own bacon. It's pretty easy and very delicious. That said, nitrates are in lots of things like celery.

• 150g greek yogurt
• 120g blueberries
• 40g quick cooking oats
• 2 tsp maple syrup
• dash salt
• dash cinnamon

Mix all that together before work and then by lunch the oats will have softened. If I'm trying to gain weight I'll throw in 30g hemp hearts as well. You can also switch up the berries/fruit, sweetener, and spices however you like, this combo is just what I like.

Tacos with vegetarian beans! Takes a bit of prep but tasty and good for you!

Keep the eggs. They are fine. The bacon can realistically be swapped out for anything that keeps the savory flavor but is less processed. Lean ground beef or turkey is usually my go-to. Will cook about as fast as bacon.

What about the options:

• Egg salad sandwich?
• Chicken salad sandwich?
• Chicken breast and rice with peas?
• Farmers sausage and purified?
• Steak and potatoes?
• Chicken noodle soup?
• Beef stew?

I try to make a supper that can provide me with enough leftovers to make lunches with. I freeze lunch portions and consume them in a variety pattern so I don’t get bored with them.

The eggs aren't your problem, the bacon is. Dunno if they sell these where you live, but these Chicken Breakfast Sausages have no nitrates. This company makes chicken bacon also. You can also add some veggies to your eggs like peppers, onions, spinach, or kale. You can also try making a Pepper & Egg sandwich.

if you have access to an Indian market, get paneer (firm cheese). you can slice it thin, add oil and seasonings like smokey paprika salt pepper. then either fry it in a pan or air fryer. it gets crispy and delicious. I used to make PLTs (paneer, lettuce, tomato) sandwiches.

You can make a serviceable bacon substitute from smoked tofu. Cut it into strips, coat them in oil and put them in the air fryer.

My advice, don't "substitute", instead replace.

There are so many delicious healthy options, and all the fake meat substitutes are garbage in comparison.

Eggs are great sources of protein already, so put just about anything on instead. BBC Good Foods is a great resource for easy meals and sandwiches with healthier ingredients if you need ideas.

I've also recently cut way back on processed meats, and honestly have really been enjoying pan fried tofu, chickpeas (seasoned and air fried are amazing), and many other protein sources enough that I've cut a lot of meat out by default.

• Nuke a yukon potato about 5 minutes for a fist size. Add whatever toppings you want, cold or hot. For example, scallions, a pat of butter, If it's too dry, add a little milk and it becomes a stew or soup.
• Avocado and bean sprouts are good on almost anything. If you don't mind cheese, swiss is amazing with it.
• If you have an air fryer, it only takes time to cook, but prep is flour and season (I usually use garlic and salt, maybe basil) and then air fry until it's done for your type of fryer.
• Soup is water in a pot and then stick some veggies in the water and boil for a bit. The prep is easy, but it takes time to cook. This will last a few meals if you cook enough. You can freeze some of it for later too.

Just get some vegan bacon, at least where I live there are several options by now and they're all pretty good.

If you want it a bit healthier but maybe a bit less tasty as well, try smoked tofu and cut it into thin slices.

Egg and turkey bacon sandwich.

I wouldn't say it's "healthy," but for something "healthier," you could try huevos rancheros. Eggs in whatever style you prefer, then just eat in a tortilla with any combination/ratio of avocado, pico de gallo, and/or beans as desired.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huevos_rancheros

Easiest solution is to use unprocessed meats. Get thin sliced pork, (butchers usually have a deli slicer for raw meat, or you can do it yourself with a knife if you are careful) add a dab of honey or maple and a sprinkle of cayenne and cook.

The eggs are healthy, not sure what style eggs you're used to but if you just want a different variation on that try something like scrambled eggs with kale/spinach + salad on whole wheat bread or tortilla or similar. I'd also toss in some tomato and red onion. Now that I'm thinking about it avocado would probably go well with that combo too.

A lot of people like hard boiled eggs for lunch, it's not really my thing but you could do those and slice them up into a salad, wouldn't take too long once you do it every day.

I do something different every week, but my “lazy” lunch prep for the week is chicken breast w/ cottage cheese and I throw in some taco seasoning. You can make your own and it’s super easy and lets you control sodium but when I’m extra lazy I just use store bought. Then you can throw that into some tortillas or taco shells. I prefer tortillas, high fiber just cause I like eating as much fiber as I can.

For the chicken it’s basically: -Cut chicken -Season with salt and pepper -Throw chicken in pan with some oil (I use olive, I know you shouldn’t but I don’t think I heat it enough to be a problem plus I just use a little bit) -When chicken is cooked, add 1 cup of cottage cheese, wait til it melts a little and then add taco seasoning.

You can add onions and peppers, and you can add some garlic while cooking,the chicken but it’s all purely optional.

Should take 40 minutes tops for 5 portions.

Assuming the rest of your diet isn't stuffed with red meat I wouldn't worry too much about eating bacon. Replacing meat with vegan meat-substitutes doesn't automatically make the meal healthier - just free of meat.

Today it was felafel Greek salad and Greek potatos. Gotta mix it up...

Canned tuna once or twice a week. Mix in mayo/olive oil/apple or pickle/salt and pepper, and if you have it, a dash of fish or oyster sauce. Toss in some green onion if you like. I like to add crispy jalapeno or crispy onions. You can swap in canned salmon if you want instead of tuna, although i would opt out of the apple at that point.

Peanut or mixed nut butter can be really good too. Use sourdough or a good sead bread. Try it with some added flax/chia seed, or hemp heart for more protein/fiber. Use different jams like mango or gooseberry for variety.

Liquid lunch is also something, although boring. Lots of 30g of protein/150 calorie options now a days, mostly whey or collagen based. Down a couple of those in a pinch.

Is the issue time spent prepping food, or being bored while you're prepping food? I prep my lunches on Sunday night. Sunday night, I sit in front of the tv, with one of those folding tray tables in front of me, and I make 10 salads, one for lunch and one for dinner for the next five days. I'm very heavy on the veggies and moderately light on the lettuce, so they're pretty filling.

I vary things among the salads so it doesn't get boring: I'll toss bits of apple or some raisins, off maybe split one of those single-serve fruit cups among a few; toss different cheeses or hard-boiled eggs or bits of meat in others, etc. The veggies and stuff go in the bottom, lettuce on top so it doesn't get crushed during the week. Salad dressing goes in an old pill bottle on the side. Anything I was too keep crunchy - croutons, tortilla bits, etc - goes in a Ziploc on the side. Takes me less than half an hour to make 10 salads.

If there's leftover veggies, I'll make snack bags: veggies in a Ziploc, sometimes plain, sometimes with a pill or other bottle of dip-able flavoring: dressing or dip or peanut butter.

You could do the same kind of in-front-of-tv prep for homemade soup mixes (add hot water and let sit) or overnight oats (do the dry ingredients into your eating container, cut up any fruit into a separate bowl, then add the fruit and dairy the night before), etc.

Cheezwhiz on white bread

Half a pound of tofu with some sesame oil, honey, soy sauce, and sriracha.

A handful of frozen "stir fry Veggies"

Toss it in the air fryer for like 15 minutes at 360-ish.

Sometimes I serve it with microwave steamed brown rice from costco.

It's like $3 of ingredients at the most and its super healthy.

If you have a diet high in seed oils, consider a different aromatic oil or skip the oil altogether.

Eggs and spinach and hot sauce is fantastic. No prep, just toss them on top of each other.

Most often we will eat either:

• One or two slice of fresh (whole or even black) bread. Not the industrial type of bread, real handmade bread (we get it from the artisan bakery down our street). Toasted or not, with a tad of jam, and a cup of tea. Some fruit, depending the season. It takes mere instants to prepare.
• An egg. Boiled, omelette, scrambled, whatever. With my omelette, I like to add some fresh tomato, mushrooms and a tad of parsley. No bacon or things like that. This too takes mere instants to cook. Followed by a tea or a coffee.
• A croissant (it helps to live in France, as we get ours handmade from the same small bakery at the corner of our street we get our baguettes and bread from ;)) and a coffee.

For lunch and/or diner both my spouse and I like to prepare a few meals in advance (mostly vegetables even though we're not vegan, we just want to eat less meat), using fresh non-industrially processed condiments. To save time, we will make 2 or even 3 meals worth in advance and store it in the fridge.

Swap the chicken eggs out for bald eagle eggs. Try a veal fillet in place of bacon.