Do you consider yourself to have a healthy diet?

[ForDucksSake]

If so, what are your favourite and relatively quick breakfasts and lunches? I am fine with evening meals but I really struggle with easily prepared healthy breakfast and lunch ideas. I don't like oats and I'm so sick of greek yoghurt. Thank you?

Yes.
Omelettes/ frittatas
Salads of every kind
Wraps filled with veggies and black beans
Eggplants and peppers in the air fryer

Ish - I usually do fruit and yoghurt for breakfast but an occasional egg on toast is also ok

Lunches, I'm usually having a sandwich- smoked salmon, low fat cream cheese or chicken - had chilli crab muffins the other day at home

I was going to say oats but you don't like them so - perhaps move away from needing to have breakfast foods at breakfast and more savory/ lunch time items for both breakfast and lunch? Eggs/omelette, beans on toast, soup, salads, wraps are classics? I also very often make more dinner than I need so as to have a second portion for lunch (usually either omit or have a smaller portion of the carb element at lunchtime, so e.g. if I've made a curry I might just have the sauce and protein element over some vegetables, or with just a small portion of rice or bread?

I Don’t eat until 12 and I either have breakfast style food like Greek yogurt and berries, omelette, eggs/ avocado/ bacon on sourdough or I have more lunch type things like some kind of protein with salad and a slice of sourdough, sometimes leftovers from dinner the night before or a homemade soup and a sandwich. It just depends how hungry I am and what I fancy.

tomatoes and cucumbers with some feta with wholemeal toast - marmite too sometimes.

Eggs in all their forms on toast.

Sardines (on toast) can you see a theme here.

avocado, lime,coriander, black beans and a poached egg.

cheese on toast.

home made baked beans on toast.

I go through phases of eating healthy and then eating like a teenager with unlimited funds and a fast metabolism.

During my healthy phases I will have breakfast like a bagel with cream cheese,
Scrambled eggs on toast with sliced tomatoes
Fruit salad
Alpro vanilla or blueberry yogurt with fresh fruit and granola.

Lunches I would have something like a chicken and salad wrap or a lamb kebab with rice and/or salad.

I think so, in that I cook from scratch for all meals at home, and benefit from a truly superb office canteen where food is healthy & made from scratch.

Breakfast is most often soaked chia seeds, Greek yogurt, some honey, chopped fruit and bran sticks. If you’re over Greek yogurt then that’s maybe not for you, but what about making a frittata and eating a slice for breakfast, perhaps with some chopped fruit on the side?

I meal prep a big salad on the weekend where the base is giant cous cous, wholemeal pasta, quinoa etc. It gets portioned into containers and served with boiled eggs. poached chicken or tinned fish.

I can't eat oats so make lactose- free porridge with quinoa flakes, add in berries and cherries with 0% lactose free Greek yoghurt. I always try to use organic ingredients.

Breakfast-
Kefir, chia seeds, berries, walnuts
Dippy egg with soldiers
Boiled eggs with tomato, cucumber, a few olives, some feta, soda bread with seeds

Lunch ideas - I don't have a lot of time to make lunch so even when I'm WFH I make myself a lunchbox to eat the next day. Often I will make lunches on Sunday night for Mon & Tues, Tues night for Weds & Thurs etc. This also solves the problem of opening a can of chickpeas but only needing to use half for a salad.

• tuna mayo salad, chicken mayo salad (make with added veg like celery, spring onion etc) and eat with oatcakes and cucumber rounds
• a base of grains, rocket, then add some chickpeas/beans/lentils, chopped veg like peppers, tomato, cuke, add some tinned fish (I love the ones from Sea Sisters).
• Mob kitchen have a lot of healthy lunch ideas, my favourite is their Halloumi grains with green tahini lunchbox salad: https://www.mob.co.uk/recipes/halloumi-grains-green-tahini

The basic formula is grain, protein, veg, dressing and always add something contrasting as a garnish like seeds, nuts, olives, pickled onions etc.

My lunchbox today is a pasta salad I made last night of wholewheat pasta, rocket, cherry tomatoes, capers, lemon zest and juice, parmesan cheese and the dressing is sort of a homemade trapanese pesto (the one with tomato, basil and almonds).

(I used to just buy this sort of thing at M&S but I realised I was easily spending £10-15 on lunch every day. And it's nicer home-made anyway).

Breakfast for me is usually a shredded wheat with fruit and milk. Sometimes i have yogurt and fruit instead.

Lunch would be soup with a slice of bread, or a wrap with salad, kimchi and cream cheese or something similar.

What are you missing from your diet that isn’t in your dinners?

Work from there

Yes.

Porridge for breakfast

Sandwich/salad/soup/ dinner leftovers for lunch

I make my own muesli and have with Greek Yoghurt/Kefir and/or fruit.

Avocado on sourdough toast.
Eggs - poached or fried.

Egg rice paper chilli oil omlette are delicious, quick

You are so right. My own advice would be to check how much protein you should be getting and then calculate how much you actually are. Nobody ever tells you this. Dietary advice is so full of what you should not be eating and too vague about what you should.

Thing I consider healthy options for those meals that I would eat:

If I couldn't have oats, i might have canned baked beans & cheese for breakfast.
I suppose I've had big bowls of chopped fruit, too, but it's low calorie so not filling. Blackberries are going crazy in my garden so I have lots of those rn.

Lunch: whole meal sandwiches with lettuce, cucumber, toms, some nice cheese, pieces of ham, always mayo. I dislike buttery spread on sandwiches. Maybe some cashews & fresh fruit.

@FreezeThePicture @frozendaisy agree! Once protein is considered, OP can move on to fibre, and sufficient variety of plants.

Fibre is what takes the most intentional thought, for me personally - particularly soluble fibre. If I don't plan ahead I can easily fall short.

I'm not really missing anything I don't think, I'm just so bored with my choices. I'm not very imaginative really and I tend to eat something until I'm sick of it. Some great ideas here folks, I thank you.

I do like to make things myself, rather than buy and if I'm being honest, I find the cost of decent ingredients really tricky at the moment too.

Yes-ish.

Granola (low sugar) with blueberries and yogurt.
salad with cottage cheese, Quorn picnic eggs, quinoa (merchant gourmet).

I find it tricky buying healthy salads.

I thinkI eat fairly healthily.

Breakfast are usually porridge, fruit, nuts and seeds, overnight oats with fruit, nuts and seeds, chia pudding with fruit, tofu scramble with spinach and mushrooms. Occasionally shredded wheat, muesli with soya yogurt and fruit or a smoothie.

Lunches are almost always salads or soups, occasionally beans or avocado on toast or a jacket potato with filling, sometimes a portion of leftover dinner.

Yes mostly healthy meals but with a tendency to snack too much on chocolate (dark chocolate helps limit the amount I can scoff).
Breakfast - porridge with semi-skimmed milk, pumpkin seeds, sultanas and a sprinkle of cinnamon so maybe you could try adding seeds to your preferred alternative to oatd? Otherwise agree with above about protein, grain and veg. Not so keen on fruit at breakfast but scrambled egg, homemade wholemeal bread and salad for example.
Lunch - batch-cooking dinner for lunch on other days saves time and money. Examples chilli with rice, sweet potato and red lentil curry, any filling soup. By batchcooking I mean make way more than needed, eat one meal, put one for next few days in fridge then freeze the rest for at some point in next few months. Do this with a few different meals to reduce boredom.
Saving money - get cheaper, easily available veg like carrots instead of the latest trend. Also if you eat meat, bulk out dishes with beans or red lentils as they are a filling cheap source of protein, or nature's Ozempic in my book.
But don't beat yourself up for the odd unhealthy meal. It is hard to do all of the time so just do what is easiest and tasty for you.

What does healthy mean to you?

For some it means wholemeal grains, protein, vegetables, low fat. Others mean low calories, some mean vegan, others say no carb.

My lunch every day for the last week has been diced watermelon, diced cucumber, diced feta, chopped mint, lime juice, with a pitta and some hummus.