On weekends, I morph into a fancy food snob. The tastiest wine, the super extravagant slow roast, the pizza with all the toppings and the chocolate lava cake. I will consume and cook everything and anything that requires a metre long recipe list.
But during the week I have three goals when it comes to food; tasty, healthy, easy.
For dinner I tend to stick to a protein (chicken thigh or salmon are my MVPs) with a bunch of vegetables. Lunch tends to be my biggest meal of the day and I go for something hearty like a jampacked sandwich or a big chunk of homemade veggie lasagne. For breakfast I am a granola, Greek yoghurt and fruit kind of gal.
But by the time I've bought and planned my main meals for the week my enthusiasm to organise and get creative tapers off. It means I often end up eating snacks that probably aren't as nutritious and beneficial to me as they could be. I love the gym and live an active lifestyle, and as part of that I try to keep a close eye on balancing my exercise and food to make sure I am getting the best out of both.
As my trainer tells me, to hit my daily protein goals I need to be eating protein-rich foods not just in my main meals, but in my snacks too.
Well, lucky I'm obsessed with Bulla Cottage Cheese.
I've realised that if I centre my snacks around one protein it takes away that 'ugh, what the hell am I going to eat after this workout, or to tide me over before dinner' conundrum I find myself in on the reg.