EC Week: Tuesday Lunch

This looks very similar to my lunch yesterday!  I always get stuck not knowing what to eat for lunch.  I could eat a sandwich every day but that gets boring and I'd rather not eat that much bread (I usually like to have either rice or pasta or bread with my supper instead).  So lunch is always a challenge for me.  

I had some uncooked cut up chicken in the fridge that I didn't use last night so for lunch today I threw that in a pan and sauteed it in a little olive oil and then added some onions, green peppers and red peppers.  When it was cooked through I put it on top of some romaine lettuce and added a little cheese (cause I love my cheese!) and some sour cream.  It was pretty good.  I only ate about half of it.  I also ate an apple about an hour after lunch. 

And about that tea.  It was a first for me.  And I really wanted to like it.  But honestly...I'm not a fan of Honest Tea.  At least not the pomegranate/goji berry flavor.  And while we are on the subject of tea--I told my friend, Heather, I'd be posting about tea this week--let me say a little about it.

I am southern and as such I loooove some good sweet tea.  My mom and I are both sweet tea snobs.  We know which establishments have good sweet tea.  We know where not to order sweet tea (Pizza Inn notoriously has disgusting tea). We can take a swig and immediately tell you if that tea has been sitting out for longer than 6 hours (sour tea=blech!) and we will make special trips to McAlister's just for their famous ice tea.

Since I've been eating healthier, I've started drinking plain unsweetened tea.  I love McAlister's, Sonic and Panera Bread's the best.  I don't add any sweeteners and it still tastes so good to me!  Did you know that one glass of McAlister's ice tea has 310 calories (and who can drink just one cup full?)?  I could easily drink two cups full while there packing in over 600 calories!  That's more than 1/3 of my recommended daily caloric intake!  Wow!    

As much as I love sweet tea I found that it hasn't been a hard habit to break.  Last year I started decreasing the amount of sugar I added to a pitcher of tea.  My old standard was one cup of sugar per one pitcher of tea.  And we drank 2-3 pitchers of it a week.  I gradually started decreasing the amount of sugar in it and my family got used to it.  Now I make it completely unsweet.  I found out that McAlister's uses a black tea so I found some English black tea and I now brew a pitcher of that with no sweeteners in it at all.  It is a little bitter, it does take some getting use to, and Madalyn and I are the only ones in the family who drink it without sugar!  No one has complained though.  If the others want some they add their own sugar.

I also like to add flavors to my tea on occasion.  Sometimes I'll squeeze some fresh lemon or lime in it or I'll add some frozen raspberries (that is really good!).  It does take some getting used to but it is worth it.  Don't drink away your calories!  Treat soda and sweet tea like you do other sweets--save it for special occasions and partake in moderation.