Healthy meals/snacks during nursing school

Published

  1. Do you eat breakfast?

    • 43
      Yes
    • 6
      No
    • 14
      Sometimes
    • 7
      When I can, I will
    • 2
      Don't have time for it

20 members have participated

Hey all. After responding to a different thread, I thought it would be a good idea to share some of your favorite healthy recipes that you guys make during your time in Nursing school. It can be anything from a breakfast recipe, to some snacks you bring with you to clinicals, or anything alike!

Here are some of my recipes. Keep in mind, I'm trying to add some weight (I am 6'1" @ 179lbs trying to reach 185-190lbs), so you may want to adjust the kind of ingredients/macros you use.

1) The Breakfast Shake:

Crusty eyes, you glance at your alarm clock and realize you overslept. Jumping out of bed, you realize you only have 40 minutes to get from here to your clinical site. You don't have time to make a complete balanced breakfast. So what do you do? Thankfully, you have ingredients in stock, and all it takes is 5 minutes to make breakfast on the go healthy.

8-12 oz of Whole milk, 1% milk, or Almond milk.

1-2tbsp of peanut butter

1/2 cup of dry oats

1 scoop of whey protein (Optimum Nutrition macchiato flavor is my favorite)

Some times I'll add a scoop of ice cream. I workout generally so this isn't a big deal for me, and it's early in the morning so I will be burning it off throughout the day.

2) The Breakfast Meal:

4-8 oz of lean (93-99% fat free) ground turkey

3 counts of liquid egg whites

Handful of spinach

And a frozen bagel toasted with some slight smart balance butter. (sometimes ill do peanut butter)

Takes about 10-15 minutes total to make for me.

I have some other recipes I use, but I'm at work right now and currently catching up on my Chemistry work for school.

Feel free to add your own recipes!

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I gained a lot of weight during nursing school! I'm working as a nurse now but also doing an lvn-rn bridge program so what I try doing is meal prep.

For breakfast I found egg muffins to be convenient.

-Egg whites

-jalapeño

-cheese

- spinach or broccoli

I spray a cupcake/muffin sheet/tin(whatever it's called) with pam coconut oil spray and simply add ingredients into each section. Let it bake in the oven until it's lightly brown. I usually bake 10 of these and have 2 for breakfast. It holds up well in the fridge.

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I'm a light breakfast eater. A protein shake, or yogurt, or cliff bar. I graze all day long. I am heavier than before I started my higher education journey, but that's due to a myriad of reasons.

The most recent jump is my decrease in exercise. My eating habits are actually better, so at least I'm not contributing to a further weight-gain. But I got motivated to exercise and bought a few new clothes for it, and am actively building (re-building) my tolerance and stamina for it.

Capoeira is my exercise flavor du jour. Oh Gads I love it.

Meu berimau esta chamando pra jogar!

By heavier, you mean now you weigh 100lbs? Lol :]. I joke. Never heard of Capoeira, what is that?

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I gained a lot of weight during nursing school! I'm working as a nurse now but also doing an lvn-rn bridge program so what I try doing is meal prep.

For breakfast I found egg muffins to be convenient.

-Egg whites

-jalapeño

-cheese

- spinach or broccoli

I spray a cupcake/muffin sheet/tin(whatever it's called) with pam coconut oil spray and simply add ingredients into each section. Let it bake in the oven until it's lightly brown. I usually bake 10 of these and have 2 for breakfast. It holds up well in the fridge.

so is it like a muffin with grains/wheat mixed with the above ingredients or just straight up made up of entirely egg whites? I'm picturing a muffin but it's made of just pure eggwhites and the other ingredients. How do you even hold that? LOL

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Specializes in Critical Care, Med-Surg, Psych, Geri, LTC, Tele,.

My go to breakfast has been boiled eggs. To be healthy, I try to do 2 egg whites and 1 whole egg. When I'm rushing, i just eat 2 whole eggs, plus a banana. Or an orange, or a carrot! Just depends on what I have available.

I switched it up last week and made steel cut oats plus walnuts, cranberries and milk with maple syrup and butter. Yup, I ate that at pre conference. [emoji3] Costco has premade individual portions of steel cut oats you just warm up in the microwave.

For lunch, I tend to bring homemade food, typically leftovers I can eat cold in class or at the hospital. For example, brown rice with curry sauce or chicken noodle soup in a thermos. Sometimes, brown rice with broccoli and sauce on top. As long as it can fit in my Tupperware and be eaten cold, it's all good!

For awhile, I was able to find these egg white breakfast burgers at the dollar store, 2/$1.

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Straight up egg whites. It stays in the muffin form. Best pinterest I've ever found.

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Straight up egg whites. It stays in the muffin form. Best pinterest I've ever found.

holy moly that looks interesting. i might try that out some time. thanks for the share

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Specializes in Critical care.

When I was in school, especially at exam time, I would make up a pasta salad for lunch. I didn't have to find the time to hunt down a microwave or stop my studying. I'd listen to recordings or reviews while prepping it for the week. Barilla has a veggie pasta that I would use mixed in with whole wheat pasta. I'd blanche a lot of vegetables- peppers, peas, carrots, broccoli, etc. and toss in a bit of pesto.

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My breakfast is usually a smoothie.

Frozen acai.

Frozen blueberries.

Frozen kale.

Some water (could also use almond milk).

Greek yogurt.

Honey.

Dump in a blender, blend, drink :)

When I'm feeling really lazy I just do scrambled eggs with some salsa and cheese mixed in. If I'm fancy I add chorizo.

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Specializes in Tele, Interventional Pain Management, OR.
My breakfast is usually a smoothie.

Frozen acai.

Frozen blueberries.

Frozen kale.

Some water (could also use almond milk).

Greek yogurt.

Honey.

Dump in a blender, blend, drink :)

When I'm feeling really lazy I just do scrambled eggs with some salsa and cheese mixed in. If I'm fancy I add chorizo.

Agree with the smoothie breakfast. It's fast and generally keeps me going until lunchtime.

I use a handful of frozen berries, a frozen banana (I peel and split into thirds then freeze), a scoop of protein powder (Vega in Viva Vanilla is my current favorite), and almond or coconut milk. Blend for about 30 seconds, and breakfast is served!

I will also add a microgreens or wheatgrass packet sometimes--the Amazing Grass brand makes single-serve packets so you can try it before committing to a full jar. Or even throw in 1/4 of an avocado!

When I was younger, I NEVER ate breakfast because I was convinced that meal-skipping saved calories. I don't recommend that approach anymore, particularly on clinical days! You need a nourished body so you can use your nurse brain to its fullest capacity :)

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I like to make:

  • a huge batch of homemade fried rice, with eggs, vegetables, brown rice, and meat if I have it, and then freeze it in serving sized leftover containers
  • muffin cup quiches
  • macaroni and cheese muffins
  • plain yogurt with fruit and homemade granola
  • cheese & crackers
  • apple with peanut butter
  • cut vegetables
  • 'ants on a log' (celery with peanut butter in it, and raisins/ants on top)
  • a salad if I have time
  • pasta salad
  • small apple crisps that I freeze, and then take to clinical or school
  • nutritious cookies
  • a big smoothie to take with
  • I want to make nori rolls sometime

On nights before clinical I put 1/3 cup oatmeal, one sliced apple, some raisins, and 1c water in a bowl, and then in the morning I microwave it for breakfast

That's all I can think of right now ;)

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I love pomegranates!!! One has about 100 calories. I could eat a fruit and cheese breakfast but usually I just have a fast bowl of cereal or oatmeal. I'm trying hard to take better care of myself.. I've been getting between 4-6 hours of sleep a night and eating bad. Great suggestions here!

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