🍳 Sizzle, Crunch, Scoop - No. 75

Published about 1 month ago • 3 min read

Hey there Reader,

I don’t know who decided September is the real start of the year, but they may have been onto something.

Between back-to-school, back-to-work, fall schedules filling up, and somehow having 47 things on the calendar at once, this time of year always feels like a reset — and a very good reminder that feeding yourself does not need to be complicated.

So this week, we’re keeping things simple: snacks that count as meals, leftovers getting a very good second life, and a few eating habits I’m lovingly calling you out on. 🙊

Okay, here we go - time for Sizzle, Crunch, Scoop!

SIZZLE: Cooking hacks, shortcuts, and tools/products I love.
CRUNCH: Easy meal & snack ideas + practical tips to keep you inspired.
SCOOP: Real talk on nutrition trends, mindset shifts, and building a healthier relationship with food.

SIZZLE 🍳

Consider This Your Permission to Have Snacks for Lunch

I spent last weekend celebrating my bachelorette with some of my closest friends, and naturally, they came through with an elite assortment of snacks.

Fruit. Cheese. Crackers. Chips. Candy. Dips. All the good stuff.

And honestly? This is one of my favourite ways to eat.

A snackle box, snack plate, bento box — whatever you want to call it — is such a simple way to combine fun foods AND nutritious foods without making either one a big deal.

Candy can sit beside fruit. Chips can sit beside veggies and dip. They’re just foods that offer different things — nutrition, satisfaction, enjoyment, energy — and they can happily coexist on the same plate.

And this concept works especially well for school and work lunches.

You don’t necessarily need to cook yourself a lunch. Open the fridge, grab a few random leftovers and assemble:

Protein + grain/starch + fruit and/or vegetagbles + something you enjoy = lunch.

After all, that’s essentially the definition of a balanced meal.

Why are we making this harder than it needs to be?

CRUNCH 🍿

The Crispy Rice Salad on Repeat at My House

I’ll admit it: I haven’t felt like cooking a ton lately.

I’m heading into one of my busiest seasons of the year — although, have I ever actually gotten out of my busy season? Yikes. 😅

Either way, this crispy rice salad has been on repeat because it tastes fresh and exciting with limited effort

And it happens to be an excellent use for leftover rice (a safe food for us IBS girlies).

Side note: If you’re not freezing leftover cooked rice yet, you’re missing out. Portion it, freeze it, and suddenly you have the base of a meal waiting you!

For the crispy rice, I toss cooked rice with a little chili crunch oil and bake it at 400 F until golden and crispy.

Then the salad is basically:

🥒 Cucumber
🫛 Edamame
🥑 Avocado
🍋 Lemon juice + olive oil
🌶️ Crispy chili oil rice
🍤 Shrimp, tofu, leftover chicken or chickpeas

That’s it. It’s crunchy, fresh, filling, and very forgiving — which is exactly the kind of recipe I need right now.

Use what you have. Make it taste good. Call it dinner. Voila!

SCOOP 🍦

Just Checking… Because Someone Had to Say It

I recently shared a post on Instagram about some of the habits I see people doing all the time that make feeding themselves approximately 10x harder than it needs to be.

You know the ones.

Expecting coffee to do breakfast’s job...
Waiting until you’re absolutely starving to figure out dinner...
Buying groceries with the best intentions… without actually having a plan for what you’re going to make with them...

You get the point.

So instead of trying to overhaul your diet this Fall, look at the tiny systems that make feeding yourself easier: