Two good blogs: http://www.self.com/health/blogs/eatlikeme/ (a nutritionist for Self blogs about and takes pictures of her daily eats), http://www.carrotsncake.com/ (a regular person does the same, along with pictures of grocery shopping trips, tips, and recipes)

Next time you're in a book store, take a look at Mark Bittman's cookbooks. They have names like "The Minimalist Cooks at Home: Recipes That Give You More Flavor from Fewer Ingredients in Less Time." On Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Minimalist-Cooks-Home-Recipes-Ingredients/dp/0767909267/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1211207732&sr=1-3

If you feel stuck, he's absolutely the first person you should read. Bittman knows food, flavor, and *how* to cook. At the end of his recipes, he shows you what to substitute for what and how to riff on his basic recipe, emphasizing how to do it right now over procuring specific ingredients. You wrote that you're jealous of people who can just throw something magnificent together, and he teaches you how to do that.

Bittman doesn't do diet food, but most of what he does is clean and healthy by default. His flavors are international and varied. I dig his palate. ;)

(BTW, this would precede Joy of Cooking... JoC is a great book, but it's definitely more complicated.)

This is my typical day (not perfectly healthy, but its a work in progress):

B: oatmeal, turkey sausage
S: pckg of cheese crackers w/PB
L: rotisserie chicken (3 oz), toasted pine nut couscous, spinach salad
w/drizzle olive oil, yogurt (if hungry)
S: banana, yogurt (if I haven't eaten it at lunch)
D: chicken stirfry w/brown rice
S: skim milk w/SF choc syrup, some sort of 100 cal pack

And I recommend checking out sparkpeople.com -- I track my menu on there and many people post theirs for the world to see.

Mmmm, food. I guess I'm a stereotypical fat girl, 'cause I love to think and talk about it. I love cook books. I love restaurant menus. I love grocery shopping, and I love planning my meals for the week.

Anyway.

For years I've had the same breakfast: grape nuts with frozen blueberries (lowbush berries, the tiny super-flavorful ones from Maine) and skim milk. But lately I've been having a homemade fruit and yogurt parfait (vanilla yogurt, mushed up blackberries or whatever other berry is on sale, and whatever fancy granola is on sale - currently, a blend that includes coconut and candied ginger).

I suck at lunch. Sometimes I buy prepared salads from the deli, but those are really too expensive. Sometimes I've planned ahead well enough to have leftovers, but then I usually forget them at home. Usually, I'll have some sad frozen meal, or I'll cobble together something from the vending machines (egg salad sandwich on white bread + sad packet of trail mix = pathetic) or convince someone else that we should order sandwiches (thus negating the savings from not buying the deli salad).

I usually cook a few dinners on Sunday to see me through the week. But lately I've had busy Sundays so have been perfecting very quick weekday meals. One of my all-time favorites is a brussel sprout pasta dish that basically goes like this: boil pasta and peal brussel sprouts (annoying but worth it), saute sprout leaves with olive oil, throw in some onions and garlic, add the pasta, toss in walnuts and maybe some feta or blue cheese, squeeze lemon juice on top and eat.

Ok, this is long. I should have a blog called Love Letters to My Meals.

We like meals that are light on the cooking preparation and heavier on the assembly. Like fajitas for example. Chop up some bell peppers & onions, cook them with cut-up skinless chicken breasts, then serve with 6inch tortillas, lowfat sour cream, store-bought black bean dip or salsa, whatever you like. The cooking portion is minimal, but you get to build lovely little creations at the table to put in your mouth. I find tortillas very versatile because you can make wraps out of pretty much any combination of things you like: spinach & hummus, chicken with buffalo wing sauce and greens, etc. And now they come in whole grain, high fiber varieties.

I love reading about what people eat too! It gives me ideas to incorporate into my own eating habits. Now I am a vegan, so I probably have a bit of a different menu but normally it is...
B: whole grain cereal with quinoa or amarenth, blueberries with almond milk and tea with almond milk.
L: usually whatever I made for the week on Sunday, today it will be veggie chili with cornbread and a cup of strawberries.
S: a green smoothie with bananas and kale and pineapple or some similar combo or a piece of fruit or carrot sticks
D: tonight will be some polenta with seitan and spinach and then I will use the leftovers for lunch this week as well. The key to healthy eating is PREP. I have to plan out what I will eat on the weekends because I won't have time on the weeknights. Again, I LOVE to eat and cook so meal planning is totally fun for me.

I too love to cook and eat, and especially love getting new recipe ideas from blogs and cooking shows.

For breakfast, I usually have cereal or PB&J toast with a homemade flavored latte (mmm, almond syrup!).

Some of my goals this year are to cook more often and eat more vegetables, so I try to make one lunch for myself on Sundays and have it for 3-4 days during the week - pureed soups (carrot/ginger, butternut squash, or sweet potato) work well, or sometimes I get salad ingredients (mixed greens or baby spinach, assorted veggies, cheese and nuts), and make a dressing from some gourmet olive oil & vinegar. I try to always have fruit and yogurt at work for healthy snacks.

For dinners, my husband and I take turns cooking, and we like to try new things often, but some of our favorites are different stir-fry combinations, burgers, tortilla soup, chicken tika masala, crab cakes, a spiced sauteed fish or chicken dish, or gnocchi (buy frozen, add sauceand prosciutto). We try to get more veggies by adding a side dish (steamed baby bok choy, asparagus, etc) About once a week, we take a break from cooking and have a scavenge night, when we justhave PB&J or popcorn and beer for dinner.

I mix it up alot. But I eat ALOT of fish through the week. I usually eat almonds on a daily basis as a snack, I keep reduced fat peanut butter at my desk and probably 3 or 4 days a week will have a light whole grain english muffin with low fat pb and banana on top. I definitely eat bananas every day. And I also eat flat-out wraps most days of the week, as pita pizzas, or tuna wraps, or chicken wraps, or veggie wraps, whatevs. Mainly I'm psychotic about my sodium intake. So I tend to always get low sodium foods like anything Amy's organic with reduced or no salt added.

I'm addicted to brown rice. I cook it about three times a week, and I always make enough for several meals. Sometimes I even eat it for breakfast.

Oh, don't make that face, it's just like eating Rice Crispies.

Most-all my meals follow the boring but easy protien/starch/veg combination. I'm really into mixing up my own sausage lately. Well, I let the guys at the meat counter do the grinding and I add spices and stuff when I get home. So my dinner is typically a sausage patty, rice, and frozen veg. The same will go for my lunch, as it's easily portable.

Today, though, for a change, I have homemade pinto beans with a spicy sausage crumbled into it, corn, and tortillas to do some scoopin'. Om nom nom!

Wow. I feel so unhealthy after reading the previous replies. I’m on the road about 200 days or more of the year. Enough said. I really don’t like breakfast food the one exception being bacon. Mmmmm bacon….. Also because my body cranks out calcium like there is no tomorrow, I really have to watch my dairy intake which means no milk or yogurt, etc for me. So when I’m home (and on the road) for breakfast it’s a glass of diet Pepsi, or since I live in Florida, when it’s orange season, a big glass of fresh squeezed orange or grapefruit juice. During the day I graze on fruit all day, whatever is in season. Lunch is usually half a sandwich either salami, chicken or roast beef. Never any mayo on anything. For dinner it’s a simple pasta with olive oil, tomatoes and garlic, beef stew, fajitas or good old southern fried chicken! Most meals have broccoli, carrots, or green beans. Very rarely do I eat dessert. On the road it’s a another story - you don’t want to know!

katheats.com is addicting!

My biggest discovery is how delicious vegetable soup can be! For dinner, I often pick a vegetable (carrots, mushrooms, or broccoli work especially well); steam it and an onion with 2 cups or so of water, and then put it all in the blender....reheat in the pot, add some milk or other veggies, and voila! Really yummy, actually. My usual daily menu...

B: half a grapefruit, oatmeal, poached egg
S: plain yoghurt with granola
L: 1 c. whole grain (brown rice, barley, etc), fish, and salad or veggies
S: 1/2 lg apple, handful of nuts
S: banana
D: tofu or eggs, some kind of vegetables, stirfry, or soup
De: hot cocoa (real cocoa, not mix), or a square or two of dark chocolate

I strongly second the recommendation to get one of Mark Bittman's cookbooks. Much easier than Joy of Cooking. My personal favorite is How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. There's a great section about selecting and buying produce as well. I'm not sure this was really a "healthy and delicious day", but it was today, none the less.

B: Espresso
2nd B at work: Luna bar and diet coke
(yeah, I realize I could use some work on my breakfasts)
L: Boss took me out... veggie tacos and cheese enchiladas, which may sound healthy, but there were also chips and salsa
D: Homemade baked falafel, hummus, pita, greek yogurt, big bowl of strawberries and vanilla ice cream

Wow.... I sorta considered myself a reasonably healthy eater until I had to type all that and read it.

My husband and I have given ourselves over to the Trader Joe's cult, fo sho. We usually plan our meals for the week right there in the aisles! Our typical b-fast groceries: Joe's O's, bananas, rice milk; lunch groceries would be the microwaveable lentil soup, clif bars/tiger's milk bars, all manner of fruit including the super-cute pre-packed apple slices and peanut butter; dinner groceries at T to the J's are my favorite, and in fact, here is a run-down of some dinners over the last week that have all taken less than 20 minutes to make, no joke:
*Miso glazed Ahi Steaks with roasted butternut squash and herb salad.
*shrimp, bell pepper and tomato shish-kebabs with green beans marinated in balsamic vinegar and sea salt.
*Gorgonzola Gnocchi with Broccoli Florets and more herb salad because it's that good.
*Fake Steak tacos with black beans, spelt tortillas, cheese and greens.
*artichoke ravioli with goat cheese, lemon juice and capers and more herb salad.
So, that's my dirty little secret. Luckily my man knows that my heart belongs to Joe :)