I’m an American but not white & was born/raised in a large coastal city, so my concept of dining/daily meals is probably a bit different because I eat a lot of heritage foods that I grew up on. What do you eat on a daily basis? Where do you live? What race are you?
Feel free to be as detailed as you’d like – I’m curious. Thanks!
Comments
Standard white American.
Breakfast is usually coffee
Lunch may be a sandwich or boiled eggs and some other little snack food
Dinner is usually a protein and vegetable, tacos, pasta, or an entree salad
Plain old white American.
It varies because this area is pretty racially diverse, so we can get Indian, Italian, Korean, Japanese, Middle Eastern, Greek…lots of different food. And then Maryland has specific regional food.
I usually eat a Greek yogurt or cereal for breakfast. Then the rest of the day can vary. Lately I’ve been ordering a lot of Asian cuisine in and making leftovers from it. I also work from home, so this makes a difference.
Summer season we start eating even more crab/seafood.
Obviously my daily diet has been different at different times in my life. These days for lunch sometimes I bring in premade salads but most often just get something from wherever my coworker is getting something. Think fast food. I’ve been making sandwiches for dinner a lot lately, but sometimes soup or pasta instead.
For breakfast I have coffee and make my daughter raisin toast with butter. For lunch we usually do something like a grilled cheese sandwich or a box of macaroni and cheese. For dinner, I try to aim for a meat, grain, and vegetable. Dinner is where the real nutrition comes from in my home anyways.
White, 41M. Born and grew up on the Georgia coast. Moved to Atlanta 22 years ago for college, still here. I bike and run a lot.
Breakfast is hit or miss, occasionally skip it and just drink coffee. Other times I like to have yogurt with berries, banana, walnuts, and granola. Lunch is often some prepped chicken and veggies.. if not that, a ham sandwich with homemade sourdough bread. Dinner is often a chicken/pork + veggie combo when I cook. I eat out 2-3x a week and my choices then are generally less healthy. One night a week involves pizza, but I generally start with a salad so I don’t crush 4-5 slices lol.
Biggest downfall of my diet is beer and THC edibles which leads to snacking.
I grew up in a low income family and we didn’t have good habits with food, which still affects me to this day, it’s really hard to not just fall back to bad habits.
In the morning I’m doing coffee plus either overnight oats or toast with yogurt and fruit. I hate cereal I get hungry like an hour after I eat with cereal.
For lunch we’re going for a sandwich, usually either ham and cheese or turkey, or a thermos of soup in the fall and winter. I love a squash soup or a nice lentil. I’ll have a banana, apple, or orange alongside. If I can I love a cup of black tea at lunch, it fends off the 2pm desire to sleep.
When I get home I’ll have a handful of nuts to tide me over.
Dinner is all over the place but I try to balance a carb (rice, potatoes, pasta), a protein (chicken, tofu, lentils, chickpeas, etc), and veggies. Meals from the past week included red lentil curry over rice, rice bowl with steamed salmon and veggies, and fried rice with a bunch of leftover veggies and an egg. Then I’ll have a few squares of a chocolate bar or something sweet.
White American.
I happen to be white.
Thursday I had:
-Homemade iced coffee with cream & Splenda
-Egg, cheese & sausage burrito (1/2, coworkers leftovers she shared)
-small bagged salad with some chicken nuggets & an applesauce pouch
-Chobani flips (Key Lime)
-Lentil soup & Greek Salad
-small amount of M&Ms
I am a white American in Oregon.
For breakfast, coffee and a protein bar on workdays. An oat milk atte (made at home with an espresso machine) and oatmeal on weekends.
Lunch, if I’m in the office I have my desk drawer stocked with these lentil cups that I had boiling water too…it’s easy and healthy enough. If I’m at home, generally some kind of leftovers from dinner.
Snacks, a lot of fruit, some handfuls of nuts, maybe veggies and hummus.
Dinner is always different, I don’t repeat meals that much. I’m vegan, so no meat/dairy/eggs. Recently a few things I’ve made are one-pot grains, beans and greens, red lentil soup with butternut squash and tofu stir fry with miso gochujang sauce.
I don’t have a standard.
I had egg casserole for breakfast. Chicken wings for lunch.
Looking forward to snacking tonight. There is a fruit and spinach smoothie and some bruschetta with fresh mozzarella in my future.
I’m a mixed Latino and white guy from the south, early 20s.
Coffee with cream for breakfast.
Protein shake for lunch.
And then something special for dinner. Yesterday I grilled steaks. The other day I made a fresh pesto sauce using basil from my yard and did pasta in pesto with grilled chicken. Today I’m probably making a rice bowl with ground beef. Usually drink an iced tea or Coke Zero.
Dessert is usually a glass of bourbon. Ice cream sometimes on weekends.
Three times a week I eat out. Usually a breakfast on Mondays, a burger and a beer on Thursdays, and then a third “fuck it I’m too tired to cook” day.
If the Cowboys or Notre Dame have a night game then I might do a special thing for dinner.
Breakfast usually eggs and A bagel
Lunch some sort of pasta or rice and veggies
Dinner varies, sometimes smaller sometimes bigger. Meat a few times a week.
Jewish, east coast
Breakfast: eggs and breakfast meat of some kind. Maybe homefries or toast.
Lunch: leftovers from a previous dinner.
Dinner: almost anything. A combination of a carb, meat and veggies. Examples would be rice/stuffing/potatoes/pasta, with a meat (chicken/pork/beef/fish/venison) and then a veggie.
Today –
Coffee breakfast
Pozole Lunch
Making sausage vodka pasta for dinner with kale salad.
I live in the middle Atlantic, I’m mixed race, but culturally very white. I’m diabetic so I eat a lot of fake sugars and always try to have sweets immediately following a fatty meal.
I love answering questions like this, I’ll just recount my last few meals.
Breakfast today was bacon, potato, and bell pepper hash topped with cheddar cheese and ketchup. (I also had some ice cream after breakfast).
Last night we went out to eat with friends. I shared an order of truffle fries and had crab stuffed shrimp with mashed potatoes, spinach, and a diet coke. The meal was around $30 and eating out at a nicer place like that is like a once or twice a month thing.
We accidentally skipped lunch yesterday. But had some tortilla chips with salsa and a few spoonfuls of ice cream late afternoon.
Breakfast yesterday was frozen protein French toast sticks with sugar free syrup and a glass of whole milk.
And now I’m off to have some homemade chicken and rice soup for a late lunch.
59F White, Texas for entire life. Your question made me realize how much my eating has changed through my years. Growing up, I ate good old southern cooking because that’s what mom provided. Breakfast was usually eggs, biscuits, a breakfast meat and juice. Lunch was a bologna sandwich with Lays chips and a Twinkie and some Kool Aid (OH YEAH!), Dinner would be fried chicken or chicken fried steak, some nights just beans and cornbread. Sides would be corn, green beans, cabbage, peas, cantaloupe (whatever was local or grown in the garden. Always iced tea and usually cobbler for desserts.
As an adult and after struggling with 20 pounds of weight my whole life (up and down), starting at 20, I have something like a protein smoothie for breakfast, sandwich or wrap at lunch with chips/fruit and dinner is a Buddha bowl, spaghetti, lots of roasted vegetables/grains/protein concoctions and soups (I’m the queen of soup). Dark chocolate for dessert. I eat low sugar now which is no fun but necessary.
Afro-Korean American
Breakfast: apple
Lunch: ramen, steamed buns, rice, pizza rolls, or a pork shoulder.
Dinner: usually some type of pasta, stir fry, or stew.
Dessert: ice cream nachos or cupcakes.
Standard White American
What I eat varies throughout the year depending on what’s in season. I typically do a lot of chicken based dishes with a starch (pasta, rice, potatoes, etc.) and veggies. During the spring/summer I go for more seafood based dishes as a lot of seafood comes into season. I do tend to make more Asian and Mexican cuisine.
When I lived in Maryland, I had a lot of crab-based dishes during the summer. Steamed crabs, crab soup, crab dip, crab mac and cheese, crab pretzels etc.
Middle-aged white American dude
Breakfast: Oatmeal with peanut butter
Lunch may include: Baby carrots, salads, tunafish sandwiches, peanut butter on rice cakes, apple, bananas, hummus
Dinner: Something homemade by me or my wife. “Egg roll in a bowl,” stir fry, baked potatoes, various pasta dishes, frittatas, chili, etc. Just simple stuff.
We rarely eat out—but occasionally might get Mexican take-out.
Lately food and groceries are so damn expensive that I eat a lotttttttt of ham and cheese sandwhiches
Mixed race; born and raised in the south.
I usually eat a piece of toast or crackers for breakfast.
For lunch, I usually eat a sandwich. My current favorite is a turkey sandwich on wheat with mustard, mayo, lettuce, tomatoes, and pickles. For a while, though, I preferred chicken with spinach, tomatoes, and red wine vinegar.
Dinner varies a lot. Tonight, I’m planning to make migas (eggs scrambled with jalapeños, onions, corn tortillas, cheese, and salsa) with a side of refried beans.
Most days are relatively the same. Granola bar for breakfast because I’m up way too early to cook a big meal or get fast food. Lunch is a turkey or PB sandwich if anything at all. I work outside so eating big at lunch doesn’t serve me well afterwards. Dinner I usually throw something on the grill. Pork chops, steak, chicken, burgers, bratwurst, etc with some beans and rice or potatoes.
On my off days I like to enjoy the local fare. There’s a great breakfast diner around the corner where I can get a full platter (2 eggs, bacon, hash browns, and toast). Then for lunch I like to hit a little brick oven pizza place downtown that has a bangin charcuterie pie. Downtown dinner has to be seafood because it’s caught damn fresh every day. Seafood specials around here are typically pulled right off the boat and never even see a refrigerator.
I’m a white guy from Appalachia originally.
As a kid at home, breakfast was typically either bacon, eggs and biscuits or biscuits and gravy.
Lunch was typically a sandwich of some type.
Dinner varied a lot but was always some sort of old fashioned country type of cooking.
Nowadays my diet is a lot different.
My typical breakfast is Greek yogurt, an orange and a protein shake.
Lunch is still a sandwich. Grilled or roasted chicken instead of lunch meat (to avoid sodium) but use a zero net carb high fiber bread.
Dinner is usually some sort of grilled or roasted meat and veggies. For example last night I had steak fijitas on a zero net carb tortilla. Tonight is roasted chicken leg quarters and Brussels sprouts.
I’ve been doing a high protein and low carb diet for about 2 years now. It has worked well for me.
ooh lots of replies, keep them coming! i was reading about the “standard american diet” which is high in ultra processed food, carbs, meats & saturated fats, low in fruits/veg/fish/freshness & it sounds truly depressing, but from many if not all of your replies, it seems like everyone is eating a nice variety.
Costco rotisserie chicken, chicken bakes from Costco, breakfast: toast or peanut butter sandwich with milk,
Early 30s white guy. Grew up on the east coast, lived in Buffalo for a while, and now live in Chicago.
Usually a bagel or other piece of bread and a coffee for a small breakfast, some kind of quick late morning snack like a yogurt or granola bar or a handful of nuts. Either leftovers or some kind of sandwich or tacos for lunch, Dinner varies a lot more but there’s probably some kind of chicken, vegetables, and a grain/starch. For example a stir fry, burrito, stew, something like that that’s more of a “complete” meal than the other two. I try and include leafy greens as part of lunch or dinner where possible but it doesn’t always happen. Once a week or two my wife and I might get a pizza or some other cheap takeout instead, particularly if we’ve run out of groceries or been very busy that day. If I’m up late, maybe a small snack like carrots and hummus or a handful of chips. Most drinks during the day are either ice water or seltzer with an occasional diet soda.
Maybe not the healthiest diet, but far from the caricature of Americans eating a pile of sugar for breakfast and McDonald’s burgers and fries for lunch and dinner
Breakfast is coffee most days I’m working.
I have a pb&j, carrots and hummus, protein bar and fruit.
Dinner bounces around eating out mostly at diners or some ethnic food I’m better off buying. Make a bunch of tex mex in the spring, soups in the winter, gazpacho or something quick in the summer.
White American woman with abnormal eating habits.
Fruit, dried fruit, crackers, cheese, and lunch meat make up the bulk of my diet. If I could have a small charcuterie board for every meal, I would.
White American in the mid Atlantic
Breakfast – protein shake or eggs
Lunch – leftovers or soup or chicken salad and veggies
Dinner – usually chicken or fish with rice or quinoa and some kind of veg – zucchini, broccoli, asparagus, green beans.
White American from Massachusetts with central and eastern European heritage:
I am a white American in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
My family loves to eat a variety of healthy foods and I think I’m a pretty good cook. My favorite things to cook are Indian, Italian, and Chinese foods.
The only weird thing about my diet is that I try to include at least one foraged ingredient in every meal I make.
I hunt for free food in the woods year-round and have been foraging mostly on the same land since 1990.
I’ve only eaten breakfast so far today and it was scrambled eggs with mushrooms that I gathered yesterday, (Neogyromitra brunnea for anyone else hunting them now,) and ramps because they’ve just come into season here.
I’m also excited because I have a big bag of daylily shoots to make with dinner, they are one of my favorite springtime treats, they are so crunchy and crisp like bamboo shoots.
probably an outlier because my work provides free meals for breakfast and lunch but for me (black mid 20s new englander)
breakfast: usually a sweet oatmeal (brown sugar cinnamon dried cranberries) and i grab a muffin but i usually save that for a snack for later in the day
lunch: whatever they have as the entree and if i don’t like that i’ll make a salad or grab a slice of pizza and fries
dinner: i hate cooking so i usually make one big thing and eat it throughout the week its usually some sort of big one pot dish like a curry or a pasta
on weekends ill make myself a breakfast sandwich which is usually just egg maybe onion and spinach and sometimes if i have them ill have some hashbrowns with it and make myself a coffee/latte or ill grab breakfast from some place in town. because i wake up so late its usually around midday so i wont eat again until dinner time and then ill either make my new dinner for the week or eat leftover takeout which is usually either pizza or chinese or indian
should also add that i dont eat beef or pork so a lot of my protein comes from chicken lol
White Gen Z American from NY who is vegetarian with gluten intolerance –
Breakfast: oatmeal with peanut butter
Lunch: plain Greek yogurt with honey, blueberries (if I’m lucky), and granola
Snack: fruit, a boiled egg, or cereal
Dinner: rice with veggies, tofu, and some type of dressing
Toast and butter and maybe some leftovers. Lunch is maybe leftovers or a sandwich. Maybe an egg with the toast (over medium).
Dinner could be nearly anything depending on what strikes my fancy. Yesterday it was pork loin with asparagus and roast potatoes on the side.
But it might be shakshuka. Chicken nuggets and veggies for the kids. Some type of pasta. A stir fry of some type. I like making indian food but I don’t always have all the ingredients on hand and the kids are picky about it.
We have a huge country so average is hard to nail down. Even between my house and my ex wife’s house we have pretty different foods despite the fact that we cooked together for 13 years. She just has different preferences.
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Basic white honky from indiana (mid west of USA)
Bacon egg and cheese hot pockets with mountain dew
Ham, cheese, and dorito sandwich with mountain dew
Chicken and cheese taquitos out of the frozen section at the storm with mountain dew.
Drink about 3-6 waters a day depending if im laying in bed or working.
Houston, Tx. White.
I grew up eating SAD- a lot of carbs, fried foods, Tex Mex. Pasta, potatoes, pizza, fries, meat, desserts, and sodas.
In my 30s, it all hit me. Started feeling like garbage all the time.
Now, I eat what I consider healthy. I only drink water and coffee, the occasional watered down juice, and sparkling water. Mostly veggies and lean meat. A lot of fresh fruit. I keep my servings of carbs to 1/2 to 1 cup.
Tonight for dinner, we’re having extra thin air fried pork chops, strawberry fields salad with poppyseed dressing, and roasted root veggies.
Breakfast was what I call lunch wrap- warmed up tortilla, shredded meat, mayo, and a ton of lettuce and banana peppers.
I’m a white American in NC. I get up early to work out, starting with a smoothie that usually includes blueberries, banana, peanut butter, chocolate protein powder, oat milk, maybe some spinach. I like to make a big breakfast after, so I usually will have coffee with toast and eggs and fruit, sometimes I’ll sauté some greens with it, sometimes I’ll do pancakes and bacon, sometimes a bagel with cream cheese, just depends on what I’m in the mood for. Generally some form of bread and some form of protein.
I don’t do a very big lunch, usually a tuna salad sandwich or turkey and cheese sandwich, sometimes I’ll have a salad. If I’m not particularly hungry I’ll have a yogurt and a granola bar or some fruit, like an orange or a banana. I also do leftovers a lot if I’m at work.
My partner is vegetarian and dinner is the only meal we have together, so we always do something vegetarian for dinner. We like rice and bean tacos, curries, pasta, and when it’s too hot to cook, a dense bean salad does nicely. I also make a mean chickpea pot pie. If we’re feeling lazy we’ll heat up frozen samosas in the air fryer, or do ramen with fried eggs. If we’re ordering in, we’ll get Mexican food, Chinese food, Indian food, or burgers (veggie burger for her).
Snack wise, I love potato chips and have to limit how much I can have them. I also have a massive sweet tooth. Sometimes we’ll get babka at the farmers market, sometimes we’ll have ice cream, sometimes we’ll bake cookies or cake. We try to keep it reasonably healthy but not deprive ourselves of anything we love.
I have been told by Europeans on Reddit that they “know” what we eat.
Highly processed foods with bread that is so sugary that in Europe it would be considered cake.
Cheese in a can
Sugary drinks.
Little to know fresh fruits or vegetables
When we do eat out, it is a chain restaurant.
The best Italian food an American can get for example is Olive Garden.
Toast and coffee for breakfast. Try to stay away from deli meats. Leftovers for lunch, occasionally a sandwich. Occasionally a frozen meal. Dinner is usually meat, potato and vegetables or salad. Sometimes pasta, tacos, rice, etc. we eat chili, spaghetti, pork chops, chicken, etc. we also eat out. Lots of ethnic food here. White older American.
White guy here in rural mountain California. Partner is Latina. Our kids are Japanese/Latino/white.
Breakfast for the adults is cigarettes and energy drinks/coffee/tea/caffeine. For the kids it’s cake, pie, cereal, or toast.
Lunch is whatever leftovers from yesterday or a sandwich (PB&J or cold cuts)
Dinner varies. Last night we had albondigas. Noodle dishes are common whether spaghetti, ramen, yakisoba, etc. almost always a protein, veggie, and a carb. Soup when it’s cold, salad when it’s not. Meat loaf. Ceviche. Various curries.
White male, 45. St. Louis, MO
breakfast: coffee
Lunch: usually rice topped with some protein (chicken, eggs, pork, tofu) and vegetables.
dinner: sometimes salad (spinach, chickpeas, cottage cheese, cucumbers, etc) Sometimes pasta with shrimp, sometimes blackbean burgers, sometimes bibbimbap. Sometimes a korean stew. Sometimes curry.
My wife is Korean so she kind of skews things that way. Maybe half the time she makes something Korean.
At night we might have some popcorn. Ice cream or chips if it’s the weekend. I usually have a glass of wine or two throughout the night.
Yesterday, I had coffee and a banana for breakfast, ramen with starting to wilt baby bok choy, spinach, green onions, and a couple of chunks of chicken for lunch, and fried rice with ham, frozen peas, and carrots tossed in with pot stickers for dinner. I’m white and work swing shift so I mostly cook 2 big meals on my days off and then use the leftovers for easy 10-15 min. meals.
Breakfast is usually just coffee. Kids eat pancakes/sausage/toast/fruit/oatmeal/etc.
Lunch is usually nothing or leftovers from last night’s dinner. Kids usually do leftovers/PB&J/chicken nuggets/grilled cheese with some type of veggie. My daughters favorite is chicken nuggets with green beans or edamame beans, she could eat it daily.
Dinner is always a carb a protein and a vegetable. This last week I’ve made a roast with potatoes/carrots/celery/onions. Cornbeef with the same veggies and cabbage. And fried chicken with greenbeans and mashed potatoes.
Breakfast is coffee, eggs, cheese, toast and juice. Lunch is whatever I can get. Dinner is usually some sort of chicken for protein and potatoes or pasta for carbs. I can’t eat red meat for medical reasons, so I never have hamburgers or steaks. I mix things up by having tasty vegetarian food whenever chicken gets boring, but I never eat the vegetarian “fake meat”. I don’t care for meat enough to fake it.
Southwest, half Mexican. Breakfast is coffee, breakfast burritos or taco. Breakfast tacos = eggs, salsa, cheese, sometimes bacon, avocado on corn tortillas. I throw in whatever I have.
My protein is usually chicken, I eat sourdough bread a lot, normally have pretzels and hummus as a side dish. But my diet has a lot of variety. Sometimes I eat more Mexican foods, sometimes I eat more Mediterranean foods, and I do enjoy a good bloodwurst with sauerkraut.
I eat one meal a day, usually around 3-4pm. I drink coffee with a splash of milk or creamer for breakfast. If I have a dessert, it’s a couple Oreos or a few spoonfuls of ice cream.
I’d say most Americans eat a wide variety of food, supermarkets make it really easy to get food specific to certain regions. There’s also a lot of smaller stores, usually owned by immigrants, that specialize in importing food from their country.
I’m pretty disciplined to stay healthy.
Basic white, Midwest.
Breakfast: oatmeal or rolled oats with fruit
Lunch: soup with crackers, carrot or celery sticks
Dinner: protein (baked or grilled chicken), veggies (cauliflower or asparagus my favs), sometimes 1% cottage cheese.
Snack: veggie sticks, yogurt, dill pickle spear, Skinny pop bag (get a box of the bags at Costco)
Don’t drink soda, but have : cups of coffee in the morning. Water the rest of the time. Sometimes a cup of hot tea.
Cappuccino in the morning, run for an hour, have some protein later in the afternoon (it’s usually eggs but also chicken sometimes). Sometimes snack on crisps or Bamba and a Siggi’s yogurt.
Evening meal can vary. Sometimes it’s fish and veggies, sometimes it’s pizza from the local pizzeria. I’m of Slavic descent and have a fondness for sausages, which we can get from a local Polish deli. I don’t eat them often because of how unhealthy they are, it’s more like an occasional treat. They remind me of what my grandparents used to make.
I eat a plant based diet for health reasons. Breakfast is usually baked oatmeal or homemade musili, lunch leftovers from dinner or maybe humus and wheat thins or sliced berries, dinner…very international like curry, Japanese Odon, or a meat substitute in a casserole.
I had to get really mindful of what I eat several years ago when I had high cholesterol. I was able to lower it 100 points in 6 months by cutting meat and nearly all dairy. I’m not vegan but vegetarian and plant based so very little processed food and limited sugar. I don’t eat like how most people do in the US.
I’m a white female American. I live in the Czech Republic now, but I cook most of the same stuff here as I did in the US. Perhaps less Czech cuisine, since it’s everywhere and cheap here. Most all meals will have lots of veggies and some starchy side (bread, rice, potato, pasta, lentils)
Some usuals in my repertoire are:
I used to make more steak/beef and pork meals, but they’re main options in Czech restaurants.
I like to bake. Some Czech stuff, but mostly American classic goodies.
heavily active so breakfast is usually plain white rice, 3 eggs, a protein and kimchi. Lunch protein shake apples n peanut butter dinner is starch protein and veggies. bout 3000 cals
Basic white, midwest, mostly vegetarian but include occasional fish.
Breakfast: coffee, either steel cut oats with fruit and nuts OR Greek yogurt with Muesli, fruit.
Lunch: either a salad, or brown rice, veggies, and tofu bowl, or veggies and cottage cheese and fruit , or leftovers- whatever I have and need to use.
Dinner: things like tacos, curries, stir fries, occasionally pastas. Try to be veggie and plant heavy with my choices.
As a Brit reading these replies, most of you appear to have balanced diets, which bodes the question, why are so many of you obese?
White guy in Wisconsin.
Breakfast is usually coffee, fruit, and a Pop-Tart.
Lunch is usually leftovers from last night’s dinner, or a sandwich.
Dinner is usually one of the following: spaghetti bolognese, chicken tikka masala, homemade tacos (either chicken or fish), baharat-spiced couscous, shakshuka and grilled cheese sandwiches, tortellini, sun dried tomato pasta in creamy sauce, three-sisters bowl with wild rice and bison roast, oxtail chili, or whatever else sounds good and I feel confident making.
Almost none of my dinner foods are things I grew up eating. They’re more for me to put forth some care and love into what I’m making, showing appreciation for everything that I’ve been exposed to. So that only happens like two or three times a week.
Went full keto March 1st. Lots of meat, cheese, and nuts.
White American.
My diet is super varied but weekday breakfast is usually coffee and then granola and greek yogurt or peanut butter and a banana.
Everything else is highly variable. Could be quesadillas, ramen, a stir fry, a tagine dish, a salad, rice and beans, a steak, chicken pot pie, who knows!
There is a fair amount of variety in what I eat, but if I were to find some of the very most common things for me to eat:
Breakfast: hot coffee drink in cold weather, iced tea or juice in hot weather. Breakfast sandwich with bacon, egg and cheese or instant oatmeal with brown sugar, butter, and cream/milk. Peanut Butter perfect bar.
Lunch: bean and cheese burrito or chorizo enchiladas from nearby Mexican joints. BBQ pork bao. Kalua Pork from nearby Hawaiian place. Tuna salad sandwich w/ chips.
Dinner: Bowl of refried beans and cheese with salsa, sour cream & tortilla chips. Impossible nuggets w/ dips. Pepperoni Pizza. Indian curry (many varieties). Vietnamese green curry. Fish sticks & dip. Asparagus.
Today’s breakfast was French toast and bacon.
Lunch was Italian sausage, perogies and cucumber.
Chili is in the crockpot for dinner.
More cooking than an average day, but it’s Sunday and I have time for it. 😃
Breakfast is typically coffee and a bowl of cereal with milk or toast with butter and jam.
Lunch is often leftovers from the previous night or a sandwich with a glass of milk..
Dinner is the often the most elaborate meal. Typically some sort of protein (fish, pork, beef, poultry or wild game) with a side of rice or potatoes and a vegetable such as carrots, beans, broccoli, etc. and a glass of milk. Sometimes it’s a hot dish or stew and occasionally it’s fast food or dining out, but those are rare nights.
Breakfast – coffee
Lunch – coffee or a light meal (salad, sandwich, and/or fruit)
Dinner – all kinds of stuff. Often protein + rice / tortilla / bread + big helping of vegetables and/or fruit.
White in Northern California, eat tons of salad. Morning I do poached eggs on some toast with leftover salad on top. Lunch I typically do salad with a protein. Dinner I do salad with a protein.
I like to eat deli sandwiches too, will usually get one or two a week for lunch.
Water first thing in the morning then coffee. I drink a protein shake on my way to work. Lunch (2pm) is usually my largest meal of the day. I typically bring leftovers from home. Lots of protein and veggies. Dinner is usually something small followed by a cup of yogurt&fruit to satisfy my sweet tooth.
I don’t have an average daily diet other than during the week I generally eat a banana for breakfast. My lunches are usually leftovers during the week or eating out. Dinner I do new recipes every week. I aim for 2 vegetarian (salad, chickpea, quinoa, etc.), 1 lean protein (often chicken thighs) with veggies or rice, 1 seafood (usually fish but sometimes other kinds) with veggies, and 1 other (beef, lamb, etc. – whatever I fancy that week). There’s usually at least one day a weekend we just eat out or eat something easy like pizza. I do a lot of Mediterranean recipes. Live in the midwest. White.
I am a random white middle-aged American guy. Yesterday I had: coffee, a spoonful of peanut butter, Raisin Bran with whole milk, pork mei fun, and a bowl of mixed berries with whipped cream. The day before that I ate the same thing with some cheesy bread and kale & sausage soup instead of the mei fun.
Coffee when I get up. For breakfast, and egg or piece of cheese, maybe a bowl of cereal in the weekend. Lunch something like a sandwich. Dinner a salad and pasta or potato pie burrito or taco etc.
Typical white middle aged American in the Midwest. Work from home at least half the days, probably a little more but it varies week to week.
I don’t eat breakfast… only thing I consume between wake up (6:30-7) and lunch is water and a Zero Cal Monster (I can’t stand the taste of coffee). This is a part of my intermittent fasting routine where I try and only consume calories for ~8 hours per day.
Usually my first meal of the day is lunch, around 1pm. My most common meals are either a sandwich and fries/chips, a rice bowl with chicken, a salad with chicken or a smoothie with something else – my doctor has been harping on me to get more fruits and vegetables, so I’m trying. Maybe once or twice a month when I’m feeling lazy or hungry I’ll do a burger and fries, but trying to avoid that.
I very rarely eat anything between lunch and dinner, unless it’s small lunch and we’re eating dinner late.
Dinner is going to be a fuller meal, anywhere between 7pm and 9pm. During the week, it’s pretty consistent – one meal will be Italian (spaghetti, veal parm, etc.), one Mexican (tacos or enchiladas), one meat and starch/vegetable, and then one is usually make whatever you want because kid schedules mean we don’t have time for a normal meal.
Fridays are almost always pizza, Saturday is carryout or dining out, and Sunday we try and make a nice dinner just my wife and I.
I’m very mixed (black, white, indigenous etc) and grew up in the Northeast without any cultural foods really.
Breakfast is typically eggs, hashbrowns and a bagel. I’ll do a sandwich or a high calorie smoothie for lunch along with some snacks. Dinner is a toss up, but it’s typically something easy, like chicken and rice or pasta along with some broccoli.
I don’t go out to eat unless it’s with other people, which I would say is around once a month on average.
Work from home- both white mixed (Mexican and middle eastern)
Breakfast is whatever I can do to put calories in my body paid with coffee or tea.
Lunch- I make and freeze a lot of soups and pastas. Sometimes salad. We also like to make fried rice with different things in bulk for lunches. Sometimes I’ll pick up some trash but usually it’s just stuff I can cook quickly.
Dinner is all over the map. We cool Chinese, Japanese, North African, Italian, American food, whatever strikes our fancy. Dinner is the “exciting” meal of the day. Usually a salad after and some fruit for after. My husband is an excellent cook and we try to always find creative things and then have our staples. Usually drink bubble water at dinner and tea after.
Today was breakfast of waffles sausage and coffee. Lunch was pasta with vodka sauce, dinner we are going to a friends and having Thai food for a white lotus themed dinner
I’m mom – I cook at least once, usually twice a day to some degree. Almost always dinner, which varies hugely, from stir fries, curries, and pasta dishes, to tacos, pizza, soups, chili,… all sorts of things. I’m making wedding soup right now and we’ll likely eat that for a couple of days. We all eat a lot of leftovers for lunch, mostly, or sandwiches. Breakfast rotates between eggs (with potatoes & bacon on the weekends, or just toast through the week), pancakes, sausage gravy & biscuits, and occasionally french toast or waffles.
Within the last couple weeks we’ve had lentils & potatoes w/ curry, mongolian lamb curry, tacos, venison tacos, chicken teriyaki, venison stir fry, burgers, spaghetti & meatballs, pizza, chicken parmesan, pesto & sausage penne…
I am a white Midwesterner.
I eat a wide variety of foods actually.
Standard American food. Casseroles, soups, burgers, hot dogs.
I absolutely love Mexican food and eat it regularly.
Italian is also a favorite.
Chinese is good.
My heritage would be German so I also eat a lot of German or Polish food.
I’m married to a South African so, I also eat South African food. She likes Indian food and turned me on to that.
I eat leftovers or sandwiches for lunch.
I’ll make a big breakfast on my days off. Eggs, hash browns and bacon or sausage.
Biscuits and gravy.
Corned beef hash and toast.
Beans on toast.
Cereal or a bagel.
On work days I have a protein shake and a granola bar for breakfast.
30F born/raised, and currently in the upper Midwest. I keep pescatarian.
Breakfast is almost always black coffee. Lately I’ve tried to bring a protein bar or shake with me to work. Occasionally I’ll do something different on the weekends. Yesterday it was “brunch” of lemony garlic greek yogurt with boiled baby red potatoes, green peas, and lots of mint.
Lunch is hit or miss during the week. Sometimes a green salad with salmon/smoked fish. Sometimes snack/finger foods like cheese, crackers, fresh fruit. Sometimes just more coffee.
Dinner I try to make at home. I like a lot of variety in my food, and there aren’t too many interesting options for me as far as restaurants/grab and go nearby. This means if I want to satisfy my tastes, I’m cooking. I eat a lot of beans/rice, chickpea curries, pasta, soups, roasted vegetables of all kinds, Korean, Thai, Indian, and Mediterranean. I love a grain/carb + veg, and then just try to get some protein.
I am a salty-snacker and enjoy a beer or glass(s) of wine.
Mid 20s, white and Asian
Breakfast – pancake or yogurt + strawberries and coffee
Lunch – leftovers
Snacks – protein bars and trail mix
Dinner – usually an entree, varies by day. salmon poke, chicken and orzo salad, and a pot roast are in the fridge right now.
44 yr old mom of two and care taker to live in people with developmental disabilities. (House of 9 people)
Breakfast is usually only coffee but husband brought me a breakfast sando which was a croissant with bacon and egg and a slice of cheddar. We often have oatmeal, cereal and milk or traditional eggs and sausage w/ toast or (sometimes fresh usually frozen) pancakes/waffles
Lunch I often eat a smart ones frozen meal or a sando which usually consists of white bread mayo, onion, lunch meat. Quite often I will dole out left overs.
Dinner is often a wide range of foods but extremely popular or common in my home is pasta bolognese/Alfredo or pizza, we love chicken (fried, or my personal fav “and dumplings”), chicken Ceaser salad is exceptionally popular in my home, when lazy one pot meals are uber common, I’m addicted to pressure cooking, we will sometimes do cassarole type things like tuna noodle casserole or single tray enchiladas, as Californians We love Mexican food and often eat tacos at least once a week with carnitas, birria or carne asada, I’m addicted to bean and cheese burritos. Asian 1x a week is very common. Being in California we have everything super accessible so Indian, Greek, sushi (Japanese), Chinese, Mexican and everything else under the sun is extremely common here.
I rarely if ever snack but if it is then it’s going to be some potato chips or tortilla chips. Or frankly whatever I’m craving which is never healthy.
Tend to have
Eggs or PB bagel for breakfast
Leftovers for lunch
And a meat + veg for dinner
Maybe some ice cream for desert
Average workday:
Breakfast – Egg on toast, black tea with milk
Lunch – Lentil soup, bread, seasonal fruit (apple/orange/berries)
Snack – Yogurt
Dinner – any classic protein/starch/vegetable combo, or a pasta dish.
Desert (sometimes) – Ice cream
9:30pm Snack – corn chips and salsa or other crunchy chips/snack
College student so either a sandwich or something from the food court(burger, chick-fil-a, pandas express, maybe Einsteins in the morning)
Mornings usually are whatever kids don’t finish, toast, fruit, bagel, sometimes eggs or a waffle.
Lunch is leftovers
Dinner varies, youngest only eats rolls, mac and cheese and guacamole right now and then we have a meat and potatoes type of kid and a vegetarian kid, so we just try to have at least one thing for everyone and the goal is for people to not starve. Been lucky so far…
Gym bro –
Breakfast: coffee and an uncrustable
Lunch: tilapia and rice
Dinner: ground beef and rice (sometimes mushrooms or broccoli as well)
For breakfast this morning I had eggs, turkey bacon, pancakes and hash browns and mango juice. Although I only do that on Sundays. Typically I have cereal or a yogurt and granola
Morning: 2 cups of coffee with cream and sugar.
Lunch: big ol veggie sandwich on cheesy bread with oil, salt, and pepper. Coke.
Dinner: Tex mex tacos with beef, cheese, pico, lettuce, hot sauce. Iced tea. Spoon of Nutella as dessert.
White
My usual foods unfortunately involve a lot of processed foods, but I have a fondness for Mexican, Thai, Indian, and Peruvian dishes.
I’m a white guy born and raised in the South.
My breakfast usually includes fruit, often a banana. Also, a breakfast meat, typically bacon. I pretty much always have an egg dish too, often french toast or hole in one. French toast is bread soaked in beaten egg, then cooked in a pan. A hole in one is when you cut a circular hole in a piece of bread and then crack an unbeaten egg into the hole, frying it in a pan. Sometimes, I’ll do pancakes or waffles instead. I drink either orange juice or milk.
Lunch is usually something simple and quick, like a sandwich or reheating something.
Dinners vary, but almost always include a hot homemade meal. I don’t like pre-made meals and prefer to make my own with individual ingredients. A personal favorite of mine is fajitas. I also will make spaghetti sometimes. I’ll make homemade soups like chicken noodle. I also cook roast meat in a slow cooker called a crockpot. Sometimes, I’ll do something easier, like burgers or hotdogs.
I drink black Cafe Bustelo for breakfast (lots of it). Usually eggs/bacon/corn tortillas for lunch. Meat/veg for dinner. Maybe a mid afternoon snack of dark chocolate or a Cara Cara navel. I try and keep overall carbs below 75 a day.
Just coffee for breakfast, plus a 40oz water with Bloom supplement mixed in. Sandwich for lunch. On weekends we have brunch instead. For dinner it varies widely. Either we go out or cook something at home that might include chicken, meatloaf, pizza, soup, salad, tacos, lasagna, pasta with meatballs, etc. Snacks are usually cheese, pickles, fruit, nuts, popcorn. Plus we always have tortilla chips and salsa laying around. We aren’t big on sweet stuff but occasionally have Girl Scout cookies available.
I’m a white American in my 40s. Born and raised in various states in the Mountain West, which is not where either of my parents are from.
As a kid, breakfast was usually cheerios with milk, or a chocolate pop tart when I was in high school. I hated sandwiches, so I’d always bring a thermos of dinner leftovers for lunch. My mother is a super-taster and has a lot of sensory problems with various food textures, so we ate a lot of meat and potato dinners — which, to be fair, were heritage foods for my parents of Norwegian and German ancestry. One example is pittypanne (a hash of carrot, onion, potato, and ground beef).
We also had popular American classics like chicken and dumplings, basic spaghetti with meat sauce and diy pizza with pre-made crust. My mom was a fan of anything where toppings could be customized by each eater: white people tacos; loaded baked potatoes; and something my mom called “chef salad,” which was just a large tray of cut up deli meats and cheeses, iceberg lettuce, and tomatoes.
We also ate a lot of rice dishes. My mom is white but she grew up in Japan, so some of the most interesting food of my childhood was Japanese comfort food (oyakodonburi, tonkatsu) and some Chinese dishes her mom learned from Chinese neighbors who were also living in Japan (fried rice, sweet and sour pork).
As an adult, I discovered FLAVOR. And also vegetables. I became quite a decent home cook, and I love exploring world cuisines. I do still eat my heritage foods, but I’ve spent a lot of time learning how to cook foods I never encountered as a kid. We eat meat, but not every day like I did as a kid (it’s a relief, really. Meat can be yummy, but it was never my favorite part of the meal). These days, my daily breakfast is eggs, made any way that interests me. The world is full of delicious egg dishes that are simple to make at home. Lunch could be anything. I do eat sandwiches now, but my spouse can’t digest gluten and gluten free bread is expensive. And dinner is whatever I feel like making. We eat a lot of Mexican dishes and Indian dishes at home. I’ve done deep dives into the culinary traditions of both areas, so I now have quite the repertoire. But I love learning new techniques, styles, and cuisines. And now and then I’ll make pork chops and baked potatoes with a side of steamed broccoli, just for old times sake.
White, 46M in Chicago.
Breakfast is usually coffee and either Greek yogurt, a piece of fruit, bowl of cereal, or if I’m very hungry I’ll make two eggs with vegetables and a slice of toast.
Lunch is a sandwich or salad usually.
Dinner is some protein and vegetables.
White American aged 63.
Breakfast at home:
Either Belvita Breakfast Cookies or Yogurt with home mixed cereal, coffee.
Lunch at home:
Either soup and crackers, or a sandwich. Bread is my own whole wheat, filling varies. tea-hot.
Dinner at home: (I like to cook.)
Tonight is Butter Chicken in the crockpot, broccoli, rice. More hot tea.
I meal plan for my husband and me. Here’s this weeks menu
Breakfast: black coffee. Yogurt with fresh blueberries and homemade granola.
Lunch (husband) Ethiopian chicken & lentil stew; (me) salad with lemon chicken & veggies and a roasted sweet potato.
Dinner: protein, vegetables + a carb. Ham, zucchini, green beans & a slice of bread. Dessert is mixed berries or a tangerine.
Most of my meals are protein & vegetable heavy with a carb on the side. I’m not a snacker. Mostly I drink sparkling water, tea or coffee. Juice a few times a week.
Breakfast: Coffee and a banana
Lunch: Pasta salad, bowl of soup, tuna and crackers, etc…something small, as I work from home and can’t afford to eat a lot or I’ll weigh a ton.
Dinner: Standard protein, vegetable, starch meal most nights
Indian American. Grew up in the Midwest but now live on the East coast.
Breakfast: Coffee and a lexapro. Sometimes my husband makes me an egg & cheese sandwich.
Lunch: either leftovers from dinner or something quick that I can whip up in 15 minutes. A lot of the time that ends up being pasta or rice with a fried egg on top.
Afternoon snack: chai & biscuits for dipping.
Dinner: Usually some sort of rice + meat/legume + vegetables. I make Indian food maybe twice a week, usually dal or chicken curry. I also love to cook Chinese food so lots of stir fries at our house. And of course lots of pasta.
White American living in the NY/NJ/PA area. Breakfast is eggs with either sausage, bacon, or *pork roll*. Lunch can be literally anything. Leftovers, some of the best sandwiches or food in general in the US spanning a wide swath of global ethnicities. Dinner is usually homemade. I like to cook. There is no standard. I cook all different types of styles that include meat, veggies, seafood, etc. I borrow recipes from all different cultures to make dinner as different as I can to break up the monotony. I don’t do much fruit which is probably the biggest lack in my own diet.
Hispanic/Indigenous American
I work from home so Breakfast is a big vs other folks on the go
Usually fried eggs some sort of chile (chopped green or red chile caribe sauce) hashbrowns and bacon or chorizo and coffee
Lunch is a sandwich or salad something light
Dinner varies between traditional new Mexican foods (stacked enchiladas, Frito pie, calabcitas, spanish rice, tacos, Navajo tacos etc) we also do regular “American” stuff like hamburgers (with green chile), pizza, pasta/spaghetti etc
I fast, only having one coffee in the morning. I have a healthy meal for dinner and maybe some fruit for a snack at night.
A female white lady here.
I work at a bagel shop. The carbs I eat when I’m there is pretty bad 😂
36F brazilian
Breakfast is usually only black coffee but occasionally I’ll drink a smoothy
Lunch, a turkey sandwich, cheese, yogurt, fruits, lots of fruits, basically anything I don’t have to actually make.
Dinner: white rice and beans, tomato’s and steak/chicken/fish. Typical Brazilian food.
I’m vegan so I eat a very large variety of foods. Typically, I eat something with beans nearly daily. I’m a white woman in the south.
Breakfast – oatmeal with out added sugar and berries
Lunch – salad or left overs
Dinner – usually protein and veggies. Sometimes pasta or tacos or like lo mien.
And there’s usually lots of coffee, diet Coke, herbal teas and water in there. I’m a fat ass so maybe a cookie or donut sneaks it’s way in
Well, it’s 4 pm and I’m about to have a yogurt. No idea what I’ll have later. Maybe another yogurt. Lol
I usually eat maybe an egg sandwich in the morning and a late lunch or early dinner of a burger and a veggie or salad. Maybe a chicken parm. Maybe Indian. Depends on the mood. And I may or may not follow that with something sweet.
New England Italian American, retired guy. I do most of our cooking as my wife still works.
Breakfast: cold weather- oatmeal with some honey, nuts & dried cranberry or raisins, Bob’s red mill buckwheat hot cereal (highly recommend you try it- especially if you’re gluten free) warmer weather- Greek yogurt with frozen fruit and granola.
Lunch- very light- trail mix and / or cheddar cheese slices, protein bar
Dinner: salad with a protein, red meat once a week or so, salmon or chicken breast sautéed, tacos,
Sunday family meal- a pasta meal with a salad or veggies.
Yesterday I had:
A normal day would be pretty similar to that. Lots of veggies, tofu & seafood and usually rice, rice noodles or potatoes with at least one meal. I don’t love eating with so many restrictions but it’s due to medical reasons. I miss the days of being able to eat whatever I wanted without being violently ill or making my chronic illnesses worse.
(Also, I’m 1/2 American- raised mostly in NC but my mother is British and I’ve been between the two countries all of my life)
A protein, a carb, and a fruit for breakfast. A light lunch with a vegetable and a carb. Dinner with 2 vegetables, a starch, and a protein.
Two nights ago I made dinner for my wife and me. Cheese/potato perogi, sauerkraut, dill pickles, and baked beans from a can.
Oatmeal with mixed berries most mornings for breakfast. Dinner leftovers or a quick sandwich, soup or salad for lunch. A starch/ protein/ vegetable for supper. Tonight I’m making “Marry Me Butter beans” which is a bean, spinach, sun dried tomatos concoction in a sauce, over rice.
I’ve got some rice cooking right now. When it’s done I’m going to throw in some black beans and a can of chicken. Then a little hot sauce. And I’ve been drinking beer all day. Had a grouper sandwich and conch fritters at a restaurant for lunch.
40F
Breakfast is usually like granola and yogurt, a Lara bar and maybe a slice of cheese (typically Gouda or sharp cheddar), occasionally I’ll have a croissant or bagel.
Lunch is typically a soup/salad, tacos, sandwich/wrap of some kind.
Dinners are the largest meal of the day. We do a lot of sheet pan meals because we have kids who are in activities so we don’t always have a lot of time at night. Typically it’s a protein like chicken or sausage with roast veggies, generally cauliflower, broccoli, zucchini, or asparagus and a starch such as rice, potatoes or Mac and cheese. I usually serve a fruit on the side too. On less busy days the meals are typically more involved and varied.
White woman from the south. I’m vegetarian.
Breakfast – lately it’s a bagel or peanut butter oatmeal. Always coffee with half and half.
Lunch – usually something with black beans (burrito, taco, or quesadilla) or a sandwich and chips. In the summer, I like to just make big smoothies because it gets so hot.
Dinner – we eat a lot of pasta. I make my sauces from scratch and roast some veggies to go with it. Stir fry, tacos (I make quinoa “meat”), and sandwiches (black bean burgers or eggplant) with homemade fries and are also in the regular rotation.
Snacks – raw veggies, popcorn, almonds, protein bars, fruit, chips and salsa, etc.
We eat out and/or order pizza once a week or so. I usually buy breakfast out once a week (I wfh and work from coffee shops sometimes.) Other than that, we cook at home. Eating out just isn’t worth it anymore and my husband and I are both pretty good cooks.
Korean American living in Chicago and commuting to an office.
Breakfast: Usually a cup of instant or k-cup coffee, 1 pack of Greek yogurt or a Cliff bar
Lunch: What’s available in the office cafeteria, fast food near me, or leftovers from dinner yesterday. Most often will be a chicken caesar salad, a “Mexican” bowl (rice, chicken, lettuce, corn, beans, sour cream, pico), or Italian sub.
Dinner: A “one pot” dish like chili or soup, chicken breast with rice and sautéed veggies, pasta like pesto, vodka sauce, or bolognese, buffalo chicken salad, or honestly just some combo of meat/veggies/rice.
Most frequently get chains like Sweetgreen, Panda Express, Jimmy John’s, and Potbelly.
If I’m pressed for time or feeling lazy just microwave something from the Trader Joe’s frozen section like their Indian food or Asian food.
After dinner I’ll have some kind of salty snack like a handful of cashews or almonds.
Other than bacon and eggs for breakfast and burgers or steak and potatoes for dinner we mostly eat:
Americanized Italian food, Americanized Mexican food, and Americanized Chinese food
Picky eater here. I can’t do spicy or red meat or fish or tomatoes. I eat out a lot and make most of these at home too. I live in Denver and my neighborhood has a ton of Mexican and Vietnamese influence.
Ramen, chicken, potatoes, turkey sandwiches, bbq pizza, pad Thai, American Chinese chicken + rice, chicken tenders and fries, pho, pasta, tacos, quesadillas, soups.
White American. Live in the south now but I grew up on the west coast. My weekday and weekend food habits are different from each other, so I’ll just give during the week.
Breakfast: usually cold cereal (plain Cheerios, Heritage Flakes) with fruit and oat milk, plus either a soft boiled egg or a piece of chicken sausage. Occasionally I swap out hot cereal for cold. I like savory hot cereal. I take either plain oatmeal or plain cream of wheat and add miso paste, garlic chili crunch, mashed avocado, and some sort of flavored nuts like wasabi almonds.
Lunch: salad made from equal parts chicken or fish, a green veggie (asparagus, chopped broccoli, green beans, etc.), and rice or multigrain blend, + salad dressing.
Post workout (if strength training) meal: salmon or tuna — the kind that come flavored in little pouches, like teriyaki tuna or shakshuka salmon — mixed with cottage cheese and mashed avocado.
Dinner: varies, but often a green veggie such as pan fried spinach, either fingerling potatoes or chopped sweet potatoes roasted in my air fryer, and some sort of “main” that is usually something from Trader Joe’s freezer aisle, like a few pieces of their kimbap or a couple of mini samosas.
Dessert: ice cream
Snacks: fresh and dried fruit, sliced cheese, turkey or beef jerkey, freeze dried apple chips.
ETA: I’m on Wegovy so my portions of most of this stuff tend to be smaller than most people think is “normal.” It works for me though.
Breakfast could be a number of things. Toast and an egg, ramen, or leftovers are all typical. Lunch is usually something quick- leftovers usually. Dinner could be some kind of protein and a vegetable. Grew up in a multicultural setting, so dinner could be Chinese, Thai, Japanese, Mexican or generic American.
American of English, Scottish and Irish descent. Born and raised in California.
Typically breakfast is an egg sandwich or shredded wheat with raisins.
Lunch is leftovers, a healthy choice steamer, cheese and crackers, or a sandwich.
Snacks are usually fruit, nuts, or popcorn
Dinner is varied. Sometimes a large salad with a protein like chicken or ham. Grilled chicken thighs with rice and salad. Steak. Pork chops. Potatoes. Could be French, English, Irish, Chinese or Italian or Mexican. I rarely cook Indian food. Sometimes German. Never Scandinavian.
White Midwesterner
Breakfast if I have it (sometimes get up late and skip to lunch) varies from an omelet with spinach, mushrooms and bacon, to cereal with berries and milk, to a bagel with cream cheese, or maybe oatmeal, pancakes, avocado toast or yogurt.
Lunch usually some combination of soup, sandwich, and/or salad, or sometimes a burger and fries.
Dinner usually once a week pasta such as spaghetti or alfredo, once a week a beef dish such as tacos or a roast, a pork dish such as BBQ pulled pork sandwiches or pork chops, a chicken dish such as salad with chicken or grilled chicken legs, and usually a fish/shrimp dish such as grilled salmon or fried shrimp (from frozen baked in the oven), and maybe a soup, stew or chili. Most dinners served with a vegetable such as steamed broccoli or green beans, and/or a salad, plus a fruit such as grapes, applesauce, mandarin oranges, watermelon, berries. And if it doesn’t already have a carb/starch in the dish we might have a side of rice, potatoes, rolls, sweet potatoes, cornbread, etc.
Breakfast: Fruit (either fresh fruit or a smoothy), Something carby (toast, bread, oatmeal in winter), Peanut butter or Yogurt, Coffee. In a blue moon eggs, bacon and toast or pancakes.
Lunch: Leftovers from dinner (usually some kind of soup).
Snack: Cheese, crackers, nuts, fruit (not all but some combination of these)
Dinner: Varies….soups, pasta, meat or fish dishes, rice and beans, cooked vegetable dish…sometimes frozen dumplings. Some kind of dessert: (homemade baked good, store-bought cookies, ice cream)
I’ll eat out twice a week or so…usually breakfast or dinner. Often the leftovers will work their way into the lunch rotation
I’m white, from San Francisco. I’m a vegetarian, and I usually work from home. I garden a lot in the summer. Whatever is in season and what vegetables i have guide my cooking.
i have a fried egg on toast with a cup of tea for breakfast most every day.
Lunch is usually leftovers from the previous night. If it’s not leftovers, i might make a veggie burger or a sandwich. When my tomatoes are going i make a veggie BLT pretty often.
Dinner is varied. I like cooking and trying new things. But various pasta dishes with whatever vegetables I have are common, or i make soup (matzo ball, lentil, minestrone). I make stir fry with tofu pretty often. I also really love Indian food and try my best at it. i make homemade pizza pretty regularly.
Last night I made frozen perogies, with a salad on the side. Night before was stir fry. I’m not sure what dinner is tonight but I have some gnocchi I’d like to do something with.
I try to limit eating out to once a week. We had burritos last Wednesday.
Breakfast is usually 3 poached eggs, a slice of sourdough, and two cups of black, iced coffee.
Lunch I like to do a kale salad with apple slices, pecans, sweet potato, and goat cheese
Sometimes I’ll make the same salad again for dinner or I might have chicken breast with a veggie and fingerling potatoes.
I drink a lot of sparkling water
If I’m going out to eat, I usually select a grilled seafood entree.
I probably consume about a bottle of wine a week
My autistic ass likes the same things, so i don’t get much variety. Trying to branch out more as of late, and I am glad I did! Like I love burgers, but it would always be the same thing, basic burger with ketchup mustard and onion. I recently tried a Cajun burger with blue cheese, that had ketchup, mustard, lettuce, pickle, onion. Best damn burger I have had!
Currently on a diet to lose weight
– Breakfast – Chicken biscuit + sugar free monster (I’m aware neither is good for me, but it gets me through the day)
– Skip lunch
– Early dinner – Brown rice, chicken, and stir fired vegies
If I’m still hungry later (rare that this happens, sort of the point of the diet) cottage cheese or grapefruit
When I’m not actively trying to lose weight, my diet is pretty similar but I’m less conscious of carb intense foods.
White, born and raised in Richmond, VA.
Breakfast: Either nothing, grits with cheese, or oatmeal with dried cranberries and pecans. On the weekends I’ll make fresh biscuits and maybe some bacon gravy if I am feeling fancy. Always coffee, black and unsweetened.
Lunch: Either whatever leftovers are hanging out in the fridge or a sandwich (generally salami or turkey)
Snacks: Pickled eggs, raw vegetables, some sliced cheese, or chips/crackers (I have a thing for cheez-its) once in a while
Supper: Varies wildly. Could be pizza, soup, pot roast, curry, stir fry, fried rice, sandwiches, steaks, cheese burgers, grilled chicken, sushi, etc. We’re not too picky so basically anything we can reasonably make is fair game. Often comes with a fresh salad as a side, especially in the spring when the garden is going great.
Mulatto from southern Maryland. I eat yogurt for breakfast. I eat a lot of seafood and vegetables. Fish, crabs, scallops. I developed a gluten sensitivity so that cut out my usual favorites. I live in a rural area so there’s a lot of farm stands. Succotash, sautee zucchini, and roasted squash are typical. Tons of rice. For snacks I like pineapple, apples, and gummy candies as a treat.
Breakfast is kefir and cottage cheese with granola
Lunch is usually a protein and whatever side I feel like
Dinner varies. I usually eat less throughout the day and then eat whatever for dinner. It could be meatloaf and veggies or meatball sub. It depends on the day.
And if I feel like a snack at any point in the day, it’s usually cottage cheese or a small salad, or whatever I have around the house (varies in how healthy the snack is).
White, 30s F.
Breakfast is usually nothing.
Lunch is sometimes nothing but often a sandwich or a salad or just whatever else I find in the fridge. Sometimes I’ll go get a pastry and coffee and have that.
For dinner, I’m a very adventurous cook and it’s my favorite thing to do, so most of the time I make something at home. I usually plan a whole recipe to make around either a vegetable that’s in season or got in my CSA box, or something interesting I saw in the grocery store, or just something I’m craving. Could be any type of cuisine really.
Grew up in California and was raised by my stay at home dad (also a Cali native).
Lots of French dishes (think Julia Child) and Italian seafood dishes (my grandfather was stationed there, and he also was the main chef of the household where my dad grew up).
White 32 female
Breakfast-Fairlife Protein shake
Lunch-I have a four compartment thing I bring.
Chefs cut meat stick, carrots with ranch, grapes and blueberries, and nuts
Dinner-all kinds of stuff
Examples: a veggie protein and a starch,
pastas and meatballs, salad and protein, stir fry, tacos, ramen, bagel bites if we are lazy or something processed, Goulash, chili, grilled cheese, pierogis sometimes. This is all mostly frozen too.
Since my kids went away to college, my eating has become erratic.
I didn’t eat breakfast all week, but I had an avocado (yes, the whole thing. What?! It was going to go bad) and three eggs. I had half a pint of Hagen daas vanilla bean ice cream and for dinner it’s going to be chicken breast and spinach sauteed with garlic and red pepper flakes
Seriously though, I’m eating rather healthy over all since I didn’t buy snacks for the kids and I don’t like my hubby ‘s chips. A lot of yogurt and fruit during the day and a meat and veggie for dinner.
I’m on a poverty diet right now. Breakfast is coffee and breakfast bars (don’t know if you’re familiar with nutri-grain, but it’s like granola with fruit filling), lunch is a deli meat sandwich (bread, mayo or mustard, and meat), and dinner is either microwaved macaroni with a hot dog or chicken nuggets with dipping sauce. When I was really hard up I ate peanut butter sandwiches for lunch and dinner.
When I actually have disposable income it’s usually either egg, ham, and cheese sandwiches or overnight oats for breakfast. Sandwich is deli ham, buttered bread, and a hard boiled egg, and I usually switch up the type of cheese a lot. Overnight oats is oatmeal, nuts (usually almonds), milk, honey, and berries put in a jar and left in the fridge overnight.
Lunch is usually a salad and a sandwich. For a while I was experimenting a lot with salads. I usually stuck to a cheese, fruit, nuts combo on top of greens and played around with what cheese fruit and nuts I would use. Usually topped with a basic vinaigrette, sometimes I’d make a strawberry or orange vinaigrette. In a pinch I’d go with some combination of carrots, onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, and mushrooms if I didn’t have time to shop for fancy cheeses and nuts. Played around with the sandwiches too. Different sauces, like a garlic scallion aioli or a homemade hummus spread. Change up the meats a lot. Sometimes stack them with a lot of different veggies, sometimes just lettuce.
Dinner would usually only be a select few dishes. For a while I was a vegetarian and I ate black bean burgers 99% of the time. The other dish I made was penne, tomato, onion, garlic and red pepper flakes. After I started eating meat again fricassee over rice was probably my most common dish. Made a few others, goulash, cheese spatzle, salmon pan fried in garlic butter. I actually don’t eat a lot of food I grew up on. Fricassee and goulash are probably the two I ate commonly as a kid, and I got those recipes from the internet. We also ate a lot of steaks and pork chops and things like that growing up and I almost never make that now. My living situation isn’t exactly stable so I never really have a kitchen where I can keep things long term or have things like pans and knives all the time, so I tend not to buy full pieces of meat. Even ground meat I usually avoid. We had a lot of spaghetti and taco nights growing up too, and I never make those because I never buy ground beef.
Hello! While I am American, I’m also on a journey to lose weight, so my meals are usually lower in calories and vary depending on the day. I’ll give you an example of what I plan to eat next week so you can get a sense of what someone like me an African American living in the Southern U.S. might eat.
Monday:
Turkey burger with mashed potatoes (~600–800 calories)
Tuesday:
Chinese food probably Orange Chicken or General Tso’s (~900–1,100 calories )
Wednesday:
Lemon pepper chicken cooked in the air fryer and mashed potatoes ( ~900–1000 calories)
Thursday:
Playing it by ear depends on what I have around or how I feel
Friday:
Air-fried catfish. Not the healthiest fish, but it’s affordable and easy to cook Spinach salad (~700 calories)
Saturday:
Pasta made with miracle noodles and turkey meat sauce (~400–600 calories)
Sunday:
Probably fries and something else might be a bit of a cheat day (~800–1,000+ calories depending)
I use an air fryer for a lot of my cooking, which helps keep things tasty without too much oil. Hope that helps you understand a little more about how one American eats!
White American female, Northern part of Midwest, 50s.
Breakfast: Always peanut butter toast, with the kind of wheat bread with lots of seeds. Coffee with cream.
Lunch: Either leftovers from the night before, or a salad, or crackers and cheese/veggies and dip.
Dinner: I cook every night, typical American fare: pasta, tex-mex, burgers, casseroles, grilled chicken, roasts etc…
Snack: popcorn, veggies, cheese/crackers, cereal, ice cream, tortilla chips/salsa
Breakfast: almost always just black coffee. Sometimes brunch on a weekend.
Lunch: usually a veggie omelette; three duck eggs (we have ducks, so plenty of cheap eggs), and a cup of sautéed veg and some cheese.
Supper: salad with whatever my wife wants. Today it’s steak and creamed cauliflower.
White, from Mississippi, married to a West Coaster and living in Colorado.
Breakfast is usually eggs, oatmeal, or a protein shake, depending on how much time we have. Once a week we do a “family brunch” and have biscuits and gravy, chorizo and eggs, or something else bigger. Always coffee.
Lunch is usually sandwiches or leftovers.
Dinner is usually a protein, a vegetable, and a starch/carb, usually rice, potatoes, or cornbread. We eat all kinds of foods so I’m not sure how to describe that here, but it almost always includes those elements.
44M – PA
Breakfast is almost always eggs, sausage, and toast.
Lunch and dinner have a lot of variety but there are a lot of taco and Asian inspired bowls over rice. So a lot of tofu and veggies. Seitan and beans also make a strong presence.
I try not to eat meat, but do occasionally.
White middle aged man in Brooklyn NY
Today:
Breakfast : Coffee with milk before I go on a run, then when I’m back, toasted sourdough, Greek yogurt with sliced pear, honey and cinnamon and a bottle of sparkling water.
Lunch : Chicken soup with dandelion greens.
Dinner: Going out to eat tonight, but the place I’m going we always split a salad, anchovy pasta and chicken Milanese
30M, it changes depending on work and days off. Work days it’s just coffee and vitamins in the morning, sándwich and chips for lunch and then depending on how exhausted after work either cook chicken and rice or order something takeout.
On the weekends it’s eggs and toast in the morning, a combination of protein and carbs for lunch and then dinner is usually up in the air
Breakfast: either plain Greek yogurt with fruit and nuts/granola or oatmeal with peanut butter and fruit in it. Once in a while a bagel with fruit on the side or toast with fruit on the side. Coffee, black, that I make at home.
Lunch: could be a sandwich with cut up vegetables and hummus, a dense bean salad (beans, cucumbers, tomato, feta cheese, etc with no lettuce), some kind of cabbage-based salad, or soup. I usually have a pot of vegetable bean soup handy.
Dinner: always has a carb, protein, and vegetables. Tacos with a salad, lasagna with roasted vegetables, peanut noodles with steamed vegetables, pesto pasta with broccoli, etc.
Usually have a small dessert after dinner like ice cream or a couple cookies. Sometimes just have a fruit or a yogurt.
Snacks: 1-2 times a day I make a small snack plate with things like mixed nuts, cheese, crackers, dried fruit or fresh fruit, or cut up vegetables with hummus.
Sometimes before bed I have popcorn or one personal sized bag of chips.
ETA: Friday I have a Belgian waffle with Nutella and berries for breakfast.