People are cooking at home now more than they have in decades. This is a GREAT THING! As things start to open back up and people start going back to work, the time and convenience of being home for making meals may be slipping away.
Here is a list of grocery staples and how to use them to make quick and tasty meals even if you aren't at home all day with extra time.
One Pan Dishes
One of the easiest ways to make a quick meal is to saute it all up in a cast iron skillet or a nice pan. By getting fast cooking meat or pre-cooked meat, you save a ton of time. You can go the extra step and pre-chop veggie at the beginning of the week. Otherwise, the ones listed below are easy to chop and fast to cook. Just throw down some healthy fat (grass fed butter, coconut oil, or avocado oil), toss in the veggies, add the meat, and you've got a healthy meal in 15 minutes! I often like to top these meals with some avocado slices and raw sauerkraut to add some extra satiety and probiotics!
Quick cooking/pre-cooked meats
Grass fed ground beef
Organic chicken sausage
Teton Waters Ranch sausage
Quick cooking veggies
Cabbage
Zucchini
Mushrooms
Bell Peppers
Asparagus
Salad Supplies
Another great option on the fly is to throw together a salad. This is a great choice for bringing a lunch to work! It's important to have things pre-chopped and meat pre-cooked. Once that work is done, you're in business!
Protein
Organic chicken (can be baked, made real fast in the instant pot, etc)
Chicken salad (I love adding chicken salad to a greens mix with some extra veggies. Use this recipe)
Grass fed steak (I just discovered some fantastic grass fed, pre-cooked and sliced steak from Costco this past week. It made a phenomenal salad
Leftover meats from dinners (I love using carnitas or other seasoned meats for a themed salad
Hard boiled eggs
Egg salad (same concept as the chicken salad!)
Veggies
Lettuce, spinach, kale, arugula, or a mix of all!
Cucumbers
Celery
Bell peppers
Tomatoes
Cooked veggies leftover from a dinner
Healthy Carbs
Berries (strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, etc)
Pears
Apples
Grapes
Sweet potato
Butternut squash
Fat
Olive oil based dressing
(no canola oil!)
Avocado
Nuts (pecans, walnuts, almonds, etc)
Egg Ingredients
One of my MAIN go to meals is to saute some veggies, maybe add some grass fed beef sausage or bacon with it, and cook some eggs over easy. This is such a simple, versatile meal. You can add various seasonings - add some salsa on top for Mexican flare, do some coconut aminos for an Asian cuisine approach, or throw some Everything But the Bagel Seasoning from Trader Joe's for a more classic taste. I never get sick of it, and it only takes 15 minutes.
Pasture raised eggs
Fast cooking veggies from the list above
Leftover veggies from previous meal
Bacon
Any of the meats from the One Pan list
Avocado to top it off!
Smoothie Secrets
I don't know about you, but I grew up having cereal for breakfast and associating breakfast with sweets. I love starting my day with a low glycemic smoothie. All you need for a healthy smoothie are the components below. Choose one or two items from each list to create your delicious smoothie! To prepare it even faster, you can pre-chop the fruits and veggies and toss it all in a reusable ziploc bag to be dumped in the blender with some almond or coconut milk in the morning!
Low glycemic fruit
Strawberries
Blueberries
Raspberries
Blackberries
Protein
Fat
Avocado
Coconut cream
Nut butter
MCT oil
Fiber
Greens (spinach, kale, veggie tops, etc)
Chia seeds
Flax seed
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