It's just a fact -- I hate to cook and I'm lazy about it when I do. So when I started the journey to healthy eating, I was not sure how it was going to pan out for me. I am all about convenience food, and that usually means junk food in today's world. Thankfully, I stayed with it. And I learned a few things that made it easier for me. Maybe you can relate to some of them.
For the last five years, I've stuck with the healthy way of eating pretty darn well (with the occasional slip here and there) only because the results of it are undeniable. In terms of weight control, energy, health and mood elevation, I'd even be willing to work a little harder in the kitchen if I had to. But thankfully I don't. I've found some things that help me spend less time in the kitchen and more time outside doing the things I love.
Embrace Leftovers
This one may seem like a weird one to start with, but it'll save you hours! When I do cook, I make a lot. I mean, a LOT. It's just my husband and me at home now, but it looks like I'm cooking for an army. This afternoon I made a pasta salad that will last us probably a week. I also made fresh salsa that we can eat for days and a pot of broccoli soy curls that would feed a football team.
I don't have a standard "prep day" or anything like that because that's mentally overwhelming to me, but when I have the ingredients and the time, I cook up a storm for a couple of hours. That way I only dirty the kitchen once and we are set for many days to come.
Those "cooking" spurts include cutting up a giant bowl of watermelon and a big bag of veggies to eat with hummus. I'll even husk and cook a pot full of ears of corn and bake an oven full of potatoes and sweet potatoes. Then everything goes into the fridge to forage on later.
I never make a small pot of soup or chili, or a casserole for just two. I cook like I still have seven kids at home. And I'm never sorry.
If there are things I think might spoil before we eat them, I pop them in the freezer in individually-portioned serving containers for future use. Most things we eat freeze pretty well, which is good because one of the things I hate as much as cooking is wasting food I've worked hard to prepare! Those freezer meals come in handy when I haven't had the urge to cook for awhile, and save us from succumbing to the temptation to go for fast food.
Think Outside the Box
This leads me to the next thing, which is not limiting yourself to "norms" in eating. For instance, many people think breakfast has to consist of typical "breakfast foods". Of course, you're well aware that it doesn't, but we still get caught in the trap of putting on blinders and going with what we're used to.
I tell myself all the time to forget the traditions and the norms! I just need to get quality, good tasting (hopefully), wholesome food into my body, and I can do it any way I please!
Fixing breakfast in the morning would ruin my day. With the way I feel about the kitchen, the last place I want to spend my first hours is in that room. Breakfast for me often consists of leftovers or a handful of raw nuts and freeze dried fruit. Once I add my Ruvi drink and Crio Bru, I'm feeling ready to roll!
I remember once reading that Ghandi used to eat nuts and fruit for breakfast and I felt sorry for the guy -- until I tried it. It's actually just the ticket!
One of my favorite recipe books, "Lickety-Split Meals", by Zonya Foco has some great ideas for 1 minute mini-meals like "Quick 2-Bean Salad" and "Beans and Crackers" or "Beans and Popcorn". Although not all of her recipes are plant-based, which is my preferred way of eating, many of them are, and others are easily adaptable. She certainly advocates for whole foods, which is very helpful. As you can see, many of them are.....unique.
Along those lines, those potatoes and ears of corn I mentioned prepping earlier don't even have to be reheated. I will often grab a baked potato in the fridge and eat it cold (even while I'm driving) with some seasonings sprinkled on top. The ears of corn are also great cold, and don't even need the butter and salt that is often considered a necessary accessory to corn on the cob. Seriously, try it! It's on-the-go eating at its finest! Just don't forget the floss pics.
A favorite meal of both my husband and I consists of a few corn tortillas topped with black beans and Cholula sauce, microwaved for 30 seconds and rolled up. We even sprinkle the beans with freeze dried kale for extra green power. If you are feeling sorry for us, try it first! It's tasty and about as fast as you can get.
Have you tried edamame? Another favorite snack! Just microwave and eat. Simple as that. It's oddly satisfying popping the beans out of the pods. My grandkids love it!
You get the idea. No longer need we be shackled to the meat and potato dinnerplates of our youth. Use your imagination and impress yourself with your own creativity. It happens to me all the time.
Don't Sweat The Small Stuff
One of the pitfalls of adopting a new way of eating is that we can tend to get a little regimented or strict in the beginning, and then convince ourselves that we're failures if we don't follow the plan perfectly. Not only can that lead to quitting, but can discourage us from further attempts to make change in our lives.
Trust me, it's so much better to keep moving forward imperfectly -- even if you're imperfect forever -- than to give up completely.
People can go ahead and squawk about the fact that we claim to eat whole-food plant-based but still have the occasional animal product. When we're out with friends or family and we can find plant-based options that are good, we happily choose that. But if not, or if a family member prepares a meal with a lot of effort and love, we're going to eat it, regardless of whether it follows our way of eating.
Although we mostly avoid sugar and processed foods, if a grandchild makes cookies, we're going to indulge -- and gush about how delicious they are.
Although we prefer plant based salad dressings, etc., we sometimes use sauces that aren't strictly "compliant". And though we agree that oils are not the healthiest, we've discovered that we stick to our healthy eating goals much more enthusiastically if we're able to add a little olive and avocado oil to things from time to time.
The point is, we don't have to be perfect. We still feel huge benefits from trying. And it shows! We feel SO much better and younger than we used to. We just try not to get too hung up (or discouraged) by the little things. We'd rather celebrate the wins!
Find Healthy Convenience Foods
Interesting things are happening in the world around us. People are beginning to push back against fake (aka ultra-processed) foods and the way they are crippling us as a whole. The message is small and quiet, but gathering momentum.
Having said that, it would be challenging (for some of us) to go back to the old days of growing our own food and cooking from scratch -- at least all of the time.
We've learned a thing or two in the last 50 years or so, and whole food preservation methods are better than ever. Frozen and freeze dried foods are an excellent choice for eating clean because they are already prepped and have the same nutrient value as (often more than) fresh.
You too can add time to your day as you don't have to chop an onion or pepper (or any other vegetable) for soup, or can snack on sweet cherries or asparagus or peaches straight out of a can that has NO additives or preservatives -- or sweeteners or seasonings, for that matter. All of the fiber, all of the phytonutrients, all of the anti-oxidants.
Another plus with the freeze dried options is you have no waste! You'll eat every morsel you buy, vs. throwing some of it away because of spoilage. Berries, for instance. No mold! Ever! I have a particular aversion to throwing away food I've paid for.
Even better, you can drink several servings of fruits and vegetables (fiber included), with Ruvi, a drink comprised of nothing more than freeze dried fruits and vegetables powdered and mixed together. Each drink packet contains 40-60% vegetable, so you're not getting just the fruit (not that that would be bad, of course). But any shortcut to getting vegetables is delightful to me.
Don't shy away from some things canned traditionally. Beans, for instance. When you go with the no salt variety, you're getting a pretty decent quality whole food. We rely heavily on canned beans because we try to eat beans at least twice a day (try it, it's magic for your digestive system, weight control, and overall gut health). Canned salsa, spaghetti sauce, tomatoes, water chestnuts, corn, etc. are also items we use quite a bit.
It's getting easier to find really good whole grain pastas, pancake mixes, and other baking mixes. And you just can't beat a slice of thin-sliced 21-grain Dave's Killer Bread for avocado toast, or a peanut butter, veggie, or plain tomato sandwich . We even rely on instant brown rice because traditional brown rice takes forever to cook!
Have you ever felt sheepish buying the already chopped container of fresh fruit at your supermarket, or the occasional veggie tray? Stop it. There is nothing wrong at all with buying things already prepped. And those bags of prepared salad with all the toppings and dressing neatly included in the bag? Genius. No guilt. In fact, I celebrate the fact that we have less waste when we use those vs. me buying spinach and cabbage and cringing as they rot in the fridge because I don't have the time (or desire) to wash and chop and assemble them.
Soy curls are our favorite convenient, minimally processed meat alternative. We also love a good black bean burger (served up on Dave's Killer Bread). All fast and easy, and wholesomely good for you!
Instead of fries at a fast food place, we'll sometimes cook up a skillet of frozen hash-browns with peppers and onions already added in (sometimes called o'brien or homestyle) and spice them up with some of the delightful seasoning choices available these days. Or try the frozen riced cauliflower sauteed with freeze dried mushrooms as the basis for a yum yum bowl topped with kidney beans and bagged shredded cabbage or coleslaw mix. Add a favorite sauce (we like Yum Yum, Sweet Baby Rays Honey Mustard, or Chic Fil A sauce - see my above disclaimer about sauces), and you're good to go.
Conclusion
Some people will always love to cook and they'll continue to make the world a better place for everyone else. Meanwhile, for the rest of us, there's hope. The future is promising -- we've got options, people! And it will only get better.
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