Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Healthy Food on a Time Crunch

Today's post is how to enjoy a healthy diet when you only have a few minutes of free time a day. Having three jobs is cramping my cooking style a little bit lately, but I've found ways to have healthy food when time is tight. The key is preparation. Making things in advance that you can freeze is really helpful.

My latest little experiment was concerning juice. I love juicing, but I don't love waking up an hour early to prep the fruits and veggies, make the juice, clean the juicer, and put everything away. So I thought, why can't I just make this in advance? So that's what I did, but fresh juice only stays fresh for a couple of hours, so I couldn't just leave it in the fridge. What I did was, I made all the juice at once and froze it in ice cube trays overnight. Then I transferred them into zip top freezer bags. I know that each juice cube is one ounce so when I want a glass of juice, I just take out eight cubes from my little baggies and defrost them over night. The next morning I have a fresh glass of juice without having to break out the juicer. I did every fruit and veggie individually so I could mix and match my flavors. The ones I chose were: watermelon, beets (with their greens), red grapes, lemon, lime, grapefruit, orange, green apple, carrot, celery, kale, spinach, collard greens, and rainbow chard. When I take my cubes out to defrost, I include a lemon or lime, three more fruit cubes, and 4 veggie cubes. That way I know I'm getting a healthy mix. This worked out so well. I made so much juice it would make your head spin. I filled an entire shelf in my freezer. I'm going to have juice probably forever. It's going to be great.

This juice option is much easier for me than making it everyday, but it's also way cheaper than buying it everyday. They have some juices that have become popular lately that, while super tasty, at $8 a pop, just aren't worth it to me. Plus they've been processed so they can sit in grocery store refrigerators, so they've lost a little nutrition too.

My next little helpful tip is to spend one day every two to three weeks cooking up a ton of stuff. I make at least two kinds of soup, spaghetti sauce, veggies for stir-frying, brown rice, oatmeal, roasted sweet potatoes, mini fritatas, veggie burgers, baked pasta dishes, and marinated chicken or steak. For the stir fry veggies, I blanch them all really quick in a big pot and then portion them out in zip top bags to be frozen. Then when I want stir fry, everything I want is in one bag premixed with everything I like. I also freeze the soup and spaghetti sauce in individual portions. Same with the marinated meat. You don't even have to cook that, just put it in a freezer bag and take it out before you're ready to cook it. I do brown rice and oatmeal in huge batches and then portion those out. Once their defrosted, they reheat really well so you don't have to spend forty minutes cooking rice. The mini fritatas, potatoes, and veggie burgers can be thrown in the oven without defrosting to reheat for a quick meal. That's what I'm eating currently. Sweet potatoes with pinto beans and some salsa. Delish. And I made it like a month ago.

I am also a huge fan of smoothies. If you have one of those personal sized blenders, you can whip up a healthy breakfast or snack in no time. Throw in some frozen fruit, a little almond milk (or whatever it is that you drink) and maybe a little protein powder or flax seeds, or greens, and you've got yourself a meal.

If you haven't noticed my theme yet, it's that for all you time crunched friends, the freezer is your friend. The freezer keeps everything fresh longer, which means it will taste good for awhile and you don't have to cook every day. And spending one day making it yourself means it will be wayyyyyy healthier than that frozen, salt laced, preservative filled crap at the grocery store. You know exactly what's going in to it. Also, you can customize it to what you like.

But you can't live on frozen food alone. One day a week I also make fresh food in huge batches that can hang out in my fridge for a few days. I always make a big batch of salad and a big batch of fruit salad. And I may be known to make sandwiches a couple days ahead in weeks where I know I won't have 5 minutes to spare. They're all super handy for when you want to eat something nutritious and delicious, but you also need to leave the house in four minutes. I also usually make a batch of tabbouleh because it's sooo good, and I end up eating it all by the end of the day.

Lastly, I just want to share a couple of things that make your life much easier when you don't have a lot of time on your hands. When you get home from the grocery store, prep everything. I always chop my veggies and store them in containers with a little water to keep them crisp. That way, whatever carrots and celery I don't use for salads or stir fry end up precut into veggie sticks for dipping in hummus when I want a snack. Individually portion (or portion for the family if you're cooking for more than just yourself). Break everything down into what you would use for one meal. That way you don't have to defrost everything and waste it. Single serve yogurt with some fruit is a good breakfast on the go. For me at least, it helps when everything is already prepped and ready to go. Because anyone who knows me, knows that I would rather starve than wake up 20 minutes early to make breakfast.

So those are all my helpful hints for being healthy when you don't really have time to be. All it takes is an afternoon once a week to save you time all month. Or to save you from spending every night slaving away in the kitchen. Do you guys have any other tips that I missed? Please let me know. I can use all the help there is!! :)

1 comment:

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    Hailey

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