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!! :)
Tuesday, February 25, 2014
Sunday, February 2, 2014
I Might Be a Little Obsessed With Breakfast
I loooooooove breakfast. Okay, maybe I love breakfast foods, but I hate waking up to actually make breakfast at regular breakfast hours. So sometimes I have breakfast at strange hours of the day. I have also been known to throw a breakfast for dinner party every once in awhile. Seriously, there are so many spectacular breakfast foods. I can't even pick my favorites. But what I can do is show you two, yes TWO, breakfast recipes that you can enjoy any time of the day.
I recently became the proud owner of a lovely little waffle iron. It's amazing. I'll probably never eat a pancake again. Okay maybe that's not true, but why would you have pancakes when you can have waffles?! I whipped up a few different kinds of waffles, which was super easy because I am also the proud owner of a beautiful Kitchen Aid mixer. Probably the best Christmas gift I've ever received. I've wanted one forever, so now maybe I'll actually enjoy baking.
Anyway, back to the waffles. I made a really simple waffle batter and made a few plain waffles. Then I took some of that batter and folded in a few chopped strawberries. Then I added chocolate chips to some more batter. I also used waffles as bread for breakfast sandwiches. It was pretty great. But then I learned that you can make omelettes in your waffle iron. Yeah, that's a thing. It makes one of my favorite breakfast foods into another favorite! Also, once you've made the omelette waffles, you can freeze them and reheat them in the toaster. Waffles anytime!!! So here's the recipe!
Omelette Waffles
6 eggs
1/4 cup cheddar cheese
1 green onion
salt and pepper
A little oil or butter to grease the waffle iron
Any other veggies you want to add like zucchini, spinach, tomatoes, broccoli, or bell peppers.
Preheat the waffle iron and grease it with the oil or butter. Beat the eggs and then stir in the remaining ingredients. Add 1/4 cup of egg batter per waffle. It won't look like much, but it expands A LOT. So don't overfill it or you'll have eggs running down your iron and onto the counter and there will be eggs everywhere and it will be a huge mess. Trust me, it's not great. Cook the waffles for about 2 minutes, until the eggs are cooked through. It's different for every waffle iron, so you might need to do a test one. This recipe makes about 6 waffles in my iron. When you're done cooking all your omelette waffles, you get to eat them! I topped mine with a little salsa. I'm not sure if this is easier than just making an omelette, but it looks pretty cool so I'll probably keep doing it.
Recipe number two is a pretty easy one, but it was super tasty so I have to share.
Arugula and Fried Egg Sandwich
1 whole wheat bagel thin
1 cup arugula
1 slice of cheese (I used colby jack)
1/2 tsp + 1/2 tsp olive oil
1 egg
salt and pepper
Toast your bagel (If you want. Apparently some people don't like toasted bagels? I don't get it, but to each their own). In a small pan heat 1/2 tsp of the olive oil over medium heat. Add the arugula and saute until it's a little wilted, about 2 minutes. Place the cheese on the bagel and then the arugula over it, so it melts a little. In the same pan, or a cute little egg pan like I have, heat the remaining oil over medium heat. Crack open your egg and fry it in the oil until the top of the white is cooked. Add the salt and pepper. You could also scramble your egg if that's what you like. Put the egg on top of the arugula and add the top of your bagel and eat up! It would also be really tasty if you added some avocado or tomato or the jalapeno relish that will be appearing in my next post. This was super easy to make. So easy that I actually made it in the morning before work. If you wrap it up in foil, it travels pretty well too. I had it with some fruit salad on the side. I usually make a big batch of fruit salad and eat it for a couple days. Mine had watermelon, apples, oranges, tangerines, grapefruit and blackberries. Yummy!
I also recently got a French press to make coffee, and that's pretty great too. It makes super strong coffee, plus it's fun to do. I bought my coffee from the farmer's market and they ground it for me so it would be the right coarseness for the French press. Pretty cool. Also, how pretty is my mixer?! I love it!
Don't think this is the last of my breakfast posts. There will probably be a few more waffle inspired recipes coming your way.
I recently became the proud owner of a lovely little waffle iron. It's amazing. I'll probably never eat a pancake again. Okay maybe that's not true, but why would you have pancakes when you can have waffles?! I whipped up a few different kinds of waffles, which was super easy because I am also the proud owner of a beautiful Kitchen Aid mixer. Probably the best Christmas gift I've ever received. I've wanted one forever, so now maybe I'll actually enjoy baking.
Anyway, back to the waffles. I made a really simple waffle batter and made a few plain waffles. Then I took some of that batter and folded in a few chopped strawberries. Then I added chocolate chips to some more batter. I also used waffles as bread for breakfast sandwiches. It was pretty great. But then I learned that you can make omelettes in your waffle iron. Yeah, that's a thing. It makes one of my favorite breakfast foods into another favorite! Also, once you've made the omelette waffles, you can freeze them and reheat them in the toaster. Waffles anytime!!! So here's the recipe!
Omelette Waffles
6 eggs
1/4 cup cheddar cheese
1 green onion
salt and pepper
A little oil or butter to grease the waffle iron
Any other veggies you want to add like zucchini, spinach, tomatoes, broccoli, or bell peppers.
Preheat the waffle iron and grease it with the oil or butter. Beat the eggs and then stir in the remaining ingredients. Add 1/4 cup of egg batter per waffle. It won't look like much, but it expands A LOT. So don't overfill it or you'll have eggs running down your iron and onto the counter and there will be eggs everywhere and it will be a huge mess. Trust me, it's not great. Cook the waffles for about 2 minutes, until the eggs are cooked through. It's different for every waffle iron, so you might need to do a test one. This recipe makes about 6 waffles in my iron. When you're done cooking all your omelette waffles, you get to eat them! I topped mine with a little salsa. I'm not sure if this is easier than just making an omelette, but it looks pretty cool so I'll probably keep doing it.
Recipe number two is a pretty easy one, but it was super tasty so I have to share.
Arugula and Fried Egg Sandwich
1 whole wheat bagel thin
1 cup arugula
1 slice of cheese (I used colby jack)
1/2 tsp + 1/2 tsp olive oil
1 egg
salt and pepper
Toast your bagel (If you want. Apparently some people don't like toasted bagels? I don't get it, but to each their own). In a small pan heat 1/2 tsp of the olive oil over medium heat. Add the arugula and saute until it's a little wilted, about 2 minutes. Place the cheese on the bagel and then the arugula over it, so it melts a little. In the same pan, or a cute little egg pan like I have, heat the remaining oil over medium heat. Crack open your egg and fry it in the oil until the top of the white is cooked. Add the salt and pepper. You could also scramble your egg if that's what you like. Put the egg on top of the arugula and add the top of your bagel and eat up! It would also be really tasty if you added some avocado or tomato or the jalapeno relish that will be appearing in my next post. This was super easy to make. So easy that I actually made it in the morning before work. If you wrap it up in foil, it travels pretty well too. I had it with some fruit salad on the side. I usually make a big batch of fruit salad and eat it for a couple days. Mine had watermelon, apples, oranges, tangerines, grapefruit and blackberries. Yummy!
I also recently got a French press to make coffee, and that's pretty great too. It makes super strong coffee, plus it's fun to do. I bought my coffee from the farmer's market and they ground it for me so it would be the right coarseness for the French press. Pretty cool. Also, how pretty is my mixer?! I love it!
Don't think this is the last of my breakfast posts. There will probably be a few more waffle inspired recipes coming your way.
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