I am not paleo or celiac or gluten intolerant or any of that stuff but one thing I am is…LAZY.
My diet in the past hasn’t been great which ends up making me feel rubbish and the main reasons for that is because I am time poor and quite frankly lazy.
I do actually enjoy cooking but if I’ve got home from work between 2000 – 2100 the last thing I want to do is start cooking...which also means cleaning. I end up getting a healthier take away option (meaning expensive) on the way home, eating instant noodles, toast or a quick pasta dish or if I am really bad...just skip dinner altogether. I did for a while even get addicted to the M&S and Sainsbury ready meals.
In Australia we had the frozen meals but it was pretty widely know these weren’t good for you and that they should NOT be a regular occurrence but when I moved to the UK and there was this new 'fresh' ready meal, I got hooked. They looked and seemed pretty healthy, they were tasty and it was so easy. A few minutes in the microwave and the food was ready and eaten in less than half an hour with no clean up! What could be better?
Then I started to realise, when something is too good to be true it probably is. I started doing the research.
Saturated fats, additives, sugars, crazy amounts of salt, lack of natural vitamins and minerals.
From this you can gather that I straight away stopped and a ready meal is as rare for me nower days as getting a fast food take away.
However giving up the ready meal brought back that age old issue of being time poor during the week and then eating badly, expensively or not at all. Skipping meals became far too often which in the end just made me run down, tired and pretty irritable all the time.
I mentioned before about paleo, celiac, gluten intolerance etc. because people with these types of diets/concerns are often really good with what they eat and making sure they do the right things. One of the ways they do this is a Sunday food prep session. My thinking…why not give it a go and see if it’s going to help me keep myself from binging on junk and skipping meals and of course being a foodie, still keep me satisfied taste wise.
I started yesterday with my first Sunday prep session.
I decided to make a big batch of garlic prawn wild rice with carrot and spinach for dinners, mini cheese, tomato, spinach, carrot and bacon quiches (12) for lunches and then Caribbean spiced chicken for either lunches or dinners, with spinach salads or green beans.
Breakfast would be cereal or porridge and some fruit.
Snacks would be grapes, carrot sticks, homemade guacamole, popcorn, baby bell cheese and fruit again.
Grocery shopping:
Chicken
Prawns
Bacon
Wild rice
Garlic
Onion
Eggs
Mature cheddar cheese
Baby bell individual cheeses
Butter
Coconut oil
Spinach
Green beans
Tomatoes
Carrots
Avocado
Grapes
Nectarines
Apples
Lime
Pre-packaged popcorn
Porridge packs
Fruit n Fibre cereal
The guacamole recipe is in my blog post Getting back to good
The chicken is just fillets of chicken, cut in to steak sizes and spiced and fried. Again really easy but tasty. I fry in coconut oil because I prefer the taste and have been told its healthier for you.
The mini quiches need a bit more prep. You can customize yours by adding which ever ingredients you want. I chose cheese, tomatoes, spinach, carrot and bacon.
You need a muffin pan and 6 free range medium eggs beaten and seasoned with a pinch of salt and pepper and then your mix ins.
Super easy and super tasty both cold and hot. I have just had them for lunch with a few of the other bits and it was tasty and filling.
Hopefully the rest of the week is as good of a success as today has been so far.
If I can keep this up surely getting back to fit and healthy is going to easy right? *smiles*
My diet in the past hasn’t been great which ends up making me feel rubbish and the main reasons for that is because I am time poor and quite frankly lazy.
I do actually enjoy cooking but if I’ve got home from work between 2000 – 2100 the last thing I want to do is start cooking...which also means cleaning. I end up getting a healthier take away option (meaning expensive) on the way home, eating instant noodles, toast or a quick pasta dish or if I am really bad...just skip dinner altogether. I did for a while even get addicted to the M&S and Sainsbury ready meals.
In Australia we had the frozen meals but it was pretty widely know these weren’t good for you and that they should NOT be a regular occurrence but when I moved to the UK and there was this new 'fresh' ready meal, I got hooked. They looked and seemed pretty healthy, they were tasty and it was so easy. A few minutes in the microwave and the food was ready and eaten in less than half an hour with no clean up! What could be better?
Then I started to realise, when something is too good to be true it probably is. I started doing the research.
Saturated fats, additives, sugars, crazy amounts of salt, lack of natural vitamins and minerals.
From this you can gather that I straight away stopped and a ready meal is as rare for me nower days as getting a fast food take away.
However giving up the ready meal brought back that age old issue of being time poor during the week and then eating badly, expensively or not at all. Skipping meals became far too often which in the end just made me run down, tired and pretty irritable all the time.
I mentioned before about paleo, celiac, gluten intolerance etc. because people with these types of diets/concerns are often really good with what they eat and making sure they do the right things. One of the ways they do this is a Sunday food prep session. My thinking…why not give it a go and see if it’s going to help me keep myself from binging on junk and skipping meals and of course being a foodie, still keep me satisfied taste wise.
I started yesterday with my first Sunday prep session.
I decided to make a big batch of garlic prawn wild rice with carrot and spinach for dinners, mini cheese, tomato, spinach, carrot and bacon quiches (12) for lunches and then Caribbean spiced chicken for either lunches or dinners, with spinach salads or green beans.
Breakfast would be cereal or porridge and some fruit.
Snacks would be grapes, carrot sticks, homemade guacamole, popcorn, baby bell cheese and fruit again.
Grocery shopping:
Chicken
Prawns
Bacon
Wild rice
Garlic
Onion
Eggs
Mature cheddar cheese
Baby bell individual cheeses
Butter
Coconut oil
Spinach
Green beans
Tomatoes
Carrots
Avocado
Grapes
Nectarines
Apples
Lime
Pre-packaged popcorn
Porridge packs
Fruit n Fibre cereal
The guacamole recipe is in my blog post Getting back to good
The garlic prawn wild rice with carrot and spinach is pretty easy.
- Prepare and cook the garlic prawns.
- Finely grate two carrots and chop up two cups of steamed spinach.
- Prepare the wild rice (brown rice if you prefer)
- Then basically mix it all together.
The chicken is just fillets of chicken, cut in to steak sizes and spiced and fried. Again really easy but tasty. I fry in coconut oil because I prefer the taste and have been told its healthier for you.
The mini quiches need a bit more prep. You can customize yours by adding which ever ingredients you want. I chose cheese, tomatoes, spinach, carrot and bacon.
You need a muffin pan and 6 free range medium eggs beaten and seasoned with a pinch of salt and pepper and then your mix ins.
Instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and generously grease the bottoms and sides of your muffin pan with butter to ensure a stick-free removal once the quiches are done baking.
- Make sure your eggs are beaten and you’ve added the salt and pepper.
- Chop up or grate all your fillings.
- Add you fillings to the egg mix.
- Fill the tins with the mix. The quiches will puff up when you bake them, so make sure to leave just a tiny bit of space at the top of each.
- Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until you can poke the centers with a knife and it comes out clean.
Hopefully the rest of the week is as good of a success as today has been so far.
If I can keep this up surely getting back to fit and healthy is going to easy right? *smiles*
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