In one way or another we all know that if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Relating to health and healthy eating, this is so true. It’s hard to eat the right things if you do not have food in your kitchen. If you have nothing on hand, take-out usually falls into place. And even when you have plenty of food stocked in your refrigerator, if you don’t think about when you are going to eat what, food may spoil, you may not get as much satisfaction out of your meals and more.

One solution is to carve out some time during the week to make some meals and snacks for the following 5-7 days. A few items I did this Sunday included:

Pumpkin Ginger Soup

Ingredients: Japanese pumpkin, vegetable stock, coconut milk, onion, ginger, garlic, pepper, salt

Method: First heat the pumpkin in the oven for about 15 minutes on 400F. Take out, let cool to the touch. Slice off peel with a good knife  Cube and place in a slow-cooker. Add in a gluten free stock, coconut cream and remaining spices. Let cook for ~6 hours and then puree with a hand blender.
Usage: Easy compliment to lunch/dinner. Exploding with nutrients, and making me feel healthy going about the week.

 

 

Paleo Infused Bites (very similar to what you see in the store as Lara Bars)

Ingredients: Almonds, cocoa nibs, dates, prunes.
Method: Mix the nuts and cocoa nibs first, until it becomes close to a paste/butter. Mix in the dates and once it is finely blended, add in prunes to make it all stick together better. Portion the ingredients into balls and let sit for a few hours to dry-out.
Usage: Easy, satisfying snack for when time is short. Lately I have been eating these before a 6:30pm yoga session.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Salad – this is as easy as it sounds.

Ingredients: Spinach, carrot, scallion, basil, green bell pepper
Method: Use some sort of leafy greens for the base and add in whatever other raw vegetables you have on hand.
Usage: A colorful and premade salad is more tempting than a bag of spinach sitting in the back corner of my refrigerator. This preparation makes it uber easy to throw together a meal for lunch during the week.

 

Hard Boiled Eggs

Ingredients: Free range eggs
Method: Boil eggs on a stovetop. Trick to make them easier to peel is to add teh eggs after the water is brought to a boil.
Usage: Protein rich food to have as a snack or to add to a meal/salad.