Food Preparation

I have a lot of people tell me they can’t change their eating habits because they are too busy. I totally get it, I’m busy too. I’m a grad student, I work, I am a mom and I have a life. I just like the next person do not have time to be standing in the kitchen preparing meals daily. At the same time I don’t want to eat packaged foods all the time. I have had to become a little creative about how I manage my time; how I create delicious meals that I actually look forward to everyday and keep them healthy to manage my weight.

I have made Sundays prep days. What does this mean?

I plan out what I am going to eat for the week.

I do my grocery shopping.

This week's food preparation involved cutting fruits and vegetables including strawberries, cantaloupe and cauliflower.

I also chopped celery, onions, peppers and zucchini and potatoes.

I cooked three dishes this week; turkey curry, minestrone soup and beef chilli (shown below)

The finished product, beef chilli with 10grams of fat, 35 grams of carbohydrates and 30 grams of protein.

Another finished product, minestrone soup with 4g of fat, 30 grams of carbohydrates and 13 grams of protein. I usually eat this with half a chicken breast (not shown) to boost protein intake.

Another finished product not shown is the turkey curry. I created this recipe and it is a healthier, cleaner version of traditional curries and is delicious and nutritious. It contains 2 grams of fat, 15 grams of carbohydrates and 28 grams of protein.

I partition individual servings of the food I have cooked into containers.

I put individual servings of chopped fruits, vegetables and nuts into small bags.

This makes eating healthy extremely simple and convenient. It is a matter of grabbing an item on my plan and going.

So even if I have had a long day at work and I am exhausted, I find comfort in knowing that dinner is already prepped and I simply heat and eat. In addition, having my food already prepped ensures that I don’t eat random things that are not on my plan and it also prevents over eating. Whenever I do not prep my food in advance things usually fall apart as I do not have time to cook as I go. This coming week try to prepare healthy food for the week and see what a difference it makes.