Cooking Healthy On a Weekday

Cooking Healthy On a Weekday

A longtime friend is working on getting healthy both physically and through diet.  She has run into a situation that I had in the past.  “Time is not my friend!” yep all my friends know this is my favorite saying, but it’s true.  This post from my friend is what I hear most often when people are trying to eat healthy.  Eating healthy is the quickest and easiest way to cook by far.

So yes it’s true, work, exercise, go home to cook, do homework with the kiddos, get ready for bed and then prepare for the next day gets overwhelming.  Adding those extra 45 minutes of exercise in your day is taking up the time for you to get your chores done and leaving you exhausted.  Well to get this under control you will have to get a few gadgets, a few Tupperware containers, get tools to make cleanup quicker, make a menu plan, go shopping, implement how you’re going to execute that menu plan and prepare ahead of time.

I recommend that you invest in a few gadgets and items.  These can be really cheap to real expensive.  It all depends on your taste preferences. I will start with the basic most important ones first.  Basic is a GOOD nonstick skillet, some pots for cooking sides and soups, a LARGE black skillet, sheet pan, aluminum foil, crock-pot liners, 1 cup Tupperware containers, small 3 compartment Tupperware containers, casserole pan and throw away aluminum casserole pans with aluminum lids. This is a good start.  The next thing on your list of gadgets to have is a crock pot.  Those are relatively cheap.  Unless you would like to spend a little more money invest in an electric pressure cooker.  The pressure cooker I recommend is the “Power Cooker” the largest one. I like this brand because you can use like a crock pot, cook rice, steam veggies, brown meat and veggies and pressure cook meals.  The last gadget to purchase is a gas grill.  My suggestion is the Sam’s Club “Members Mark Portable Stainless Steel Gas Grill”  http://www.samsclub.com/sams/portable-stainless-steel-gas-grill-with-cover/prod2500002.ip?xid=plp:product:1:4  

For menu planning depends on the gadget you want to use and the time you have for the week to execute that meal.  If I had to pick a gadget it would be all the stove top options I mentioned above and the pressure cooker.  The grill is sort of a luxury.  I would first start with the crock-pot/pressure cooker.  Go to Pinterest or Google crock pot freezer meals.  Find a minimum of 12 of the better low calorie all-inclusive menus, 6 of one meat and 6 of another type of meat.  Try and use frozen or fresh vegetables instead of canned ones.  If it calls for soups like cream of mushroom, cream of chicken etc.., get the Campbell’s Healthy brand.  All the canned foods have lots and lots of salt that make you retain water and raise blood pressure.  Go to the store buy your meat in bulk.  Get 90/10 ground meat, chicken (any variety you may like), pork etc… and get you a box of crock pot liners.   Get minute rice and mashed potato flakes if you need those sides.  Ok here is where the fun begins.  Take a crock-pot liner and place all the ingredients of one recipe in the bag.  Label the bag with instructions to cook and name.  Place them in the freezer.  When you find a day you know that no one has time to cook. You simply go in the freezer take out a crock pot meal to defrost.  Then in the morning place your meal in the crock-pot before leaving for work.  When you get home it should be ready to eat.  If your meal requires rice or potatoes only eat 1/3 cup portion, no more than that.  If you’re using the pressure cooker you can make soups in 15 minutes, cook meats in 30 minutes and any meal you may make in the pressure cooker should take no more than 1 hour to cook.  The great thing is that it requires your attention for no longer than 10 minutes to prepare.  Then set it and forget it till it’s done.  For the veggies you can cut up ahead or purchase already diced up in fresh or frozen sections of the store.
 

Next plan of action, if you don’t mind leftovers, you can have what we call in our home “Smorgasbord Sunday”.  Make 3 main meals, 6 or more sides and a pot of soup.  Portion the soup in the 1 cup Tupperware containers.  Use the small 3 compartment portion Tupperware containers to make like little TV dinners that you would just microwave.  Pick a day you have the time to execute this plan.  You can really eat anything you like but you need to learn how many calories are in that recipe.  I suggest using the MyFitnessPal recipe app to help determine how to package those meal plans.  You want to package the 3 compartment Tupperware meal to be less than 400 calories. Portion with one meat with 2 healthy sides, or one meat, one healthy side with 1/3 cup of rice or potatoes.  Then you just pick a container and microwave.  Everyone in the house can use a microwave.

The black and nonstick skillets are great for cooking extra quick meals.  Which include Sam’s Rotisserie chicken, boneless skinless chicken meat, pork chops, ground meat, steaks, shrimp and fish.  All of these should take no more than 30 minutes to cook.  The quickest options are shrimp and fish.  Those can be cooked in less than 10 minutes.  Steaks can be cooked for as little as 12 minutes.  Pork chops, ground meat and chicken cook for the longest.  

Casserole dishes can be prepared ahead of time.  You can prepare either the day before, the morning of or plan it like you did the frozen crock pot meals.  Get a minimum of 12 healthy casserole recipes.  Sam’s rotisserie chicken goes into a lot of these meals.  Make these in advance; write on the lid the recipe name and how to cook it.  Right out the freezer you can simply place in the oven when you get home.  Get some chores done and violas’ your meal is cooked.  You can also portion leftovers in the 1 cup portion Tupperware containers for future meals.  One cup is about the portion size for a casserole, because it usually has pasta, rice, cheese, etc..  in it.  No clean up needed if you use the foil pans instead of a casserole dish.

Sheet pan line it with foil and bake all of your cooking items.  Make your menu that whole or half the meal will be cooked in the oven.  When you’re done just throw away the foil and you’re done.

Last tool, I use, is the gas grill.  I like to eat grilled foods.  I like to cook boneless skinless chicken meat, pork chops, hamburger, steaks, shrimp, fish and vegetables.  These can be cooked in usually 15 minutes or less.  

I know this is a lot of information to take in.  But once you master these plans it will be easier.  I will be elaborating in the future on each of these methods.  

A crucial part of everyone’s dieting is will power.  The second part is portion control with good choices and third is physical activity.

It’s how southern women diet!

Happy Eating

Angell