Health & Fitness
My Sneaky Way to Cut Your Kitchen Time in Half
I’ve got a quick little tip for you today that will easily shorten your kitchen time by more than 50%!
Impossible, you say? Not true – here’s the trick. Just like shopping in bulk at Costco saves you time and money, so does cooking in bulk.
You can cook once and eat for a week!
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I usually do my bulk cooking on Sundays, because that’s a day that I have a little extra time. Everybody has a “Sunday” in their week, so choose a day and time where you’re going to have about an hour to dedicate to this – even if it’s a Thursday at 10pm!
Think of your meals as a puzzle made of 3 pieces (ok, so it’s a really easy puzzle.) One piece is the veggies and this is the biggest chunk. One piece is a whole grain. And the last piece is a lean protein.
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Voila! You’ve laid the foundation for healthy meals for an entire week.
Which whole grains to choose? Try: brown rice, quinoa, bulgar, farro, barley or wild rice.
For lean proteins, try: any kind of beans, salmon, sardines, turkey or chicken, tuna, tofu, eggs, or lean pork or beef.
Veggies – pick whatever tickles your fancy.
Cook up each of these 3 components in quantity. Girl, I’m talking big vats of grains and veggies and a large amount of lean protein. Remember this is for all week.
Choose cooking methods that don’t add a lot of oil – baking, grilling and steaming are best.
Now that you have your foundation cooked, get creative with combining your 3 ingredients into new and different dishes throughout the week.
Here are some of my go-to options:
- Add them to some low-sodium broth with some pureed white beans to make a creamy, nutritious soup
- Make a quick stir-fry by adding them to a pan with some sesame oil, tamari, and ginger
- Stick them in a whole grain wrap and make a tidy little lunch. Or get crazy and wrap them in some Nori (seaweed). I swear it’s REALLY good!
- Make a healthy one-dish bowl by layering the 3 components and adding a fun sauce. Try tahini-garlic, pesto, chimichurri, peanut, or whatever else turns you on.
- Add them to eggs for an amazing breakfast omelette
- And of course, throw them in some greens for a hearty salad.
Give it a shot and let me know how it goes!