I have no clue what is up with my body lately, but I’m totally good with it! Lately I just can’t get enough healthy food. It’s crazy, I am craving salads and vegetables and fruit. I mean like to a weird level. The other evening, I chose salad instead of ice cream! I know, I considered going to Urgent Care!
Ken says he is okay with it as long as I don’t start leaving little rabbit droppings all over. (Insert eye roll here)
As I was preparing my meal, I started thinking about how some of the things that I do and make are so unusual. I thought maybe I would share and see who else eats like this.
This evening’s meal for me was:
A baked veggie burger (I purchased it frozen – ready to bake, from Aldi)
Baked Brussel Sprouts – these are so simple! Get fresh brussel sprouts and slice off the bottom, peel off a couple of leaves, slice it into 1/2 or 1/4 sections. Take a cookie sheet and line it with tin foil and then pour on 2 – 3 tsp of coconut oil. Simply drop the sprouts into the oil, stir them around to coat. Place in the oven on 400 for about 1/2 hour. That’s it. Some people may do salt and pepper, it’s optional. Some of the leaves fall off and get super brown and crunchy – don’t throw them away – taste them – I think they are amazing!
My other choice was a salad.
Iceberg salad mix
Baby spinach leaves
Diced green peppers
Diced onion
Broccoli
Sliced Bella Mushrooms
Mango Salsa (homemade!)
Crumbled feta cheese
Apple slices
Plum slices
Ranch dressing
It was so amazing and totally satisfied my cravings. I find it easiest to make a salad if the majority of my items are already sliced and in the refrigerator in separate containers, ready to go.
I will be honest, often times I won’t choose to eat healthy due to the length of time it takes to prepare the food. I mean, c’mon, who really wants to spend more than half an hour getting food together before even getting to eat, for every meal? So, I have had to learn ways to cut corners on time. I try to make it convenient enough that I can’t accept my own excuses.
That being said, I realized that maybe what I do may help someone else, plus, maybe someone reading this may have other suggestions for me. So, I decided to write about it.
A helpful hint that I thought I could share is about green peppers (or red or yellow). I generally purchase multiple of these. Then I take one day and do that extra work of cleaning and slicing and dicing. I place enough for the next few days to a week into a container in the refrigerator. I take what is left and place them into marked Ziplock bags and put them into the freezer. These I can pull out and add to hamburger when I am browning it for meatloaf or spaghetti. Or I can grab onion as well and put it with chicken for fajitas.
Another one is my Mango Salsa. I make up a huge bowl (pictured) and use it for so many
things! On fish tacos, on scrambled eggs, on my salad, and sometimes just as a side dish! I absolutely love it! I looked up recipes for it on Pinterest and then just kind of did my own thing. It’s quite simple. I dice up fresh ripe mango, dice sweet onion, I take pineapple rings and dice them up. I stir all of this together and then add little tiny pieces of cilantro. It’s delicious! It lasts for maybe a week, usually it is eaten before that, also I’m not sure how long it lasts for – as it depends upon the freshness of the fruits and vegetables.
Another trick to make ahead is browned hamburger or even a mixture of browned hamburger and browned turkey. I like to purchase larger quantities, maybe about 5 pounds or so. Then I take the time to brown it up, often times I will also prepare hamburgers at the same time. If we are not eating hamburgers that evening, I will take the raw meat and form patties. One of the simplest ways I have found is to take two small plates that have a raised ring on the bottom, place a glob of burger inside of one ring and then place the other plate (bottoms facing bottom) and press. This forms a nice size burger that I peel off and place on a wax sheet on a cookie sheet. I fill that and sometimes place another wax sheet on top and make more. I let them freeze for hours or overnight and then place them into marked Ziplock bags in the freezer. (By freezing separately first, they don’t stick together so bad.) I also drain the browned crumbled meat and will place that into marked Ziplock’s as well. The convenience of having previously browned hamburger (or turkey burger) is one that I rely upon often. It is so simple to grab that Ziplock, tear it off, put the meat into a bowl and defrost in microwave. Most recently I did that, boiled some gluten free penne pasta, added spaghetti sauce and then shredded mozzarella. Ta-da …. dinner in moments and it tasted great!
I hope that some of my little pointers help you out with some time saving ideas and choosing to eat at home simply.
Please share with me any ideas you have.
Also, I would love to hear if this helped you out, and how you utilized which tips.
A slice of time, Amy
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