Meal Planning

When making the switch from the standard American diet of processed foods to "clean whole foods", grocery shopping and meal planning can be overwhelming at first. However, what I have learned is everything has gotten so much simpler. I used to stress about cooking, but now I realize that "real food" tastes pretty darn good on its own.

When following the Maker's Diet, I realized that I was eating way too much bread and processed foods and not enough good fat and protein. I was amazed when I started eating eggs rather than cereal, I felt sustained until lunch. The biggest thing with healthy meal planning is making food ahead of time so it becomes convenient.

Examples:
- buy 2 cartons of organic eggs and hard boil one carton. This can be a quick breakfast option, snack or addition to salad
- Chop up mixed veggies for the week(peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, broccoli) and store them in a container so you have them ready to throw on salads, mix in with omelets or just snack on
- Use your crock-pot! I often make a whole organic chicken in the crock-pot and we can eat that for many meals to come. The first night we usually just eat it with veggies, then it becomes chicken salad or soup. I get these at Trader Joes for less than $10. Cooking more meat than you need is a wonderful way to have stress-free meals the next few days.
- Soup! I like to make chili on Sundays with free-range beef, spices, beans, tomatoes...etc I make a huge pot and Justin and I can eat it for lunches easy dinner. Talk about a cheap meal!
- buy the huge containers of mixed greens or spinach. Have this ready for side salads and meals. Use your left over chicken to make chicken salad with mayo,peppers,celery and black pepper and throw it over mixed greens for a great meal
-Keep nuts on hand. Trader Joe's has pre-packaged nuts (I love almonds) that are ALWAYS in my cupboard and purse. A great snack to have on hand with healthy fat & protein that will sustain you in-between meals.
-Snacks. One of the most important things for me is to keep snacks on hand that I know will satisfy me between meals. Instead of tortilla chips (which I used to eat way too many of), I will eat nuts, raw organic cheese, fruit (my friend recently turned me on to apples with fresh parm cheese--yum! I buy blocks at Trader Joe's), hard-boiled eggs, grapefruit, celery with almond butter, yogurt & berries or avocado and tomato drizzled with EVOO and black pepper. If you are hungry- eat a snack. Snacks keep your metabolism up. If you deprive yourself when you’re hungry...you are just going to overeat later.