How to eat healthy when you can’t bear to cook

Not the deconstructed spanakopita, but an example of a Buddha bowl mentioned later.

So the recipe that was supposed to be in today’s post (I plan my posts out a month in advance) was a deconstructed spanakopita – it is a delicious vegan grain salad that I have made a number of times and I love.  But I have been struggling to find my kitchen mojo recently. I want to keep eating healthy, but I just haven’t felt inspired to be in the kitchen.

When I finally prepared the deconstructed spanakopita recipe it came out weird – totally different than normal.  I don’t want to share a recipe with you unless it is right, so I scrapped that post for today and decided to bring you something that resonates much more with where I am right now.  (But if the deconstructed spanakopita sounds interesting, keep your eyes open, the recipe will be posted here, just not until I can get it to turn out right!)

Sometimes I love to be in the kitchen, I can cook up enough food to feed us for a whole week in one day (and then more each day after)!  But sometimes, I really just don’t want to cook. As spring arrives and the weather gets warm and sunny, often if I have 30 minutes or an hour, I would rather take a walk than cook dinner.  Or I might find that I am more interested in reading just one more chapter in my book than preparing a meal.

When the kitchen doldrums strike, here is how I still manage to eat healthy without forcing myself into the kitchen.  There are two tracks below – pick the one that best matches your current feelings toward cooking!

Healthy Cooking Guidelines

Ok, I am up for chopping vegetables and boiling water, but that is about it

If this is where you are at – great – there are some great options to have healthy meals without doing much more  than cutting a few veggies and boiling some water!  If this still feels like more kitchen time than you have in your right now, click here!

Your kitchen tools

A few kitchen tools are required to prepare these meals: a few baking sheets and some parchment paper (this makes clean-up WAY easier), a regular blender and an immersion blender, and as a bonus, a crockpot (ideally a medium sized one), and an electric pressure cooker will make cooking beans and grains even easier.

What to buy

Here is a list of some of the stuff I try to keep on hand when I want to eat healthy but I don’t want to cook.  You will not need everything on this list, make a plan for your week and then shop accordingly.  There are some pantry staples I include in the instructions below, make sure you have everything on hand you need for the preparations you have chosen.

• Root vegetables (sweet potatoes, carrots, parsnips, beets, onion, garlic etc.)  Also, not root vegetables but good options in this category are: broccoli, brussel sprouts, and mushrooms.
• Salad vegetables (cucumber, greens, bell peppers, peas, radishes, zucchini, mushrooms, etc.)
• Salad greens (lettuce, spinach, arugula, kale, cabbage, etc.) – To make your life easy – buy these prepared and bagged.
• White potatoes
• Whole grains (quinoa, brown rice, millet, barley, whole wheat or brown rice pasta)
• Canned beans or dried beans
• Proteins: Tempeh and tofu (extra-firm), canned tuna, Eggs, Rotisserie chicken (ideally organic or free-range)
• Fresh fruit 
• Frozen fruit
• Non-dairy milk (of your choice – original unsweetened will give you the best versatility and is the healthiest option)
• Plain yogurt
• Chia seeds
• Protein powder (again your choice)
• Hummus (buy the prepared stuff – make life easy!)
• Lemons and/or limes
• Tahini, peanut butter, other nut butters
• Spice blends (anything that sounds good to you, I love Italian, Mediterranean, Thai, Herb de Provence, etc.)

Chia pudding topped with mango puree

Preparing your food

Ok so you have all that food, now how do you prepare it without spending a bunch of time cooking?

Warning, there will be some prepwork (although you most likely won’t be preparing everything on the list below each week).  If you can find your way into spending about two hours in the kitchen, you should have food for a week! Here is what I do:

• Prepare your fruit (I like to do this first before I have garlic and onion on my hands).  If you have melons, pineapple, or anything else which can not just be washed and eaten, get it ready to go.  Remove rinds, seeds, etc. and chop fruit into bite sized pieces – the idea is you should be able to grab a container out of the fridge and just munch on the fruit.  Anything that only needs to be washed, leave until you are ready to eat it.
• Get your roots roasting.  Wash off your root vegetables and preheat your oven to 400°F.  Line your baking sheet (or sheets based on how much you are making) with parchment paper, chop your roots into bite sized pieces and place right on the parchment.  You want to have a single layer of veggies, so use additional baking sheets as needed. Drizzle the veggies with olive oil and sprinkle with your spice blend, salt and pepper.  Place in the oven to bake, stirring every 20 minutes until the veggies are soft (this will probably take an hour or two depending on your veggies and how big you cut the pieces.
• Cube tempeh and tofu into bite sized pieces.  Place on a parchment lined baking sheet and toss with soy sauce or tamari and/or your spice blend.  Bake in the oven with the roasted veggies until the outside is a little golden (tempeh will cook faster than tofu).
• Cook your grains.  Either using your electric pressure cooker or a pot on the stovetop, cook your grains.  I would plan on 1-2 cups total of uncooked grains per person for a whole week. Use broth and add in some of your spice blend to help bring some flavor to the grains.
• Toss your beans in the crockpot.  If you are using dried beans instead of canned, place them in the crockpot.  Cover them with a few inches of water, use broth again to cook them (although do not add additional salt, it causes issues in getting the beans soft).  Allow them to cook on high for 3-4 hours or low for 7-8 hours until soft.
• Chop your salad veggies.  Wash, prepare and dice your vegetables.  If not using prepared greens, I like to store my greens in the salad spinner once they are washed so any extra water on them is able to drain while in storage.  Place each vegetable in its own storage container.
• Hard boil a half dozen eggs.
• When using a rotisserie chicken, pick the chicken and store the meat in a storage container.
• Use your immersion blender to make a sauce with 2 part lemon or lime juice, 4 parts tahini or nut butter, 1 part soy sauce or tamari, 1 part honey or maple syrup.  Ideally use a container to blend it in you can also store it in – a mason jar is great for this!
• Make your chia pudding, mix up 2Tbsp chia seeds for every 1/2 cup of milk (plant or cow).  Add a drizzle of sweetener if desired.  Stir until well combined, the chia seeds will bloom overnight.  Put into mason jars for single serving grab and go, or leave in a larger mixing bowl if you want to dish out a serving each morning.

Buddha bowl examplet

How to turn it all into meals

So now that you have everything prepared and stored in the fridge in how do you turn it into meals?  There are seven basic “meals” which can have infinite variety based on the fruits, vegetables, grains and proteins you choose.  Changing up your seasonings and dressings also creates a totally different meal experience.  If you need more ideas, check out my Pinterest board here which should help you come up with a few options!

Breakfasts:

• Smoothies: unless you have a smoothie blender, a mason jar is your friend.  The base of most blenders should fit onto a narrow mouth mason jar. Get a jar and load it with frozen fruit, yogurt and/or nut milk, protein powder, chia seeds, a scoop of nut butter or a handful of nuts.  Add water if needed to thin. Blend until smooth. (Depending on your fruit you may want to add a drizzle of honey or maple syrup to up the sweetness level)
• Fry-up: pierce a potato in several places and put on a paper towel in the microwave for two minutes.  Dice up the potato. Toss in a skillet with a little olive oil and any of the chopped raw veggies you want in your fry-up (I like bell peppers, zucchini and mushroom).  Sprinkle on a little of your seasoning mix and some salt and pepper. Stir periodically until all vegetables are soft. Put on a plate.  In the same skillet, cook two eggs in the style of your choice (I like over easy so I can use the yolks for saucing).  Place the eggs on your veggies. If desired, top with sprouts or greens of your choice.
• Chia Pudding: scoop out a serving of chia pudding into a bowl (or grab a mason jar if you have created single servings).  Top with fresh or frozen (defrosted) fruit and nuts.  Add a little drizzle of honey or maple syrup depending on your fruit choice if you need it a little sweeter.  (This also makes a great dessert!)

Lunch and Dinner:

• Buddha bowl: In a bowl, add a scoop of your cooked grains, an equal amount of the protein of your choice, chopped up salad veggies (at least twice as much as your protein), a scoop of roasted veggies (reheated if desired), and drizzle with your sauce or add a scoop of hummus.
• Salad: start with a bed of greens, add salad veggies, a scoop of your cooked grains, add a scoop of protein of your choice, drizzle on your dressing of choice (store bought or your citrus/nut butter dressing).  If you have some on hand, sprinkle on toasted nuts or seeds.  The bulk of this meal is veggies – do not over do it with the grains and protein.
• Pasta with roasted rooties: cook a package of pasta.  While it is cooking, microwave several cups of your roasted vegetables to reheat.  Once the pasta is drained and rinsed, toss with roasted vegetables and a drizzle of olive oil.  You can also squeeze on some lemon juice and grate some cheese over top. Add salt and pepper and/or additional seasoning blend as desired.
• Baked Potato with topping: wash a white or sweet potato.  Pierce it a number of time, and place it in the microwave on a paper towel.  Microwave on high for two minutes, flip over and cook another two minutes. Check your potato, based on the size, it might be done, or it could need another few rounds of cooking in two minute intervals, flipping after each.  (You can cook multiple potatoes at once, but it will take extra time.) Once your potato is soft, pull it out and split in half. Now load on the toppings of your choice – a sweet potato with black beans, bell peppers, and some roasted onion makes a great southwest style dinner. A white potato with roasted broccoli and onion and a sprinkle of nutritional yeast is a healthy spin on the classic.  Add a drizzle of oil or a pat of butter (I prefer extra-virgin olive oil or coconut oil) and salt and pepper to taste.  

Bonus snacks

In addition to your prepared fresh fruit, here are a few healthy no-cook snacks I love:

• Dip tortilla chips into half an avocado (if you eat right out of the avocado skin, there are no dishes to clean up!).  Sprinkle a little nutritional yeast on top to add a different flavor. Look for a tortilla chip that is lower in sodium and only eat as many as you need to finish the half an avocado.
• Nuts and dried fruit.  I get a small glass prep bowl (the kind you see used on cooking shows for the spices) and add nuts and dried fruit.  This prevents mindless snacking since it limits my intake. I prefer raw or dry roasted nuts and unsweetened dried fruit.