3 Simple strategies for preparing healthy Meals EVEN when you’re SUPER BUSY

Last week I shared about how to fit exercise into your life…even if you’re super busy.  I wrote an article about burst training and posted a video on You tube.

This week I’d like to share how to eat really well, even if you’re super busy.  SO many people tell me they were doing well with eating whole fresh foods and felt really good when they were doing it, but then got busy and fell back into old habits.

There is NO NEED for this to happen once you learn HOW to make super delicious, nutrient dense foods even when you’re in a hurry.

Last week was super busy for me.  I had several technology challenges, a couple of program deadlines, articles to write, guest appearances on telesummits, radio shows AND kids home on spring break.  Add that to a new puppy that’s not quite house broken, a weeklong trip to prepare for, private clients and patients to talk to on the phone AND see in person and……

If you felt tired just reading my list…welcome to my life.

In spite of it all I managed to exercise every day…a couple of  days less than 5 minutes combined burst sessions as I showed on last week’s posts…and to eat really WELL.

How did I do it?

I have developed tricks and techniques over the 26 years I have been following this “Fresh Green Living and Eating” life style.  It didn’t happen overnight.  I had my struggles in the beginning and would often fall back into the “grab a taco and run” mode.   I usually felt the drop in my energy whenever I grabbed for a starchy meal on the run, even if it was organic and made with whole grain flour and natural sweeteners.

Today I’m going to share a little bit about my strategies …as much as I can in a short post, a few of the recipes I made this week…ones that took UNDER 5 MINUTES to fix,  and then let you know how you can learn my strategies and recipes in DETAIL .

My Top 3 Strategies for Eating Well, Even When You’re SUPER BUSY!

1-      Have Ingredients on hand.

This may seem overly simplistic, yet it needs to be stated.  If you always have a variety of healthy choices on-hand, it’s easy to whip up a quick, healthy Gluten-free, dairy-free, sugar and trans-fat free meal in a matter of minutes.

Sometimes people object saying they don’t have time to go to the store several times a week to keep fresh ingredients on hand.  Others argue that when they do stock up on fresh veggies, oft-times they spoil before they are eaten.

These are simply, I hate to be so blunt, excuses.   Many of the green leafy veggies are hearty enough to keep around for over a week before they spoil.  I’ve had kale that’s been forgotten in the back of the refrigerator for up to 10 days before I found it resurface and make a perfectly great smoothie, soup or salad.

Even if you can only shop once a week, you can keep a supply of fresh foods on hand to make most of the recipes I’ll share.  Just be sure to have your staples on hand.  I have a FREE gluten-free pantry stocking guide available on my website.

2-      Make things in advance as much as possible.

With as little as 15 minutes a week, on a weekend or day off from work, you can pre-make a few dips, sauces and spreads that make creating healthy “fast food”  a snap.  We teach all about that in our class Quick and Easy Healthy “Fast Food”.  For those times when you run-out of fresh veggies, once you learn the art of making delicious bread, chips and crackers in your food dehydrator, you can make a month’s supply with less than a half  hour a month time investment.  We have some free resources about dehydrated comfort foods on the web as well

3-      Be adventurous.  Think veggie and green at each meal.  Think filling.

It can be as simple as a handful of carrot sticks, celery or a red bell pepper eaten out of hand with or without a dip.    What’s a good wrapper in the veggie world and what can I fill it with.  The “filling” is just that.  The veggies alone are not calorically dense enough to “fill you” so you need a filling.  I usually turn to avocado, nuts or seeds as the filling and have all sorts of recipes for combining them with herbs and vegetables to make delicious and nutrient dense fillings.

My Meal in a Hurry Recipes

Cheesy Italian Tomato Slices

Ingredients

Several tomatoes (depends on how hungry you are and how many you’re feeding)

• 1 recipe creamy nut cheese
• Dried basil
• Garlic powder
• Kelp powder (optional, adds to the mineral content)
• Sea salt, unrefined

Directions:

1. Slice tomatoes about ¼ inch thick and place on a plate
2. Spoon enough nut cheese on top to cover
3. Sprinkle with basil, garlic powder, kelp and salt.
4. Enjoy….heavenly!

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Creamy Nut Cheese

Ingredients

1. 1 cup raw nuts**, your choice.  My preference is ½ macadamia nuts and ½ cashews.
2. ½ cup pure water
3. Juice of ½ – 1 lemon, depending on size and to taste
4. ½ teaspoon sea salt, unrefined

Directions

Blend all ingredients until creamy and smooth, adjusting water, lemon and salt to taste and desired consistency

**Seeds can be substituted for all or some of the nuts.  The macadamia and cashews are white and make the cheese look like ricotta cheese.  Pine nuts can be substituted, except they are VERY expensive.  Hemp seeds are a good choice.  Almonds and Brazil nuts are tasty, and make the cheese more brownish gray than while.

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Green  Avocado Wraps

Ingredients

• 1-2 large green leaves per person – romaine and collards seem to work best
• A small handful of spring mix or shredded cabbage, lettuce or other greens per person
• A small handful of sprouts per person
• A few spoonfuls sauerkraut per person (optional, adds to the flavor and nutrition)
• ½ avocado per person
• 1 tablespoon seeds per person – hemp, pumpkin, sunflower or ground sesame (optional, for texture)

Directions

1. Lay leaf on cutting board.  Top with greens, sprouts, sauerkraut if using
2. Slice avocado and lay on top of the greens
3. Sprinkle with seeds
4. Roll up leaf to cover the filling and eat with your hands like a sandwich.

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Wilted Arugula Salad

Arugula is one of nature’s best sources of nitric oxide, a potent circulation enhancer…nature’s Viagra and blood pressure lowering green.  Here’s a tasty way to enjoy it.  This can be a no cleanup meal if you get the arugula in one of those big plastic containers.

Ingredients

• 1 container pre-washed arugula
• ½ teaspoon sale
• 2 tablespoons lemon or lime juice
• Your choice of seasonings
• Creamy nut cheese (optional)

Directions

1. Rinse arugula if desired
2. Sprinkle with salt
3. Massage well with hands to wilt it.
4. Add lemon
5. Continue to massage until the arugula has shrunk to half or less of its original volume
6. Add seasonings to taste.  I love curry powder, Italian seasoning and Mexican seasoning (not all together…choose 1 and try them all eventually!!)
7. Add nut cheese and massage in or stir well for a creamy and more filling salad.

There you have it.  These are actual meals I eat on a fairly regular basis.  Sometimes I use spinach instead of or in addition to the arugula

My YouTube video Dr. Ritamarie’s Raw Food Recipe for “Sautéed” Spinach…Fast Food without Cleanup demonstrates the massage technique in action using spinach.

Our video class Quick and Easy healthy “Fast Food” shows all these techniques in detail and includes a recipe booklet with recipes, photos and guidelines for preparing and creating your own recipes.

I look forward to hearing your feedback.

Please comment below and share your favorite healthy “fast food” recipe.

Love, Health and Joy,

Dr. Ritamarie