Stock Your Fridge for Easy, Quick & Healthy Eating
August 03, 2017Life is busy, fast-paced, and complicated. But your fridge shouldn’t be. Here is how to stock your fridge, so your food is easy, quick, and healthy.
Even with the best of intentions to consistently eat healthy, as our schedules get increasingly busy and overscheduled, it can be quite a challenge to eat healthy & homemade meals during the week. The good news, however, is with a little bit of planning and preparation, you can eat healthy, fresh, home-cooked meals most, if not all, nights of the week without taking your whole evening to prepare!
Below we’ll list some basic and simple ideas for staples to keep in your pantry and fridge to prepare delicious and convenient healthy meals and snacks during the week. Keep these meals handy, and healthy eating will be much more manageable and maintainable!
Pre-Cooked Whole Grains
Versatile grains such as brown or black rice, quinoa, amaranth, or barley can go a long way in making a variety of easy meals. Pre-cooking these grains plain will allow for a simple way of adding fresh or roasted veggies, beans, chicken, and other toppings and additions of choice. Pre-cooked grains can be used to make quite the variety of different hot or cold bowls that also make a delicious way of incorporating more veggies! It can also be used as a simple side dish to pair with your veggies and protein of choice. It can also be time-efficient to cook these grains in large batches, as they can be frozen until you’re ready to use. This means you can cook once and have prepared food ready to go for weeks!
Veggies
We recommend preparing both freshly cut and prepared veggies of choice and also a pan of pre-roasted veggies. Pre-roasted veggies are great to mix into hot or cold bowls of choice, as a side dish, or in meals such as wraps or omelets. The fresh cut veggies are a great idea to have to make a variety of salads, to mix into a variety of bowls, in omelets, as toppings, in wraps, soups, or many other meals. Also, it’s a great idea to have pre-washed greens such as spinach ready to go, either for greens in smoothies, for salads, or in other dishes. Having veggies ready to go makes it much easier to eat more vegetables throughout the day and week!
Homemade Dressings, Dips & Sauces
Making sure to get healthy fats with your grains and veggies is essential to good digestion and overall health. Because most store-bought dressings are toxic, having your homemade dressing of choice at home is a great way to enjoy salads, bowls, and wraps. Additionally, having on hand a variety of homemade or healthy store-bought versions of dips, sauces, and spreads makes eating salads, bowls, meats, and other meals more convenient and delicious. Spreads such as hummus also make a quick and easy way to eat more veggies, even when on the go.
Peanut or Other Nut or Seed Butters
Peanut and other nut butters are great to have on hand as an easy, simple meal or snack, as it can not only be made into a sandwich but used to stir into oatmeal, on fruit such as apples, veggies such as celery, or mixed into healthy smoothies or shakes. Make sure to choose varieties that are made with quality nuts or seeds and without the addition of added sugar or oils.
Pre-Cooked Beans
Because it’s optimal to not rely on canned beans as much as possible, having pre-cooked beans on hand is also a great staple. Beans can be used hot or cold in a variety of meal ideas. You can also batch-cook beans as they freeze well, so you can make them once and have beans for weeks.
Hard Boiled Eggs
For our non-vegan friends, having this food ready to go can make a quick and easy snack all on its own, or is also a great addition to salads, sandwiches, or bowls.
Homemade Muffins, Bars, or Balls
Because most of these items when coming from the store are unhealthy, making your own can be a great, clean way of getting a healthy breakfast or snack during the week. Making them yourself allows for you to control the ingredients, the amounts, and type of sugar and fat, etc. Like other foods mentioned, muffins, bars like Sunwarrior's Sol Good bars, or balls can be batch-made and stored in the freezer until they’re ready to be eaten. Make sure to keep them as low sugar and high nutrient as possible, using only fresh, real ingredients.
Keeping some Sunwarrior illumin8 on hand is also a great way to stir up a quick protein drink filled with all the vitamins you need for life.
Having these ready-to-go staples on hand will significantly simplify your healthy eating during the week and help you to achieve and maintain the health you desire!