When life or work or both get super busy, the last thing I want to do when I get home from work is spend time preparing food. I have one of those awesome jobs that I love. The awesomeness comes along with bouts of extremely long hours and traveling. How do I make this whole no grains, no dairy, no legumes, no salt, no refined sugar nonsense work when I have zero time? Oh I'm glad you asked.
First of all I plan ahead. Starting this weekend I have a very busy schedule until MAY. So this week I have prepared a little, or a lot.
I ordered some things from the interwebs that I eat when I need a snack, or am just to exhausted.
I ordered food from Steve's Original. Sometimes I eat these little packs as a snack, sometimes in place of a meal. The granola is pretty good too.
I ordered some tanka bars, lots of them. I like the original and the spicy. I keep some in my desk at work, some in my car, some at home. I eat them for breakfast sometimes, I eat them when I forgot or didn't have time to bring lunch... I ordered a family pack, it comes with both flavors, ends up being about $2 a bar for 50 bars, which will last me a long time. The last time I ordered that many it lasted from early August until early November.
I tried to order some Pure wraps, but they are apparently very popular (I like them a lot) so they are on back order.
I also have that order of Beetnik food coming that I got discounted from livingsocial, so that will be some more grab and go food options.
I stocked up on Larabars, the store was having a 10 for $10 anyway so it was a double win. These are also in my desk at work, in my truck, and at home, and I eat them when I'm hungry and need something. I didn't buy as many Larabars as I did tanka bars and Steve's originals because Larabars are much easier to procure, I don't have to wait for them to come in the mail.
I bought a very large container of mixed, unsalted nuts without peanuts (here's a secret, look at target, read the labels of their GIANT nut things, figured this out on a road trip stuck in a little town in Missouri with nothing to eat...) I add raw coconut to it and keep it in my office.
I went to TJ Maxx, yes you read that correctly, and bought some plain old dried fruit without chemicals added. I forgot to mention this in the whole saving money post. TJ Maxx, I also discovered this on that same road trip in Missouri. They have a large selection of paleo friendly snack and they are not very expensive. WHO KNEW?
The thing is, if I don't have food on hand and I'm hungry, I end up eating things I shouldn't. There is a vending machine, my coworker brought in muffins... If I have a handy alternative, it's really easy to not eat junk, no offense to my baking coworker, I'm sure her muffins are delightful.
People I work with know I have a food drawer, but I don't share. They can eat whatever they want, I cannot. I would rather give them a dollar for the vending machine than have them eat up all my paleo friendly snacks. Sorry but I'm not sorry.
I use my crockpot. I made a big batch of delish jambalaya . Because I am only one person, a whole crockpot full will be a whole lot of meals for me. When I finished cooking it, I dished it into individual serving containers, so this weekend all I have to do is grab a container on my way out the door. About once a week, on a day when I have a little more time in the morning, I will throw stuff in the crockpot and then eat it a lot that week. Does it get boring sometimes? Yes, but it's quite amazing how many different things you can do with a whole chicken that you cooked in the crockpot. AND this isn't probably the best, but, when you are strapped for time, there are these things at the store called crockpot liners, like those turkey cooking bags. The worst part of using a crockpot is cleaning it, in my opinion. When I'm super busy, I use the liners, and then I don't have to spend an hour soaking and scrubbing.
I make lots of those little egg cup things like this without the cheese and freeze them. That will be happening tonight. Then in the mornings I just pop one in the microwave for a quick breakfast.
I stocked up my freezer with meats. One of the hardest things about cooking when I'm super busy is that it's not just the cooking, it's the cooking AND the shopping. Because I can't just go to any store to find the grassfed beef, the wild caught salmon... I bought a bunch and it's all in my freezer. When I do want to cook, I just have to get the veggies to go with it, makes the process a lot faster. (yes my freezer is quite full right now)
Keep tuna fish in those pouches and avocados around. When all else fails, at the end of a week, when I need to crockpot but haven't, I have been known to grab an avocado and the tuna fish on the way out the door and just mix the two together for lunch. If I have a lemon to grab too, that's bonus. This is not something you should do more than once a week. If you have pure wraps on hand, grab one of those, then it doesn't look so weird to your coworkers, it's just a tuna fish sandwich.
Those are the things I've figured out so far. Anyone else have tips?
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