Our society has become very accustomed to the quick meal, which is obviously a big reason for much of the obesity epidemic that is plaguing us today. Cheap, ready-to-go foods that require little cooking knowledge and no preparation have become standards in America and elsewhere - even to the point where various brand names are synonymous with good times, family occasions, etc. I remember my mother waxing nostalgic about watching football with her parents and eating Stouffer's French Bread Pizzas, and of course sharing Oreos with milk is a tradition to pass down from parent to child. Hey, the commercials tell us so, right?
My point here is that, because of that "I can always just pick something quick up" mindset, it's sometimes a challenge for us Paleoistas to get into a habit of preparing meals ahead of time - or worse, preparing food for preparation ahead of time. Case in point: Tuesday night dinner.
I'm getting a bit ahead of myself, though. Tuesday started out normally, though I added some kipper snacks (smoked herring - yum!) to my sardines in the morning, 'cause I wanted to. Lunch was some ribs, broccoli, and carrots, and after work then I headed home for dinner.
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| Hopefully your freezer looks like this! |
Luckily, I'd looked in the fridge the night before and noticed that we had no meat ready for dinner preparation. Also luckily, we had quite a bit of meat in the freezer - none that would have been ready for Tuesday straight out of the freezer, but with some proper planning would be fine for that night by simply remembering to take it out of the freezer and throw it in the fridge on Monday evening (we don't like to use the microwave to defrost meat because it gets half-cooked before all the meat is thawed!).
So instead of having to pick something up (which would probably have meant either intermittent fasting or totally busting my Whole30 for me), we had a great home-cooked meal of steak, green beans, and some fresh salad.
So takeaways from Tuesday: prepare. And prepare to prepare. Have a list of meals for the week, and check it the night before going to bed. Check for all the ingredients you need, too. Make sure your shopping list is updated and comes with you to work the next day. Ensure that all the meat you need is defrosting for the necessary amount of time. Know how long it'll take for your meat to thaw. And keep the necessities, like healthy fats, spices, butter, etc. in the house at all times.
It takes some time to regain the mindset that our parents and grandparents had regarding food. Big Food has made it too easy to get lazy about meal prep. But taking a few minutes each night to prep the next day's food may mean the difference between a tasty healthy home-cooked meal, and a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store. Again.
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