How to Plan

I hate to break the news to you but, if you want to eat healthy, you must cook. You must prepare your own food, not every meal until the end of time. The more control you have over your food, the better you will feel if you are making good food choices.

The most important part of cooking is the shopping. Unless you have the right food in your kitchen, you can't make food that is nutritious and yummy. I know this is contrary to what we know about healthy food but, focus on making yummy food. That way you actually want to eat it.

Sit down and plan. What meats do you want to eat? What veggies? How should they be cooked? This planning could be pretty simple or your could spend hours pouring over cookbooks. I do not recommend at the beginning starting with a bunch of cookbooks. As you plan your weekly meals, most should be simple. Maybe once a week try to make something new. If you are buying good quality food and cooking with good, quality fats, you don't need a bunch of fancy stuff. Butter, celtic sea salt, and black pepper many times are all the seasonings I use - ok, I add chili powder to just about any meat.

Make your life easier NOT harder. Starting your week with a bunch of ingredients you are not familiar with and a stack of recipes is daunting. Knowing that you just need to microwave a sweet potato and saute some spinach or kale to go with the chicken that roasted in the crockpot all day is much less intimidating and time consuming than a new recipe that you are starting as your stomach is growling.

Also, make thing in big batches - bone broth, clarified butter, etc.

Ok, your shopping list - think of it in groups.

1. Meat - what protein do you want to eat AND how will you prepare it?

2. Vegetables - you don't need every color under the sun. Get a little variety. think about how you might cook them. Don't worry about having extra - make veggie soup over the weekend with your leftover veggies.

3. Flavor - do you need more cooking fats, such as butter or coconut oil? Check your spices/seasonings. I buy spices in the bulk section so mine are always fresh and flavorful. I can buy as little or as much as I need. Cook with homemade stock as much as possible. And, add good, high quality coconut milk when you can. It is a great fat.

4. Anything else - feeling deprived? Get some fruit. And just stop there. Anything you are thinking of adding you do not need.

Some people chart out their meals for the week. That seems like work to me. But, I have a pretty easy time knowing what is in my frig. If you are likely to forget and then just eat something lesser, make a chart.

Please feel free to ask any questions in the comments or on the Facebook page.

My favorite snack - Bone Broth:
Put all the bones you have saved in the crock pot, add a splash of apple cider vinegar, a couple cloves of garlic, add water, let simmer for a day. Strain, freeze some, drink some now.