When You Don’t Have Hours to Spend in the Kitchen or Grocery Store

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Welcome to the Virgin Diet lifestyle show.

With your host, celebrity nutrition and fitness.

Expert and New York times bestselling author, J.J. virjan.

Okay, I get asked all the time for some simple, easy cooking tips and here is the deal. I as you probably have guessed, I'm a crazy Traveler. I've got two teenage boys. They are big dudes. 161163 so we go through a lot of food and so I'm going to share with you how I managed to pull this all off. And one of the things that I do is I have a whole staples list of what needs to be in the pantry, free fridge and freezer. And I make sure that we always have backups. So I have a second fridge and a second freezer and we always have backups for all of this stuff. So I'm never down to my last one. Whenever we're down to the one before the last one, we restock. The only place that that's an exception is of course in produce. And I always back up frozen just in case I come home. Sometimes I'll come home from a trip and there's like no produce in there. So I make sure that I always have frozen there too. Now I have a complete stash of wild seafood. Thank you. Jeff Moore from Wild Things Seafood and meats of lamb, of grass fed beef, of chicken, all sorts of different stuff. And I have that in my freezer and I can pull anything out. Literally. I'll pull those out and make dinner right away. But when I do that, I always make enough so I have something for the next day, lunch or dinner. So when you're making protein, I want you to think of having that protein. Whether it's chicken again, I love to roast a chicken or some wild salmon, sea bass, lamb. Think of making enough for at least the next day for lunch or dinner. That becomes great. Or even breakfast because you know, if you're not having one of my shakes for breakfast, sometimes I'll have the shake for lunch and I might have some leftover lamb pops for breakfast. Lamb pops are what Jeff Moore from Wild Things Seafood and Meats calls these little yummy lamb chops. So good. So make some extra protein. You know what's great about that protein, too. It can go into a wrap, it can go into a salad, it can go into a soup, it can go into a stir fry. So that's easy to do along with making enough protein when I'm making quinoa or wild rice or roasting vegetables, same thing. If I'm going to go to the trouble of doing that, I'm going to make enough for a couple of days because that quinoa or wild rice or those. I don't know if you tried the lentil pasta. I love red lentil pasta. Or the roasted vegetables are great for just recycling. And again, this can become a soup, it can become a salad. Wild rice or quinoa in a salad. Fabulous roasted vegetables are great to throw into a wrap. So I like to be thinking of a couple meals ahead. And I know that if I have the staples, if I have something like wild rice or quinoa or lentils there, or squash, if I have some roasted veggies, if I have salad greens and I have a protein, I can literally throw that together and have a lunch or a dinner in minutes. So I am always thinking about what can I put together for the next couple of meals. Now, if you've got kids, one of the things I want you to think about there is exposure equals preference. And so the more you expose them to these things, don't think the first time that they eat quinoa, they're going to go, wow, mom, you're so great. That may not happen, but the eighth or ninth time it can. Now, another thing too is I get produce twice a week at the store, but the rest of it I'm always watching for. If there's a sale on any of the stuff I use, I'm going to stock up and save, right? As far as salad dressing goes, one of the big places that we just get hosed both on cost and crap is in these dressings. I do not believe in using commercial dressings, and honestly, sometimes I will admit to complete laziness is I will just make my salad dressing right into the salad. So I've got the salad and I squeeze some lemon juice. I add some macadamia nut oil. I use some sea salt, and I've got salad dressing. So oils that I always keep on hand. I have olive oil, extra virgin olive oil that I will use for my salads, if I'm cooking, I'm using macadamia nut oil, or I am using coconut oil, or I'm using red palm fruit oil. And I make sure I have a sustainable one. And I also like to use a little walnut oil. Walnut oil, extra virgin olive oil, macadamia nut oil are what I use on my salads. And then for cooking, it's macadamia nut oil, it's coconut oil, or it is that red palm fruit oil. Incredible stuff. So I always have that around. I always have great sea salt. I have fresh cracked black pepper. You don't want to get the other stuff. It gets rancid. And I always get keep some fresh lemons. There's a ton you can do there, so you don't have to worry about that. Now. Let me just walk you through what I do. Like, literally, Jeff Moore came to my house and showed me how to do this, because I was under this impression that you had to defrost your protein and then you cooked it and so it became this whole, like, scene, you know, not the case. So here's all you have to do to make amazing fish in a minute is set the oven to 350 degrees. Take the fish, put some macadamia nut oil in the pan, put a little sea salt on the fish, throw it in there, sear one side of it, flip it over, throw it in the oven. Depending on how thick the fish is, that's going to be anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes. Done. Want to take it to a whole nother level of, like, gourmet? Here's the next thing I do. It's in there now I squeeze some lemon juice, add some capers. Come on. Like, how easy is this? You can also do a little white wine. And you know, when you think about it, there's things that you can throw into the food that takes it to a whole other level. So easiest. And capers, lemon juice, ghee, fresh basil, great herbs. Those are things that make everything instantly better. Now I'm going to give you another one that I just love. And I couldn't believe how easy this actually was when I first did this. And it's cashew milk and all these corn cool things you can do with cashews. So where it starts is you buy cashews, unsalted cashews, raw, and you soak them overnight. And then you take those cashews and a little bit of clean spring water, and you can either make a milk, all you do is throw it in the cuisinart so it either becomes, depending on how much fluid you put in there, it becomes milk, cream, or cheese. That's all you have to do. And so what you can do is you can take it, make it like a thicker kind of creamy cheese. You can take eggplants that you roast. You can then put on this cashew cheese, a little basil, another eggplant, and then put like a chunky tomato sauce with basil. Like, how easy is that, right? And you can just use your leftover roasted vegetables to do that. Now, how about a crock pot? By the way, crock pots are one of the most underutilized, awesome things that you can do. And all you need to do is throw in there. And this is a great one. This is something you should have in your freezer. So Pete's Paleo has an amazing bone broth. You can just pull that out, throw it in the crock pot, add in some, you know, add in some veggies, Add in either quinoa, lentils, wild rice, whatever protein that you had, you can throw that in there or serve it on the side. But this is one that's so easy to do. And also this is one that just gets better as it sits in your fridge for a couple days. So I love the crock pot to make what I call a stoup. It's not a soup, it's not a stew. It's in between, where you start with a great broth. Again, I love Peet's Paleo bone broth. So you start with a great broth, you throw in some kind of starch, the wild rice, the quinoa, the lentils, and then you add in a load of vegetables and whatever cooked protein you have, and you are done. Right? This is easy. And you can take it with you with a thermos. So again, this all starts with being prepared. And that means that you've got to have a great shopping list. And I've got them in both the Virgin Diet Cookbook and the Sugar Impact Diet and the Sugar Impact Diet cookbook coming out. And also in the Sugar Solution online program and Virgin Diet online program. I've got shopping list galore. Take those. Figure out what your staples are, both for the fridge, freezer, pantry. Always make sure that you're well stocked up. Look at what you want to do when you're making something. Think about what you can do for the next two or three days for that. And you are good. And honestly, you can put a meal that's amazing together in minutes. I challenge you.

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This is Anne Bogle, author, blogger and creator of the podcast what Should I Read next? Since 2016, I've been helping readers bring more joy and delight into their reading lives. Every week I take all things books and reading with a guest and guide them in discovering their next read. They share three books they love, one book they don't, and what they've been reading lately, and I recommend three titles they may enjoy reading next. Guests have said our conversations are like therapy, troubleshooting issues that have plagued their reading lives for years and possibly the rest of their lives as well. And of course, recommending books that meet the moment, whether they are looking for deep introspection to spur or encourage a life change or a frothy page turner to help them escape the stresses of work, school, everything. You'll learn something about yourself as a reader and you'll definitely walk away confident to choose your next read, with a whole list of new books and authors to try. So join us each Tuesday for what Should I Read Next? Subscribe now wherever you're listening to this podcast and Visit our website whatshouldireadnext podcast.com to find out more.