It's Cooking Day!

Processing strawberries.

One of the most challenging aspects of whole food eating is food prep and meal planning!  I usually spend my Sundays cooking some food for the week and prepping the other produce that will be used later in the week. This. Takes. Forever!

Hummus.

I have recently decided that I am no longer going to buy prepackaged produce. This adds more items that need to be prepped on the weekend.  Spinach and kale need to have stems removed, be hand washed, and dried. Carrots need to be peeled and cut in to easier to eat pieces. Berries, grapes, and apples need to be washed and dried and properly stored for the upcoming week.  While this makes it much easier during the week to just grab an apple and a bag of grapes to throw in my lunch because I already know it is clean; it does add to all the things that need to get done each weekend.

Meal planning is another struggle.  I usually sit on a weekend morning with my "Food: Whole & Healthy" Pinterest board open on my computer and browse through recipes while I enjoy a hot cup of coffee. What might sound delicious and easy might not actually be what I want to eat on Tuesday or Wednesday during the week.  This is also troublesome because if something comes up at work and I have to stay late, or I spend some additional time at the gym (or go to the gym in the first place) I might not have time to cook when I get home. Lunches are easy--I make something carb-based on the weekend that will last me through the week. But, dinners are so much harder to plan. Recently, I ate quesadillas almost every night for a week for dinner because they were so quick and easy to make and I really didn't "feel" like making and eating the cauliflower and mushroom casserole that I had initially planned to make.

Greek-style quinoa patties

So, with this in mind, I planned for the stress and tiredness of the last week of school that includes standardized state testing. I got local eggs from the open-air market for some egg tacos for those nights I am short on time. Today I will be preparing veggies for my garden breakfast smoothie (apples, cucumbers, broccoli, celery), I will be making pesto from scratch, zucchini noodles, hummus from my mom's amazing recipe, and Greek-style quinoa patties with tzatziki sauce. I also have to wash and chop strawberries, wash grapes, and cut carrots for the hummus.

And... I still have to do laundry!