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Grocery store "fast food"


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So, I have a semi-unique situation. My social life often consists of hanging out at a friend's house after church or after work. Occasionally, I may be asked to babysit last-minute. I'm definitely ok with using their kitchen to prepare my own food, but I don't want to do anything too complex.

Now, for the MOST part,I can probably get by combining the food they have on-hand with my emergency stash of healthy oils (my one friend only has an and olive oil/canola oil blend, etc. My other friend, however, has the coconut oil/olive oil in her pantry at all times.) Based on what was in my friend's kitchen last week when I was over there, roasting up some carrots and broccoli and frying a few eggs in olive oil isn't that big of  a deal. 

However, there's absolutely NO guarantee that there will be compliant foods available. Sure, my friends USUALLY have eggs and veggies, but sometimes, life gets in the way of regular grocery shopping. So, I want to come up with some quick, easy meals I can throw together with grocery store ingredients. My go-to will probably be picking up some frozen veggies, a couple sweet potatoes, and chicken apple sausage (half of what I cook will be saved for the next day). 

But I'm looking for other ideas. The frozen, seasoned, fish fillets I love from Target (bake from frozen) aren't an option on the Whole30- though they're perfect for Weight Watchers. I also don't want to be stuck with anything too complex if possible. Simple heat and eat options are best.

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Sorry, you're looking for ideas of things you can make at your friend's house out of ingredients they have? Or ingredients you're going to buy? Are you keeping them there?

Why can't you just store some tinned fish and olives at their house and assuming they have some sort of vegetable, that is a lunch in a pinch.

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I second the tinned fish & olives - they've always been my go to portable options.

Other than that, going by your previous posts, I suggest you get acquainted with making a couple of compliant dishes in your own kitchen, invest in some food storage containers, do some food prep in the form of maybe a once a week batch cooking session like the vast majority of us do here - a whole roasted chicken, a batch of meatballs & compliant sauce, a curry, a chilli, a frittata, a chowder, cottage pie..... That way you can portion them up, freeze some, keep some in your fridge and you'll always have a compliant meal that just needs re-heating that you can grab & go.

I mean, if you're asked to babysit last minute would you not have already planned on having something for dinner at home that you can bring with you? 

Don't overthink this - it really is that simple.

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Let me give you an example of what might happen:

I'm leaving work when I see a text message from a friend asking if I can babysit last-minute. I don't always have food prepared in the freezer at home. I'm more likely to cook dinner from scratch and eat leftovers for breakfast/lunch. If I'm asked to babysit, I won't have time to go home, cook dinner, clean up, and take the dinner to go. I do, work down the street from a grocery store, so I can run in and grab a few things. 

I'm looking for ideas for meals that are easy to cook/prepare using ingredients I can just run into a grocery store and grab. Chicken apple sausages with frozen veggies, sweet potato, and some kind of healthy fat to cook everything in, etc. I can't guarantee they'll have anything safe at some of the houses I babysit at, so I want to be able to have a full-meal option. If it's a last-minute thing, they can usually afford to give me 30 minutes to stop at the store on my way over. 

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Okay so this has nothing to do with recipes or ideas for food, but perhaps you want to take some time to decide if your health and this Whole30 are as important as last minute babysitting for a friend. Sure it's nice that you do that and should you have food available or the timing is such that there isn't a problem, that's great. But you're putting an awful lot of outside stress on yourself in these four weeks to make sure that you're being everything for everyone... it's society's expectation that women don't put themselves first and never say no, but that's not healthy or reasonable.

I'd personally say no to babysitting if it was going to cause me this much ordeal in the four weeks of a Whole30 and I think your friends would understand if you said that you were going to make yourself a priority for these weeks.

Seriously, I"m not trying to be a jerk, but sometimes we are presented with opportunities to take a step back from how we manage parts of our life. If their inconvenience (not having a babysitter) is trumping your inconvenience (racing around trying to find compliant food options), maybe it's worth considering if you can use this time to value yourself enough to say no and put your own needs ahead of others... just a thought.

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Most grocery stores have hard boiled eggs -- at my usual store they're in the deli section with premade salads and stuff, but I've seen them with eggs in other stores. You can always buy salad fixings -- a bag of lettuce, a tomato, maybe a cucumber or bell pepper or onion. Check the fresh, pre-cut stuff too. Cans of tuna, salmon, sardines, or occasionally you can find canned chicken, although that's really hard to find.

 

If it's always the same people asking this, maybe you can see if they'd let you leave some stuff there, like the canned fish, or some frozen stuff, although if their pantry/freezer is pretty full, maybe that won't work. Or if you work in an office where you're allowed to leave things in the office fridge/freezer (assuming you have one), you could always leave a bag of frozen veggies and a pre-cooked serving of meat in the freezer, a bottle of olive oil in your desk, and then you'd just grab that and go babysit, replacing everything another day.

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This isn't really a dinner idea, more of a snack idea, but you know how they make those "to go" cups of peanut butter? Maybe you could create a Whole30 version of those using sunflower butter and small reusable containers. Then you could just grab that and some veggies or fruit to dip into it and be ready.

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