How do you prepare?

[Jon's wife]

One more item I am learning, that you cannot really eat healthy unless you are prepared.  I no longer can grab what ever I want to snack on or eat for a meal, I need to think it through. At first, and even now, this is a bit more challenging.

However, it is a GOOD signal of how much I did that unaware of what I was eating/grazing.   Over all I believe this is a good tool, to THING/PLAN before anything pops in my mouth. 

How do YOU deal with this, what success and how?

[togirl]

I am on Day 21 (just finished). For the first week I did all the meals in the book.  It took me 5-6 hours on the Sunday before I started to prepare.  OMG, I think the only other time I spent that much time preparing was for Christmas or Thanksgiving.  

Now, with 3 weekends under my belt, I am still preparing but not so much.  I find I always need the mayo around and the ranch dressing is great so I try to have that in the fridge.  I froze a bunch of the pesto so that is handy and have cooked up some meat and veg to re-heat for the meals.  

It is a ton of planning.  And you need  decent sized fridge.  And I haven't really snacked at all - the meals completely fill me up.

[PatGLex]

I planned out meals for the first 2 weeks, and tried to not overbuy stuff or things that I would only use in 1 recipe. [Still working on using the other cup of coconut milk in the refrigerator -- also have a container of chopped leeks I want to make use of . . . ]

[ShannonM816]

2 hours ago, PatGLex said:

I planned out meals for the first 2 weeks, and tried to not overbuy stuff or things that I would only use in 1 recipe. [Still working on using the other cup of coconut milk in the refrigerator -- also have a container of chopped leeks I want to make use of . . . ]

Both the coconut milk and the leeks can be frozen. I often chop celery, leeks, onions, and garlic and freeze them so I can easily throw them into soups or other cooked dishes. I wouldn't use them in a salad after freezing them, I'm not sure the texture would be right, but for cooked items, having chopped ones in the freezer can be a real time saver.

For the coconut milk, blend it if it's separated and freeze in ice cube trays. You can then use it in coffee or throw it into soups or curries. Just be sure it's still good before you freeze it -- if you put it into a clean container, it'll last maybe a week, but if you left it in opened can, it won't last as long. Either way, if it smells off or looks weird, don't take a chance on it.

[PatGLex]

Great to know that I can freeze the leeks!  I did use them in my breakfast scramble today along with some kale, because I did read they can sort of sub for onions. But there is still a LOT of leeks to go through! The coconut milk is in a glass mason jar, and I just used it over the weekend. And dang, I should have thought of the ice cube tray -- I've used that trick before!