This is where we share our favorite tips, tricks, secrets, and ways to "think like a healthy person" so that you can find your own delicious path to healthy living.
"Feel-Good Mondays" are meant to help us get back into that place of feeling energized, nourished, and ready to take inspired action for the week ahead.
Prior to the pandemic of Covid19 (back in the good old days, when I would casually shop in large grocery stores all footloose and fancy-free), I was big into buying pre-chopped veggies for quick and easy meal prep. My cart was usually filled with pre-chopped/bagged kale, pre-chopped broccoli florets and pre-shredded cauliflower rice. I loved those short-cuts, but it meant that I’d be left with a ton of excess packaging and not a whole lot of veggies in my fridge. Which was just fine, because I was stopping by a market every few days and re-stocking my fridge as needed.
Once the quarantine hit NYC, I could no longer casually stop by my local grocery store as frequently as before. Grocery store deliveries became difficult too, and most of the products I wanted were out of stock (especially short-cut produce like my pre-chopped organic veggies).
I now do once-weekly in-person shops at my local market, which means I need to make my produce last. And a lot of the pre-packaged products are out of stock anyhow, so I’ve had to be creative about how to feed my family fresh veggies all week long (without spending hours prepping in the kitchen each day, which was hard beforehand but especially hard now that my 4-year old is around ALL THE TIME).
My solution is simple, but it works and we’ve actually been eating more veggies than ever!
My pre-chopped veggies for the week
(broccoli, broccolini, cauliflower, and kale)
I buy whole heads of broccoli, kale, and cauliflower and I chop/de-stem them and put them into separate baggies (and place into my crisper bin) for easy access throughout the week. The key is that you DO NOT wash the veggies ahead of time, because damp/wet veggies do not store well in the fridge. Plus, by skipping the washing step, it’s easier to get all my veggies done and prepped for the week in less than 30 minutes (and I simply wait to wash right before cooking my veggie of choice.).
For broccoli and cauliflower, chop into florets and store in an airtight container in the fridge. (Ziplocks work well!) Use as desired for stir-fries or, my personal favorite, crispy roasted cauliflower (my fam is obsessed right now! Simply preheat oven to 425 deg, toss cauli florets with olive oil and S&P, and roast 25-30 min until browned and crispy) or “burnt” broccoli. YUM.
For kale, I simply destem the leaves and store in an airtight container. I rinse and chop before sautéing with a little olive oil and chopped garlic (the water that clings to the leaves after washing actually helps steam-cook the kale for a better flavor/texture).
Pre-chopping your own veggies doesn’t take much time at all, and it usually means you’ll eat more veggies if you don’t have any mental resistance around having to chop a bunch of veggies (when you’re tired and hungry come dinnertime…or maybe that’s just me!). I’ve also found that I simply have more veggies around than ever before, because when you purchase a bag of pre-chopped cauliflower, for example, you’re probably only getting around ½ a head (or less).
Cheers to more and more and more veggies, and more ease!
With love,
P.S. How are you getting in your veggies these days? I’d love to hear from you!
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