happy monday all, hope you had a great weekend! lately i’ve been thinking a lot about healthy food, and how to make it easier for people to incorporate it into their already busy and full lives. i think “healthy” food almost always requires just a little more time since it’s not pre-made, pre-packaged, etc
i imagine that after working 8-10 hours in an office the last thing anyone really wants to do is come home and prepare a meal. i’m fortunate enough to make my own hours and work from home, and i still struggle with this. so i’m trying to think of ways to make life just a little bit easier. one of my ideas for this is prepping large batches of food to be used in multiple meals throughout the week. for instance, on sunday i made a huge batch of roasted sweet potatoes (cooked while we were roasting brussel sprouts for our sunday night dinner). and this morning i turned some of them into a breakfast hash, tomorrow i’ll make these with them and by wednesday just when i think i can’t eat another sweet potato, i’ll throw them into my lunch salad giving them a whole new life.
do you have any tips or tricks for squeezing cooking/healthy eating into a busy life? do you find yourself coming home from work exhausted and just reaching for the quickest, easiest meal? let’s chat about this and share our solutions in the comments! xx- sarah {recipe after the jump}
ingredients:
2 cups sliced green onion
4 cups roasted sweet potatoes
2 cups black beans
2 cups chopped kale
3/4 teaspoon sea salt
refined coconut oil
avocado
method:
this hash is the perfect hearty winter breakfast- a small bowl will get you through until lunchtime without even thought of a snack! this recipe is for a large batch…because leftover hash is almost as good as a room full of puppies. if you don’t like leftovers i recommend halving it to serve two. i hope you love!
– chop sweet potatoes into 1/4 inch cubes, toss in refined coconut oil, spread on baking sheet and roast at 325 degrees until cooked through (in our oven on the convection setting with other veggies roasting simultaneously it was around 25 minutes)
-coat a skillet with refined coconut oil, and sauté onions until just a little soft over medium heat.
– add sweet potato, sea salt and cook over high, stirring occasionally (add coconut oil if potatoes start to stick to the bottom of the pan)
– when the potatoes have softened and the onions are cooked through, add black beans and cook for an additional two minutes stirring gently to avoid sticking
– add kale and fold in until it’s completely softened/wilted
– serve with avocado slices and your favorite hot sauce (these days i seriously can’t get eough of this one!)
– optional garnish additions: cilantro, finely chopped red onion, vegan sour cream
– enjoy!
I'm making this for dinner right the moment! the recipe is so easy to read and follow, thank you! we're getting experimental and sauting green bell pepper with it along with garlic. might crack an egg on top! should be tasty
I love your idea of batch cooking – I do it all the time and it's the only way to stay on track when things get busy and you are tired after a long day. I make a vegatable stock every Sunday and use it throughout the week to make homemade soups. Saute a few diced vegetables, add some beans, noodles, fresh herbs, whatever you have on hand and you've got a filling, satisfying bowl of soup (and with any luck some leftovers for lunch then next day!)
love that lisa! soups are always so satisfying too!
i need to make those tacos. i always try to do this but my bottomless pit husband somehow always eats it all that day! there is basically no amount of roasted vegetables that he can't consume.
haha! rita that's amazing! it's so funny, lou consumes large batches of roasted veggies too. actually, so do i.
I definitely try to follow this advice, but have a similar problem to Rita
I think the answer is to make a ton of food and then hide some. Haven't tried it yet, but it might work…
My best trick to staying healthy is planning ahead, like you did here with your roasted sweet potatoes! If I can shop/prep on weekends or early in the week I am infinitely more likely to stay healthy the rest of the week. This probably goes for most people, unfortunately it's also easier said than done!
@julia- HA!! yes, hiding food might do the trick.
@kait- totally! it's all about making the time for it when you do have it. tricky to stay motivated to do sometimes but so worth it, right?!
My "lazy/tired/rushed" food set-up includes having some healthy preserved foods around–mostly Mediterranean in nature, roasted red peppers, pickled carrots, olives, blanched and frozen vegetables, smoked fish in oil, artichoke hearts. As much as I prefer to eat freshly cooked foods, it's nice to have these options. And so easy to throw into a salad!
I can never have enough squash recipes. This looks very warm and hearty – just what we need to blustery winter.
I have come to accept that the only way to eat healthy in the way I want, and to actually make it happen, instead of just being a healthy eater in my head, and then always reaching for whatever's fastest, is to spend a good chunk of my Sunday planning recipes, grocery shopping, and cooking. I just recently tried your roasted chikpeas and it was a perfect all week snack for my salads and tacos. Little things!
hi! de-lurking over here to comment. i love your photos, style inspiration and recipes! i think that planning ahead is totally the way to go. i try to spend a few hours on sunday planning and cooking as well. i always make soup or a big pot of lentils or some other bean. when i start to get sick of what i made on sunday, usually by wednesday, i throw the soup or beans in the freezer for the times when i haven't been able to do as much weekly food prep. i also work in an office and take my lunch everyday, so i always make a salad dressing and have some delicious veggies fixings ready for salad-making (beans, veggies, cabbage, roasted potatoes, etc). sometimes i toss my salad fixings with some kind of sauce and a grain also to mix things up. keep your recipes coming! thanks!
I accidentally added the black beans before sweet potato & it turned into a mash of sorts. Still really good! Thanks for the recipe
Hi there,
Thanks for this post. What's your opinion on soaking beans in order to make them less gassy? How long should you soak black beans for, in this case?
Alana
Hi there,
Thanks for this post. What's your opinion on soaking beans in order to make them less gassy? How long should you soak black beans for, in this case?
Alana
Hi there,
Thanks for this post. What's your opinion on soaking beans in order to make them less gassy? How long should you soak black beans for, in this case?
Alana
hi alana! i soak the beans overnight… not sure how much it helps with the gassiness, but definitely gets them ready for cooking!