Yesterday when I went to the dentist, I confessed that while I floss every day, most days I only floss some of my teeth – the ones that I think need it most. Yes, I understand clearly that the logic here is warped.
Imagine how it sounded coming out of my mouth, “Um, I don't have time to floss all of my teeth, but I do floss! I swear!”
I am sure I am not alone when I say – I am busy. Working, blogging, momming, cooking, etc. And that's not mentioning all the things I'm not doing that I want to do or should be doing. Like flossing all of my teeth.
Don't get me wrong, for the most part, I really like my life, but sometimes my fast-paced schedule really wears on me when I am trying to squeeze in time to get a batch of yogurt going before I pack school lunches, change a diaper, and rush out the door.
Or when I discover that we are out of cultured ketchup – didn't I just make some last week? – to support my family's morning egg and ketchup habit. I forgot to turn the dehydrator ON all day? Time to make the doughnuts, I mean, change the kombucha. WHAT? There's nothing to eat? How is that possible?
Eating real food means that someone (not a machine in a factory) has to make my family's food. On most days I am happy and grateful to do it myself. But on the days when I'm not, here are the rules I live by:
1 – Choose low maintenance kitchen projects
Kombucha takes a few minutes to throw together and then brews peacefully on the counter for about two weeks without making a fuss. Now that's my kind of cooking.
Kefir, on the other hand, needs to be changed and freshened each day like a high maintenance pet.
Dinner that takes more than two pots – out. Anything that depends on rising dough or other magical forms of chemistry – not for me. It's not that I wouldn't love to make my own bread, coddle pet ferments, and nurture a souffle. Really, I am going to do these things – just as soon as they add that eighth day to the week.
2 – Find real convenience food
Real food is NOT on every corner, but if you look hard enough you can still find pre-made options that will not compromise your family's food values. I've found yogurt from grass fed cows, traditionally fermented sauerkraut, kimchi, and pickles, and real sourdough bread – none of which I had to make myself – all at the local health food stores. I've also clocked a few local restaurants when I can stop for an occasional latte with organic milk from pastured cows, free range eggs, grass fed burgers, and oysters on the half shell. I am blessed in Los Angeles to know Real Food Devotee who will deliver everything from bone broth to raw milk ice cream to my door.
3 – Shop less
If nothing else happens in a week, every Saturday our farm box appears at our house packed with seasonal local produce, raw milk, and cream. If I planned ahead there may be some meat and extra fruit or veggies in there, but in either case, there is farm fresh food at my house without me getting in my car.
By buying in bulk and shopping online, I have reduced my grocery shopping from weekly trips to the farmer's market and at least two different grocery store stops, to a monthly trip to the farmer's market, and one trip per week to pick up odds and ends at the grocery store. By buying bulk there is simply less of a need to constantly be replacing items, and by buying online I save myself on driving and usually spend less money too.
4 – Take shortcuts
On the days that you're feeling ambitious or at least have enough motivation to contribute to dinner, use this list of 7 Shortcuts in a Real Food Kitchen to save you time and energy.
5 – Quit
Well, no I don't mean quit eating real food for good – unless you want to eat frozen t.v. dinners and Happy Meals for the rest of your life.
But a mini-break from making everything from scratch is usually our fastest road back to preparing real food.
Not only does a short-term kitchen boycott buy you some time to take a breath, but it also puts things into perspective. A couple of organic frozen pizzas and I'm plotting how I can make it so much better with sprouted flour, garden tomatoes, and grass fed cheese.
A trip to an over-priced, mediocre restaurant and I'm home, culturing veggies and soaking grains, slow-cooker bubbling quietly in the background as I bustle off to brush and floss every last one of my teeth.
What do you do when you just don't have the time to make real food?
Share your secrets below!
I do a little OMAC on the days that I’m filled with energy so that I have good homemade foods ready on those days that i don’t have energy or time to cook. It’s simple really. You just have to think a little ahead.
I feel like you are speaking directly to me. I’ve got a fridge full of things I should be doing. sigh
Great post! It can be time consuming, for sure, but well worth it. These are great tips for making it work without becoming overwhelmed.
I look for cheap and fast meals to throw together, usually ones my fiancé will not eat so I know it is just for me! 🙂
Great Post !! Sometimes I feel I am in the kitchen all day. It can be really overwhelming but it’s well worth. I think we deserve to take a break once in a while to be more efficient. Plan ahead is the key.
My husband and I have recently crashed. We both work full time and had been making all our food from scratch (yogurt, bread, butter…), but recently conked out. I have accepted that organic jarred spaghetti sauce and organic pre-made pasta will just have to do. We’ve learned that we have to balance things, since we cannot do everything all the time.
Thanks for your balanced point of view.
Heat salmon patties from Costco in a skillet and throw some olive oil and balsamic vinegar on salad mix; make omelets with whatever cheese and vegetables I have on hand; and sandwiches :).
…we have been trying extremely hard not to purchase processed foods of any kind in the last few years…. I have always cooked everyday from scratch.. on days I don’t feel energized, I make a simple meal of grilled cheese sandwiches on homemade bread with vine ripened tomatoes….as it was today, with a banana smoothie w/fresh milk and ice blended, homemade granola bars for dessert…
Sounds delicious, Dee!
@Holistic Kid.. thanks.. 🙂 I had the giggles when I read your post about flossing selected teeth.. would of loved to see the look on your dentsts face with that one… haaaaa
A lot of nourishing foods don’t actually take THAT much time in the kitchen, just some planning ahead. For example, making yogurt – boil the milk, let it cool, put it in your yogurt machine. The amount of time that you are actually doing something is really just a few minutes. The same for homemade sourdough bread as well and many other goodies. And obviously having homemade stock in the freezer is essential. Sometimes I just boil some carrots at night before I got to bed, reheat them up in the morning with some chicken stock, season, blend and put it all in my thermos and serve along with a liver pate sandwich on homemade sourdough bread – it’s a very satisfying lunch that doesn’t take long at all to prepare.
One freezer trick has helped me a lot. I keep a plastic bin in the freezer labelled “SOUP SCRAPS.” In there, I have plastic bags of things I save for making broth: bones, vegetable scraps that I have placed into baggies half-filled with water, etc. When the bin is full, I take all that stuff and make stock. In winter, on the stovetop and in summer in the crockpot.
The other thing I do is to double a batch of anything that’s easily freezeable: chili, chicken casseroles, vegetable gratins. That way if I need a meal I don’t want to bother with, I just take one of theseout and cook it.
Even more last-minute convenient is a meal of ezekiel sprouted wheat english muffins topped with egg and cheese. At our house, we call it an Egg McMommy. Or we top the muffin with smoked wild salmon and goat cheese.
If all else fails, an Egg, Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato Sandwich.
Susie
Or, at my house, BEAST sammies: Bacon, Egg, Avocado, Spinach, Tomato.
Susie, a big DITTO. I have always kept a container in my freezer, I call it my “soup dejour'” container…esp. too for left over veggies from evening meals that would go into it, pieces of beef ends or such. We are big soup eaters here. 🙂
My heart smiled when I read of your post of Egg McMommy… we did the same and still do, my kids called them Egg McMallett’s. Their friends would come over for breakfast when they knew what was for breakfast.
NONE of my friends cook from scratch. All they do is scratch their heads in wonder why anyone would want to take time to do so. I always felt cooking from scratch has to begin with state of mind. It’s like the old saying.. “is the glass half full or half empty”.. .. I feel if you go into the kitchen with the state of mind that its a “chore” then it is… I like to walk into my kitchen and think “hmm what can I create tonight? ” … I have a wonderful husband who even when I bomb a recipe, compliments the dish and tells me he appreciates eating wholesome meals everynight.
Holistic Kid.. love that you take me on all your “made from scratch” adventures… you are in inspiration to me in my kitchen…..
Great tips! I get the produce box from Abundant Harvest also. In fact just got mine delivered about 2 hours ago (ours got changed to Tuesday home delivery). I love knowing that’s coming, that has saved time, money and headaches.
I love this! Some days I feel like I’m in the kitchen all day. Cooking is easy, cleaning up the mess is the hard part :(. Someday my kids will be big enough to clean up the mess… 🙂
I am waiting for that day too, Tiffany!
I have been through this so many times. I am doing the GAPS Diet or the Paleo Diet I tend to call it since it is too stressful to follow all the rules of one specific diet. I go through burnout and boredom and my son tries to eat the bare minimum of meat and vegetables, then he goes and hunts for fruit between meals. My husband always insists on giving it to him. I get tired because I like more variety in my meals but my son does not eat any special dishes, everything has to be plain. In addition my daughter is a teething toddler. She doesn’t nap much and she wants me to hold her all the time. I have bought a lot of Applegate Sausage and Organic Prairie Hot Dogs. Now this week we are on such a tight budget that I have to stick to pure lamb on the bone and my son and I both are not in the mood for it. I love cooking when we have lots of food, but when money is low and I have to make something I don’t really want, it is a drag.
Where do you buy online from that it wouldn’t cost an arm and a leg in shipping? (I’m also in Southern California.)
Hi Claudia – I buy many things on with free two day shipping, and others I find from my awesome sponsors: http://holisticsquid.com/real-food-resources/.
Love the post. We cook most things from scratch, but they’re very simple dishes. I make mayonnaise, occasionally hollandaise, from our own eggs. It’s good for making fish salad sandwiches (can of tuna, can of salmon, can of sardines, maybe a couple of anchovies chopped up) or as a base for salad dressing (there’s nothing without canola or soy oil or both at the store). We use homemade stock for reheating leftovers instead of water; it provides so much more flavor and nutrition.
We really like the boxes of salad mix and eat a lot more salads as a result; we eat a large one or a couple of small ones each week. I use it as a base for my work lunches, and top with dried fruit, nuts, leftover meat and vegetables, hard cooked egg, or fish salad, a little sauerkraut (homemade or store-bought)) and homemade dressing. that is my go-to lunch formula practically every day, and as long as I vary the meat and the dressing occasionally, I don’t get tired of it.
On nights we can’t bear to cook, we like sliced Fuji apples, dried cranberries, crispy nuts, and a nice cheese like Havarti. Simple, satisfying, quick, and not that expensive. Another easy option is quesadillas made with sprouted corn tortillas, raw milk jalapeno jack cheese, and bottled salsa, which I have previously lacto-fermented. (Last summer we made fresh salsa, but it’s long gone!)
We do get tired of the same flavor palate all the time (pastured butter and sea salt, not so bad!), so need to work on expanding our repertoire.
awesome tips and philosophy, Emily! Real Food. Real Life.
I prepare for these times before they happen because I KNOW there will be days when I just don’t feel like being creative. So, I brown some ground-beef and cook some chicken to put in containers in the freezer. This meat can be added to soups or casseroles. I keep some organic spaghetti sauce on hand for making various things. I buy pre-washed organic salad. And I have a rice maker. So, one of my fastest meals is baked chicken, rice, and steamed vegetables. Also, we have bone broth in the crockpot going continuously. So, I can make soup pretty quickly as well. I have also bought organic pizza crust to keep in the freezer, but not often. I am thankful for these organic convenience items, but I don’t want to rely on them due to the extra cost.
I am a high school teacher and the assistant dance team director. During the school year, I leAve my house at 7:00am and don’t return until somewhere between 9 and 10pm on most nights. Real food is hard when you are literally never home. I pick up produce on Saturday mornings from Bountiful Baskets and then immediately head to the health food store on the way home (every other week) for dairy and pantry staples. We order from a local meat co-op on a two-month rotation (also beef tallow, pastured eggs, and honey) so it takes some planning ahead to order enough meat to last – thankfully my mom picks up my order with hers to save me time. I usually spend each Sunday preparing and freezing our meals for the week. Using the crockpot overnight works for us too, as food would burn if it stayed cooking as long as I am gone during the day. In the morning I just pack the meal in the fridge to reheat in the evening. It’s difficult, but it can be done. I try to make big batches of dishes to freeze so I only have to make 2-3 new dishes each weekend to add to the rotation.
I always make a huge batch of homemade spagetti sauce and then can it for later. Then when I am feeling down or lazy, I just pull out of a jar of sauce, throw together some grass fed meatballs(so quick) and have a great homemade but less than 20 minute 1-2 pot meal.
I appreciate this post. Convenience is one of my biggest obstacles to a better diet.
You mentioned buying online, what food items do you purchase online?
thanks!
We decided to go Primal in July. With the exception of a date night once a month(which we didn’t do in our first two months of being primal) I make every single thing that we eat. I have always loved to cook, I enjoy being in the kitchen and I even love adapting recipes so that they are primal. However some days it does seem like that is all you do. It’s not so much the cooking part for me but the cleanup after I’ve created several dishes. I still cook everyday but the freezer has really become my friend. Now when I make a dish I make a large amount and freeze it into labeled pre portioned containers and bags. I have several different kinds of soups, stews, chili, various chicken dishes, taco meat etc. If I have a day where I really don’t want to cook or something comes up and I just really don’t have the time I can take something out and defrost it. Then all I have to do, depending on what the dish is is steam some veggies quickly or make a salat. We still have homemade food and don’t have to unnecessarily compromise our diet. Another little trick that has proved useful is I keep a zip loc freezer bag of each of the chopped veggies I use the most. So I have onion, celery, peppers, carrots in the freezer all chopped up so if I’m in a hurry my prep time is cut way down. Typically I do up these veggies when I am cooking and have extra time.
What is the brand of the real sourdough bread you buy? I’ve been looking for some because I just don’t have time to make it myself. I haven’t been able to find any. Would love to know!
Thanks!
Hi Shanna – Great question. We love the Whole Food brand organic sliced sourdough. So good, and traditionally soured. 🙂
Every single time I come here(HS)
I always not only find what I’m looking for, but am guaranteed to read helpful comments from awsome people(especially the moms out there) we failed our first sourdough 2 wks ago. Trying again this week. Since my girlfriend and I moved here(CO) one of the benefits is Hell’s Kitchen. They make the dough in-house, shred the cheese, the sausage is from a local farm, and toppings are organic. If we’ve been hiking all day, we will have a health/$ conscience pizza waiting for us, besides this we only eat at home, one thing I do for convenience is always have quick eats(fruits,trailmixes, pb, boiled eggs,etc.) for work, and intentionally eat cooked well-rounded foods during home times.