Stocking your freezer for easy meals (without committing to specific recipes!)

freezer meal prep; meals

They say if you have healthy food on hand, you’ll eat it. But that’s not necessarily true. Faced with nothing but “ingredients,” it’s often tempting to just order pizza or go out.

meal prep; ingredients

And let’s be real: we’ve all chosen that road more than once! But if you keep those ingredients in an easy-to-use form, it increases your odds of actually cooking at home!  I’ve written before about 30 things I always keep on hand for easy healthy meals, but this post is going to focus on what I keep in the freezer, with some tips and how-to’s.

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Documented: Harvard professors slanted research to favor sugar industry

sugar industry bribery

Ever wonder why we’ve been misinformed for so long about sugar’s role in weight gain and heart disease? It’s a convoluted story, but part of it involves Harvard professors slanting their research to favor the sugar industry, for a price.

I don’t make this stuff up, folks.

Yesterday, Stat News published an article with this arresting lead:

As nutrition debates raged in the 1960s, prominent Harvard nutritionists published two reviews in a top medical journal downplaying the role of sugar in coronary heart disease. Newly unearthed documents reveal what they didn’t say: A sugar industry trade group initiated and paid for the studies, examined drafts, and laid out a clear objective to protect sugar’s reputation in the public eye.

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Amazin’ Asian sauce for stir-fry or crack slaw

homemade stir-fry sauce, crack slaw

This started out just being a homemade stir-fry sauce, but I’ve found that the leftover stir-fry makes a great broth bowl (curry optional), and the sauce also works for that addictive stuff known as “crack slaw.” You could, of course, also use it in a meatless main dish or veggie side dish. And made with tamari or coconut aminos, it’s gluten-free!

You might want to make a small batch, first, to figure out how you want to adapt it to your taste; feel free to improvise on my recipe! Then make a larger batch to keep on hand in the fridge for easy, throw-together meals.

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Bahn Mi sandwich & pickled carrots recipe

bahn-mi-pickled-carrots+wrap-770x300

Bahn Mi is a Vietnamese sandwich with French influence. Traditionally served on a baguette, spread with mayo and sometimes pate (those are the French parts), then topped with pork or other meats (I love to use leftover pork tenderloin), cucumber, jalapeno, cilantro, and pickled carrots and/or radish. It may be hard to imagine that all these varying flavors would come together in a harmonious whole, but trust me — they do!

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Greek(ish) gyro salad with tzatziki dressing

gyro-inspired salad

This sort-of-Greek salad was inspired by a gyro wrap: it has all the contents of a gyro, minus the pita wrap, with a modified tzatziki dressing. Gyro is a Greek dish featuring meat cooked on a vertical rotisserie, and usually served wrapped in pita bread, with cucumber, tomato, onion, and tzatziki sauce. Tzatziki is traditionally made using yogurt, cucumber, garlic, and dill, mint, or parsley. Sometimes they’re also served with french fries stuffed inside.

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Crustless make-ahead quiche – easy grain-free breakfast!

make-ahead quiche - grain-free, gluten-free, paleo, whole30

This crustless quiche makes an easy primal/low-carb/gluten-free breakfast! It’s also a great way to use up leftover cooked meats and vegetables. And sneak some veggies into your diet. (It’s Paleo except for the sour cream/yogurt.)

It also reheats beautifully. One thing I don’t like about a lot of make-ahead-and-reheat egg dishes is they get kind of tough in the microwave. Not so with this recipe!

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