Clever Shortcuts

A happy hubby is a well fed hubby. I'm a pretty lucky gal, my husband Lance, eats pretty healthy and stays active which forces me to keep on track. We are certainly imperfect, but we try our best to eat food and serve food that is "uninterrupted," I'd say, or rather non processed, FRESH (hence my humble little blog). The downside to eating fresh or cooking from scratch is that it involves a lot more planning and prep work, but is extremely beneficial. I'm not sold on the whole concept of semi-homemade for shortcuts. To me it just distorts an authentic flavor, but of course from time to time I have resorted to Trader Joe's frozen turkey meatballs (no preservatives), when push comes to shove and what otherwise are my beautiful angelic children, ahem (cough, cough), turn in to whiny hungry monsters equates to food stat! Like most busy peeps, I never have enough time, even when I have time, I don't have time. Can you relate? The KEY is to make time and be clever about it. A little shortcut I've learned, and maybe I pulled this from the back of my head remembering an old Rachel Ray episode (I love Food Network and the Cooking Channel, it's just the bombsque), prep and cut your veggies and fruits as soon as you get them home. The only exception is tomatoes (& avocados). They loose flavor refrigerated, again another FN tip (wink). Planning your menu for the week is the foundation, you need to know whether you should julienne that bad boy fresh green pepper or just simply chop. I place my cut up veggies in baggies, store 'em in the fridge and they are ready to go for the next's morning breakfast of champion veggie omelet or a spectacular dinner. Their fruit counterparts are also in baggies or tupperware ready for an anytime wholesome snack. My hubby is coincidentally training for his first full marathon (26.2 miles) in early October, so it's become critical I feed him well. At the end of a long day, what makes it all worth it for me, is knowing that I have fueled my family with nutritious, good for them, food and when my 4 year old looks at me and says endearingly, "thanks mama, you're the best cooker!" I'm certainly not, but a 4 year old can have the most discerning of taste buds, right?!? I'll milk it for now. Be inspired, keep it simple & fresh, cook at home!

Keepin' it real in my little kitchen.

The run that started it all...I'm such a proud wifey!

An example of a typical breakfast of champions, I can whip this up in just a few minutes, and you can too.

Here's the infamous TJ's frozen turkey meatballs atop linguine , with salad (homemade vinaigrette) and simple artisan bread seasoned with a little butter, garlic and dried parsley (heat for 5-10 mins.). I can literally make this meal in about 20 minutes and go about my way.