Easy Cooking Tips

Hello my dear readers!

I was so busy lately! I didn't have time to work on my blog and my social media. But I am glad that I finished my bodice moulage. I do everything so slowly! But it is better than to do nothing :-)

Today I want to talk about cooking and how I organize it and save some time and money.

Here is the link to my video about my cooking tips in case you don't have time to read - Easy Cooking Tips.

I love my body and I love to take care of it. To me it is extremely important to have a healthy diet. I try to avoid processed food and I cook most of my meals at home. In my daily menu I always have some fruits, veggies, fish or poultry, and grains. And I have probiotics almost every day. I don't eat too much sweets, but I don't exclude candies completely. I can eat 1 small candy in a day for example.

I have full time job and my commute from the office sometimes takes 2 hours. So by the time I get home I get so tired that cannot cook. But I do like my homemade lunches much better than any restaurant food! So what do I do to have nice meal every day and not only on weekends? I organize my cooking like a pro, ha-ha!

I must admit that in summer I do go out pretty often. There are some very nice French restaurants in my area that I really like. But in winter I am almost like a bear. I change my eating habits for the cold season. It helps me to save some money by the way.

So what exactly do I do?

First of all, I buy a lot of food once in two weeks or so in the store where I can find fresh fruits and veggies. And I don't care if they are organic or not. I trust my own senses when I pick a food. I can feel if the veggies are nice and fresh, or if they are weird and plastic. I found a nice supermarket in suburbs with a huge choice of veggies and fruits, they also have nice probiotics and not salted farmers cheese. This is how I actually found this store - I was looking for Russian or Ukrainian farmers cheese and my co-worker recommended me this place. If you live in Chicago area you can check it out. Here is the link - Fresh Farms.

Okay, so I buy tons of food, what's next? I cook! I make almost the same meal all the time. For someone it might sound boring, but for me it is easy and healthy and this is what I care about! I usually chop different veggies such as peppers, zucchinis, eggplants, broccoli, onions, I also add tomatoes (I know it is fruit but it always goes as a vegetable in my ragout). I also like to add some greens. I mix veggies in a big pot and add some poultry or fish later unless I make ground turkey or chicken, in this case I stew turkey first and then add veggies to the same pot. If I make fish or chicken breasts I cook them separately. At the same time I make my grains. It can be different types of rice, quinoa, buckwheat, farro, etc. After everything is cooked I end up with huge pot of meal that contains more or less all elements that my body needs to stay healthy, and at the same time it doesn't have too many calories because the majority of it is veggies.

As I prefer to buy a lot of veggies in one time I cook two pots so my veggies don't get rotten. One can be with turkey, another one with fish. And then I split one pot into several containers and put them into freezer. It helps me to have homemade meal handy when I don't have time to cook and I can save some time by doing groceries ones in two weeks.

I like to chop onions and peppers for several days too and it helps me to make a quick salad just by adding some avocado and tomatoes to the veggies that I already prepared.

For breakfast I like to make smoothies with berries and probiotics. I freeze some berries too. I wash them, let them dry, then I make kind of single portions of berry mix and put them into freezer. In the evening I take one portion out of the freezer and in the morning I just need to blend my berries with probiotic, add some hemp and chia seeds and I am done! It takes just few minutes. On weekends I make eggs with tomatoes, peppers and onions for breakfast. And sometimes I mix probiotic with farmers cheese. Sometimes I eat oats with oatmilk and berries.

As a snack I like to eat grapes and cheese. I buy mozzarella cheese in a small individual packaging, so I can eat one piece and the rest of the cheese stays not opened. I remember when my aunt has shown me this cheese I was so happy! Because a lot of times I buy food and then it gets rotten because I eat so little. As I said I can eat candies sometimes. I also like crispbread. It has not too many calories and contains grains. There are some types of fish that I buy already cooked, so I do eat processed food once in a while. Usually it is salted fish in olive oil. But it happens very rare.

This is pretty much it. Oh, I forgot to mention that I don't add salt to my meal. And I noticed that when I reduced the amount of salt in my diet my face became less puffy. I think salt stores water in your body and this water can affect your look.

If you organize your cooking, you can eat healthy meals every day with very limited budget and still have a lot of time for other things. I am so thankful that I have tons of food in my fridge and don't have to cook for several days! Lets appreciate every little thing that we have! Remember, there are a lot of people on this planet who don't have the luxury of going to supermarket and buying fresh veggies and fruits. And if you can do it - you need to be grateful!

Please let me know if you have any other easy cooking ideas! And don't forget to take care of your body!

Be Strong And Love Yourself!

From Dasha With Love!

Love Wins!