Juggling working from home with healthy eating
Written for Herts Business Exchange - 9 October 2020.
Hats off to parents right now. There is an incredible amount of juggling going on. Popping the packed lunches into the children’s hands on their way out the door for school, while muting the work call and hoping no one noticed!
Many of us have had to quickly adapt to the challenge of juggling working from home with healthy eating.
However, one area where home working can be to our advantage, is freeing ourselves from the kitchen. With just a little bit of planning, you can sail gracefully out of your home office, straight into the kitchen feeling like an organised domestic goddess. Here are my tips for achieving this:-
1. The slow cooker
If you don’t already have one, they are well worth investing in. The evening before throw whatever lurks at the bottom of your fridge into the slow cooker. Come the morning you will have the most delicious dinner ready to eat the following day. The combined flavours are delicious and the juices retain the nutrients from the food. Slow cookers are also good for curries, chilli, bolognaise, soups and even porridge.
Here is my recipe for slow cooker beef casserole:
www.katherinehorstmann.com/tips-recipes/slow-cooker-beef-casserole
2. Juicing & smoothies Consider setting an hourly alarm to make you get up from your desk and move your body. A nice thing to do in one of these breaks is making a home made juice or smoothie (these double up as a great snacking deterrent).
I would recommend alternating between the two. Juices do have an amazing hit of nutrients, but a smoothie will retain the fibre. Try to ensure that they contain more vegetables than fruit to balance your blood sugar (therefore energy levels). You can also add some nut butter or protein powder to smoothies (for healthy fats and extra protein).
If you’re really short of time, pre-prepare bags for the week ahead containing the ingredients you fancy. Then you can just throw them in the blender with your preferred milk (I use almond).
See my website for my ‘Rise and shine juice’ and my chocolate smoothie: www.katherinehorstmann.com/tips-recipes/chocolate-tahini-layered-smoothie
3. Cook once, eat (at least) twice!
This really will make your life much easier. Don’t ever cook for one meal but make at least double the quantity. Eat last night’s dinner for today’s lunch and freeze whatever you don’t eat. This sort of batch cooking is good to do at weekends. It means you have quick freezer back ups for nights you need to work late, the kids have clubs or when life just throws you a curve ball.
Planning ahead and batch cooking is the key to successfully juggle working from home with healthy eating.
4. Meal planning
This really is a saving grace from many perspectives. It helps you to be more organised, waste less food, save money and eat more healthily (no last minute take outs when you find the fridge bare).
I recommend:-
Trying one new dish from that dusty cook book on the shelf once a week or fortnight (this keeps your meal plans interesting and varied). See my website for more ideas.
Getting oily fish into your lunch or dinner twice a week (salmon, sardines, herring, mackerel, anchovies) – tinned is fine.
Aiming for 3 of your dinners each week to be meat free and mainly plant based.
Include your ‘family favourite’ on a night you know you have less time (for us, it’s spaghetti bolognaise with hidden carrot and mushroom)
If you have fussy children, get them involved with the meal planning. There will be more buy-in and they can even help prepare it.
Sit down on a Friday and plan your meals for the week ahead, book your shop to arrive on a Saturday and then batch cook at least one dish on the Sunday for the week ahead.
And for those days that everything goes pear shaped (because who doesn’t have those), Cook have a really nice selection of healthy frozen food.
And another bonus of this COVID enforced home working? Many of us are eating meals around the table as a family more than ever, and how good does that extra opportunity for family connection feel?
For more information on Katherine and her clinic, please visit her website www.katherinehorstmann.com
