Easy Meal Plan Staples

Meal planning can be overwhelming for a lot of us! I've had to find a balance between

1. meticulously controlling every breakfast, lunch dinner
2. planning out meal options so I know what to shop for, and...
3. letting the week take control and eating out every night.

Let me tell you, all three of those have happened! 

Sometimes I buy too much and all the food goes to waste, sometimes I don't buy enough and find myself at Trader Joe's 3-4x/week. And don't even get me started about BUDGETING! My husband and I have been really careful since getting married because we have been saving for big things, and the area we found that I spend the most is on groceries. I LOVE grocery shopping and trying out new things, but most of the time, simple is always better, especially for the bank account! I've found a way to make foods we love that won't break the bank, and will still nourish us.

But what about the freedom part? Isn't meal planning and prepping too controlling? I would say, no!

Sometimes, when you are trying to eat in a nourishing way, but also not let food  rule your life, it can be hard to know how to meal plan and prep so that you know you have healthy options on hand, but also feel freedom and flexibility in the process. The way I like to go about it is to have staples for breakfasts, lunches, and dinners that we can alternate throughout the week. We usually alternate meals, and we don't find ourselves getting bored especially when we use different seasonings and ways of eating! Below are some of my staple meals and what I haul each week from the grocery store to make it happen!

1. Taco seasoning. Listen up, Trader Joe's has THEEEE best taco seasoning out there. When we first got married, I had Vasken buy me about 10 packs. And when we ran out, Trader Joe's ran out...for 2 months. I was so sad, and tried to make my own mix (which I know is possible), but sometimes convenience wins, and TJ's seasoning just tastes better. Our local trader just got these packets back in stock, so I hoarded them again and have been using this taco seasoning to season turkey meat (both tacos, and burgers), lentils (taco seasoning + salsa= amazing!) and beans and rice dishes. Make your life easier and go get a few packets of this seasoning mix, you won't regret it! 

2. Rolled oats! These are so versatile. I like making a big pot of oatmeal at the beginning of the week (add 1-2 T of chia seeds for extra gooey-ness!) or making a breakfast oatmeal cookie! Plus, oatmeal is full of fiber and other goodness to help us feel full in the morning. Top with fruit and your favorite nut butter and you're good to go!

3. Justin's nut butter packs. I am OBSESSED with these! Healthy fats on the go can be hard to find, but these make it so easy! Just give them a little massage before tearing them open and they have the consistency of melted peanut butter. I eat a packet daily with a banana or apple, or just on its own!

4. Cut up veggies. Sometimes, we can get burnt out from salads, which is why I always love having some cut up veggies to snack on! My favorites are carrots, cucumbers, grape tomatoes, broccoli, and sweet mini bell pepper! Dip in hummus or guacamole for added flavor and a dose of healthy fats!

5. Beans + Rice! When on a budget, beans and rice are a dream come true. I love the Cuban black beans from TJ's. I mix in some brown rice, salsa, taco seasoning, and some frozen fire roasted bell peppers, heat it up and there you go! A delicious burrito bowl! Use as a topping on a salad or sauteed veggies to still get your greens in!

6. EGGS! I feel like eggs go without saying, but they are a delicious and nutritious protein source for us! Yes, even the yolk! The yolk is full of healthy fats that help with hair, skin, eyes, and pretty much every other organ. Plus, each egg has 6-7g of protein in them depending on their size! Scramble them, boil them, fry them, and enjoy!

7. Salad+chip+hummus makes the world go round. This is my go-to lunch combo when time is tight and options are few. I always have the ingredients on hand to make a salad, plus have some kind of healthy chip and dip. Usually, I go for the veggie flax chips or sweet potatoes chips from Trader Joe's! (Can you tell where I do most of my shopping??)

8. Shakeology! Last but not least, my healthiest meal of the day is Shakeology. This whole-foods shake is jam packed with vitamins, minerals, probiotics, digestive enzymes, antioxidants, and more. The best part for this dietitian is that it comes from all whole food superfoods, no weird powders, fillers, or chemicals. I refuse to call it a protein shake, because it's not! It's full of so much more, which makes it incomparable in my professional opinion to other powders on the market! If you'd like to know more about it, please don't hesitate to reach out and ask questions!

If you need help simplifying meal planning and prepping, don't worry, I've got you! It's taken me years to hone in the skills to make this process as easy and as nutritious as possible. I hope this list helps you all, and if you ever need more ideas or added support or info, use the contact me button above to get in touch with me! I love hearing from my readers and helping in however way I can! Have a great Thursday, all!

Food and Fitness Plan: 13 days till the Wedding!

Happy Monday everyone! I hope you all had a lovely Easter with your loved ones. My Easter weekend was great! I had a fun time with both my fiancé's family and my family. We also celebrated his birthday, which was on Friday! So lots of fun family time, and LOTS of yummy and not so healthy food. But I am working on leaving that part of the weekend in the past, and focusing on all the fun I had with my loved ones, as well as the true reason for the day, which is the resurrection of Jesus Christ!

I also found time in my busy day yesterday to meal prep! The picture looks gross (I really need a nicer camera!) but the dish I made was a quinoa pesto with tons of veggies! So easy and delicious, I will share the recipe soon!

After our Easter celebrations, my fiancé and I headed to our apartment to set some things up. I got to wash and organize all of our "pop" containers! SO IN LOVE WITH THESE!! I am a kitchen nerd!

My wedding...is 13 days away. 13!!!! I can't believe it! I am so excited, but also nervous about how everything will go. But I know that in 14 days, it won't matter, because we will be married, and finally start our life together!

So this week, my focus will be on getting good nutrition and working hard at my workouts. As many brides can relate to, I really want to look good on my wedding day! I am hoping I will lose the bloat from all the treats I ate this weekend (apple pie, Chinese food...twice) and feel strong and confident on our wedding day! So here is my tentative meal plan for the week:

Breakfasts:

Shakeology

Scrambles with vegetables

Lunches:

Quinoa pesto with vegetables

Turkey burger

Salads

Dinners:

Out with friends and family! This week is so busy, I will probably have to be eating out in the evenings. But I am planning on sticking to lots of vegetables and protein. Lean, clean, and green dinners!

Snacks:

Fruits

Vegetables w/hummus

Nuts

As far as workouts go, I can't believe it is my last week of PiYo!  I finish the program this Sunday, so only 5-6 more workouts to go! I plan on finishing strong, while including some more runs/cardio and some of the new Beach Babe 3 DVD I got from the Tone it Up girls! Their bikini series starts next week, and I am so excited to incorporate Beach Body programs and the bikini series workouts! And what perfect timing before our honeymoon!

Monday: I did PiYo Drench this morning and sweat was dripping off of me, per usual

Tuesday: PiYo Buns, Beach Babe 3 workout

Wednesday: PiYo Sweat, run/walk

Thursday: PiYo Core, Beach Babe 3 workout

Friday: rest day from PiYo, I will probably do a Beach Babe 3 workout!

Saturday: PiYo Sculpt, run/walk

Sunday: PiYo Drench, the last workout of the program!

That's about it for this week. Keep up with my meals and workouts on my Instagram page! @tveen_RD

Have a wonderful Monday everyone!

Messhall Kitchen Review

I've been wanting to write this review for a long long time! A few weeks ago, my fiancé and I went to a restaurant in the Hollywood/LA area called the Messhall Kitchen. It was spur of the moment decision, we are driving, hungry, and didn't wanna mull over the decision. We were driving down Los Feliz when we saw it and decided to turn in and eat there. It looked like a pretty snazzy place. The menu was awesome, lots of local produce options and everything seemed pretty high quality. We decided to start with the short rib nachos...which were basically fries, short ribs, and melted cheese. As unhealthy as this sounds, I didn't really care because this thing was DELICIOUS! The only downside is that we had to wait about 30 minutes for our appetizer...which was kind of frustrating. Everyone around us was eating and enjoying their food, which made us even hungrier! But we finally got our short rib nachos and devoured the thing.

Shortly after, we got our actual meals. We like to get a couple things that we both like and share the meals so we get to enjoy different foods. My fiancé got the Cobb salad and I got the vegan curry, to which I added chicken for some added protein. This curry was unbelievably tasty!!! It was light but flavorful at the same time. There was a variety of vegetables too, which made it even better! My fiance's salad was good too...just a typical Cobb...but we both definitely enjoyed the curry!!

Since we waited so long, the waitress informed us that the manager wanted us to have a dessert on the house. We chose the strawberry shortcake which was great!! A little heavy, but what can you expect...it's dessert! ;)

Overall, we had a good experience here. If the wait for our food hadn't been so long, we probably would have enjoyed it even more. But they showed great service with the free dessert, and their food was so delicious, so I would definitely go again and recommend it to others!

Labeling Life

I have always been a perfectionist. It's been that way for as long as I can remember. If I do something, I have to do it 100%, or not do it at all. I always have set high standards for myself and, when I inevitably don't meet some of those standards, guilt, frustration, and an all together "I let myself down" mentality tends to take over. Growing up, my perfectionism revealed itself in my schoolwork. If I came home with a 96%, I would focus on the 4% I got wrong verses the 96% I got right. No one taught me this, I just wanted to always do well all of the time. As I've grown into an adult, I have realized that my need to be spotless comes out in many other aspects. Studying to be a registered dietitian set me up to have a plethora of knowledge on many confusing things. Caffeine, good or bad? Red meat, cancer bomb or good source of iron? Oatmeal, empty carbohydrate or heart disease fighting fiber? These findings always swished around in my brain and caused many confusing moments when ordering food, cooking food, or just plain deciding what to buy at the store for a particular day.

About 18 months ago, as my stomach problems became more evident and severe (see previous posts for more info!), I experienced much relief from cutting out gluten from my diet. I was so excited about the benefits of my gluten-free diet that I decided to take it one step further and go Paleo for a while. I recently just wrote a post on the Paleo diet, and firmly believe in what it stands for and its food recommendations. I love that it is not carb or fat phobic, lets you have your sweet potatoes, and advocates including those healthy fats that so many people fear! I did a Whole30 about a year ago and, by doing so, feel as if I "healed" myself with whole, nutritious, nutrient dense foods.

When I did the reintroduction part of the Whole30, where you slowly reintroduce grains, dairy, legumes, etc to your diet to see how you react, I found that gluten, and at times grains still gave me problems. However, cheese suddenly had zero adverse effects on me. I have always been allergic to full fat milk, but cheese did not bother me. I also love hummus and have never experienced a bad reaction to legumes either (even though I'm not particularly a fan of beans, I just love hummus and peanuts). I also began taking probiotics per my doctor's recommendation, which also seemed to immensely calm down my symptoms.

However, this put me in a dilemma. Was I still Paleo? Primal? Could I still support the Paleo diet, as well as the Whole30 and what it stands for, while still enjoying cheese and legume products? Did I have to pick a team? What would I call myself?

The more I thought about it, the more confused I got. And then I realized that this was crazy!! As all these thoughts were bouncing around in my already perfection-seeking brain, I started to see why the messages the public is getting can be so confusing. Which unfortunately leads to people just getting sick of thinking, throwing in the towel, and going to the nearest drive-thru for relief.

After much reflection, and some great talks with amazing friends (Michelle at www.littlekarim.com being one of them, check her out!), I am here to tell you that life doesn't have to be labeled. A healthy lifestyle is just that, a LIFEstyle. Day in, day out, the choices you make effect your health, both physically and psychologically. I don't have to pick a team, choose a group, or be 100% of something, 100% of the time. I just have to just be me, Tveen, a healthy eater who enjoys good, wholesome, nutritious food.

What works for me is this: eating good, nutritious, satisfying foods. I try to stay away from gluten because too much of it makes me feel icky. I eat cheese because it tastes amazing and fills me up. I eat hummus because it is one of the best dips out there. I eat vegetables because they are beautiful and colorful and are so good for us that we should probably be shoving the other refined carbohydrate and processed foods out of our plates to make room for these beauties.

I eat fruit because it is nature's candy and I love sweets. I eat carrots with my guacamole because I love guacamole, but could easily consume (in 30 minutes flat) my body weight in corn chips, and still be hungry by the end of my meal. I eat fat because my body needs fat, my brain thrives on fat, and it fills me up and tastes amazing. I eat food. And that's that.

I can love Paleo, but I can also love non-Paleo foods. I can firmly believe in the philosophy behind the Whole 30, but not be "on a Whole 30" for the next 30 years of my life. I can put meals together that sometimes turn out to be paleo, sometimes have some cheese sprinkled on top, or sometimes have some hummus, rice, or one of my Grandma's once a year, famous, gluten-filled, Easter cookies. The point is, it's life, it will go on, food is food, and it is here to fuel us and get us through our REAL LIFE.

There is freedom in the fact that we don't have to label our lives. We don't have to fit perfectly in a group. Or be perfect at all. A healthy life is one that is a process to achieve, but an amazing place to be. It's a place of freedom, of enjoying optimal health, and of finding foods that work for you.

The best feeling for me is to sit down to a meal and know that what I am putting in my body will fuel me, give me good nutrition, and make me feel on to of the world afterwards! I don't have to know, or care, if a food is 100% of this or that lifestyle. So I guess that labels me as "Tveen." And that is the healthiest and happiest place to be.

Little Beast Restaurant!

So, my boyfriend is pretty awesome at planning dates. No really, he never takes me anywhere that I have been before. He knows how much of a foodie I am, and always tries to pick places that are new, different, and that I would like. He spends time researching, calling restaurants, looking up menus, and doing extensive background checks on all the restaurants in our lovely LA area! Last night, we went to a little spot in Eagle Rock, CA called "Little Beast," and let me tell you, the flavors we experienced here were FAR from little!

The menu was very extensive and upon being seated we were informed that they change it seasonally, which always makes my ears perk up. Usually this means that the restaurant uses organic, fresh, local produce and supports natural foods. And I was right! The waiter told us their chicken dishes organic, and they had a variety of vegetables offered with every dish. After much deliberation, we decided to get the Burrata and Prosciutto and Crispy Sweet Potato as appetizers, and we also decided to split one of their entree options: Slow Roasted Jidori Chicken.

The burrata appetizer was broccolini wrapped in prosciutto and topped with this creamy, gooey burrata cheese. This dish was so good and incredibly rich! But, the main star for us was the crispy sweet potato appetizer..

Words do NOT describe how much I loved this dish. There were crispy sweet potato disks on the bottom, which were then topped with brown sugar sweet apple bacon bits, covered in jalapeño and arugula. Oh. My. Gosh. I could not get enough. The combination of the bacon with the sweet potato was to die for (and I don't even like bacon)! I felt like my mouth was doing a little dance of happiness every time I took a bite. Clearly, we liked both appetizers, but my favorite was definitely the sweet potato one!

Side note: I also LOVE when restaurants give you cold water in a glass bottle that you can leave ON YOUR TABLE!

A.) Because I drink a whole lot of H2O and,

B.) Because for some reason water always tastes so much better from a glass bottle!

Finally, our dinner came. They had pre-split the plate for us, so the pictured portion below is technically just HALF of their actual portion.

The dish was topped with the same sweet bacon as our appetizer was. The chicken was literally falling off the bone. It was cooked perfectly with an amazing au jus sauce covering it. They had placed the chicken on a bed of parsnip mash, which basically exactly like mashed potatoes! The dish also had swiss chard. The combinations of these foods together were basically like one big bowl of comforting goodness. My boyfriend loves comfort foods that are mashed and mushy, so he was definitely a happy camper!

By the end of the meal, we were both STUFFED. But our stomachs were singing with happiness! This restaurant was the perfect spot for a nice date night, with good food as well as good service and a nice ambiance! We even got to enjoy the patio seating because of their heaters (which worked very well I might add).

Overall, I give Little Beast in Eagle Rock, CA two thumbs WAY WAY UP, as the genie from Aladdin would say! :)

If you live in the area, I highly recommend that you try it out! Have a wonderful Sunday night folks!