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Hey all, I need some advice and ideas. I work 60+ hours a week, basically from 7:30a to 9:30p with very little time to eat during the day. I do get breaks but not really enough for anything complicated. I have all day Sunday available to cook and do my house-hold chores. That being said, I eat out a lot. Which is bad. I need to start eating better but I keep coming up with the excuse that "I don't have time". Basically, I wake up, get ready for work, eat out, come home, brush teeth and straight to bed. One of my jobs is at a health food store which is great because at least my options can be on the slightly-healthier side, but during the main part of the day I teach and it is hard to get away for more than enough time to say run to Burger King or Taco Bell (both across the street from the school) and head back. So, basically, I would love ideas for meals that I can bring with me for lunch and dinner and maybe some snacks that I can eat as a teacher and a cashier. I bought some protein powder and I might start doing shakes for breakfast since I can just drink that in the mornings on my way in and while I start my lessons. Is that a good idea?? I've never done shakes before but I am getting to the point where I am so lost and desperate that I will try just about anything. I NEED to start eating better. I feel like crap all the time and since I have anxiety and depression, my poor eating habits only make them harder to handle.

Other people are welcome to add to this recipe book, but I thought it would be good to have a thread full of easy meals.

THAT DONT INCLUDE CHICKEN BREAST, STEAK, OR ZOODLES. Not that there's anything wrong with those things, but Holy Pinterest, I need some variety. And walking around money.

I'm currently a student and I travel between my parents' home and my boyfriend's home multiple times per week. Their eating-habits aren't exactly bad, but they're not that great either. At my bf's it's usually me who cooks. I'm also reliant on homemade lunch because we don't have a cafeteria or restaurant near the school and even the supermarket is ridiculously small for the number of people frequenting it. We're lucky we have one microwave for a student-body of probably more than 500. Problem #1: Breakfast It takes me a long time to get going in the mornings, so I don't have time to prepare anything fancy for breakfast. I used to eat cereals or muesli with milk or sometimes yoghurt, but that didn't feel too satisfying and it also gets quite expensive. If I only eat toast with jam or honey I'll be hungry again soon. I currently habe oats with nuts, raisins and yoghurt for breakfast, but I keep forgetting to buy more yoghurt, so now I'm looking for alternatives. I don't really eat eggs or bacon or anything savoury/salty for breakfast except maybe for weekends, and I'm running out of ideas... Problem #2: I'm a sucker for sweets and desserts. I love chocolate and cookies and cakes. I love to bake. But I have no idea how to get a good balance. I'm usually not eating as much as I used to, but I miss baking cakes. But I also hate feeling somewhat guilty for eating biscuits or chocolate to try and get me through a stressful day. Is there such a thing as healthy alternatives that won't recquire lots of fancy ingredients I'd have to get for lots of money at a specialised store? Because I still feel like my soul would appreciate these sweet moments in life. Problem #3: I'm a sucker for comfort-food. If I don't manage to prepare lunch or grab some leftovers I usually just quickly cook some noodles and throw some store-bought sauces or pestos and parmesan in. If I do manage to cook or have some leftovers, it's not unlikely for it to be something that may not be so very ideal as my go-to-recipes when faced with the question of what to cook. Jambalays probably isn't so bad, but Lasagna and Mac'n Cheese and pasta-bakes all have noodles in them again, which is usually recommended to stay away from in this forum as far as I've seen. I know that meal-prep is important, but I'm having trouble making it a habit because I feel like I have a rather limited repertoire of go-to-dishes while wanting more diversity, and also I keep forgetting about it and only remember that I should have cooked when I'm already supposed to be in bed because otherwise I won't get enough sleep and be completely useless the next day... Sorry for the long post, but I didn't want to spam the forum with multiple ones ^^" Any kind of help would be really appreciated

Here's something I've been making. What do you think? Ingredients 1 package of fresh spinach 250 grams of ground chicken breast 100 grams of grated cheese crushed red pepper to taste Directions 1. Cut the spinach up small. 2. Mix everything in a big bowl. 3. Make patties and cook them in a frying pan. Subsitutions If ground chicken breast doesn't exist near you, just use eggs. The point is simply to keep the spinach all together in a patty. If you don't want to make it spicy you can skip the red pepper and just use things like salt, black pepper, and garlic powder. Try it!

...who wanted to rank among the best. These are my some of favorite characters. I have read their story, played their game, watched their show. They are who I strive to be and turn to for motivation. And thus, begins my story. :o) Main Story Quests: Achieve the Splits, Go Down to 18% Body Fat, Eat Healthier This Year: Horizon 2017 Dawn ~ Trophy Guide and Roadmap 2016 Challenges: Team RWBY Training, Overwatch Team Training 2017 Challenges: X-men

So, after reading and trying to cook more Paleo-ish in the kitchen for the past couple of months, I have decided that I need a place to store all my newly experimented Paleo-friendly recipes somewhere on NF so that I can refer back easily and possible share them with fellow rebels who are looking for easy & tasty recipe ideas. The recipes here follow Paleo principles (i.e. no grains, legumes, processed sugar/food, starchy stuff, dairy, & alcohol). Also, because my own dietary constraints, I don't cook anything with beef, lamb, pork, bacon, or any other type of red meat. Eating and living the Paleo lifestyle can become expensive, but I have managed to find a few ways to help save money on food (so that I can go travel around the world and help kids!). I will share them here as well. I am not too sure how I will be organizing my recipes yet, but I will edit as I add more. I am still learning about how to take good food porn/pictures and what camera to use best. So, any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Okay, enough of my rumbling! Here I go! Rawr! First up, ice cream! Who doesn't like ice cream?!

Hey guys! Does anyone have good ideas for food that makes good leftovers? I'm a student and I work part time, so I'll often have either no time or large chunks of time in which to make food. I'm trying to make more food as it's easier to go paleo and it's cheaper that way, so what are your favourite meals to make that can be made in bulk and reheated? There's a microwave at work and at uni, so that's good, but I don't have one at home, so it makes reheating take more time at night. Things that are good cold work, too.

I basically went off of this recipe, but made some changes. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/fluffy-sweet-potato-biscuits-recipe.html 3/4 cup cooked mashed sweet potato (about 1 large sweet potato) 1/3 to 1/2 cup almond milk 1 1/2 cups buckwheat flour, plus more for dusting (I'm sure it would also work with corn flour, spelt flour, or whatever other flours you wanted) 2 tablespoons honey/maple syrup/agave syrup 1 tablespoon baking powder 1 teaspoon salt 6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small bits (you could totally use whatever fat/oil you wanted) A few tablespoons of polenta/cornmeal for the pan Read more at: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/fluffy-sweet-potato-biscuits-recipe.html?oc=linkback Step one: Microwave potato. Step two: Cooked potato and 1/3 c of milk in a food processor, then everything else in a food processor. Sprinkle the pan with corn flour and drop the batter onto it. I made 8 pretty big biscuits Bake, 15 minutes 175C or 350F

So this is based on a recipe from an amazing Vietnamese cook book I have. It's all 'home food' that this guy makes. I've gone with that recipe and added. I have no idea if fish sauce is paleo. It is! I just looked it up. http://thepaleolist.com/2013/11/15/is-fish-sauce-paleo/ In Vietnam, this is a dish to eat any time, other than breakfast. I ate it with rice noodles, on toast, on it's own....it's just basically a twist on scrambled eggs. Eggs (.5 of a teaspoon for each egg for the next two things) fish sauce palm sugar/brown sugar/agave syrup (or leave it out, but it does add a certain something) A portion of ground pork or chicken (I've used both) corn starch (.5 teaspoon for each 1/4 cup) tiny cut up vegetables, I used thinly sliced baby corn and it was bomb, but you basically want it to be able to fry until it's a bit crispy (however much you want) Mix the meat up with a splash or three of fish sauce and the cornstarch (or omit, but it helps it brown) and then fry until it's pretty crispy, remove from pan Fry up the veg until pretty crispy then add the meat back in. Crack up the eggs and whisk, adding the sugar and fish sauce and then add to the pan in a layer. It's kind of omlette like? Or scramble it. It's going to taste the same! Let me know what you think!

I can't stand the taste of water. What's something fast, easy, healthy, and doesn't mold easily? I try to keep herbal tea going, but it's a PITA to keep up with and I get sick of it. Powdered drink mix is either heavy on sugar or it has a disgusting fake sugar in it.

Hey, all! Wanted to share some of my favorite go-to recipes as I get inspired. These are things I often cook in bulk so I've got a quick something to heat-up when I get home late and would be vulnerable to temptation. This one is my favorite healthy soup. One batch is about 1250 calories and makes about 11-12 cups, depending how much extra water you add - about 110 calories/cup. I usually double it. And the red pepper makes it nice and spicy. Lentil & Sausage Soup 1/4 cup olive oil, divided 1/2 lb of ground sausage (original recipe called for 4 large links of sweet Italian sausage, casings removed) 1 medium onion, diced 2 celery stalks, sliced or diced (or a colored bell pepper, diced) 2 medium carrots, peeled and sliced into half-moons or diced 4 cloves garlic, sliced Season salt A pinch of crushed red pepper flakes (optional) 1 cup brown lentils, sorted and rinsed 2 bay leaves 2 14-oz cans diced tomatoes 6 cups chicken or turkey broth, or water/broth mix Freshly ground black pepper 3 to 4 cups shredded or thinly ribboned lettuce or kale leaves Heat 1/4 cup olive oil (enough to coat bottom of pot) in a large pot on medium heat. When hot, add the sausage, breaking it up with a wooden spoon until it starts to brown, about five minutes. Add the onion, celery, carrots, garlic cloves, a pinch of salt, and if you like your soup spicy, a sprinkle of red pepper flakes. Cook with the sausage until the vegetables soften a bit, another 5 minutes. Add the lentils, bay leaves, tomatoes, broth, and season salt and black pepper to taste. Bring to a simmer and allow to cook until the lentils are tender, about 40 minutes. (It might be necessary to add more water if the soup gets too thick; I usually add 1-1.5 cups) When the lentils are cooked, add the lettuce and cook until the leaves are tender, just a few minutes more. Discard the bay leaves.

Just threw this together tonight as my first paleo dish, and it turned out to be pretty nice! It makes 2 decent size servings, depending on the amount of veg you throw in. I kind of just chopped up as much of everything as I thought would be nice, so feel free to experiment! Anyway, you will need: 500g diced chicken breast 1 small onion 3 cloves of garlic 1 chilli (this is optional, I prefer my dishes spicy but feel free to leave it out/add more!) Quarter of a red pepper 3 pak choi leaves A few thin strips of butternut squash A small bit of red cabbage A few green beans (not strictly paleo, I only realised this after I'd cooked them though!) 3 salad onions A handful of spinach Olive oil Steps: 1. Preheat your frying pan and add the oil. 2. Start by frying the onion, garlic and chilli on a high heat for 3-5 minutes (until they all start to look soft) then dump in the chicken. 3. When the chicken starts to brown, throw in the rest of the ingredients except the spinach and cook for about 4-5 minutes, stirring continuously. 4. Throw in the spinach and stir it around for another minute or two. Make sure the chicken is fully cooked, and then serve! Sorry for the inaccurate measurements for most of the ingredients, as I said above slightly more or less of anything won't wreck the dish, it's mainly about the chicken, onion, red pepper and spinach. I managed to burn the onions a bit, and didn't think it looked photograph worthy, but next time I make it I'll stick up a photo! Let me know what you think, and if anyone tries it and adds anything that makes it nicer I'd love to know.

You really only need one special ingredient for this, and that is adobo sauce. You can pick up a can of chipotles in adobo in the Hispanic section of the grocery. Or, you can make your own strictly Paleo adobo sauce found on the website below. (Recipe from OnePotPaleo.com) 10 strips of bacon 4 boneless chicken breasts 1 medium onion 1 tsp cumin 2 TBL of adobo sauce (if you like the heat, go ahead and chop up one or two of the chipotles too) Get out your massive pan. Don't have one yet? Go buy a really good one. Mine is a pan made for frying chicken. I use it for everything that doesn't go on the grill, in the crockpot, or in the equally massive enameled cast iron Dutch Oven. You need these massive things so that you only have ONE POT to clean. You need really good ones because no matter how badly you abuse them, they are salvageable. So when your brain says, "Ooh! Shiny!" and you burn the coconut oil, you don't need to replace the pan. I digress. Chop bacon and onion into chunks. Put in pan over medium high heat. Stir occasionally. The bottom of the pan will get scary looking. This is FINE. It is, indeed, desirable. While you are panicking about never getting the pan clean, cut your chicken into one inch cubes. Throw the chicken into the pan. Do NOT stir for a couple of minutes until the chicken browns. Then stir. Add the cumin and stir some more. When chicken cubes are browned, add a couple of Tablespoons of water to the pan and stir madly. This is called deglazing, and the point is to get all that scary brown stuff back into the food, because it is where all the best of the bacony goodness lies. Add the adobo sauce and stir some more. Cover and simmer on low until chicken is cooked through. Eat. Go into raptures of joy when you pull out the leftovers for lunch two days hence.

So I have this friend that has been working out and trying to get fit and I think I've almost convinced her to eat Paleo, or at least stick her toe in the water! She wants some easy yummy paleo recipes she can whip up for dinner because who wants to spend all night cooking dinner? I dunno about you guys but I'm hungry when I get home from work and I wanna eat! So I'm hoping you paleo's can give us some recipes that are tried tested and true to be both delicious and efficient (fast). I'm thinking the key to success might be cooking in advance and then it either being something that can be eaten cold or is a quick reheat, but don't limit the recipes to that! Thanks!!!