12 Tips To Simplify Your Meals

"What's for dinner?"

It's a common question that can turn into an amusing or annoying game.  When you have a busy schedule it can be a daunting task to figure out what to eat — let alone eating well.  I'll tell you a little secret —it's all about habits.

Our culture has put emphasis on economy and convenience, at the cost of our connection to self nourishment, and I'm not talking about restorative yoga. 

We spend less time planning and preparing meals than any other culture in the world, and we have increasing disease and health costs that are directly related to dietary habits. Diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, GERD (okay, there is a virus involved here sometimes, but I assure you, if you slow down how you eat, it improves considerably) kidney stones, ulcers, gout, heart disease — you get the picture.

We all know nutrition is important, what and how we eat is the basis for our energy, ability to health and overall health.

Wonderful. So how do we start improving how we nourish ourselves?

If your current habits do not place importance on nourishment and eating well — create new habits.

That’s a bit of an over simplification, yet at the same time it is not.

You will be hungry today, so why let that surprise you? Why not plan for it instead? Your health and soul will thank you. From there let's play with a few ideas.

For fun, I have also identified the 5 element virtue that is used in some of the skills.

1. Set a goal — We start with creating a plan - a virtue of the Liver and the Wood element. As the general in charge of vision and planning, Liver is supposed to take the Heart’s (the Sovereign ruler) true desire to manifest its virtue in the world. Perhaps you want to improve your relationship to self nourishing. Find enjoyment in cooking. Eat simply. Identify your goal and clearly state it, in a positive manner and in a current state of action.

“I am going to simplify my meals.”

I recommend writing it down too. This is a step to help Li move to Qi, or thought moving to manifest form.

Liver hands this idea over to Gallbladder(also Wood) who is to use wise discernment or judgement to act on the plan. How do I simplify my meals? It gives you the gall to act on your plan. Get it? If you have no ability to plan. I need to chat with your Liver, if you plan but never act, I need to speak with Gallbladder. Even if your gallbladder has been removed, the channel system and its energetic functions are still there, albeit compromised. We can still improve Gallbladder’s energetic sphere of influence with food, point work, etc.

Enter Earth, your Stomach and Spleen, who go about processing the food and information we take in physically, mentally and emotionally, and transforming it into useful forms.

Enter Fire, your Small Intestines, helps us separate the pure from the impure in both food and information. He’s the closest minister to your Heart (Sovereign), so we want good separation of pure from impure happening. What of that conversation that you just had was BS and what was precious, meaningful and needs kept? It does the same with the food you ingest. Keep this, move this along to the next level of sorting.

That’s the basic steps of the role of 5 Elements in helping you layout a plan. As you can see, there are a number of places where things can get bumpy.

Having a clear vision is important as is patience and flexibility. A prime example of this is Wood bullying Earth.

It can take time for the results of plans to manifest. The Heart’s desires and orders to the general can manifest in a moment.

Heart: I want tomatoes!

Liver: We need tomatoes!

Gallbladder: Okay…do you want to grow tomatoes? Go buy a tomato now? What do you mean?

Liver: The Sovereign says they want to grow tomatoes.

The process of growing tomatoes takes time. The garden needs prepared, seeds planted, watered, weeded until the fruits are ready for harvest. Wood overacting on Earth is common. It can arise as feelings of frustration, impatience to digestive issues like reflux, GERD and bloating. It may be necessary to chat with Wood and tell it to settle down and have some patience - the Roma tomatoes are coming. Mint and other Liver soothing herbs help.

Don’t be overwhelmed. I use the detail of 5 Element’s natures for a quick illustration to help you identify where in the process you may need a tweak, motivation or a little compassion for self and patience.

2. Create time — If your current habits don't include time to menu plan, shop, prep and cook —budget some time. Put it in your day planner or on your 'to do' list. If you skip meals, put the time for them in your planner as well. It usually takes me about 15 minutes to make a menu for the week and I usually take 2 hours 1 x a week to prep and cook so that my kitchen time is cut down during the rest of the week. It gets simpler the more you practice it. Trust me — you can adjust your time. It is also very telling about a person's mind/body relationship, from the eyes of a nutritionist, when a person chooses to not create time and make self nourishment a priority in their life.

3. Shop in your cupboard, use it or lose it — Browse through your cupboard, fridge and freezer before you make a menu. If you can focus some of your menu around what you already have, you will save time and reduce waste. Have asparagus that's looking a little floppy - how about asparagus sauté, soup or stir fry? By spring, as we are starting to get the garden ready, I am clearing out the cupboards and freezer from last year’s abundance to make room for this year's blessings.

4. Make a menu — I grew up with the routine that you ate what was put before you. Whine or complain and you can cook for yourself or go to bed hungry, and you owe an apology to the person who prepared the meal. Which is great, we are often ungrateful for what we have available and who prepares our nourishment. My mother always had a plan, so we rarely played the 'what's for dinner?' game. Now that you know what you have in your cupboard you can head to the store with a plan — rather than coming back with random items and nothing seems to fit together. Menus don't have to be elaborate and you don't have to cook everything from scratch. The menu is a guideline. The point is to work from where you are and use to simplify and evolve your cooking and eating habits. Sometimes we follow it perfectly, other times we are flexible.

5. Go to the store or market after you've made your menu —  Save money, frustration and time by knowing what you need rather than trying to plan on the fly. Try not to shop when you are hungry—ending up with pickles, chocolate, chips and little else makes for weird meals. With the farmer's markets and CSA happenings, I actually do some of the menu planning after shopping so I can eat what's available. Ooooh...fresh morels...what can these little gems become? Wild rice and wild mushroom soup or morel, asparagus fettuccine alfredo made with traditional or made with nut milk? Yum!

6. Prep a salad —  "Eat your greens." They are essential - really, but that's not what we are talking about this time. Take a few moments to clean, wash and blot dry your greens. Or buy them that way.  I have a large planter of mixed greens (arugula, spinach, beets, mustard, chard, nasturtiums, endive) plugging along on the patio. The mix provides variety and it only takes a few moments to go clip the large ones for the evening meal. Then you simply dress the salad.  Carrots shavings, chopped radish, little red onion, a handful of seeds or nuts and a quality dressing. Top with a little leftover meat if you have it, serve with a grain pilaf. In the colder months, I rarely eat greens raw. Rather kale, collards, and hardier winter greens are braised, steams, or tossed into soups, stews, egg dishes. Read more about Raw Foods & Chilly Spleens.

7.  Prep a grain dish —  Barley, rice, millet, quinoa, amaranth...lovely grains. Grains, grain salads or pilafs can be made up ahead of time and tossed over salads, served as sides or have a little meat added into them.  How about an herbed almond, amaranth pilaf or a quinoa tabbouleh? I often make up a large pan of just plain rice; toss it in soup, breakfast wraps, porridge or serve as a simple side. Clara rolls it with a little seaweed and sesame seeds for rice balls for lunch.

8.  Double it — If you are already cooking, make a little more. It's pretty simple to double soups, stews, and many other dishes. Use the leftovers to create breakfast. Freeze some of it down for the next time you run late or something comes up. Dips and patés are easy sources of protein, fiber and are wonderful after school snacks. If you bake potatoes, bake extra and use the leftovers in fritatas, soups, or simply reheated and served with fixings.

9. Make a soup or stew — Soups are the most forgiving food.  They are easy to digest, easy to vary the flavor and change them into something else and a wonderful way to use up leftovers. Don't have time to make your own?  Stock up on organic stock, frozen vegetables, dried spice mix (no msg or chemicals, please) and BPA free cans of beans. Flavor to your tastes--voila--dinner in a hurry.  P.S. - when it comes to adding items into the soup if you are unsure if the flavors will combine-here's a trick.  Smell the soup, then smell what you are planning to add.  If your nose says 'no' don't combine them.  If it's not a 'no', then you can add them and adjust your flavors.

10.  Eat slowly with grace, joy and gratitude —  "Sit down, be thankful for what you have and chew your food."  Ever notice that food tastes better when you are in a good mood? Meal times used to be honored times, when the focus was nourishing, not what's on CNN.  Turn off the tv, don't answer the phone, step away from Facebook.  When we take the time to be thankful for our blessings and nourish ourselves with intention it's really quite profound. Often times this simple rule is enough for some of my clients to stop using antacids.

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11. Plan for the busy days — Teaching, working, orchestra, volleyball, meetings, parties? We are busy, busy.  When you plan out your menu, take time to look at the week schedule. I come home late on Thursdays, therefore, I don't want to cook, so we have food that was made earlier in the week or dine out.  If you know you are going to have to rush home, then grab the kid before soccer, pack up a snack or meal when you are cleaning up dinner the night before. Note - I personally don’t use the word leftovers often, for some it carries a negative meaning, rounded by years of society giving a long sigh of disappointment at having to eat yesterday’s meatloaf or green bean casserole….”oh…not left overs….” I favor meal prep.

12. Stock up — Have a list of some bare essentials and quick ‘go to’ foods on hand. Lentils, legumes, frozen veg, etc. Many folks learned at the start of the pandemic how under prepared their cupboards were. A good recommendation is a 2 week supply on hand. Some folks want a year supply. I was raised putting up food to get through the winter, it’s a familiar habit, and one I still consider a virtue, so I’ve never felt the need to amend it. I don’t have the huge pantry or root cellar that my folks and grands had, but I easily have about 4 - 8 weeks of foods on hand. Especially of the long storing foods—grains, lentils and legumes, root vegetables, hard winter squash and whatever I have chosen to dry, freeze or can.

Cheers!

April