Become a master veggie roaster. I'm telling you. I've never been the biggest fan of raw veggies but you roast them off in the oven and I'll eat the whole entire cookie sheet. No joke. Roast a pan or two of your favorites (I like squash, brussels sprouts, sweet potatoes, and carrots) and keep in the fridge ready to go for the week. Eat on a salad, scramble with eggs, or serve as a side dish with a grilled meat. You'll have the hardest part about making dinner already prepared, which will hopefully motivate you to use the veggies in healthy meals all week long! To roast the veggies, preheat your oven to 425 F and roast veggies of choice for 20-40 minutes, depending on the vegetable. Vegetables should be fork tender. Season veggies with olive oil, salt and pepper. For an added kick of flavor, I like chili powder!
Make your own snack mix. This sounds like a no brainer, right? I get bored of the standard healthy snacks. I don't know about you, but just eating a handful of walnuts or almonds is far from satisfying for me. It doesn't give the flavor or bite I'm looking for in an afternoon snack. Instead of paying buckets of money for store bought trail mixes create your own! Chocolatey, salty, sweet and savory, it's all up to you. This week I went chocolatey making one with chocolate fiber one cereal, dark chocolate chips, cinnamon spiced pepitas, walnuts, cashews, and golden raisins. The options are limitless. Store in an airtight container and measure out by 1/3 cup servings and you'll be good to go for the week.
...and the best part of the busy week; meeting Alton Brown! So I saw Alton's tour when he performed in Cincinnati, OH. I may have mentioned it here. Anyhow, he posted some coordinates saying come here for a flash signing, so I did. I was able to go on my lunch break (thank goodness). A brief conversation, a few photographs, and one autograph later, I had met one of my favorite TV food personalities. So cool. And he was exactly as you'd expect him to be. A little goofy, super friendly, and very chatty. It pretty much goes down in history as the best lunch break ever. I even reminded him of the two empty seats in the front row when I saw him in Cincinnati and he got a good laugh out of that. Who doesn't show up to a show when you've purchased front row seats? How rude.
Good luck conquering your weeks. I know you can do it.