Time saving ideas...

I think I've found some ways to save time preparing Paleo meals!  If anyone else has any suggestions, let me know!

1.  On Sunday, roast a whole chicken, pork shoulder, beef eye of round roast, brisket, or whatever other type of meat you feel like eating that week, with plain seasonings of your choice (salt, pepper, garlic, etc).  After gorging yourself Sunday night on the spoils, cut up the meat, freeze half of it, and leave the rest in a large container in the fridge.  (Don't forget to save the bones in the freezer for making stocks!)

2.  Throughout the week, take meat out and add it to salads, soups, chilis, or dress it up with new condiments and sauces.  The plain chicken you made on Sunday can be made to taste Italian with a little oregano, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar; Asian with a little ginger, more garlic, rice wine vinegar, or gluten free soy sauce; Mexican with some cumin, chili power, lime, cilantro, and jalapenos;  or BBQ, with some home made sugar free BBQ sauce.

3.  Cut up vegetables and fruit you know you're going to use through the week and put them in the fridge.  Dice up onions, chop up broccoli, strawberries, etc.  Avoid cutting things up if you know they will spoil, like avocados or sweet potatoes.  Avoid going crazy and cutting up more than you will eat.

4.  Microwave your veggies in plastic baggies with a little salt and pepper and fat of your choice (olive oil, free range butter, coconut oil, etc), or just eat them raw.  This makes packing lunch for work easier if you don't have to cook it before hand, and besides leftover cooked food doesn't always look appetizing.  Another time saver:  if you're brave, you can take a REALISTIC serving of vegetables and just blend it and make a vegetable drink out of it.  Do not try this option unless you are a fan of V-8, and be careful to not make a bigger smoothie than you can drink.  

5.  Learn to love foods that are easily prepared, like shrimp, canned salmon, smoked salmon, tuna, hard boiled eggs, etc.  Shrimp can be defrosted in about 5 minutes under cold running water and cooks just as fast.  Canned fish is a great cheap way to buy wild caught fish that will give you more omega-3's.  Canned fish can be mixed up with most anything to make a fast meal.

6.  Boil about 6 eggs on Sunday, these are great to have on hand for snacks, salads, or breakfast.  If you don't like hard boiled eggs, you might enjoy them more if you make deviled eggs out of them, or cut them up and put them in salads.  If you're still not a big fan of eggs, then continue to eat eggs in other ways.

7.  Cut up some vegetables and fruit and fresh herbs and freeze them.  Fortunately the vegetables can just be reheated and cooked no problem.  The herbs will be good in soups, cooked veggies, or maybe as aromatics when roasting meat (don't expect them to be as fresh and pretty in a salad as when they were when they were fresh).  Fruits on the other hand most likely won't look pretty after they are defrosted, so frozen fruits are probably only good for blending with some coconut milk to make a nice paleo "ice cream".  Still, a serving of fruit is a serving of fruit.