What To Eat When You Are Too Tired To Eat

Do you ever come home from a late night of teaching, classes or rehearsals and decide you are too tired to eat?

This happens to me quite often.  I come home after an exhausting day and the last thing I want to do is spend an hour cooking dinner and another hour eating and cleaning up.  We, of course, realize the importance of refueling our bodies, but physically don’t have the energy to do it.

The best way to prevent an end of day, exhausted crash and burn is to batch cook at the beginning of the week.  Batch cooking is making a lot of food at once and then storing it for later use.  Some good staples to have prepped and stored in the fridge in an airtight container are:

• Quinoa
• Brown Rice
• Lentils
• Whole wheat pasta
• Chicken Breast
• Steel Cut Oats
• Sweet Potatoes
• Roasted Vegetables
• Hummus
• Salsa

If you have batch-cooked quinoa, a can of beans and fresh greens on hand, here’s a great re-energizing recipe you can whip up in a hurry.

Quinoa with Garbanzos and Spinach

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cooking Time: 30 minutes

Yields: 8 servings

Ingredients:

1 cup quinoa
21/4 cups water or stock
Pinch of salt
1 yellow onion, diced
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup dried cherries
1 pound spinach leaves
1 cup garbanzo beans, cooked or canned
Juice and zest from 2 oranges

Directions:

1. Wash quinoa and toast in a dry pan for a few minutes, until it smells nutty.
2. Boil water and add salt and quinoa. Turn heat to low and simmer, covered for 20 minutes.
3. Heat oil in a skillet and sauté onions for 10 minutes on medium.
4. Add cherries, spinach, garbanzo beans and a pinch of salt. Cover and cook 3-5 minutes until spinach has wilted.
5. Mix quinoa together with the other ingredients in a large bowl.
6. Add orange juice and zest and stir gently.
7. Add additional salt and pepper to taste.

*Experiment with different greens, vegetables and fruits.  The combinations of healthy, whole foods are endless!

Do you have ingredients that you always have in the pantry or in the fridge at home?

Have you ever tried batch cooking?

Kindly follow, like or share:

Joanie Johnson

Joanie Johnson is a certified health coach (CHC) through the Institute for Integrated Nutrition. Joanie is board certified through the American Association of Drugless Practioners (AADP), holds a B.A. in dance from Slippery Rock University, is a certified Pilates instructor, TRX trainer, professional modern dancer with HT Chen and Dancers, a Julie Morgentstern trained organizer and an all-around busy, motivated woman in New York City. She founded Motivated Nutrition (www.motivatednutrition.net) to educate and motivate movers and food lovers of all ages through individual and group coaching, fitness classes, cooking demonstrations, creative movement based workshops, and educational seminars. Joanie believes in everyone’s right to live an active, healthy lifestyle and enjoys sharing her passion of optimal wellness through movement, fun and delicious food!

motivatednutrition.net