If your diet has relied heavily on prepackaged foods, making the switch to Paleo can be a challenge. But you can survive and even thrive without them as you learn to adopt a new way of eating. As you’ll see, preparation and planning go a long way.
Make-Ahead Meals
One of the easiest ways to skip prepackaged foods is to spend some time making meals ahead of time. Your freezer is one of your best resources for this mission. For example, you can make mini meatloaves, mini egg cups, and even create dinner kits to eat at a later date.
One of the best ways to enjoy dinner meals without having to spend hours in the kitchen at night is to make freezer meals for the slow cooker. There are many delicious recipes for Paleo inspired freezer meals.
The process is typically adding all of the ingredients to a freezer bag or freezer safe container and then storing them until the day you want to use them. Then take them out while still frozen, add them to the slow cooker, turn it on and forget about it until dinner time.
You can pop a freezer meal in the slow cooker before work and come home to a meal that is ready to eat. Add a vegetable side and you’re good to go.
One Pan Suppers
Another way to cook healthy meals with minimal mess and fuss is to make one pan suppers. These are meals that are cooked completely on a sheet pan or in a skillet with no other pots or pans required.
There are many recipes online that can help you to make suppers simple, nutritious, and delicious without a lot of extra dishes and kitchen cleanup.
Prep Snacks
One of the hardest things about the new change in diet is snacking on the go. You might be used to grabbing a granola bar, donut, or candy bar when you want a snack. Packing some low sugar Paleo snacks can help you to improve the quality of your snacks and stay on track.
Keeping small bags of nuts and seeds is a good choice, but it’s not the only one. You can have hard boiled eggs, a piece of fruit, cut up veggies, a small piece of chicken, beef jerky, Paleo granola, olives, dill pickles, a paleo smoothie, or tuna just to name a few. When you’re prepared ahead of time you’ll find more success.
