After coming home in the evening from the restaurant, making decisions all day long, mush for brains is a very familiar concept to me. I mean by the end of a work day, you’ve just about used up all of your good decision making brain cells, so that’s basically what you’re left with. That’s why the process of thinking of what to make for dinner can be a bit daunting—among other decisions to make when you get home. So let’s make it easier on ourselves! Let’s keep great food staples in the kitchen! That way, you’ll always have food options to prep on the fly when you can’t even think about being creative with dinner.
I’ve got a list right here of food staples that have worked for me throughout the years and still come in handy. I invite you to consider these for your weekly or bi-weekly shopping list!
BEANS
Beans are a lifesaver! Reason being, if you buy them in a can, they’re already cooked and you can crack it open and make something pretty quickly and easily. If you prefer to buy them dry, what you could do is on your way home, get whoever’s at the house to put the beans on the stove in boiling salt water. Time it out so by the time you get home, you’ll have cooked beans waiting for you!
Beans are a great source of protein, which allows you to bypass thinking about what meat to add to your quick meal. They’re also super versatile. Some ideas are: Fajita bowls, a Bean & Veggie salad, Bean Casserole, Bean Burgers, pair it with your brown rice, or make a quick and easy Bean Soup like the one featured below! I personally think it’s one of the best Black Bean soups I’ve made—you must try it!
EGGS
You really can’t go wrong with eggs no matter if it’s breakfast, lunch or dinner. Not only are they high in biotin, Vitamin Bs, Vitamin D, Vitamin A, and of course, protein, they’re quick to make and you can add them to just about any dish. It’s the protein packed delicious stable you want to have on hand each week for sure! As for dinner, if you have a taste for a non-plant based protein and don’t have the time or the energy to season and cook some meat on the spot, fry an egg real quick. Season it as you would if preparing meat to make it flavorful—and enjoy. As a side note for breakfast, have a few eggs already hard boiled, so on those ‘gotta get out of the house in a hurry’ mornings, you can just put one or two in a zip lock bag and drop it into your purse. Also, be sure to buy organic fed, free-range, and pasture-raised eggs if possible, to get as much nutritional value as you can out of your eggs. All-in-all, as us foodies say, #putaneggonit!
BROWN RICE
Brown rice is a very good accompaniment for almost any meal. It’s high in manganese, selenium, phosphorus, copper, magnesium, Vitamin B3, fiber, and it has a low glycemic index. It’s also easy to cook especially if you have help, which leads me to this question:
Do you have a rice cooker? If no, you MUST get a rice cooker! It’s the ultimate time and energy saver when it comes to cooking your brown rice, as well as beans, and other legumes. All my life, I’ve cooked rice on the stove—waiting to cover it with the lid at just the right time, adding more water if needed when the water evaporates, checking it periodically to make sure it’s cooked and didn’t get mushy. I actually do appreciate the process of making rice on the stove the way my mom taught me because it was almost like an art. But man, when a friend of mine had me try her rice cooker, I was hooked! This is the one I have–it’s called Perfect Cooker.
If you’re using a rice cooker, the water to rice ratio is 2:1—for example, 2 cups of water to 1 cup of rice. Then you would season it the way you want—for me, I keep it simple and add about a teaspoon of salt, a half teaspoon of pepper, and a whole clove. Then you put the lid on the rice cooker and hit the button that says “Cook.” When it’s done cooking after about 25 minutes, the button pops up on its own and stops the cooking process. Done and done! Get yourself a rice cooker, especially for those desperate dinner nights!
You can cook your brown rice when you get home before starting anything on your at home to-do list. You can store a container of cooked brown rice in your freezer so it’s available at any time—or if you know one of those emergency dinner nights may happen on a specific week due to an insane schedule, have a container with some cooked and ready in the fridge.
FROZEN VEGGIES
There’s a misconception out there that fresh is the best way to eat vegetables as compared to frozen. Well, I agree that fresh vegetables are fabulous to cook, especially when you’re getting them from a quality market and/or they’re sourced locally. However, don’t sleep on frozen veggies. Frozen vegetables have the highest amount of nutrient content because shortly after the vegetable is picked from its root source, it gets flash frozen. When that happens, the nutrients are also being frozen and preserved.
As for fresh vegetables, they get exposed to oxygen which actually reduces the nutrient content little by little as it makes its way to your local super market. That’s why many people sing the praises of “local” produce. Local veggies don’t travel a long distance to get to you—therefore, it has more of its nutrients than their out of state “cousins”. So just remember, frozen veggies are a good thing! Another reason that this statement is true is, they’re frozen, so they won’t go bad—you can use them any time you need them!
You can add frozen veggies to any meal. Even if it doesn’t quite “go with” the meal you’re having, you can add it as a side dish so you’re still getting that last serving of vegetables for the day that your body needs. Some ideas are: Broccoli, Cauliflower, a variety of Peas, sliced Bell Peppers, and some type of leafy greens like Spinach or Kale.
OATS
I’m all for bending the “rules” when it comes to which foods to eat at certain mealtimes. Oatmeal is one of them! Although oats, which are packed with fiber, are mostly eaten in the morning for breakfast, you can also eat oats other times of the day as well. If you always have oats on hand, when you have very little time on occasion, there’s nothing wrong with making a nice warm bowl of oatmeal. And when you do make it, be sure to load it up with your choice of natural goodies! Some ideas are: Nuts (walnuts, pecans), Seeds (pumpkin, poppy, sunflower), and Dried Fruit (raisins, cranberries, pineapple, papaya).
NUT MILK
Almond milk, my nut milk of choice, is essential at my place—especially because I eat oatmeal often. If I happen to run out, it’s tragic until I get another bottle! Nut milk is such a great clean alternative to cow’s milk, so I make sure almond milk is always in my shopping cart when I’m beginning to run low. I recommend having a nut milk consistently in your shopping cart as well for its natural goodness as well as for the various ways you can use it. Some ideas are: Oatmeal of course, plant-based Mashed Potatoes, Chia Pudding, Quinoa Porridge, Smoothies or a simple glass of warm milk with a few dashes of cinnamon and nutmeg before bed.
What staples do you have in your kitchen regularly? I’d love to know! Put it in the comments below.
And enjoy the Spring Black Bean Veggie Soup that’s effortless to make. You can make it for any meal time, especially when you’re pressed to make a fast after work dinner!
Love,
Yardley
SPRING BLACK BEAN VEGGIE SOUP
Ingredients
1 can Black Beans or 1 ½ cups of dried Black Beans, cooked
½ Yellow Onion, diced
2 large Garlic cloves, diced
½ Orange Bell Pepper, diced
1 Celery stalk, diced
3-4 Fresh Parsley, sprigs—stems removed
3-4 Fresh Cilantro, sprigs—stems removed
1 Fresh Cayenne Pepper, finely chopped—seeds removed
1 tsp. Paprika
½ tsp. Sage
2 Cloves, whole
Sea Salt and Black Pepper, to taste
2 tsp. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Water
Instructions
Add cooked and drained black beans along with the cloves to a pot of boil water (or chicken stock if you wish), 4:1 ratio. 4 cups liquid to 1 cup beans—let boil
Meantime, add 2 tbsp. of extra virgin olive oil to a pan at medium high heat
Once oil is hot, add onions until translucent, then add garlic until translucent
At this point, you can now begin adding the rest of your vegetable and herb ingredients: bell peppers, celery, parsley, cilantro, cayenne pepper—and let it all cook until fragrant and you see some color
The cooking process of these ingredients helps release their flavors, which makes the soup flavorful altogether
Once the vegetable ingredients are cooked, add them to your boiling bean pot
Then turn your stove down to a simmer
Now you’re going to start adding all your seasonings: Paprika, sage, and salt and pepper to taste
Stir, taste and adjust seasoning if needed
Let simmer until the soup reaches the liquid consistency you prefer. I like mine chunky, but you may like yours more soupy—it’s your pot of black bean soup, so you decide what you like best.
Then plate and enjoy!
This is one of my favorite Black Bean soups I ever made hands down. I hope you enjoy it and incorporate it into your go-to workweek meals. Try it and tell me how you like it!
