The week when you get back from vacation must be the most dreaded of all weeks. We just got home from a vacation in Hawaii where we ate the most delicious food and lived the most pampered life of all time. Felling extra grateful for such a perfect week and seriously struggling to get back to real life.
Today’s diet has consisted of coffee & coffee so far. So meal planning is just not looking like it’s going to happen this week. Sometimes I need to realize when a legit healthy meal plan is just not in the cards for me and do the best I can to fake it. And that’s ok, some weeks life just wins. So here is how I fake a healthy diet when I cannot get myself fully back into the swing of things:
(1) healthy salads out
Avoiding meals out this week is just not going to happen. So rather than rush to the nearest pizza place or (insert other unhealthy food) we try to make slightly healthier decisions. Salads are one of those things on the menu that are deceiving. We think we are choosing the healthy option but by the time you add in the croutons, wontons, fried chicken or butter poached salmon, you might as well have ordered the burger and fries. Here are my favorite places for a legit healthy salad in chicago.
1 – 3 Greens Market
This is one of my favorite lunch spots in the city. They serve the Au Cheval burger if you are really on the struggle bus and a salad is not going to happen. But they also have one of the BEST salad bars. So many healthy toppings to choose from and the salad is fresh and perfect every single day. We live here on days we cannot get our act together.
2 – Sweetgreen
Cannot have a salad list without my favorite salad place of all time. SO HEALTHY, so delicious and so filling. It’s like the chipotle of salads (I love chipotle so if you are not a fan think of your favorite restaurant with that same flow). You can pick a pre-made salad or customize 100%. All of the salad dressings are made in house and so fresh and delicious.
Another salad bar spot. Their salad bar might be even better than 3 greens. It is a little further walk for us, so we don’t make it there quite as often. But whenever we do I wonder why we don’t go more. The toppings are incredible and they have an even bigger selection than 3 greens. They also have a bigger selection of lettuce. I am very particular about my lettuce. It has to be fresh, cold and 100% dry. They usually have 5 or 6 options of different types of lettuce. YUM.
4 – Left Coast
Another place with AMAZING salad and amazing vibes. Honestly, everything on their menu is amazing, not just the salads. And if you have a little one, their kids menu is perfection. I want to say more about this place, but I have already used the word “amazing” twice and I don’t have the energy to come up with another word.
(2) smoothie rations
At all times, even in the lowest of low circumstances when we are living off of burgers and fries, we always have smoothie rations in the freezer. Worse comes to worst, I know the whole family is getting a blast of nutrients. We buy berries and fruit when it is on major sale at Whole Foods and wash + freeze. I buy those massive freezer baggies (that I call my smoothie “dump bags”) and fill them with fruit as I buy it. I usually have 2 or 3 bags in the freezer at any time. I separate them by type. Usually I have these three bags:
1 – berries, which is a mix of strawberries, raspberries, blackberries + blueberries
2 – pineapple + mango (sometimes peach, nectarine or papaya gets dumped in this bag too if I have one that is about to go bad)
3 – bananas (bb has a small intolerance to bananas, so I save these for afternoon pick me up smoothies during naptime with a cup of coffee, sooo delicious)
My go to smoothie recipes are:
frozen mango + pineapple, coconut water, flax seed, collagen peptides
frozen strawberries + blueberries, chia seeds, coconut water, collagen peptides
frozen banana, almond milk, black coffee, collagen peptides
(3) rotisserie chicken + salad
I am a big rotisserie chicken fan. If you read these meal plan posts often, you know that. A pre-made semi healthy meal, yes please. On lazy days I get a rotisserie chicken and a bunch of lettuce and mix up my salad of choice that night. The leftovers are great for chicken salad (avocado chicken salad recipe here). And if you really cannot get yourself to buy fresh lettuce and wash and prepare it, buy a premade salad pack. My favorite premade salad pack is the asian salad mix from Whole Foods! I add almonds and chicken and it is oh so good. I will share it on my stories this week because it is definitely on this weeks lineup.
(4) premade salmon burger
Whole Foods also has a really good premade salmon burger. I love to serve it over a bed of arugula with avocado and red onion. If you are up for adding in another step, a homemade chipotle aioli completes the meal. I mix about a tbsp of the juice from a can of chipotle in adobo with greek yogurt or mayo and voila, your own aioli.
(5) go to grocery list
When I don’t know what I am making and I just want some healthy and good food in the house, this is what I always, always buy from the grocery:
cucumber
avocado
tomato
onion
lettuce
spinach
apples
yogurt
eggs
milk
fresh mozzarella
juice or coconut water
chicken
boxed rice, quinoa or cous cous of some sort
Oh and coffee, lots of coffee. + some dark chocolate covered cherries, yum.
And that is as close as I can come to meal planning or cooking this week. Promise to be back next week with a legit meal plan!
xoxo
