“Get more protein into your diet!” That’s a common piece of advice in nutrition circles these days. It’s likely because our diets are so heavy on carbs like pasta, pizza, pretzels, toast, sandwiches, crackers, cereal, pastries, deserts, chips and most snack foods, not to mention sweets.
Besides being yummy, comforting, filling and uber-satisfying, carbs are such easy dietary staples. Most require little if any preparation. Many, like snack foods, are edible right out of the bag!
Proteins are another story, at least animal proteins. Other than dairy products, things like chicken, beef, pork and fish all need to be cooked. Plus they are often sold in large amounts–like a roast, steak, or salmon filet.
Protein Paks Ray, one of our readers, discovered a way to solve the large-protein problem: Cut into single servings, wrap and freeze. How handy!
Now for two other pieces of the puzzle: Thawing and cooking.
Thawing: This is where it pays to get in the “think-ahead-and-plan” habit. I know it’s easy to just forget about the next meal until you’re hungry. Which is exactly why we often end up eating easy-prep carbs!
There’s an easy solution, however. It may sound crazy, but when you finish one meal, give a quick thought to the next one and select a protein pak from the freezer so it’s thawed when you’re starving and ready to eat. Should you forget, don’t worry, you can also pretty readily thaw a pak in a bowl of cool water.
Cooking: When I developed a histamine intolerance, I could no longer eat leftover meat stored in the fridge. So after cooking e.g., a whole chicken or roast, I would have to pull off the meat and store in little jars. I would always grumble about this post-dinner chore, but my tune changed when I was able to pull out a protein pak that was already fully cooked. Protein is now an easy addition to meal times.
Of course, you might want to have some fresh-cooked animal protein, and things like fish are actually best cooked fresh. This is a productive place to exercise discipline.
In other words, instead of wasting mental bandwidth trying to avoid the bag of chips at lunch time (a generally fruitless effort), expend that mental effort on the simple task of getting out a pan, pouring in some oil and frying a tasty piece of protein–as I did yesterday with a piece of salmon and some sauteed zucchini.
Salmon and Zucchini with the Moroccan spice blend in following article
Happily, small protein portions don’t take long to cook–and there are quick and easy to brighten them up. (See the Moroccan spice in the next post.)
Of course, if vegetarian proteins work for you, life is a little easier since they can often be eaten without preparation, although cooking a little (with some spices) makes them more enjoyable!