Real Food Wednesday: Healthy and Fast Food

The ladies at Cheeseslave and KellytheKitchenKop host this meme weekly, where they discuss their real life real food tips and ideas.

This week’s theme is Healthy Fast Food, otherwise known as “It’s 5 o’clock and I haven’t a clue what’s for dinner“.

Here’s what I do when I want to avoid eating out, offering something packaged or otherwise inferior in nutrition, but am short on time.

• Cheese Quesadillas – Make with sprouted tortillas and raw cheddar cheese, and served with homemade salsa.These take less than 5 minutes to get on the table and the kids love them.
• Breakfast for Dinner – Free range eggs scrambled or fried in grass fed butter with potatoes pan fried in coconut oil and butter.I get my 6 year old daughter to chop the taters for me so things go faster.
• Cheese, Apples and Crackers – This snack was invented by my mom. She would snack on tart apples sliced thinly (with a teensy dash of salt!), pepper Jack cheese and Triscuits.My version of this is sliced Gala (my favorites – and kept the salt!) apples, blocks of raw cheese, and sprouted flax crackers or Ry-Vita.We just had this today for lunch. It’s super easy and fast but quite filling, and seems to satisfy all your cravings. The apples are sweet and salty, the crackers crunchy, and the cheese is creamy and provides some fat and protein.
• Quick Burgers & Kraut- I fry up some burgers (from grass fed ground beef or buffalo) and serve them with Bubbie’s sauerkraut (which I always keep in my fridge because I can’t seem to find time to make homemade lately).We serve our burgers without buns because my youngest is wheat allergic and I don’t think the older kids would like the taste and texture of GF buns, but they like them just fine this way.
• Fried Rice – I shared my recipe on my post about cheap eats. I cook rice more days than not so I almost always have some leftover rice in the fridge.I cook it with whatever veggies I have on hand, along with a couple of real eggs and plenty of coconut oil. The kids always ask for seconds on this one, and it takes minutes to prepare.
• Larabars – When all else fails, Larabars are a lifesaver. They are truly the only healthy “granola” bar out there, at least that I’ve found, are are on the Weston A Price Shopping Guide listings under Snacks. They have no isolated soy protein or sweeteners or other pseudo-healthy ingredients. They’re grain free so my youngest can eat them. They’re simply raw fruit and nuts smushed together, and taste delicious. I try to keep these in my purse or in the car or pantry for emergencies. I recently purchased a box of these at Whole Foods, in the peanut flavor, and lo and behold they’ve been recalled because of possibility of the peanuts being contaminated. The company is issuing a refund so it’s all good. I’ve had to beat the children off of them in the meantime, lol!

Dinner doesn’t have to be complicated, especially with kids. Now I’m not cooking for a man anymore so your mileage may vary. LOL!