How to: Work Overnights and Eat Clean

My schedule is ridiculous. On average, I work about 44 hours per week, which is pretty normal... except my 44 hours are divided between three jobs and a volunteer position. During the week I work days and occasional evenings. On the weekends, I work overnights and afternoons. I don't know about you, but when I work overnights I want food that's fast and easy. You know, chips, and toast, and bagels. Carbs. Comfort Carbs. I think that a lot of people fall into that trap because, on the surface, eating clean is a lot of work. And it is. But it's manageable if you can plan ahead.

And that's where the most wonderful day of the week comes in. Food Prep Day! Fanfare! Cymbal crash! Applause! I love food prep day because it gives me a chance to try recipes I've been searching out online and keeps me healthy and prepared for busy weeks when I work more than the 44 hours (like when I forget I'm working one job and schedule myself at the other and end up doing a double with a two hour commute.)

When I'm working overnights, I start Food Prep Day on Sunday mornings, after I get home from my 0000-0800 shift and after I've walked the Prance-some Hince. I like to stay up so I can have a solid nap in the afternoon, have Sunday dinner with my family, and then choose between more food prep or back to bed. Yesterday, I put together seven days of smoothie packets: mango, pineapple, and kale, pineapple, pomegranate, raspberry, blackberry, and spinach, and pineapple, raspberry, blueberry, strawberry and spinach. Now all I have to do is add 8 oz of water (or 4oz unsweetened almond milk + 4 oz water), 1 scoop of vanilla whey protein powder, and 1 Tbsp of flax seeds and blend until it's smooth!

Now that breakfast options are taken care of, I get to try out recipes, clean them up, and stock my freezer. I make almost all my meals ahead of time and freeze them - it's so much easier that day, and I thank myself at 0400 when I'm starving for "lunch" and actually have a clean option. Currently, my freezer contains chicken soup, 5 bean turkey chili, turkey burritos, chicken fajitas, peanut chicken wraps, poached fish dinners, baked chicken dinners - all ready for me to heat up and serve. It's a lifesaver!

Today I tried a recipe for soup that I found on BuzzFeed called White Bean and Kale Stew. I altered it in a few ways, starting first by making my own turkey stock. I had a turkey carcass already boiled that had been leftover from Easter weekend in the fridge, so this morning I skimmed the fat off, picked the meat off the bones, and boiled the broth again just to make sure it was lovely and tasty and free of bacteria.

I prepared all my ingredients before hand, too, because I tend to get distracted with my multi-tasking and then forget something (for example, once I forgot the egg whites in protein muffins. Duh.). 

The recipe calls for canned white beans, but I had to run out and buy white beans because I realized I didn't have any and the local grocery store didn't have any in cans. Well, they did, but I wasn't paying $4 for a 14oz can of "organic" white beans in slimy bean water, so I bought dried beans. While the veggies were being sautéed, I brought the dry white beans to a high boil (about 20 minutes) until they were almost done, but not quite. It also calls for shallots, which I omitted, and fresh garlic - I just used about a tablespoon of the pre-minced garlic that was in a jar in the fridge. It didn't call for parsnips, but they lend a rich flavour to the tartness of the tomatoes and the kale.

I also used dried spices instead of fresh as I am not blessed enough to have an herb garden in my backyard (yet!). They worked. The rosemary could have been ground a bit better, but I was rushing. The "secret ingredient" is really the kicker, though. It made my house smell DELICIOUS and WARM and WELCOMING and transported me to my mother's kitchen when I was a little girl. It smelled almost Morroccan... And tastes INCREDIBLE. It's tangy (from the tomatoes), but not too tangy - and, in my opinion, doesn't need any salting. And when I added the barley (to make a complete protein with the beans), it thickened up the clear broth just enough to make it look hearty.

Oh my gosh, you guys, it's delicious! I don't normally rave about food but when I succeed at a soup I can't help but gloat. And now, to freeze it! I'm cheap and get most of my containers from the dollar store or from leftover Chinese food orders, but you can use whatever you want for freezing. Once I ladled out these four meals, a good deal of the broth had been absorbed, so I just added more broth from my giant stock pot of doom to both the containers and the remainder of the soup on the stove. A few more spices and you've stretched your soup into a family meal for four and four (or five) individual meals! 

This soup can be made totally vegan, or vegetarian, or gluten free - it all just depends on how you want to make it. That's the great thing about soup: it's completely customizable to what you like!