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Sunday Lunch Prep

It is Sunday and it's time to make some lunches for the week. We're gonna knock these lunches out as fast as possible. You will need about an hour, some serving sized containers, a cutting board, a cutting knife, a covered pot, and something to cook your vegetables in/on if applicable.

Step 1: If you plan to bake some veggies, preheat the oven. See my entry on easy, fast vegetables for your lunches.

Step 2: Start the cook water for your rice/grain dish. Follow my recipe if you like. Grains will keep for about a week in the refrigerator, so make enough for 5 days.

Step 3: Gather your veggies and fruit for the week, and then wash them. You really need to wait until the night or morning before to chop up or peal any fruit, so we are done with fruit for now. (Keep in mind that most fruit doesn't need to be prepared beyond washing, so why not choose those?)

Step 4: The cook water should be boiling so put your rice/grain in if you haven't already. Set the timer.

Step 5: Chop up the vegetables into edible or cookable chunks, if necessary. The only exception is lettuce. It will turn brown if you chop it too early, so wait until the night before. (Speed tip: buy baby greens and skip the chopping.) Assemble the veggies into containers to bring in your lunch or to steam/bake later. You want the veggies to be about ½ or 2/3 of the food in your lunch.

Step 6: Steam or bake the veggies if applicable. These will keep for about 3 days in the refrigerator, so set some aside to cook on Wednesday or choose no-cook veggies for the end of the week.

Step 7: Add additional ingredients to rice/grain depending on whether you follow my recipe.

Step 8: Chop/slice/assemble your protein dish into serving containers. For protein dish ideas, see my entry here

Step 9: Put cooked dishes in lunch serving containers.

Step 10: Prepare your smug “I eat healthy” look to give your co-workers.

Check out:

Easy Fast Healthy Lunches, Vegetables

Easy Fast Healthy Lunches,  Rice and Grains

How to Think About Food

How I Lost the Weight, Nutrition and Eating

She was expecting a masterpiece...

Make your work a masterpiece.

My favorite tv show has got to be Ink Master, a competition show for tattoo artists. I love the combination of skill and creativity that goes into a great tattoo. A few weeks ago the contestants were challenged to produce a Japanese style tattoo and the guest judge was Mike Rubendall, legendary in the field of Japanese-style tattoos. One of the contestants made a lotus tattoo that was not terrible, but came out pretty boring. When the judges were discussing it at the end, Rubendall said something that really stood out to me. He said "She was expecting a masterpiece," referring to the woman who got the tattoo. It makes sense; Rubendall creates masterpieces and he has the mindset of someone who creates masterpieces. This tattoo is going on someone's body permanently, and you have an obligation to make it a masterpiece. But really, when you're making any kind of art or product, why wouldn't you make it a masterpiece? Why not leave a legacy of excellence? His attitude really inspired me.

Check out:

Staying Motivated

Being a hard worker
Procrastination

Freakonomics Radio - What I'm Listening To

 

Using Evernote to prioritize hard-to-remember tasks

Using Evernote to keep track and prioritize

I've been using Evernote to keep track of when I have done things instead of relying on my brain which has been failing at this for 38 years now and counting. For example I need to deep condition my hair once a week and I sure as hell can't remember when I last did it. In this particular case, I just looked at Evernote and saw that it was two days ago. Obviously I need some kind of system.

My method is simple. I have a notebook in Evernote called “When I did stuff” and I have a note for each activity I want to keep track of, as in the above example.

I also have notes for things that I just want to keep track of for my own information, like how often I need to fill up my gas

Keeping a record of how often I fill the gas

Prioritize by how long it's been neglected

I sort the notes by when they were last updated so I can see at a glance what I haven't done in a while. At the present time, I haven't vacuumed in quite a while, but that's because I broke the vacuum belt and keep forgetting to replace it. This system helps me prioritize household chores so that nothing gets neglected for too long.

You may also like:

Being a hard worker 

Staying Motivated

Procrastination

Cleanmama.blogspot.com - What I'm Reading

Freakonomics Radio - What I'm Listening To

Freakonomics looks at mass transportation

I like to highlight the things that inspire and inform me on this blog. One that does both is Freakonomics Radio, by Stephen Dubner with frequent contributions from Steve Levitt. Dubner's topics usually involve looking at everyday situations from new angles. A recent episode looked at whether and how much public transportation cuts down on air pollution, for example.

You may also like:
Point of Inquiry - What I'm Listening To
Lifehacker.com - What I'm Reading
Concentrated Fun
How to think about food: How I lost the weight

 

Easy Fast Healthy Lunches, Part 2

Basmati Rice with peas and carrots - Photo by GoDakshin

Here are some easy rice (or other grain) dishes you can prepare for your lunches that are nutritious and delicious. This is the follow up to my post on easy veggies to bring with you. Grains are not as easy because you do have to prepare them ahead of time. It takes about ½ hour to an hour to cook rice. However, whole grains are very nutritious and filling. They make up one of three cornerstones to my lunches: a grain, some protein, and lots of vegetables.

Here are some easy ways to prepare grains so that they taste great with minimal effort.

Variety: The easiest way to make your grain dish more interesting is to try different grains. In rice alone there are several options: basmati, jasmine, long and short grain brown or white, wild, and more. Then there are other grains: quinoa, bulgur, barley, wheat berries, millet, etc. You can also mix various grains together. Just make sure they have roughly the same cooking time. They are all relatively mild so your risk of making something gross is pretty slim, unless you are like me and space out a lot. I get a lot of burned rice for lunch.

The cook water: The next easiest way to add some flavor and interest is to substitute ½ of the cook water for broth. You can also add something to the cook water, such as 2 TBSP of soy sauce or 1 tsp of turmeric or some shredded fresh ginger, maybe 1 TBSP.

Added ingredients: Finally, and this I highly recommend, add something about 5 minutes before the grain is done: 1 can black beans, 1 can kidney beans, 1 c. peas, ½ c. raisins, ¼ c. chopped walnuts, 1 c. finely chopped cauliflower (add cauliflower at the beginning). All of these add flavor as well as nutrients.

NOTE: Don't use all of these suggestions in one dish! Pick one thing from each category and experiment. Example: Short grain brown rice cooked in veggie broth with 1 can of kidney beans added or basmati rice cooked with turmeric and green peas added.

All of these dishes are pretty mild, and you can always add more spice as you go. You want to build slowly on what you have already made because it's easy to add too much and make it inedible. Find a condiment that you like and add that instead (hot sauce in my case).

You may also like:
Easy Fast Healthy Lunches, Part 1  (Vegetables)
How to think about food: How I lost the weight
How I Lost the Weight, Part 1 (Food Choices)
How I Lost the Weight, Part 2, Temptation and Willpower

Pomodoro Technique and Concentrated Fun

Salvador Dali - Persistence of Memory

 I promised an update on my "concentrated fun" post and here it is. Lately I've been getting a ton done and it's due to a mixture of the pomodoro technique and the concentrated fun idea. The pomodoro technique utilizes the idea that having a set amount of time to do a task and taking frequent breaks will dramatically increase your productivity. You decide on a task, set a timer for 25 minutes, focus on the task for that time, and then take a 5 minute break. You do this 4 times and then you take a longer break, 15-20 minutes is recommended.
For my 5 minute breaks, I have been meditating or just lying down, resting my mind and my body. I found that I can make my longer break as a session of concentrated fun, planning something I really enjoy for that time. Then I look forward to it and it makes it easier to concentrate on work for 25 minute intervals because I know serious fun is on the way. This amps up my motivation and kills my procrastination with one stone. I want to get those 4 pomodoros in so I can take a break of concentrated fun.
After using this technique for a couple of weeks, I have also found that I can take on things I really don't want to do. The reason? I can pretty much tolerate most things for 25 minutes, then move on to something else.

More info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomodoro_Technique
http://lifehacker.com/5828033/how-to-make-productivity-a-lifestyle

Check out:
Concentrated Fun
Staying Motivated
Being a Hard Worker
Lifehacker.com - What I'm Reading