Food Guide 1.0. Welcome Message. Grocery List

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1 Food Guide 1.0 Welcome Message Grocery List Kitchen Sink Hash Avocado Toast Spicy Cheese Toast Breakfast Salad Tuna Bowl Tahini Bowl Easy Turkey Burgers Spicy Chinese Chicken Bowl

2 welcome! I have a lot of thoughts and feelings about food. I hope this mini free guide is something you use as a jumping off point for inspiration in your own health journey. I think it can be important, as you explore cooking for your health, to let go of some of the rules and myths you may have been holding on to up to this point; breakfast food can be anything, vegetables are carbs, olive oil isn t usually the best fat to cook with. I will pop in with my personal opinions, tips and tricks and insights throughout. know that I am not a professional nutritionist. i am simply a foodie through and through and I spend lots of time learning and reading about eating for health and put those practices to work in my own life. even as of this write up, I have stopped eating animal products. (hint hint: plant-based food PDF coming your way next!) know that we are all human, we are all unique, and what works for me and tastes great to me may not work as well for you or taste great to you. let your diet be personal, fluid, enlivening and a lifestyle choice. make your own adjustments, be playful and explorative and ENJOY. random tips: if you buy/make hard boiled eggs, they can be used for any of these egg recipes to take some cooking out of the equation. a splash of evoo/avocado oil with a big squeeze of fresh lemon juice and salt/pepper is the dressing I use for just about everything. I don t buy salad dressings anymore at all because this is so easy and fresh, and I always have all the ingredients around. if I m out of lemons, I usually have lime or grapefruit and either sub in seamlessly. be mindful of portions! if you re cooking for two, know that you don t necessarily need to have two twin plates at the end of the meal-making. for example, when I make breakfast for my boyfriend and I, I make my avocado toast with 1/3 of the avocado spread, a small piece of gluten-free bread, and 1-2 eggs. I make his with the remaining 2/3 of the avocado spread, a large piece of pumpernickel bread, and 2-3 eggs. there is no world where I need the same intake as my boyfriend who is twice my size. again, because its important, be mindful of portions!

3 grocery list: fresh garlic assorted seasonal vegetables (staples for me include broccoli*, baby carrots*, asparagus*, red onion, sweet potatoes*, leafy greens*) assorted seasonal fruits (staples for me include avocados, berries*, grapefruit, banana, cherry tomatoes*) lemons and limes bleu cheese crumbles wedge of good parmesan cheese canned tuna eggs* ground turkey* canned garbanzo beans* rice crackers thai thin rice noodles mustard (staples for me include grey poupon, dijon, chinese hot mustard) sriracha bread mineral salt (I love Redmond Real Salt or any good pink Himalayan salt) ground black pepper cayenne red chile flakes ghee avocado oil * indicates I prefer to buy organic

4 a note on grocery shopping: I do most of my shopping at trader joes and whole foods. I don t find that buying from these places, vs. other grocery stores, is overly expensive. stocking up on condiments, oils, seasonings and cheeses may seem like an expensive haul, but know that those things will last for a while and you ll just need to rebuy your fresh items. I tend to buy vital farms eggs, wild planet albacore tuna, nut thin crackers, and grey poupon mustard. that being said, I chose not to make the grocery list too specific because cooking and eating healthier will be easier to do for you if you aren t spending time searching for the exact same products I use. be mindful of where your food is coming from, especially meat and eggs, and you ll do just fine.

5 kitchen sink hash: I love making this hash when I want to take a break from a bread-heavy breakfast. it s a good way to use up the veggies in your fridge, and to fill up on plant-carbs instead of bread-carbs. instructions: 1. prep any veggies you want to throw in. I love to chop up any leftover baked sweet potatoes I haven t gotten around to, chop up the last handful of broccoli, a few stalks of asparagus, and so on. anything you want to throw in here. 2. break out your nonstick skillet, cast iron skillet, etc. and turn the heat on to medhigh. put ghee or avocado oil in the pan and let it melt/get hot, about 1 min. 3. throw in your chopped veggies, salt them in the pan, mix things around so everything gets ghee/ao and salt to cook in. 4. while the veggies cook, chop 1-2 cloves of garlic, add them to the pan and stir. continue cooking all veggies until they begin to soften and brown, about 5-7 min. if the pan gets dry you can add water or more ghee/ao. 5. when you re happy with your veggies, turn the heat down to low. there are two methods I use from here to cook the eggs. 6a. if you want to keep it simple and just use the one pan, crack two eggs directly onto the cooked veggies, season the eggs with salt, pepper, and cayenne (optional) and then put a lid on the pan. let the eggs cook until the whites are firm on top. 6b. while the veggies continue to cook, get a second nonstick skillet out and turn the heat to med-low. add ghee/ao to the pan. when the ghee/ao is warm, crack two eggs into the pan, season eggs with salt, pepper and cayenne (optional). cook over low heat, flipping halfway to cook both sides. 7. plate veggies, top veggies with the eggs, and add any condiments or dressings you want for extra flavor. I often add a habanero hot sauce, herby green goddess dressing, sriracha, etc. experiment and enjoy!

6 avocado toast: there is a special love I have for avocado toast. I go through waves of eating this everyday, and I don t ever limit it to just a morning meal. eat this anytime! I will add a note here that I love to make this with gluten free bread, or low-calorie sprouted breads. we typically have a variety of bread-types in our fridge at any give time to accommodate for sandwiches and such. pumpernickel is another fav! bread is a tricky topic. it can be very valuable for you to spend ten minutes in the bread section at your grocer reading the ingredient lists to see how insanely different breads are from brand to brand, type to type. try to find a bread that is made simply with few ingredients. instructions: 1. get a nonstick skillet on the stovetop, on med-low heat, and get a slice of bread cooking in the toaster. when the toast is done, leave it in the toaster to cool instead of taking it out this keeps it crisp! 2. when the skillet is warm, add ghee or avocado oil and crack 1-2 eggs into the pan, season with salt, and cook. flip halfway to cook both sides. 3. while eggs cook, in a bowl use a fork to mash together 1/2 of an avocado, juice of half of a lime and salt. anytime you are working with avocado, in my opinion, as long as you have a citrus and salt, you re good to go. beyond that, feel free to add chopped fresh garlic, leafy greens, jalapeños, onion, etc. sometimes I just want it to be simple and I stick to just lime and salt, and other days I go nuts and mix all the things. 4. to build the meal, spread the avocado mixture onto your toast, and put egg(s) on top. add any seasoning you like, pepper, chile flakes, cayenne, etc. enjoy!

7 spicy cheese toast: zack s favorite! similar to avocado toast, I go through waves of eating this, and I don t ever limit it to just a morning meal. eat this anytime! its a spicier, lower fat egg and toast meal we enjoy on the reg. I will add the same note here about bread, in that I love to make this with gluten free bread, or low-calorie sprouted breads. we typically have a variety of bread-types in our fridge at any give time to accommodate for sandwiches and such. pumpernickel is so so good especially with this recipe. again, bread is a tricky topic. it can be very valuable for you to spend ten minutes in the bread section at your grocer reading the ingredient lists to see how insanely different breads are from brand to brand, type to type. try to find a bread that is made simply. instructions: 1. get a nonstick skillet on the stovetop, on med-low heat, and get a slice of bread cooking in the toaster. when the toast is done, leave it in the toaster to cool instead of taking it out this keeps it crisp! 2. when the skillet is warm, crack 1-2 eggs into the pan, season with salt, and cook. flip halfway to cook both sides. 3. while the eggs cook, use a cheese grater (or a zester, my personal preference, for lighter delicious little cheesy ribbons) to generously grate parmesan cheese onto your toast. the toast should still be a little warm, so the cheese may start to stick to the bread, which is perfect. when you put the hot eggs on top, the cheese acts as a glue and keeps the eggs from sliding off while you eat. 4. grate as much cheese as you like, and when the eggs are ready put one on the toast first, then more cheese (glue) and then the second egg, if you made two. top with MORE cheese, red chile flakes and black pepper.

8 breakfast salad: sometimes my goals and workout regimen lend themselves to a higher calorie, breadheavy diet, and other times i m not as active or am in a calorie deficit and I don t want to waste calories on bread-heavy toast meals. in this case, I make a salad to serves as my base for eggs. you can do the same avocado toast mixture on greens with eggs, and a big squeeze of lemon or lime as dressing, and you can do the same toppings as the spicy cheese toast on greens, topping your salad with the freshly grated parmesan, eggs, and spicy seasonings, also with a big squeeze of lemon or lime as dressing. I like my eggs cooked over-medium, meaning the whites are fully cooked and the yolks are runny, so the yolks, citrus, and creaminess from avocado or cheese makes a nice dressing consistency. stop thinking of salads as unsatisfying or only meant for lunchtime. if you have a good veggie-carb base, a healthy fat (avocado) and a protein (eggs) this salad will keep you feeling full, balanced and happy. enjoy!

9 tuna bowl: I rolled my eyes at canned tuna for so so long and thankfully, finally, realized it is a beautiful, affordable, protein-rich, convenient food that I have incorporated into my cooking for a few years now. when buying canned tuna, I recommend looking for line/ pole caught fish, as it is said to be more sustainably farmed. also, get tuna that is canned in water, not oil or broth, and is not stored with salt. the tuna should ideally be a 1-ingredient buy. getting tunas that are stored in oil and salt may seem like a good idea, as you re going to dress the tuna bowl with oil and salt why not skip the step and just buy it already dressed? the answer is this: you never know what the quality of those oils and salts are going to be, and you (hopefully) are buying yourself good quality avocado or extra virgin olive oils and good quality mineral salt, so dress it yourself with your high quality ingredients and know 100% what you re eating. this meal requires no cooking! 1. in a bowl combine 1/2 of a can of tuna (a whole can is fine too, but typically is way more protein than you ll require in one sitting. if you try it with half of a can and feel hungry soon after eating, next time try the whole can, play with this on your own) with half of an avocado, a big squeeze of lemon or lime, a big spoonful of brown mustard (I use grey poupon), a drizzle of avocado oil or extra vrigin olive oil, salt, pepper and cayenne. 2. that is my base recipe. sometimes that s all I eat. if you want to jazz it up a bit, feel free to add in a handful of leafy greens, chopped veggies, onion, fresh garlic, jalapeño, etc.

10 tahini bowl: another no-cook meal that I love, the tahini bowl. my friend was staying with me here in LA and introduced me to this, and it has become a staple quick meal I make frequently. just like the tuna bowl, feel free to make this base recipe, but then add away! I ve occasionally roasted the chickpeas beforehand to add some crunch, I ve cooked carrots and cauliflower in curry spices and thrown them in, get creative! 1. in a bowl combine about 1/3 of a can of chickpeas with a tablespoon of tahini, a big squeeze of lemon or lime, a drizzle of avocado or extra virgin olive oil, half an avocado, salt, pepper and cayenne. 2. as mentioned above, this is the base recipe. beyond this I will add chopped raw or roasted veggies, leafy greens, raw garlic, etc.

11 easy turkey burgers: I cannot take credit for these, my boyfriend showed me how to make them and we literally haven t stopped since. we must eat these 1-2 times per week and at every BBQ. they re so flavorful, too easy to make, and a true crowdpleaser. I typically eat mine without a bun, sometimes on a salad or occasionally with just red onion and yellow mustard. one of my favorite times I ever made these, we used mini onion loaves that happened to be at the grocery store, toasted them up and ate the burgers plain, just turkey burger and onion bun. they were perfection. I try to buy organic dark meat ground turkey, when available. lastly, I tend to make these inside in a nonstick skillet, but they are also good on the grill. 1. in a bowl combine 1lb. of ground turkey, 4 oz. of bleu cheese crumbles, a light sprinkling of salt (the bleu cheese will add saltiness too) and red chile flakes. form into 4 patties. 2. heat a nonstick skillet or grill pan at medium heat, add ghee or avocado oil to the pan. 3. once warm, place the patties in the pan to begin cooking. flip after 6-7 minutes. cook second side for an additional 6-8 minutes or until meat is fully cooked through, no pink.

12 spicy chinese chicken bowl: this one can be made no-cooking required if you buy precooked chicken and have a tea kettle to boil water. that being said, you can also make this by cooking chicken for the occasion and boiling water on the stovetop for your noodles. either way is great. if you re looking for fast, healthy meal ideas out of this PDF, I recommend buying cooked chicken. Trader Joes sells a product called Just Chicken, though unfortunately it isn t just a 1-ingredient item. it ll do in a pinch, though! you could also set aside some time one day to meal prep and make a few chicken thighs or breasts to use throughout your week so you have it on hand. finally, while I love the thin rice noodles because they cook quickly, you could also make this with rice. when I had a microwave, I would use the microwavable single-serving brown rice cups for this meal and they worked nicely. 1. boil about two cups of water. I use an electric kettle, making this very easy, but you could do this on the stovetop if necessary. 2. while the water is boiling put a serving of thai thin rice noodles in a bowl. when the water is boiling, pour if in the bowl with the noodles so they can cook. this should take about 3-5 minutes. 3. while the noodles cook, you can prep any veggies or chicken you re going to use. 4. when the noodles are soft and ready to go, drain the water leaving just the cooked noodles in the bowl. 5. to the bowl of noodles, add the chicken, any veggies you d like, a spoonful of chinese hot mustard, a big squeeze of sriracha, salt and pepper. I tend to like to add broccoli, raw garlic and chopped baby carrots.