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You and I both want weeknight dinners done in the time it takes my 5-year-old to take off her jacket and hang it up in the hall (feels like forever, but it takes about 30 minutes of prodding from front door to coat hook), and in that quest we’ve tried many, many methods. We stock our pantry with shortcuts and use fewer ingredients, but the real countdown clock on cooking dinner should start in our grocery cart.

Kelli’s got you covered on what pantry staples you’ll need to get dinner on the tables in about 30 minutes, but this post will teach you how to use the various departments of your grocery store to get dinner done faster. These grocery store shortcuts should be in your grocery cart too if you want to master the 30-minute meal.

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Before you can actually execute your meal plan, you need to choose recipes you’ll cook during the week ahead. This is possibly the most important step in meal planning. When approached in a way that’s just right for you, the recipes you choose will set you up for success. To the uninitiated this step can feel overwhelming, but I assure you that it’s not when you let these strategies guide the way in selecting the recipes for your meal plan.

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Keep a bag of frozen tortellini tucked away in your freezer and you can rest easy knowing that a quick meal is always at the ready. This series on fast tortellini dinners will show you how to transform frozen tortellini into dinner using pantry staples and a few surprising techniques. Pasta sauce is just the beginning!

Put down the knife and fork — here’s your excuse to have a little fun and eat with your hands. This is the quick and easy way to have a utensil-free dinner on your table in next to no time. All you need to do is cook up some frozen tortellini and raid your grocery store’s antipasti bar. Everything from veggies to cheese to meat is up for grabs. From there, dinner is a matter of threading everything on a stick. You can go a step further and finish with drizzle of olive oil and a few cracks of pepper. This is a fun way to turn a regular pasta night into something a little more playful. Make a few extra to bring to work the next day for an even better desk lunch.

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A Shopping List for the First Week in Your New Kitchen

(Image credit: Kelli Foster)

Whether it’s your first foray into meal planning or you’ve given it a shot but have yet to make it really work for you, I believe the approach you take makes all the difference. In my experience a solid, successful meal plan hinges on the work that happens over the weekend. With some upfront work spread Friday through Sunday, you will be rewarded with a sustainable plan that feels achievable and easy to put into action once the weekdays roll around. Based on tried-and-true experience, this is the best way to take advantage of the weekend to make meal planning a total success.

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In California, where I live, March marks the start of artichoke season. That’s when the vegetable — officially, a spiky flowering plant called a thistle — starts showing up in farmers markets across the state.

Cooked and eaten around the Mediterranean for at least two millennia, the ancient artichoke is known as the “aristocrat” of the vegetable world, with its delicate flavor and impenetrable exterior, at least to the uninitiated.

It’s also the subject of a little-known chapter in the history of organized crime. Almost a century ago, New York City mobsters weren’t just bootlegging, gambling, and loansharking. They were engaged in another shady million-dollar operation: artichoke racketeering.

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Weeknight meals that can be enjoyed multiple times are the gifts that keep on giving for most home cooks. Not only are these types of dinners quick and easy to make on night one, but they also taste just as good, if not better, when reheated.

Tonight’s meatloaf becomes tomorrow’s hearty sandwich; a beefy macaroni skillet dinner becomes the lunch you stick in your kid’s thermos; and a veggie soup become your breakfast (yes, breakfast!) for the rest of the week. So think beyond tonight’s dinner when you plan meals for the week, and consider how many ways you can enjoy them beyond day one. Here are 20 meals to kick things off.

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This won’t be the only time you hear me say it, but paper straws have got to go. Yes, they look adorable on your bar and your Instagram, but they get so soggy. Because I’m a sucker for cuteness, though, I do have an alternative for you: stainless steel straws.

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The party problem: You’re throwing a pizza party birthday party and you want to make an extra-special dessert. But even a from-scratch cake doesn’t seem special enough — after all, you’re feeling a little guilty that you didn’t really cook for the party.

The party trick: Make a giant sugar cookie cake that surprisingly looks like a pizza.

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 My story is a fun one. Nothing crazy drastic, but fun nonetheless. It started January of 2012, when I first started reading success stories from MDA. At this point in my life, I was no stranger to the human body and how best to treat it. I exercised moderately, and ate plenty of vegetables and fish as part of my normal diet. I tried to get at least 6-7 hours sleep and remained injury-free. So when I first started reading, I thought this makes sense. It’s working obviously—however, I’m not going to take the plunge quite yet.

Also, wasn’t quite sure what exactly this Mark guy was selling. My problem, like everyone else’s, with taking that leap was giving up my wonderful sources of carbs. I freaking loved bread and pasta—they made up the better part of my diet. I, however, did ramp up my fat intake immediately.

It wasn’t until the first week of April that I decided to pull the trigger. And how my world changed! After 7 days I lost 9 lbs and was able to pull a 29-hour fast like it was nothing! I was able to feel for the first time in my life, what true hunger felt like—much less mild than the crippling “starving” feeling. Two weeks into it, I was squatting on the potty—not with a Squatty Potty mind you—and my lifelong constipation and hemorrhoids were gone. After three months I was down 25 lbs, corrective lenses forgotten, hours in the sunshine without protection and burning, and just boundless energy.

As soon as I made the plunge in April, I could not get enough info crammed into my brain. I would spend up to 8 hours a day reading article after study after lecture, and podcasts, back to articles. I would jump from MDA to Chris Kresser, Chris Masterjohn, Robb Wolf, Dave Asprey, Jimmy Moore, Abel James, Denise Minger, Peter Attia, etc. The more I read and listened, the stronger the fire grew to learn. By June of 2013—just a little over a year into it—I had amassed approximately 2000 hours devoted to learning as much as I could though reading, watching and listening.

And then I had a baby. I lost sleep, lost hours at work (translates to lack of money), so I ate less. Fasting 18 hours everyday became part of the routine, and certainly not with enough nourishment. I of course ended up losing even more weight, and got all the way down to 136 by August ’15! As a reference, my starting weight was 170 back in April of ’12, and I am 5’10. I made the conscious effort to eat more, and naturally my sleep improved—both from eating and from a baby who was more often sleeping through the night.

Also in August ’15, I finished the Primal Expert Certification (now the Primal Health Coaching Program) and started my own Health & Wellness business, Revolution Food. I started out with a couple clients and transitioned into cooking meals for families—primarily Primal meals of course. In May ’16 we ended that service and suspended our business as we were about to embark on a transitional period. My wife enrolled in the NASM Personal Trainer course, and became certified in August ’16. I had taken a retail job to have a regular paycheck, and even more so ate and slept more regularly. In December 2016, I finished my classes for culinary school and was able to take on a new client. My first real (paying) client as a Primal Health Coach, and one that I was able to devote more time to.

As of today, I sit between 150 and 155, and am now making a conscious effort to exercise more—whether it be doing MovNat or hitting the gym. I am enrolled in the NASM Personal Trainer program myself, with the goal of being MovNat certified by this time next year. One can never have too many certifications.

This is my story of lighting a fire, rolling with life’s punches, and turning that fire into blaze. Mark is right, don’t let a bad decision one day, or a few days out of the year define you. If you are thinking of leaping into this community, just let the damn bread go—trust me, you’ll thank yourself for it.

Jamie Farrington

The post How My World Changed! appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.