Plate o' Stuff
This is sort of like a charcuterie board or cheese and cracker platter for a party but designed for one person and customized to their tastes and dietary restrictions. The primary prep is in making sure you have enough stuff on hand to toss at least three to five items onto a plate to make a no-cook light meal.
Pro tip: Keep a running grocery list in a Note app on your phone. When you run out of stuff, add it to your list promptly so you can keep stocked up on essentials. Alternately, if there are two or more people in the household, keep a post-it note and pen somewhere in or near the kitchen so people can add items to the shopping list without having to communicate with each other directly.
The general idea is you pick at least one thing from each of the three main categories (carbs, protein, fruit/nuts/veggies) and toss it onto a plate. Serve with whatever drink you prefer.
The quality of this meal is largely determined by the quality of the selection of finger foods you have on hand. Choose wisely when shopping and this is a perfectly fine meal that can help you cope and heal during stressful, hectic times and it's a perfectly satisfactory meal.
This tradition began when I was pregnant with my second child and my oldest was two. I routinely made spaghetti, cooking the entire bag or box of noodles in one go and putting the leftovers in the fridge on a low shelf that he could reach. (Or, arguably, it began a few months before that when I began putting hot dogs in the fridge where he could reach them.)
I also kept Parmesan or Romano cheese on hand so he could have cold noodles and cheese in place of hot noodles and cheese. He never ate spaghetti sauce anyway, so it was a cold version of the spaghetti meal he typically ate when I cooked spaghetti for dinner.
When he got older, I bought a nifty tool for coring and slicing an apple in one move that he was able to handle. At that point, I encouraged him to add fresh apple slices to his noodles and cheese for a cold meal he could get for himself at will without having to ask an adult for anything.
I have an issue with sulfur so I don't eat a lot of dried fruits. Most of them use a sulfurous preservative.
But when I had a corporate job, I found a brand of dried cherries that didn't use sulfur. I really liked them and kept them on hand, along with Feta cheese because I was real sick at the time and cow cheeses were not going over so well with me.
So a Plate o' Stuff was a somewhat common thing for me when I was working a corporate job. It somewhat often meant dried cherries, feta cheese, some kind of chips or flat bread and almonds or cashews.
If you have the time and energy to cook, awesome! Go, you!
If you don't have the time and energy to cook, a Plate o' healthy Stuff beats the heck out of what a lot of people routinely do in place of cooking from scratch.
Pro tip: Keep a running grocery list in a Note app on your phone. When you run out of stuff, add it to your list promptly so you can keep stocked up on essentials. Alternately, if there are two or more people in the household, keep a post-it note and pen somewhere in or near the kitchen so people can add items to the shopping list without having to communicate with each other directly.
Carbs
Some suggested options that work well for me:- Ruffles Potato Chips
- Tostitos
- Red Oval Farms Wheat Thins
- Homemade Flat Bread or other fresh, healthy bread
- Cold leftover noodles
Toppings
Optional. Makes it a bit fancier, which has good points (additional tastes and such) and bad points (more prep, more clean up, it's no longer just finger foods).- All Fruit Spread (low sugar jelly substitute)
- Butter (organic is good)
- Honey
- Salsa
Protein
Shelf stable options include beef jerky, hard cheeses and Babybel cheese (little rounds of cheese encased in wax).Meats
- Good quality beef jerky
- "Leftover" cold baked chicken
- Sliced deli meats or similar
- Cold hot dogs or Vienna sausage (intended as a kid friendly option, but if you like it, hey, you do you)
Cheeses
Whatever cheese you personally like, but here are some things I like:- Sliced pepper jack
- Feta or Romano (Tip: these are not cow cheeses)
- Babybel cheese
Other
- Bean dip
- Cold hard-boiled egg
Fruit, Nuts, Veggies
- Dried fruit
- Fresh fruit (oranges, bananas, sliced apples, prepped grapes*)
- Veggie chips
- Finger food veggies, like baby carrots or cut celery
- Dry roasted nuts, like almonds, cashews or macadamias
The general idea is you pick at least one thing from each of the three main categories (carbs, protein, fruit/nuts/veggies) and toss it onto a plate. Serve with whatever drink you prefer.
The quality of this meal is largely determined by the quality of the selection of finger foods you have on hand. Choose wisely when shopping and this is a perfectly fine meal that can help you cope and heal during stressful, hectic times and it's a perfectly satisfactory meal.
This tradition began when I was pregnant with my second child and my oldest was two. I routinely made spaghetti, cooking the entire bag or box of noodles in one go and putting the leftovers in the fridge on a low shelf that he could reach. (Or, arguably, it began a few months before that when I began putting hot dogs in the fridge where he could reach them.)
I also kept Parmesan or Romano cheese on hand so he could have cold noodles and cheese in place of hot noodles and cheese. He never ate spaghetti sauce anyway, so it was a cold version of the spaghetti meal he typically ate when I cooked spaghetti for dinner.
When he got older, I bought a nifty tool for coring and slicing an apple in one move that he was able to handle. At that point, I encouraged him to add fresh apple slices to his noodles and cheese for a cold meal he could get for himself at will without having to ask an adult for anything.
I have an issue with sulfur so I don't eat a lot of dried fruits. Most of them use a sulfurous preservative.
But when I had a corporate job, I found a brand of dried cherries that didn't use sulfur. I really liked them and kept them on hand, along with Feta cheese because I was real sick at the time and cow cheeses were not going over so well with me.
So a Plate o' Stuff was a somewhat common thing for me when I was working a corporate job. It somewhat often meant dried cherries, feta cheese, some kind of chips or flat bread and almonds or cashews.
If you have the time and energy to cook, awesome! Go, you!
If you don't have the time and energy to cook, a Plate o' healthy Stuff beats the heck out of what a lot of people routinely do in place of cooking from scratch.
