Brittany Mullins - Mostly Veggies

Copyright 2023 by Brittany Mullins

Cover design by Gregg Kulick

Cover photographs Kristin Tieg

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First ebook edition: April 2023

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Photography by Kristin Teig

ISBN 978-0-316-42802-6

LCCN 2022943554

E3-20221206-JV-NF-ORI

Contents

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My healthy eating journey started in college, when most of my meals were eaten at the dining hall and the term meal plan simply meant which meal package I had signed up for at the start of the semester.

Before heading off to college I had no real knowledge of nutrition or how to eat healthy, but I was determined not to gain the infamous freshman 15, so I started doing my own research and used this new environment as a way to dramatically change the way I was eating.

That year I lost 20 pounds of extra weight without restrictive dieting. I made healthier food choices. I chose whole, real foods instead of packaged foods whenever possible and ate a ton more vegetables and fruit. It was a big change from the food I grew up eating, which involved traditional Southern fare and a lot of processed foods.

The salad bar was my new best friend, and it was here that I learned how having a bunch of healthy ingredients prepped and ready to combine was the key to making delicious, satisfying meals that didnt get boring: with so many options I could switch up the flavors easily so I didnt feel like I was eating the same thing every day.

I was able to maintain that weight loss throughout college by keeping up with the healthy food habits I had established that first year. This journey not only boosted my self-confidence, it also piqued my interest in nutrition and healthy cooking, which later inspired me to start my website and become a holistic nutritionist so I could share what I learned and help others.

After college, things changed a bit when my husband, Isaac, and I moved in together and I took it upon myself to be in charge of planning out what we were going to eat every week. At the time, I didnt know the first thing about meal planning or meal prep. Plus, I had two different diets to contend with: I was a pescatarian, whereas Isaac ate meat.

I was totally winging it when it came to planning meals and cooking, which resulted in multiple trips to the grocery store, eating the same things for dinner night after night, wasting groceries that I bought with no plan to use, or coming home from work starving and snacking all evening instead of making a healthy meal for dinner.

Whats for Dinner?

Whether youre planning meals for yourself or a family, this is a question that we all face daily, and without a plan youre always having to use mental space to come up with the answer. Then, after a long day of work, you have to go to the store because you dont have what you need at home or you end up throwing together something at home that doesnt taste great or you take the easy route and order takeout, which derails your health goals (and your budget goals, too). Been there, done that!

I get it, meal prep (and just the idea of eating healthier) can feel daunting! When I first learned about meal planning and prep, it was through fitness trainers that I followed online, so I thought that meal prep meant spending hours in the kitchen cooking full meals and portioning out my unseasoned protein, steamed greens, and rice into seven uniform little containers.

That version of meal prep felt very restrictive to me. Plus, eating the same thing day after day is pretty unsatisfying, and not sustainable in the long term. Through trial and error, I finally learned that healthy eating doesnt need to be so prescriptive, and that there are many different ways to meal prep. I found a way that I actually enjoy, and I know you will, too!

Once I realized that there are different ways to meal prep, I started experimenting. One weekend I began small by just planning out our dinners for the week. I wrote out dinner ideas for each night, filling in a couple easy recipes I knew like the back of my hand, and then picked two brand-new recipes from cookbooks Id been wanting to try.

Focusing only on dinner and picking just a couple new recipes made the process feel totally doable. That week I was amazed by how organized and prepared I felt. It was like a weight was lifted off my shoulders because the inevitable daily question of what we were going to have for dinner was already answered, and I had a little meal plan posted on the fridge to prove it.

Once I felt confident with meal planning and prepping dinner recipes, I started to include breakfast and lunch recipes as well. This was particularly useful when Isaac and I both worked outside our home and needed meals we could bring with us.

Lately, my meal prep strategy has changed a bit. There are weeks when I prep the majority of our meals, but most of the time I simply plan all the meals, buy the items I need, and fully prep only a few things like breakfast and snacks. Im not saying my way is the only way to meal plan and prep, but its a process that has worked for me over the years through early adulthood and into parenthood. It not only keeps me feeling organized, but helps ensure my whole family is eating a wide variety of healthy, nutrient-rich foods. Its also been a key factor in being able to maintain my weight over the years, while still enjoying foods that I love day after day.

Ive provided the framework here for you to see what doing a full prep looks like, but feel free to make it your own and find some hybrid between prepping everything and only the essentials that works for you. The beauty of meal prep is how flexible it is and how easy it can be adapted to your life.

Healthy Eating Defined

With so much research and so many different theories out therenot to mention loads of information coming from unqualified sources on the internetit can be hard to answer the question of what exactly healthy eating is, but my definition is simple: 80 to 90 percent of the time you want to be eating whole, real foods that come from nature. And by that I mean foods with a single ingredient. Theres a time and place for processed foods, but they shouldnt be foods you rely on regularly.