Easy Meals I Make at Home in Under 30 Minutes

I have over 700 recipes on this little website of mine, but very rarely do I cook like that at home. I prefer to keep it simple, especially after cooking throughout the week for the blog. And the simpler I keep it, the more I’ve been able to stick with healthy meals throughout the day, day after day. And since I’ve had this website for quite sometime now, I’ve heard MANY people complain that they don’t have enough time to cook a healthy meal. And I get it. Life is f*cking busy. Work, workouts, children, family stress, and whatever the hell else is going on makes it pretty easy to come up with excuses to NOT eat a well rounded, healthy meal.

Well I’m here to show you that with a little planning, a little creativity, and with the help of some special ingredients, there’s really NO EXCUSE to not eat a healthy meal. It’s really freaking easy, I promise you that. You’ll see many repeats in my diet because I stick with foods that make me feel my best and that cook up quickly. Plus, I use whatever ingredients I have on hand in my freezer. So let’s get to it. Here’s a little breakdown of what I always have at home and/or purchase week to week:

• ButcherBox – Every month I get my monthly supply of grass-fed, grass-finished, antibiotic and hormone-free, pasture-raised beef, chicken and pork. This way I always have meat on hand that I can pull out of the freezer the day beforehand to make for meals the next day. And since it’s delivered to my doorstep, I don’t have to think about it, which is the best part. In every box, I always get burgers and breakfast sausage, then whatever other meat is available that month!
• Whole Foods –
  • Freezer section – I always like to purchase cauliflower rice, sliced bell peppers, asparagus, cauliflower and kale so if I’m in a pinch and have no fresh produce around, I can quickly defrost any of these vegetable and whip up a meal quickly.
  • Produce section – I almost always purchase arugula, kale, carrots, cherry tomatoes, ripe plantains, yukon gold potatoes, sweet baby peppers, butter lettuce, honey crisp apples, cilantro, green onions and whatever other vegetable looks good.
  • Pre-cut veggies – At Whole Foods (and many other grocery stores nowadays), they have pre-cut vegetables that have made a huge difference when it comes to how long it takes to make a meal. It costs a little more, but to me it’s worth it because it keeps me eating healthy. I’ll always buy pre-cut butternut squash fries, brussels sprouts, kale, beets (I buy the Love Beets brand), zucchini noodles, beet noodles, and carrot fries.
  • Butcher section – Since I get all my meat from ButcherBox, I usually only purchase wild-caught fish and seafood at Whole Foods. We try to eat salmon, scallops, sea bass and whatever other fish looks good. And we’ve been eating more fish and seafood recently because my husband is on a strict diet where he can’t have chicken or pork, which is why most of my dinners are beef or fish/seafood. I love getting fish/seafood for the nights that we have limited time since it cooks up so quickly.

Now let’s talk about my meals. If you don’t already follow me on instagram, get to it because I share most of my meals every day to help you stay creative in your own kitchen! I have 16 meals here and I’m going to quickly break all of them down. I often use two pans to make things cook up quicker. It may mean more dishes but non-stick pans are easy to clean anyways, so it’s not that big of a deal!

This is how most of my breakfasts look and this takes about 15-20 minutes to make –

• ButcherBox breakfast sausage
• Pre-cut kale and a plantain cooked in ghee in the same pan

I use leftovers A LOT for meals and for this meal, I had leftover tomato salad. This takes about 10-15 minutes to make –

• leftover tomato salad – cherry tomatoes, avocado, olive oil, lime juice, cilantro, jalapeño, s&p
• ButcherBox breakfast sausage and a plantain cooked in the fat in the same pan as the sausage

I like to get as many vegetables as possible in at every meal. This meal takes 30 minutes –

• Brussels sprouts tossed in avocado oil and roasted at 400 degrees for 30 minutes
• When the brussels sprouts have about 10 minutes to go, I cooked up a Teton Water jalapeño brat in a pan (I cut the brat like that to help it cook quicker)
• While the brat cooks, I toss an arugula salad in olive oil, lemon juice, s&p

Since I stay away from eggs most of the time, I make hashes at home just without the eggs. This kind of meal takes about 10 minutes.

• ButcherBox sausage cooked up, then 1/2 diced apple added along with a handful of arugula and some hot sauce.

Getting as much color as possible is one of my favorite kind of breakfast! This took about 15 minutes to make –

• ButcherBox cooked up, then 3 purple carrots and 1/2 plantain cooked in the fat in the same pan
• While all the vegetables cook, I made an arugula salad in olive oil, lemon juice, s&p

This dinner took about 20 minutes to make –

• I heated up a cast iron skillet with ghee, and seasoned ButcherBox sirloin steaks with salt and garlic powder. Once hot, I cook the steaks for about 5 minutes per side, until medium rare, then I let the steak rest on a cutting board for 10 minutes before thinly slicing agains the grain.
• While the steaks rest, I add pre-cut kale to that same pan with a bunch of thinly sliced sweet peppers and cook for about 7-8 minutes, until soft and browned.
• Lately, I sliced up some iceberg lettuce, topped it with avocado oil ranch and hot sauce, then I topped it all off with taco seasonings.

This dinner took about 20 minutes to make –

• ButcherBox burger cooked in a cast iron skillet with ghee, seasoned with only salt and garlic powder. About 6-8 minutes per side.
• While the burger cooks, in another pan with ghee, I cooked up pre-cut beet noodles with salt and pepper.
• Last, I made an easy salad of arugula with avocado oil ranch.

This meal was made with all leftovers, so even though I had to make these ingredients earlier on, it meant this meal took 3 minutes to prep –

• Jalapeño Popper Chicken Salad
• Leftover roasted brussels sprouts – earlier these were tossed in avocado oil and roasted at 400 degrees for 30 minutes. I just microwaved these for about a minute
• Leftover tomato salad – cherry tomatoes, avocado, olive oil, lime juice, cilantro, jalapeño, s&p

This lunch took about 15 minutes to cook up –

• ButcherBox chicken tender diced up and added to a pan with ghee. Once almost cooked through, I add diced carrots and sliced sweet peppers and cook up with a little hot sauce.
• Once veggies are soft, I make a quick salad of arugula and avocado oil ranch.

This is one of my favorite dinners to make because it’s so easy to make and so filling. I made this in about 20 minutes –

• In a pan with ghee, I add kale and cook over medium heat with a little lemon juice, s&p and red pepper flakes until soft.
• Then in another pan with ghee, once hot I added scallops that I have salted on both sides. These scallops only have to cook for 3-5 minutes per side.
• While the scallops and kale cook, I dice up Love Beets (which are already cooked and peeled) then I toss them in olive oil, lemon juice, parsley, and s&p.

This meal takes about 30 minutes to make –

• I toss these pre-cut butternut squash fries in avocado oil and roast at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes.
• While the fries roast, in one pan I cook up ButcherBox burgers in ghee, about 6-8 minutes per side. Then I top the burger with avocado oil mayo and ketchup.
• And while the burgers cook, in another pan I cooked up pre-cut kale, arugula and some diced red bell pepper in ghee then add a little lemon juice, garlic powder and s&p.

This Taco Tuesday dinner (which I make almost every Tuesday) took about 25-30 minutes to make  –

• First I made a tomato salad – cherry tomatoes, avocado, olive oil, lime juice, cilantro, jalapeño, s&p
• After I made the tomato salad, in a large pan I added diced bell pepper to ghee and cooked until browned. Then added 2 pounds of ButcherBox ground beef. Once browned, I added taco seasonings, hot sauce and lime juice.
• Then I made tacos with grain-free tortillas, chipotle mayo, jalapeño peppers, and cilantro.

This meal took about 25 minutes to make –

• This is my chicken fried rice recipe, but I use ButcherBox ground beef instead. I also used thawed cauliflower rice and thawed pre-cut bell peppers to make this meal cook up even faster!

This dinner took about 30 minutes to whip up –

• Brussels sprouts tossed in avocado oil and roasted at 400 degrees for 30 minutes
• While brussels sprouts cook, in a pan with ghee, I add kale and cook over medium heat with a little lemon juice, s&p and red pepper flakes until soft.
• Then in another pan I cook up ButcherBox burgers in ghee, about 6-8 minutes per side. Then I top the burger with chipotle mayo and put it in butter lettuce.

This meal took about 25 minutes to make –

• This is my chicken fried rice recipe, but I use ButcherBox ground beef instead. I also used thawed cauliflower rice and thawed pre-cut bell peppers to make this meal cook up even faster then put the recipe in butter lettuce cups!

Last but not least, this meal takes about 30 minutes, but is worth the time since it has so many vegetables in it!

• In a pan with ghee, I cooked up pre-cut beet noodles with salt and pepper.
• In another pan with ghee, I cook up pre-cut zucchini noodle with salt and pepper.
• Once the beet noodles are soft and done cooking, I set aside and cover then add the kale to that pan to cook with a little garlic, lemon juice and s&p until soft.
• Then when the zucchini is done, I set aside and cover to keep warm. I add extra ghee to the pan then cook the scallops that I have salted on both sides for 3-5 minutes per side.

And that’s that!! That’s 16 meals all cooked in under 30 minutes. And this is exactly what most meals look like for me. Since I started cooking like this more and more, I have felt better than ever. I sleep better, my stress levels are lower, and I have more energy than usual. I hope showing you these quick meals help prove to you that eating healthy really is easy, you just sometimes have to keep it simple! Let me know if you have any questions about these simple meals and if I can help in any other ways!

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