How to Construct Simple Healthy Meals

Because I am extremely strict about knowing the origins of the food I eat, 95 percent of my meals are homemade. Hardly anything comes wrapped or in a package.

But relatively few of my lunches and dinners are grand productions. In truth, I eat rather simply, with most cooked efforts taking about 20 minutes. Last night’s dinner—whole wheat pasta with an off-the-cuff sauce of onion, garlic, olives, anchovies, roasted pepper, parsley and tomato paste—fit that description.

At least half of my meals are random constructions of different food items. With a little planning, anyone can replicate my lunch yesterday (photo, above right). It would be difficult to argue with its flavor and nutrition. Plus, to use the words of clients who have recently changed their cooking and eating habits, I felt clean after eating, not like crap.

TUESDAY'S LUNCH

Hard-boiled eggs – 12 minutes of cooking time, during which I prepared the below:
Bunch of carrots – 20 seconds to clean one carrot.
Avocado – 15 seconds to cut in half.
Chunk of cheese – 10 seconds to cut.
Baked sweet potatoes – 45 minutes, baked while eating dinner the night before.
Red quinoa salad – 20 minutes, huge amount made the day before during lunch.

I also had a wedge of whole wheat bread with Smjör butter, which took about 15 seconds. Additional flavor (not much was needed) and nutrition came from unrefined sea salt, fresh ground pepper, extra virgin olive oil and fresh lemon juice.