Fast Food Your Mainstay? Healthy Homemade Meals for Tiny Kitchens

If you’re like many apartment dwellers, your kitchen is just about big enough to accommodate yourself and one other person. When the two of you get together to whip up a gourmet storm, you constantly have to interrupt your chopping or dicing to move aside for the other person to pass by or open the refrigerator.

So that’s why, nine times out of ten, you opt for some fries and a shake or any other number of fast food selections. We know that fast food is just a last-ditch effort to stave off the hunger pangs. The healthy meal ideas below, starting with breakfast, can be created in a small kitchen with little equipment required.

Breakfast

For breakfast, nothing beats a comforting bowl of hot oatmeal. Stock either the old fashioned or the instant variety. (For the healthiest path, avoid the type that comes in a prepackaged envelope, as those tend to contain large amounts of sugar and other additives.) Ladle yourself a bowlful and add blueberries (don’t forget to wash all your produce) and pour on a teaspoon of Blackstrap Molasses for the nutrients.

Pour a glass of Blueberry Blackberry Acai juice by Northland and enjoy a piece of freshly toasted Ezekiel bread (in your grocer’s freezer aisle with nary an artificial ingredient). Or, pick up a bread brand with ingredients you can pronounce. If you can’t pronounce it, chances are it’s a chemical that’s not very good for you.

Lunch

You can make a delicious salad with little effort and as many, or as little, ingredients as you have on hand. Chop carrots, onions, tomatoes, or cucumber. Add any deeply hued salad greens, since those have more nutrition than the typical iceberg variety. Anchovies, sardines, sliced boiled eggs, tempeh (fermented tofu), avocado, feta, or goat cheese add protein. For the dressing, combine extra virgin olive oil, vinegar of your choice, garlic, mint, or rosemary and sea salt. Too many ingredients? You can pick and choose the ones you find the most appetizing. Toss and serve!

Dinner

Dinner means a menu you can linger over. How about steaming some mussels? Stop at your local supermarket’s fresh sea food counter and pick up enough for one or two servings. Make a stir fry to go along with them using coconut oil. Put some Asian bamboo sprouts or water chestnuts to your frying pan. Add any veggie you have in your fridge. Or, make a brown rice and bean recipe (for a complete protein) and spice it up with curry and a bit of cayenne pepper.

And, whatever you do, do partake in your meal sitting down. Standing up and scarfing your meal in the kitchen will make you feel bereft…and hungry again. Taking a seat and putting a plate in front of you will improve your digestion, make the experience more pleasing, and make you more appreciative for the food you have.