If you're like me, the prospect of cooking brown rice at 7 pm or the slow-cook SB approved oatmeal at 7 am is daunting, time wise...
What I've been doing on the weekends is making big batches of these healthy staples and freezing them in cupcake pans. I use a little cooking spray first.
Then when they are frozen you pop them out of the pans and store them in ziplock bags, which makes portion control a snap they will be frozen in half-cup portions for regular sized cupcake pans.
If you cut up fresh veggies and put them on one side of the steamer rack, and put the frozen rice on the other, they will both be perfectly done in 7 minutes. Fast food! Sometimes I broil some low fat cheese on the top.
Oatmeal you can freeze the same way, I've just been thawing it out in a bowl in the fridge the night before & then nuking it for 1 minute. I love to have oatmeal, with some grated green apple in it, and a couple of spoonfuls of crushed nuts on top. Yum! And I'm not hungry for HOURS after eating it.
I can really tell the difference in the way I feel between eating the whole foods and the instant kinds, the good thing is that with the freezer you can make these Phase II foods "instant" too, and it's easier if you only heat up the correct portion too.
