If you're a client of mine, you already know you should be consuming 30g protein per meal to support hormone health.

If you're not yet a client, and this is news to you - I'm so glad you're here! This hormone healing hack is hands down the most effective tool for long term menstrual cycle health & happiness.

Consuming enough protein, especially at breakfast, will have you literally jumping for joy with a level of energy you previously could only dream of having.

As one of my clients put it:

But...I hear you say. How do I consistently reach my protein goals without spending all day in the kitchen?

I've been coaching every woman who comes into my clinic on this subject for the past year, as well as successfully nourishing myself with adequate protein and reaping the benefits.

I know as a mum it can be hard to feed ourselves well. So I thought I'd write this blog post, to give you some ideas of how to nail this important dietary shift in a sustainable, enjoyable way.

Below are 8 handy food prep hacks, and recipe ideas to go with them, that will make it feel easy to eat well, no matter what is going on around you.

1. Prep your carbs White potatoes are really rich in potassium, an important mineral for energy production, adrenal health, blood sugar regulation and thyroid function. Cooking and then cooling potatoes also increases their resistant starch content, lowering their glycaemic index and making them super gut healthy foods. Most importantly, having cooked potatoes to hand makes quick, healthy meals really easy! To prepare your potatoes, choose medium-large white (or sweet) potatoes, wrap them in foil and bake them in the oven for 45 mins-1hr. Let them cool and keep them in the fridge for up to 4-5 days. Do this on a Sunday or Monday and you've got your potatoes for the week! I like to slice them in half, add butter, and eat them with a tin of codfish, some radicchio salad or purslane, avocado, and a fried egg on top! You can also opt for raw cheese, grated carrot & beetroot, chicken... literally whatever protein, veg or salad you have in the fridge.
   

2. Prep your protein

When you have protein & carb sources ready to go, creating hormone healthy meals on the go becomes easy and enjoyable.

The easiest way to have some protein ready-to-go at all times is to pre-roast chicken thighs, leave them to cool and keep them in the fridge or freezer. Cooked chicken freezes really well, you just have to remember to defrost it the night before if you want ready-made chicken the next day.

Choose free range chicken thighs or legs (on the bone), sprinkle over some paprika, cumin, garlic powder, oregano and salt (or any spice mix you like), and roast them for 30-40mins or until the skin is crispy. You can do this, again, on Sunday or Monday - it takes so little preparation!

Chicken is very high in protein so it's a great choice since you don't need much of it to meet your 30g per meal goal. Just one chicken drumstick provides around 25g.

Eat your chicken with grated carrot salad, in a gluten free wrap, or in the delicious seaweed wraps below!

3. Easy seaweed wraps

My 5yr old son adores these salty seaweed wraps, and they're so easy to make!

Just buy Nori sheets from any supermarket, fill them with chopped pre-cooked chicken, avocado, grated carrot, kimchi & spring onions, and top with a little tamari soy sauce.

You can vary the ingredients - add scrambled eggs, leftover rice, cucumber, other pickled veggies.... whatever you have in the fridge!

These wraps seriously work for breakfast, lunch or dinner, and the seaweed sheets are full of iodine - a really important mineral for hormone health!

4. Easy marinades

Chicken again!! It's just so high in protein!

But seriously, you can make a simple chicken marinade with lemon juice, garlic, olive oil and chopped parsley, and just keep your marinating chicken fillets in the fridge ready for you to cook whenever you're hungry.

Another quick and tasty marinade is ginger, garlic, tamari soy sauce (or coconut aminos) and water.

Then just grate up some carrot, grab some salad, avocado, tahini, a squeeze of lemon and some olive oil, and you've got a great hormone healthy, super quick meal!

Cooking chicken fillets like this take 10 mins max in a saucepan - and there's at least 50g protein in the above photo.

5. Roasted veggie platter

Just like the potatoes, roasted root veggies are a great source of potassium and are really handy to have pre-prepared in the fridge.

Roughly chop lots of sweet potatoes, red & green peppers, carrots, onions, squash or pumpkin, sprinkle liberally with salt and roast in the oven on a low-ish temperature until they go soft. You don't want them to go cripsy or burn - they need to be nice and soft to store well in the fridge. Use either de-odorised coconut oil or olive oil for roasting.

Your roast veg can be stored in the fridge for at least 5 days - my favourite way to eat these is to combine with jammy eggs (eggs boiled for exactly 5 minutes so the yolks are still soft and the whites are hard), some wild smoked salmon, and a few salad leaves.

6. Slow cooked meat

If you're a mum and you don't have a slow cooker, you absolutely must go out right now and get one.

You can put anything in a slow cooker and just press the button and it makes dinner while you're out!

I like a whole duck, stuffed with orange quarters, covered in rosemary with chopped sweet potatoes ontop. Just sprinkle lots of salt, add a dash of water and slow cook for 8-10 hours for duck meat that is literally falling-off-the-bone delicious.

You can put anything in there though - a whole chicken, pieces of beef for a stew, osso bouco (marrow bone), anything you like. As long as you add a few veggies, some salt, and a bit of water, it will cook anything to perfection.

7. Turkey wraps

For this you'll need a stock of sliced turkey from your local butcher or supermarket. You may not want to buy deli meats and I understand this - what I tell my clients is: we don't live in an ideal world, and under-eating protein is worse for your body than consuming non-organic meat and a few preservatives.

Why? Because if we don't eat enough protein, our liver cannot perform its necessary function of detoxification. So the toxins we are exposed to make much more of an impact if we don't get our daily protein. Better to get enough protein first and worry about E-numbers later. That's just my perspective...

To make turkey wraps, just use the meat as the wrap and fill it with watercress, avocado, and a bit of mustard. Roll it up and eat it! This is a great on-the-go snack or meal, if you make enough of them.

8. Raw cheese & fruit

This is more of a snack, but it still counts as a meal if the alternative is no food at all - just have more of it!

Fruit is really high in potassium, and raw cheese is full of calcium, vitamins A, D E and K, healthy fat AND protein.

Sprinkle a bit of sea salt on your fruit for extra sodium, and enjoy as a refreshing and mineral rich summer snack!

So you see... it's not that difficult to eat well. You just have to be A BIT prepared.

You don't have to spend all weekend batch cooking, either. Obviously, if you have time on a Sunday, it's a great idea to make a big pot of chicken curry or soup so you have a meal to start the week with. I have tonnes of recipes that I give my clients when they enrol in my program, and most of these can be made ahead of time and stored.

But the most effective way to meal prep is to prep your carb and protein sources separately, and then mix and match as you feel. This way you're never eating the same thing all week long and getting bored of the sight of food.

I really hope you found this useful and that it helps you feed yourself well, with less stress... because that's the key to hormone balance and happy, energetic mamas!

Share with other mamas, or tag me on socials @thehormoneherbalist if you make any of the recipes!

Love to you,

Pops X