As much as I love food, getting me to cook a meal is like pulling teeth. When we were studying for the bar, I had the best of intentions but nine times out of ten, always managed to find an excuse to order chicken-shawarma-hummus for lunch and pan-fried dumplings for dinner. And even now, most days, even putting frozen (pre-portioned) fruit into a blender for a breakfast smoothie is a struggle so I often end up paying way too much for a “blue magic” smoothie and chocolate chia pudding instead.

Part of being an adult, I’ve realized, is acknowledging the realities of your daily life. My daily reality is a 9-6, often with a couple hours of work to finish up before I call it a night. When I get home, cooking a meal is the last thing I want to do, and I definitely am not in the mood to put together a lunch for the next day. But I’m happy to report that I’m slowly but surely getting my act together.

Breakfast:

The older I get, the less of a morning person I’m becoming. Breakfast smoothies and chia pudding are now a weekend thing; deconstructed breakfast smoothies are a weekday thing: a banana, a handful of raspberries or blueberries in a Ziploc container and 5% Greek yogurt (Liberte’s vanilla bean and mango-white chocolate are my favourites). I also add a couple spoonfuls of chia seeds to my bottle of water, and keep a stash of instant oatmeal in my drawer at work.

Lunch:

I often have to eat at my desk, so on the weekend, I’ll put together a couple batches of pasta salad (loaded with marinated artichokes, feta and spinach) and roast some chicken. That’s lunch for the week.

Dinner:

When my brother isn’t around to cook up a spicy stir-fry, I’ll often throw together a simple pasta (carbonara or something with garlic, lemon and red chilies) or my ultimate non-take-out go-to: instant ramen loaded with baby bok-choy and Sriracha.

Here’s hoping I can keep this going.