Whipped Ricotta on Toast with veggies

This started out as a snack I would eat after work before heading to the gym, and it quickly became one of my favorite things to eat! You get carbs from a nice thick slice of bread (I make my own cottage cheese bread), protein from the ricotta, sweetness from honey drizzled on top, and some fiber from veggies on the side.

I keep my bread sliced in the freezer, so the only thing I need to do is pop a slice into the air fryer for a few minutes. While it warms up, I chop my veggies. The whole meal comes together in less than 6 minutes.

Tuna and White Bean Salad

This is an unsung hero and has become one of those meals I always keep the ingredients for in my pantry. The tuna and beans are shelf-stable and stay stocked at all times, while sweet relish and mayo are fridge staples. If I have a red onion, I’ll toss some in, but I don’t always have one on hand.

This comes together in less than 5 minutes, and the most labor-intensive part is opening the cans and draining the beans and tuna. It’s packed with fiber from the beans, protein from the tuna, and fat from the mayo — perfect for a nice lazy dinner!

Ramen

You can take the girl out of college, but you can’t take college out of the girl! I love a good bowl of ramen, but I’ve learned to jazz it up over the years to make it a little more filling and nutrient-dense.

I toss the ramen noodles into a bowl with bone broth and a ton of frozen veggies, then throw it into the microwave for about 2 minutes. Midway through, I add 2 eggs, making sure to break the yolks, then put it back into the microwave for another 2 minutes.

I don’t use the ramen seasoning packet because it has way more sodium than I like, so instead I season everything with whatever tickles my fancy that day — ginger, garlic, onion, whatever I’m craving. In the end, I have a warm, filling bowl of ramen that takes almost no effort.

Rice and Beans

I’m Latina, so rice and beans are pantry staples for me!! Since starting residency, I’ve started cooking rice in huge batches and freezing it into 1-cup blocks so I always have cooked rice ready to go.

Black beans are my preferred bean, but sometimes I feel spicy and go with red beans. I buy low-sodium canned beans, so they’re really a blank canvas for whatever I’m in the mood for. I put the beans into a microwave-safe bowl, season them with Adobo, cumin, garlic, and onion, then warm them up for a few minutes.

10/10 meal every time. Keeping rice ready-made in the freezer is the way to go. Those frozen packs of rice from the grocery store are convenient too, but I personally prefer freezing my in Souper Cubes as I try to avoid heating things up in plastic.

Soup

Canned soup is also a pantry staple for me. Campbell’s Tomato Soup made with milk, topped with crushed Saltines and black pepper, is one of my dad’s favorite soups and has become one of my comfort meals too.

But I’ll eat almost any soup I can get my hands on: canned, prepackaged from the grocery store, or homemade and stored in the freezer. And I especially love soup when the weather is cold outside.

If I’m making it myself, I add bone broth to a pot with frozen veggies, herbs, and whatever cooked meat I have on hand — usually leftover rotisserie chicken — and let everything simmer while I study or wind down. Homemade soup takes maybe 15 minutes, but the premade stuff is ready in less than 10.

What are some of your go-to meals when you’re not in the mood to cook? Let me know what they are — maybe I’ll add them into my rotation!

With love,
Ash ♡