The freezer that feeds you all week.
Last week I talked about what your gut actually does (far more than digest your food) and why feeding it well matters more in midlife than most women realise. When I broach this topic with my clients, the response I sometimes get back is some version of: "I hear you, Lolu, but I get home at 6:30 and the last thing I'm doing is cooking from scratch on a Tuesday."
I know. So let me tell you about my freezer, and (since it's July and far too hot for anyone to be standing over a pot) my fridge.
On a good Sunday, I'll spend a couple of hours cooking two or three things in bulk. My sons have caught onto this too and now we sometimes do it together (which I am not complaining about). Not a meal prep influencer spread with fourteen matching containers. Just the things my family actually eats, made in big pots and frozen in portions. A batch of stew or curry. A big pot of beans or lentils. A bolognese or a ragu that works over pasta, rice, or with bread. If you're cooking Nigerian, that might be efo riro, okra stew, or pepper soup. The principle is the same whatever your kitchen looks like: cook once, eat three or four times.
By Wednesday, when the day has wrung me out and cooking is the last thing on my mind, I pull a container from the freezer, heat it through, and serve it with whatever is easy. Twenty minutes, from frozen to the table.
And because it's summer and nobody wants a hot stew every night in this heat: big salads become your best friend. A base of leaves, some roasted vegetables (batch those on Sunday too), a tin of chickpeas or butter beans, a handful of seeds, maybe some feta or grilled halloumi. That's eight or nine different plant foods in a bowl, no cooking required on the day. Add a grain you've already batch-cooked (quinoa, bulgur wheat, brown rice) and you have a meal that's filling, gut-friendly, and cool enough for a July evening.
Here's why this matters. That single pot of stew, whatever the cuisine, is packed with variety. Tomatoes, onions, garlic, herbs, spices, peppers, leafy greens. A bean or lentil dish adds more. Your summer salad adds a completely different set. Without trying, without tracking, your week's cooking can cover fifteen to twenty different plant foods before you've even thought about breakfast or snacks.
You remember the target from last week: 30 different plant foods a week for gut diversity. Between your freezer and your salad bowl, you're more than halfway there.
Three things to try this Sunday:
Cook one batch meal you already know well, and double it. Freeze half in portions that make sense for your household.
Prep a salad base for the week. Wash your leaves, roast a tray of vegetables (courgette, peppers, aubergine, whatever you have), cook a pot of grains. Assemble fresh each evening. Five minutes, no heat.
Add one thing you don't normally include. Sprinkle pumpkin seeds over your salad. Flaxseed in your morning yoghurt. A different leafy green than the one you always reach for. Small additions, big diversity.
This is not about overhauling your kitchen. It's about working with the way you already cook, and letting your freezer and your fridge do the heavy lifting on the nights when you can't.
Health in your body, peace in your soul, purpose in your step.
Lolu :)
