I’ll be the first to admit that eating healthy can be a challenge. Healthy recipes are often overwhelmingly complicated and sometimes ingredients can sound intimidating. Healthy eating can be especially challenging when you have limited time to meal prep and little people running around you all day long. I love to cook and bake, but I often get stuck into a recipe rut and then I lose motivation to plan meals!
When I was offered an opportunity to take a meal planning workshop with Fairfield County Moms Blog sponsor, Erin Parekh, I started counting down the days. Erin Parekh is a certified health coach and cooking instructor {which means she knows her stuff and won’t steer you wrong}. Her primary focus is nutritional and lifestyle coaching for busy women looking to reclaim their health and find balance in their daily lives. Her motto is “Eat. Live. Be.” and I couldn’t love it more.
I was so excited for an opportunity to learn nutrition and meal prep tips and bond with my fellow contributors {sans kids!}, all while eating yummy food. I am so glad that I went to the workshop – Erin made prepping healthy food fun, and most importantly, simple!
When we arrived, Erin greeted us with a big smile, delicious water infused with blood oranges, and a printed packet with all of the recipes that we would be making for the day. She had planned a meal prep workshop for us that included four courses – we would be making Coconut Chia Pudding, Massaged Kale Salad, Moroccan Nourish Bowls, and Peanut Butter Energy Bites. Cue the drooling, it sounded amazing!
Erin walked us through every step of the recipes, gave us meal prep tips and kitchen hacks along the way. She also explained the benefits of every ingredient and the best places to buy them. When creating her recipes, Erin is thoughtful and purposefully creates recipes with wholesome ingredients that have multiple health benefits. Erin’s recipes that she helped us make were SIMPLE and had minimal ingredients.
Most importantly, after we cooked everything, we got to EAT! Everything was so tasty and it was hard to believe that all of the dishes we made were plant-based and good for you. Erin really knows what she is talking about and it was an absolute pleasure to spend a few hours in her beautiful townhouse, chatting about how we could introduce more wholesome ingredients and meals into our daily lives. Erin taught me the importance of nourishing our bodies and that eating healthy food can be simple.
We were laughing and chatting away the entire time and two hours FLEW BY! I kept thinking how fun it would be to host one of Erin’s meal planning workshop as a moms’ night in!
As a testament to how much I loved the workshop and the recipes we learned, I raced to Whole Foods after I left the workshop to buy the ingredients to meal prep that weekend. I made each of the recipes by myself the next day and they were just as easy to follow as if Erin was with me in the kitchen, thanks to all the knowledge she gave us the day before.
Erin offers sessions either in person or over the phone. She also conducts private and small group cooking classes throughout Fairfield County {I promise you that you will have fun, we had a blast}. Her website is updated regularly with healthy plant-based recipes, meal prep tips, and whole living insights.
