We’ve talked about healthy foods before. What you might not know is that I, too, had my share of frozen foods before I started getting my act together.

So after a couple years into my career, I was doing a lot of training in other cities and was never home during the week. It took me some time to train myself for what to store up on in my kitchen, as to have something simple to cook up when I got back. So I finally had a day of reckoning.

I remember being dropped off and walking into my empty loft. Looking around dropping my luggage and saying Oh yes, this is home.

I plummeted on the couch for a short nap, only to a wake to the growling of my tummy. Next, I was wondering what was in the cupboard and fridge. I really hated these days, finding the date on the food has expired or that it was too late for takeout or delivery. Many nights in the first couple of months, I just went to bed hungry or ate ice cream if there was some in the freezer.

Finally, on my day of reckoning, I just burst into tears.

I was exhausted.

So sick of working my butt off and coming home, only to look forward to the preparation for the following weeks of work and travel. I had a major pity party. I was getting enough exercise - I always headed to the hotel gym around 8 PM, returning to my room, only to go over the the following days criteria before falling asleep. Meals in general were breakfast and dinner; and sometimes, instead of lunch, I would stroll the city and stop for a coffee.

I had to structure my time better and start taking care of myself before I crashed and burned out. I was feeling the pressure of being in a male dominated field where a business woman has to work twice as hard to prove her worth. My male colleagues agreed with this. I didn’t have a lot of downtime. The weekend was only two days and it was hardly enough time to get to the dry cleaner and write a note to myself to pick it up the following Saturday. Neither was it enough to buy healthy food for a couple of days and catch up with my parents and friends.

I think I spent the most time getting reacquainted with my loft. The usual bike ride around town or down to the beach on Saturdays - after a trip to the farmer’s market or the grocery store for enough supplies to last my short time home. I had to decide what to stock that wasn’t going to go past the expiration date, or expect to eat Cherry Garcia when arriving home too late.

So what to do about my empty cupboards?

I purchased a variety of wheat and spinach pastas, a case of tuna, and an assortment of frozen veggies. Cans of chili and sauces. My biggest enlightenment was that egg whites could be frozen and are heat pasteurized, and will remain fresh for 4 months in the refrigerator.

I like one whole egg in my omelets and I’m a 3 egg omelet girl. I pile in every vegetable I can find. I love grape tomatoes, fresh baby spinach, mushrooms, sweet peppers and jalapenos peppers. Grate on some fresh cheddar cheese or parmesan and I’m a happy girl.

Being raised in the kitchen where everything was fresh and made daily really wasn’t a plus at this time. Now I was forced to become acquainted with what to stock up in order to make a fast and easy homemade meal the next weekend, as well as meals for the next couple of days. Making a soup or sauce that I could freeze and could throw out quickly when I returned home was my solution.

I would remind myself of everything that needed to be done on the following weekend. What wasn’t written on my Blackberry was written and stuck to the refrigerator on a post-it.

I finally got it together once I stopped being “robot girl”, and became rocket girl instead. I used one of my bigger cupboards to stock dry good like pastas, cans of tomato paste and puree, and my dry spices. In the freezer, I had plenty of frozen vegetables and meats that I had already beat with the meat mallet to make more room in the tiny freezer - and also to shorten the cooking time.

Before You Ask: No, Frozen Dinners Aren’t Healthy!

Frozen foods and TV dinners are bunch of crap. I learned that like everyone else. Those pictures on the box never match what’s inside of it. The only soup I had was homemade - and that fast, comforting can of tomato soup. Back to the egg whites, I did find they last for a long time, they added to keeping up eating healthy foods, and I could have eggs in the fridge for longer then a week.

I’ts just what you make of it. Business women like us who don’t have the time to do real cooking have to look for proper alternatives without waiving the health aspect in our food. And frozen foods cleary don’t fall into that category. I found it out the hard way - how about you?