56 THE QUEENS COURIER • BUZZ • JANUARY 31, 2019 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
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Astoria entrepreneur off ers meal prep program
BY ALLISON KRIDLE
Living in one of the most diverse cities
in the world makes it hard to resist
the temptation of takeout. All the dining
options feel overwhelming, and ordering
Seamless is pricey — not to mention takeout
food doesn’t seem to ever make you
feel good. You could cook, but that takes
time out of the night when you don’t wish
to lift another fi nger aft er work and the
decision itself sets you back.
If you are familiar with these struggles,
we may have found a solution: food prepping.
As the founder of the meal prepping
blog and Instagram called Workweek
Lunch, Astorian Talia Koren faced the
same dilemmas once upon a time until she
started cooking and established her own
business.
“I started Workweek Lunch because I
was bringing my food to work every day
and my coworkers made fun of me, but
then they were like ‘How do you do that?’”
Koren said. “I was known as the healthy
girl in the offi ce. I just didn’t want to spend
money on takeout. It was never a health
thing for me; it was always a money thing
for me.”
Similar to many New Yorkers, Koren
knew that she shouldn’t (and couldn’t)
aff ord to spend money on food every day
while remaining independent and paying
rent and bills. She quickly took to the
craft of cooking and developed recipes. She
became skilled enough to start a blog and
an Instagram and gained over 170,000 followers
in less than two years.
“I intentionally started my blog to create
a business, but I didn’t know it would turn
into my full-time business. I’m happy recipe
developing in my tiny kitchen and instagramming
for myself,” Koren said.
Th e Workweek Lunch Instagram overfl
ows with pictures of vibrant meals and
tips on how to make them. Koren concocts
and presents recipes such as tomato,
sausage and orzo skillet; kale, quinoa
and butternut squash salad; and tofu
Th ai bowls with snap peas, carrots, cabbage
and homemade peanut sauce. Koren
also includes preferred packaged snacks
(Kikkerland trail mix and Breakstone’s cottage
cheese) as well as homemade snacks
like granola and cookies. She never hesitates
to throw in a juicy apple or ripe
banana either.
“Now that I off er meal prep programs,
I always have to think about what’s next;
what do I have to make next week or the
week aft er? So it’s like, what have I not
done already? I think about the core elements:
carbs, protein, vegetables. Th ose
three elements are always in my meals,
unless it’s breakfast, when I do fruit,”
Koren said.
When curating her recipes, Koren oft en
draws inspiration from diff erent cuisines
or meals she’s eaten at restaurants.
Sometimes she’s infl uenced by what her
boyfriend is in the mood for, or better yet,
what her audience asks for.
“I take any meal and try to fi gure out
how to make it taste good as a left over,”
she said. “I make recipes that are meant
to be kept for a couple of days, because not
all recipes are.”
One of the most surprising aspects of
Koren’s meal programs and recipes is the
lack of a calorie counter, weight loss regimen
and restrictions like most fad diets
promote. For Koren and her followers,
it’s all about intuitive eating. According
to Koren’s blog, intuitive eating is a nutrition
philosophy based on the idea that one
can be healthy when they let their bodies
run the show, instead of tracking foods to
attain and maintain a level of health or a
specifi c physique that one’s body can never
sustain.
“Intuitive eating is another way to
reduce stress,” Koren said. “You’re not
tracking calories. You’re not eating to
change the way you look, like your body
composition. You are eating for the basic
function of fueling your body while also
taking pleasure in eating the food, and
that’s it.”
Koren is not a vegan or vegetarian,
but creates dishes that are vegan-friendly
because she enjoys meat alternatives like
tofu, especially with veggies. However, she
won’t deny her body chicken or fi sh if that
is what she craves.
Of course, Koren receives questions all
the time such as, “So if I want 10 brownies
I can just eat them all?” or “How does
someone like myself who loves carbs and
sugar stop those cravings?”
On Instagram Koren replied, “Th is
sounds counterintuitive, but to stop the
cravings you have to stop restricting and
give yourself full permission to eat those
foods.” A large part of intuitive eating is
how you perceive the foods you eat or want
to eat, and how you can consume them in a
way that will not make you feel guilty.
Although Koren’s recipes and instructions
tempt all kinds of eaters and cookers,
she hopes to one day enhance their accessibility
and be more hands-on. Instead of
reading on how to prepare Koren’s delicious
hummus, you could one day cook it
along with her.
“One of my goals is to make an online
cooking course. I would love to provide an
aff ordable cooking service so my followers
don’t have to go to a class or search
YouTube,” Koren said. “Th e sky is the
limit.”
In the meantime, whether you follow the
Workweek Lunch Instagram or subscribe
to Koren’s meal prep plans, she will be
there to inspire you and encourage you
to feel good about consuming tasty food,
and she’ll be fueling right along with you.
Photos courtesy of Talia Koren
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