Here comes fall and the hustle and bustle of back to school and back to work. Don’t let being crazy busy, sabotage your healthy eating habits because busy people tend to skip meals, order more take out, spend more money on food, and eat more fast food. Let’s face it, planning a meal after a busy day, will just make you frustrated, and we often find ourselves resorting to take out instead. However, a little meal planning can help keep you on track, save time, save money, assure you make good food choices and even reduce your stress. Try incorporating the following easy meal planning tips into your weekly routine.
Make a weekly meal schedule and purchase ingredients ahead of time. Be sure to check your work and social calendar so you know which days may be more stressful, or when your time may be even more limited (good night for a cold salad, healthy wrap or a dish from the freezer you prepared ahead).
While making your shopping list and meal plan, be sure to check your refrigerator for foods you have on hand and need to use up. Have a bag of fresh broccoli? plan for stir fried chicken and broccoli one night
Plan for leftovers Make larger batches of foods on the weekends, so you can have leftovers for an easy meal during the work week
Purchase foods you can cook in the slow cooker such as roasts, chicken pieces ect and set everything up and turn on before leaving for work. Pressed for time in the am, set up ingredients in the slow cooker the night before and refrigerate
Take some time on the weekends to complete prep work, chop vegetables, cut up chicken breast even measure out ingredients. Saving time when you go to cook
Purchase a cooked healthy protein source such as rotisserie chicken, grilled fish or roasted turkey breast, from the food store on Sunday Then you need only make some easy hot side dishes on Monday and put the rest over a salad or in a wrap on Tuesday or Wednesday
Keep your spice cabinet well stocked. So you are prepared to make any recipe you need without running to the store.
Make sure your refrigerator is neat and organized Clean out any expired items so you don’t end up at the store to replace an ingredient that is out of date for a meal you planned
Research some easy recipes with limited ingredients such as vegetables lean protein sources (chicken, fish, beans, ect) and whole grains Print out and keep on hand for meal planning on the weekend
Make a large salad that can be used for meals throughout the week such as a side vegetable or even a main dish salad with meat on top.
Make large batches of brown rice, quinoa, whole grain pasta ahead of time and portion out to accompany a few different meals throughout the work week.
Keep a few foil pans on hand to reduce clean up on those really busy days Just be sure to recycle
Portion meals into glass containers with covers This makes storing, heating up and putting away leftovers very easy.
For those nights that you just can’t bring yourself to cook at all. Keep several take out menus from restaurants with healthy choices on hand. Highlight the healthy dishes on each menu and order only those. Choose simple seasoned steamed, baked or grilled foods with vegetables and whole grain sides and skip the fried foods or foods soaked in sauces or gravies
If you are ambitious on the weekend, making a complicated recipe. Double, even triple the recipe and freeze for the upcoming weeks. Be sure to label and date and keep track of what you have frozen so you can include in your meal plan calendar.
This planning will reduce your meal time stress and give you some time to appreciate all the beauty of this season. Enjoy!
