5 Tips to Help You Plan Healthy Meals
Planning healthy meals can be difficult, especially if your family is stuck in a rut of unhealthy meals. However, with some basic knowledge of nutrition, you can have your family eating healthy without them even realizing it.
The key to creating healthy meals is to plan. Plan your week’s meals ahead of time so that you have all of the necessary ingredients. Do not let a lack of ingredients stop you. While shopping, get only the foods that are on your list and stay away from the cookie and ice cream aisles to limit temptation. This will also allow you to keep your food costs to a minimum.
Make it Quick
Huge time savers such as slow cookers and microwaves are also helpful. Not everything that comes out of the microwave has to be unhealthy. A slow cooker will allow foods to cook all day while you are at work. When you get home, a delicious and healthy meal will be waiting for you.
There are several microwavable healthy meals that you can make and save for the rest of the week. The recipes for such meals can be easily found on the Internet on websites such as cooks.com. These are also suitable for people living alone – just prepare your meals once a week and split them up for the rest of the week.
Get the Family Involved
(photo: USAG- Humphreys)
Eating healthily is a family affair. It is important to get everyone in the family involved so that each member’s preferences are considered. You do not want anyone to feel as though they are being deprived of their choices. If possible, get the whole family involved in the cooking. This allows children to learn their way around the kitchen and recognize what ingredients are healthy.
Prepare Your Meals Beforehand
On the weekends you can prepare meals ahead of time and put them in microwave-safe dishes. When you have busy nights such as evenings occupied by sports or games with your children, all you have to do is pop the pre-cooked healthy meal into the microwave.
When planning your meals for the week, create a chart of each day’s meals and your daily schedule. This will help you decide which days are best for what meals. For example, maybe you have time to cook something extra special on Friday nights, but the rest of the week is too hectic. You can try out those special recipes on Friday and stick to healthy microwavable alternatives for your busy days.
Cook large quantities
Cooking in large quantities is an excellent way for you to have healthy foods at your fingertips. Cooking large amounts of soups, rice, sauce and meats will save you a lot of time during the week. You can even make multiple batches of certain staples in your diet. This will allow you to freeze them for later use, saving both time and money.
When you freeze your leftovers, be sure that you label your containers. This will allow you to rotate items wisely and keep the older foods at the top. This helps you to avoid wastage by not having to throw out expired foods.
Stock up on meats when they are on sale and divide them up into individual serving portions for your family. For example, if you buy five pounds of ground beef, separate it out into five one-pound servings for your ground beef recipes. You can also divide up your chicken breasts, turkey, steaks, roasts and pork chops. If you are going to have pork chops one night, all you have to do is pull one serving out of the freezer to thaw while you are at work. When you get home you can cook them and sauté some fresh veggies to get your meal quickly done.
Keep your pantry stocked
(photo: Incase)
A well-stocked pantry is also helpful. Keep a good supply of the staples such as canned veggies, fruits and soup stocks. Opt for canned items with the Healthier Choice Symbol, a sign that they have passed the Health Promotion Board’s evaluation criteria. These will help you prepare your meals much more quickly, especially when combined with your stocked freezer. This also allows you to save time and money.
Other items that you can stock up on include:
Whole grain cereals
Pasta
Tomato sauce
Baked beans
Canned salmon
Tuna
Canned mushrooms
Via HealthMatters.sg, a Singapore Health and Fitness blog that aims to help you lose weight, keep fit, and live healthy. Click here to get our free guide “Eat Your Way to Health – Secrets of a Healthy Diet”.
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