You want to eat healthier, but you're super-busy. I have some ways on how to plan meals for the week when busy. With my easy-to-follow tips, meal planning can be easy to master. Prepare healthy meals for your family with my easy tips.
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Proper meal planning can significantly enhance your family's nutrition while accommodating a busy lifestyle. Begin by dedicating time each week to create a menu that balances various food groups, ensuring the inclusion of fruits, vegetables, proteins, and whole grains.
Utilize batch cooking and pre-prepared ingredients to streamline the process, allowing for quick assembly of meals. Engaging family members in the planning and preparation can also foster healthy eating habits and make the experience enjoyable.
🏡 Help Me Plan My Family Meals!
I hear this all the time, "I need help on how to plan meals for the week when I'm super busy".
You eat out several times a week, because that's what you have to do. That's what works for you and your family (when it comes to time and convenience).
But you probably realize it's not working well when it comes to your health and fitness goals.
You want better health. You want to eat better. You don't want the extra calories, fast food, and junk food anymore. And you DO want to save time and money.
I get it! So, as a nutritionist, I am here to help you.
👩💼 How To Plan Meals For The Week & Prepare Family Meals When Busy
I have a simple strategy that I'm happy to share with you. It will help you plan and prepare healthy meals for the week.
Now, you don't need to completely abandon your regular meals out. You can use my strategy to help you eat out just one or two fewer times per week. It's up to you.
As with any lifestyle change, start gradually, so you can build consistency. The key here is to make it easy, doable, and rewarding enough to do again and again.
Let me walk you through my simple meal-prep system, and how this can work for you.
📆 Pre Plan Meals For The Week
I prefer to do this on the weekend. I'll flip through my recipes and choose a bunch to make that week. I'll even pick which days to have which meals if I'm feeling overly ambitious, but that's not necessary if you're new to this.
The key is to pre plan those meals before you get busy.
I'll bookmark the pages and write my chosen recipes in a notebook or even a sheet of paper to put on my fridge. I like to have at least one crockpot meal each week, because they're so easy, and dinner is ready and waiting when you get home.
Then I create my grocery list. I take a quick look in my fridge, freezer, and pantry, and list the recipe ingredients I need to buy.
Pro Nutrition Tip
If you're not sure you have enough of an ingredient already, consider buying a "backup" one just in case. I've had times where the tomato sauce I planned to use was a bit short of what I actually needed. Having to run out in the middle of meal prep can be frustrating.
🥗 Double Meal Prep Recipes
Another thing to consider is doubling the recipe(s), so you can prep and cook once, but have twice the meal at the end. The extras can be taken for lunch, or frozen to pull out the night before a busy day, so you just need to heat it up when you're ready.
Meal Prep Tip
If you're doubling a recipe, don't forget to double the amount you buy from the grocery store.
🫙 Containers
Once you have your handy-dandy grocery list ready, hop on over to the store and pick up your essentials. If you don't have enough food storage containers for your meals, now's the time to pick up some of those too.
Easy Meal Prep Tip
However, if you're not a fan of washing and chopping produce, consider buying them already pre-washed and pre-chopped, or even frozen. You can make your meal prep even easier if you don't mind spending a few extra dollars.
🧡 Prepare Meals For Entire Week
Since you've already chosen your recipes and have your groceries, let's start prepping some ingredients.
I like to book 2-3 hours one afternoon for this. Get your recipes ready, clear off your counter, and play some music (if you're so inclined).
At this point, depending on time, I'll either prep the ingredients, or pre-cook the entire recipe. Sometimes just washing and chopping produce and putting it in containers is a huge time-saver for weeknights. Or, you can go through and make a whole meal, divide it into portions, refrigerate or freeze.
It's really up to you, because the more you do now, the less you'll have to do when you're hungry.
😎 Awesome Meal Prep Tip
There is one meal that is easiest to plan and prepare in advance. It's one that's also often the most difficult to eat at home if you're busy.
🍳 Easiest Meal to Plan in Advance is Breakfast
Planning some overnight oatmeal is a great start to any day. Simply place ½ cup rolled oats, ½ cup your choice of milk, 1 tablespoon chia, or flax seeds into a container (or make 5 for the whole week). Then place the lid on, shake them up, and put them in your fridge.
In the morning, you can quickly heat them up or even eat them cold (the oats will have absorbed the milk). Top with berries, chopped fruit, nuts, or seeds, and enjoy.
With a little meal-prep planning, you'll be able to eat healthier while you save money and calories.
This may take some getting used to, so if I can help, please contact me and let me know. If you have any questions about meal prep, please contact me and I can help.
🥘 Meal Prep Recipes
👉 Want To Try A Healthy Eating Guide?
If you want a more comprehensive guide to eating healthy, check out the Radiant Healthy Eating Guide. or try my Meal Prep For Creating Healthy Balanced Meals Guide. There are fillable trackers, easy to meal plan recipes, and so much more. Learn more.
🗣️ Let's Discuss Meal Prep for Success!
I would love to hear what ways you learned on how to plan to meals for the week when you are busy. I hope you can prepare healthy meals for your family using some of my tips here. Let's discuss meal prepping in the comments below.
You can also connect with me @EatYourNutrition on Instagram. I love seeing your photos. #EatYourNutrition #LauraVillanueva
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