Eat Healthier With Meal Planning

We tend to make less than healthy choices when we eat on the run or make last-minute meals. Meal planning is a huge part of eating healthy and will save you time, calories, and money since less food will be wasted. Once a week, take some time to plan what you and your family will be eating. If you dread cooking dinner after working all day, prepping meals in advance takes the guesswork and stress out of dinner and helps you avoid fast food, take-out, or other fattening choices. When you plan your meals and make a list of ingredients, you know just what to get at the grocery store, so you avoid impulse shopping and will be sure to use everything you buy.

My husband and I plan our meals and shop every Sunday. We cook on Sunday nights and again on Wednesdays, refrigerating most of what we make so we can just reheat it during the week for our family.   Our favorites include turkey burgers, whole turkeys, chicken breast, salmon, and steamed green vegetables such as  broccoli or string beans.  We often leave our food just a bit undercooked, so when we reheat it, it will be perfect.

We always have a salad with dinner, so we get lots of dark lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, and cucumbers.   In addition to fresh fruits, such as berries, apples, and oranges, we keep the freezer stocked with frozen fruit for smoothies and frozen vegetables to cook when we are out of fresh veggies. We are not very fancy eaters, but we try to change things up with different spices and various recipes.

If you want to start planning meals, decide what meals you will have for the week and jot down the ingredients needed.  Only purchase the items on your list so you don’t overbuy and risk wasting food.  Freeze large quantities of food such as casseroles, sauces, soups, and gravies.   You can download many apps with healthy recipes that create a list of ingredients for you when you go to the grocery store.