Many of you have asked for some ideas on eating more healthfully, and making healthy, delicious meals in the midst of your hectic weeks. Try a few of them! Your body will love it!
- One of the best tips I’ve ever used involves salad fixings. This is really so easy! Prepare your fixins ahead of time. Have some BPA-free plastic or glass containers available. Wash and dry lettuces and store in a container. Slice ingredients, like carrots, celery, onions, and put in a container. Slice or dice whatever else you like and store in a container: cucumbers, tomatoes, cheese cubes. Open a can of chickpeas, and store in a glass container. Hard-boil eggs and store. When you want a salad, pull everything out of your fridge, mix together into a bowl, add dressing and put the fixins away! Easy!
- Prepare meal packs in foil packets ahead of time. You can simply toss in the oven at 400 degrees for about 15-20 minutes. Try some greens, shrimp, fish fillets, chicken breasts (pound them thinly) and small beef filets. Drizzle with some olive oil, season with salt and pepper and your favorite spices, and fold foil to seal. Make enough for two nights of meals, using different ingredients. And, obviously, you may have to adjust the baking times depending on what you are using.
- Prepare several types of veggies for roasting or steaming ahead of time, and place into individual containers or freezer bags – but keep in the fridge. You can prepare some to freeze, too, if you are ambitious.
- You can make pasta and veggies in the same pot, saving on clean up. Stir broccoli, beans, even brussels sprouts into a pot of spaghetti and steam away. Heat up some sauce, add your favorite spices, and you have a scrumptious meal!
- For easy clean up, use our grandmothers’ tip of cleaning up as you go. You can also use oven precut sheets, or parchment paper or aluminum foil that you toss in the trash, rinse the baking sheet, and you’re done! In addition, while making meals, keep a bowl near your cutting board, and scrape peels, etc. into the bowl. When it’s full, dump into the trash can (or into your compost bin!).
- Freeze meat or chicken portions in freezer bags with a marinade or sauce. Grab a few bags in the morning, toss in the fridge to defrost, add a few bags of those roasting vegetables you’ve also prepared to the fridge, and voila! they’re ready in the evening. Put all on a parchment covered baking pan, roast at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes, and you’re sitting down to eat pronto!
- Anytime you make a casserole, make two. Freeze one for those nights when you just don’t even want to think about dinner. Toss it in the oven, have a glass of seltzer or wine, sit down and put your feet up, and dinner will be ready soon.
Hopefully, these tips will help ease the hectic feeding in your home. Remember our mantra, too – buy organic and/or local when you can. Your health depends on it.
To Your Vitality!