Meal Planning Made Easy
If you’re like most moms, you might be trying to make healthier meals for your family but don’t know where to start. It can be overwhelming to try and make a big change for all your meals at once. Moms, I know we all feel stretched thin sometimes. We’re juggling work, kids, and home life. Sometimes it feels like we can’t add anything else to our plate. But one of the most important things we can do for our families is put a good meal on the table. Finding the time and energy to cook a healthy breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day can be tough. But if you CREATE A PLAN for only ONE meal, it reduces the stress and will get your wheels turning on what to make.
First, think about what meal you want to focus on for that change. Choosing one and getting a couple of healthy recipes for that one meal will make it less stressful. Let’s say you choose “dinner”. Having a healthy dinner is great for fueling yourself with amazing food and ending the day with great conversations about what happened that day. Side note: we’ve played many fun games during dinner time as a family! One of them was reading jokes from a joke book… let’s just say we laughed a bit too much and had some spills, lol. I even think great DAD jokes are still repeated from those! We have so many amazing memories at the dinner table. With it being the start of summer, there can be a lot of vacation plans, playdate plans, etc. and often breakfast and lunch tend to be out of the home.
It’s important to stick with making your dinners a habit. So if it takes a week, or even two, where you are just making healthier meals for dinners alone- that’s amazing!! Sometimes trying to change a lot all at once can be overwhelming. In fact, trying to do too much at once may backfire, and you may not end up doing anything because it can be too much at once. So starting slow with one meal at a time can make creating the new habit a little easier. And then, when you feel ready, you can move to the next meal (breakfast or lunch) after you’ve mastered dinners. Be intentional and know what kind of week you will be having ahead of time. For example, if you need to make Crockpot dinners (my lil sous chefs) on certain days, you may just have to make some quick side dishes for those nights. This is where you can get really creative with mixing and matching different flavors.
I want to remind you here that even if this sounds a little overwhelming -it really doesn’t have to be complicated or time-consuming. Creating a meal plan can be as simple as taking some time in the evening to pick a recipe for tomorrow’s meal. Or checking to see what’s in your fridge first thing in the morning so that you know what you can make later in the day. You might start thawing things out or prepping some quick ingredients so that dinner can be just a little bit easier. Another easy kitchen tip I love is keeping a bin in the fridge that holds the ingredients I will be needing for dinner that evening. I also love using Pinterest, Cookbooks, and even google for some healthy dinner ideas. One rule I always say in creating a balanced meal is to have 1 protein, 1 fat, and 1-3 carbs. Find out why here. The key here is intentionally setting aside time to think ahead for what can be done in advance that will streamline the cooking process and lessen your overall time spent in the kitchen.
Moms are superheroes. They always have to be on top of things, whether it’s taking care of the home, the kids, or their own health. I believe wholeheartedly that focusing on one meal at a time will help you get in the habit of making healthier meals on a consistent basis. And it will also slowly help your family get on board with healthier choices because they will start to acclimate to new tastes and flavors. I know about picky eaters because I had one! I learned to encourage him to try at least a little bit of something new each time I made something different. And then, lo and behold, we discovered that he loved eating asparagus!! Taste buds change with consistency. So, my encouragement to you would be to create a plan for ONE meal only and stick to it! This recipe is one of my favorite dishes I used to make a lot (it’s a twist on pizza, so how can you go wrong?!).
Now I have an invitation for you. Look at your week and really give yourself some time to see what days you can commit to cooking your ONE meal. Mark the days you may need to use the crockpot and any other key things to be aware of, and then create a plan for only one meal throughout the week. Get in the habit of being consistent with it. Practice, practice, and then practice some more. Eventually it will start to feel like second nature. And then when you feel confident in cooking that one meal, move on to the next meal. Remember: one step at a time. You got this momma!!
