For many people, making healthy recipes can seem difficult and time-consuming. But with some advanced planning and some basic knowledge of nutrition, it is easy to create a week’s worth of healthy meals that you and your family will love. The key to creating delicious and healthy meals for the family is planning.
Planning ahead of time an entire week of healthy recipe meals is the best way to create dishes you can be proud of while keeping cost and time commitment to a minimum. So below are amazing tips you can use to make healthy meals all the time.
Healthy Recipe Tip #1:
Using convenient appliances such as slow cookers and microwaves can be a huge time saver when planning and preparing meals. There are many delicious and healthy recipes that can be started in the morning and left to cook all day in a crock pot or slow cooker. These are great choices for working families.
In addition, making the meals ahead of time on the weekend and heating them in the microwave is a great way to stretch both your food and your time. There are many microwavable healthy meals you can make at home, and single-serving microwave-safe containers allow every member of the family to eat on their own schedule.
When planning the meals for the week, it is a good idea to create a chart listing each day’s menu and each day’s schedule. Here’s a smart tip: plan the quickest and easiest to prepare meals for the busiest days of the week.
Healthy Recipe Tip #2:
Get your family involved in creating the week’s meal plan by asking for their input and noting everyone’s favorite foods. It is still very important to eat healthy meals, so that (of course) does not mean eating pizza every night or having ice cream for dinner. But by involving your spouse and children in healthy recipe planning, you’ll help to increase their interest in healthy eating right away.
It is also a good idea to get your entire family involved in the preparation of the meals. Even children too young to cook can help out by setting out the dishes, chopping vegetables, clearing the table and washing the dishes.
Healthy Recipe Tip #3:
Cooking large quantities of healthy food recipes – and freezing the leftovers – is an easy way to save time. Cooking large amounts of stews, soups, pasta, chili, and casseroles can be a huge time saver. Making double and even triple batches of these staple foods, and freezing the leftovers for later use, is a great way to save both time and money.
When freezing leftovers, however, it is essential to label the containers carefully, using freezer tape and a permanent marker. Try to keep the oldest foods near the top to avoid having to throw away expired items.
Stocking up on meats while they go on sale is another great way to use that valuable freezer space. Stocking up on easily frozen foods such as chicken, turkey, ground beef, steaks, roasts, and chops is a great way to make your food dollar stretch as far as possible while still allowing you and your family to enjoy delicious healthy meals every day.
Healthy Recipe Tip #4:
Keeping a well-stocked pantry is as important as keeping a well-stocked freezer. Stocking the pantry with a good supply of staple items like canned vegetables, canned fruits, soup stocks and the like will make healthy recipe preparation much faster and easier.
Stocking the pantry can save you money as well as time. Grocery stores are always running sales, and these sales are a great time to stock up. Buying several cases of canned vegetables when they are on sale, for instance, can save lots of money and provide the basic ingredients for many nutritious, easy-to-prepare meals.
Examples of great staples to stock up on include whole-grain cereals, pasta, tomato sauce, baked beans, canned salmon, tuna, and whole-grain breads. It is easy to combine these staples into many great meals at a moment’s notice.
I hope you found these healthy recipe tips easy as pie!