organizing healthy meals

Healthy Meals…Batch Cooking

September 30, 2017 by clutterbusting Leave a Comment

Besides using a menu cycle to help you eat more healthier, home-cooked meals consistently, also consider batch cooking.

Here are some tips:

Use your slow cooker which can make a larger batch.
Prep ingredients for slow cooker meals ahead and freeze until ready to use.
Double up on recipes. Eat one now and one later in the week. Or eat one now and freeze another for six-weeks down the road.
Prep a larger portion of meat use some for one recipe and some for another the same week.
Prep meals for the week on Sunday or another day.

By cooking ahead or using batch cooking techniques you can ensure healthy meals are availbale for your family when you don’t have the energy or time for them.

What tips do you use?

Healthy Meals…Planning Menus

September 23, 2017 by clutterbusting Leave a Comment

Consistently having health meals, at home, can happen. What it takes is some planning on organizing.

One of the tools that you can use is a cycle menu. You can choose either a 4, 6 or 8 week cycle.

Here are some tips for creating one:

pull out your favorite recipes or scan websites or make a list of frequent meals enjoyed by the family.
decide what format you will use.
Decide your cycle.
start in pencil if you are doing a hard copy.
Use tips for ensuring variety of colors, foods.
Repeat meals during the week or use a variation of some of the ingredients.
Post your menus. This way others in the family could view and possibly help with preparation.
Next make a list of staple ingredients and buy them for your pantry.

Personally, I have mostly always used cycle menus (I know I’ve gotten away from it when we are eating out more or the freezer and pantry are getting overstocked). I prefer a six-week cycle.

And just because you have a cycle menu doesn’t mean you can’t be spontaneous and eat out or try a new recipe. But the menu will set you up for having more nutritious and home-cooked meals.

If you would like a copy of my Menu Template, contact me and I will send it to you.

Back to School: Planning for Healthy Dinners

September 9, 2017 by clutterbusting Leave a Comment

As I was working on this post for healthy week night dinners, I realized that there is a great resource out there that I could share with you. ChooseMyPlate.gov is full of resources, tips and actitivies to help you plan and prepare healthy dinners.

It has many resource including budget-friendly weekly meals.

Visit the site and let me know if this helped you plan healthy meals.

Organized for the School Year: Healthy Meals and Snacks

August 21, 2010 by clutterbusting Leave a Comment

As a new school year approaches and schedules become hectic, wouldn’t it be great to have a handle on healthy meals and snacks? Getting our children to eat healthy can be challenging. It is so convenient sometimes to pull through the fast food drive through when you are tired and the children are hungry.

By planning ahead and being organized you can consistently have healthy home-cooked meals for your family not only on weekends, but week nights as well. In a previous post, I suggested that weekly menus are the solution to healthy meals and they are a way to stay organized in the kitchen.

In addition, here are some tips for preparing for healthy brown bag lunches: