Providing healthy meals for the family is a common theme among people who want to get and stay fit.  It takes time and commitment to make a menu, create a  list and then shop for the items.  Do you plan for your healthy meals every day or do you plan once for the entire week? 

One of the gals I work with has been improving the process of fixing her family meals.  Here is her story.  She cooks dinner most nights for her family.  She works outside the home, and is busy keeping up with work, husband, children, exercising, life, etc.  Then she has to add healthy meals to that list. Some nights it is just too overwhelming.  She hunts in the kitchen for something to make that is good, quick, economical, and hopefully healthy.  But often she is missing a few ingredients for her creation.  So, she looks for something quick to pull out of the freezer to bake. Can anyone relate to this?  I know I can!

One of her fitness goals was to improve providing healthy meals for her family and do so in a less stressful manner.  So now she:

• Plans out a dinner menu each week (as an example)
  • Monday – Baked chicken, BBQ Sauce, Sweet potatoes, Salad
  • Tuesday – Quiche, ham, spinach, cheese, eggs, milk, roasted red peppers
  • Wednesday – Chili, corn bread, carrots, fresh pears
  • Thursday – Chicken Tacos, Salsa, lettuce, tomatoes, black olives, cheese, tortillas
  • Friday – Homemade pizza, Canadian bacon, tomatoes, spinach, mushrooms, cheese, sauce
• Creates a grocery shopping list based on her menu
• Shops for the items on her list
• Has ingredients for a couple spare meals on hand for when things change and she needs an extra meal at home

Summary

Providing healthy meals is attainable, it just takes some thought and planning.  The time spent on the front end helps to reduce the stress and chaos after a busy day.  Having the right food on hand helps to when creating these healthy meals for the family. 

For ideas on healthy snacks between meals, read I’m Hungry, What Should I eat?