As a parent, you have good intentions when it comes to feeding your family a healthy diet. For years now, you have known about the dangers of processed, high-fat, high-sugar foods. You are trying to buy more raw fruits and vegetables. You know it’s critical to consume whole grains, Omega-3s, antioxidants – and all that other good stuff.
The problem is that knowing doesn’t always translate to doing. Busy schedules, picky eaters, food allergies, and a tight budget can thwart your nutritional goals.
Today’s post contains four tips for quick, healthy meals.
1. Health-ify.
Okay, I made up that word. But you know what I mean. Write down all the meals and snacks your family enjoys. This will help you see a pattern to their preferences. Make sure you keep the healthy stuff as standing items on your grocery list. Find recipes for making the not-so-healthy dishes more healthy. Substitute whole-wheat pasta and tortillas, reduce the cheese content, add some vegetables, or bake instead of fry.
2. Freeze some for later.
The next time you prepare a healthy meal, quadruple the recipe and freeze three meal-sized portions. It may take a little longer, but you will have three healthy meals in your freezer to pop out and heat up the next time you don’t have time to cook. This will prevent you from ordering a pizza or picking up burgers at the nearest Salt Lake City fast food drive-up window.
3. Crazy combos.
This works with tacos, pasta, salad, rice, or pizza. You provide the base such as plain pasta, rice, tortillas, lettuce or individual pizza crusts. Prepare a variety of toppings such as chopped green peppers, baby spinach leaves, cooked low-fat chicken, chopped apples, diced tomatoes, chopped onions, raisins, broccoli pieces, shredded carrots, chopped nuts, chopped hard-cooked eggs, or pineapple chunks. Add some sauces to the choices such as salsa, low-fat Alfredo sauce, barbecue sauce, or marinara. Your kids might put together unusual combinations such as salsa on pasta or shredded carrots on rice. So what? They are more likely to eat it if they create it.
4. Plan dinner at breakfast.
Decide first thing in the morning what you are going to make for dinner. That way, you can put chicken in the crock pot, pick up needed ingredients on the way home from work, or pull out frozen items to thaw. When it’s time to prepare dinner, you already have a head start.
I hope these ideas help your family eat healthier. For more information on support meetings or a fun Draper home business opportunity, give me a call today.
Melanie Green
Draper, Utah zip code 84043
(801) 272-5355
Draper
https://share-parents-of-utah.com/
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