Simple Strategies for Serving Nutritious Meals to Your Family

If you find yourself as your family’s chef, meal planner, grocery shopper, and nutritionist, this post is for you! This role can be overwhelming and carries a heavy load of responsibility. However, once you dial in your strategies and get into a rhythm, it can be a game changer for you and your family.

The first step is taking on the right attitude and mindset. Food is medicine. Whatever you put into your body (or what your family puts into theirs) will either work with your body the way God designed it to, or it will work against it, creating inflammation and ultimately disease. What an honor it is to be the one to prepare healthy foods for your family that will nourish everyone’s body!

Okay, now that you’ve got the right mindset, let’s get to the practical advice!

• Simple Is Best. I’m assuming that if you are reading this, you are in the nitty-gritty stages of managing your family's schedules and time is limited. If that is the case, then SIMPLE is best for this stage of life! There is no time for fancy meals so go ahead and come to terms that it might not be pretty. The less ingredients a recipe has, the better!

• Preparation is Key. If you don't stay ahead of it, you will be in a reactive state. It is extremely difficult to make good food choices when you are exhausted and hangry. Here is how I stay ahead of it: If I have time to meal prep on Sunday I will cook 1-2 meals, prepare lunch and snacks, and get vitamins and supplements ready for the week. If I am prepared and have things ready to go, I am much more likely to eat healthier. It’s when I’m hungry and nothing is ready to go is when I don’t eat as well and resort to eating out.

  
  

• Save Time. I do Kroger pick up 1-2 times a week. My husband will make runs as needed for small things we forgot or need in between. Instacart could be good for this too if it’s in the budget. Before I place an order I will plan out what we will be having for dinner for the next 2-3 nights, and then take inventory or our staples and fresh produce for snacks. If we had a Costco nearby I would shop there but I order from Thrive Market for a lot of staples.

Healthy Meal Ideas

Before you start meal planning, you need to decide what healthy looks like in your house and get on the same page with your spouse about your non negotiables. For our family, we try to eat mostly whole foods and as little of processed foods as possible , cook at home except on special occasions, 3/4 of our family members need to be gluten free so it best just not to keep any gluten-full foods in the house, and artificial food dyes are a hard no for us! Here are some ideas of what we eat:

• Breakfast: Our Staple is eggs (scrambled, hard boiled, or omelets) and fruit (berries, grapes, kiwi, canteloupe, etc.). We will usually have one of the following to go with it: breakfast chicken sausage, GF pancakes or waffles, oatmeal, breakfast potatoes, muffins, GF toast w/ avocado, or yogurt with granola.

I usually make sure I have either water with lemon or LMNT electrolytes while cooking breakfast and I take my vitamins after breakfast. I do also drink either coffee or matcha tea.

• Lunch is usually dinner left-overs, something pre-made, or easy to heat up. Simple is best for us. I always shoot for a protein & veggie. Ideas: Quinoa salad, salmon salad, chicken salad, wraps, leftovers, chickpea pasta, or a greek yogurt bowl. If I am in a rush I'll make a smoothie!

• Snack Ideas: I offer lots of healthy options- when we are out I make a snack bag or bento box so my kids can choose what they want. If we are at home I make a charcuterie style snack tray: these are some of the snack ideas I like to offer and like to keep in hand- Lara bars, hard boiled eggs, banana, apple, oranges, berries, grapes, raisins, olives, cashews, garbanzo beans, black beans, pinto beans, cucumber slices, carrot slices, celery or apple w/PB, protein balls, string cheese, muffins, chomps beef sticks. When we go on road trips I usually get more processed stuff which is a huge treat for them but things like simple mills crackers or grainfree pretzels.

• Dinner: When I cook dinner I make big batches or double the recipe so we have lots of leftovers! Soups usually freeze well too. Some of our “usuals.” Include-

  • Taco Casserole

  • Pasta & Meat Sauce

  • Beef & Lentil Minestrone

  • Burgers w/ homemade fries & roasted veggies

  • Chicken sausage sheet pan w/ roasted veggies

  • Rotisserie Chicken w/ Broccoli & Rice

  • Chicken Parmesan w/ Pasta & Roasted Broccoli

  • Chicken w/ Pesto & Sundried Tomato

  • Sweet Potato Shepherds Pie

  • Butternut Squash, beet,kale quinoa salad

  • Zuppa Tuscana Soup

  • Chicken Noodle Soup

  • Pot Roast w/ red potatoes and green beans

  • Any form of Mexican- tacos, build your own bowl, quesadillas, nachos, taco salad

  • Chicken Curry Lettuce Wraps over Rice

I find it very helpful to plan out a weeks worth of dinners, and then I draw from my breakfast and lunch staples. Here is an example of a weeks worth of dinner:

Saturday: Grilled Hamburgers & Chicken with Roasted Sweet Potatoes & Veggies (make double batch for leftover lunches)

Sunday: Beef & Lentil Minestrone (Easy Crockpot Meal)

Monday: Leftovers

Tuesday: Tacos

Wednesday: Pesto & Sun Dried Tomato Chicken and Pasta

Thursday: Breakfast for Dinner

Friday: Salad & Pizza

Once again, keep it simple! If you need meal ideas, jump on Pinterest and make a board of your favorite recipes or buy a new cookbook and and pick a new recipe to try each week.

Here are a few of my favorite recipe books:

Food Babe Family

Cook Once Eat All Week

Make It Easy

Healthy in a Hurry

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