Save Time With Meal Planning
Eating A Healthy Dinner Is
A Simple Matter Of Planning
Dinner In The Evening Is Often The Main Meal Of The Day
Dinner is probably the healthiest meal for most of us. We often overlook breakfast and eat lunch on the run, but for dinner, most of us take more time in preparing and planning how to eat a balanced, healthy dinner.
There's also a lot of pressure on dinner. Its the last meal of the day. If you are lacking important nutrients and you are in need of a "vitamin catch up", you may try to get your vitamins at your evening meal. If you are doing this, try to get out of the habit. Your dieting will be more successful if you spread your vitamin intake throughout the day. Also, loading up on food late will often cause problems with your sleeping. Conversely, eating too little will not only likely leave you lacking in nutrients, but could also leave you ravenous for breakfast 12 hours later. That said, meal planning is your best bet for getting your nutrients on time and in the correct portions. Meal planning will help you to save valuable time and will also save you money in the long run.
So how do you make sure dinner is
a balanced, nutrient-packed meal?
Plan, and plan some more. Although we are more likely to spend time preparing dinner versus other daily meals, its also a meal that can easily get derailed. You may plan to grill chicken breasts and vegetables, but then belatedly remember your son has a baseball game or its open house at school. So its chicken nuggets all around. Your food costs may rise also.
Planning keeps you in sync with your schedule. If you plan a weeks worth of meals, you may think about the various obstacles you might find that week. Thinking about your time and schedule will help to bring food and nutrition to the table according to your intentions. Although sometimes you will not be able to get out of a change of plans, you will find that most often your meal planning will be a successful. You can plan a quick pasta salad on open house night, and healthy, veggie-packed sandwiches on baseball night. This keeps you out of the fast food lane. And best of all, it will keep from having to reach in your pocket for food money that wasn't in your budget plans.
What are some other tips for planning healthy dinners?
Don't cook separate meals for picky eaters. If you know that your salmon and saute spinach will also result in you making mini hot dogs and fries for the kids, you might rethink it, you might not have the time or energy to make two completely separate meals. Then you suffer, and they do as well. Its important to expose your children to a variety of foods, so make the salmon and spinach. Be sure to offer applesauce, whole wheat bread and some fruit. Then everyone gets a healthy meal and your children just might surprise you by actually eating some of the adult meal.
On weeknights, stay away from involved recipes and labor intensive meals. Think of things that can be prepared in less than 45 minutes, though its ideal to keep your meal prep to 30 minutes whenever possible. You may find time to do a little meal prep for the next meal any time you happen to be in the kitchen. If you already know what's on your menu then you will be able to stay ahead of the little chores you face while cooking.
Do as much prep as you can ahead of time. If you're planning grilled chicken and vegetables for dinner, then you can clean and slice your vegetables in the morning before you head out for the day. Marinate the chicken. In the evening, all that's left is tossing a quick bag salad and grilling your meat and vegetables. This saves on clean-up time as well.
If you must eat out, apply the golden rules for restaurant eating. Stay away from white or heavy sauces, order oil and vinegar to dress your salad, and eat only half the entree, pack the rest and enjoy it for lunch the next day.
Meal Planning is an important part of healthy eating. Meal planning gets the nutrition in the body while keeping food costs down by budgeting.
