I do a five-week meal plan for our dinners, and prep our lunches for Monday - Thursday on Sunday.
In the beginning our slow cooker was a life saver! On days I knew we were going to be out all day, I threw something together in the crock pot.
Since then I have evolved and now my meals are planned out ahead of time.
Now the way I do the meal plan is pick seven meals, then draw up a rotation list of four meals per week (the other three are leftovers, restaurant, or throw something together on a whim).
Each meal is only repeated three times, so you're not having exactly the same thing week after week.
Figure out what you can do ahead (mix chicken and marinade ingredients together and freeze, make huge batch of pork taco filling in the crockpot and freeze in smaller packets) and which ingredients will stay good the whole month. Calculate out your shopping list for all the things you can buy ahead of time.
Shopping and prepping are a huge day, but a lot of your prep is done! Then week to week, all you have to do is purchase your fresh ingredients and get things out of the freezer.
I got started with a book called "A New Way To Dinner".
It teaches you that with a little prep on the weekend there is minimal cooking during the week - just combine ingredients.
They feel like fancy/sophisticated recipes but they are easy to throw together (e.g., cook pasta, stir in the tomatoes you roasted on Sunday and corn and basil and you've got "Penne Pasta with Blistered tomatoes and corn".
My daughters love it.
I know people that don't eat breakfast. It just isn't that important to them. BUT it is the best way to jump start your body. Even when I was less healthy, didn't care, and wasn't taking care of myself (I'm a former smoker) I would smoke my first after breakfast, it was always breakfast and a cup of tea before having a cigarette. If I didn't then I'd usually feel a little light headed.
Now I believe in taking care of myself, and a balanced diet and a rigorous exercise routine.
Some people I know will just throw in a protine shake and call it finished. Real food sources are always better than supplements, so if you can eat a good breakfast, I would do that over drinking a shake. Because it does more than add an energy source, it provides you will a lot of different benefits. And natural food sources are almost always better than artificial ones.
My morning routine also includes personal care.
In the morning, if my face is a little puffy, I'll put on an ice pack while doing my stomach crunches. I can do a thousand now.
After I remove the ice pack, I use a deep pore cleanser lotion. In the shower, I use a water activated gel cleanser. Then a honey almond body scrub. And on the face, an exfoliating gel scrub. Then apply an herb mint facial mask, which I leave on for 10 minutes while I prepare the rest of my routine.
Then moisturizer, then an anti-aging eye balm followed by a final moisturizing protective lotion.
One thing that I had to adjust to when I started to take care of myself and cook the food that we ate was trying to do the calorie calculation when cooking from scratch without package information.
Actually it is a really simple process. But I will share it with you so that you may get motivated and start doing it as well.
When you cook from scratch, add up all of the caloric values for each of the ingredients. For example if you cook a soup, after you added up all of the calories, if you decide to make the serving size a cup, simply divide the total amount of calories by the number of cups.
To find the calories in a turkey burger or ground meat in general is tough, because different brands will have different macronutrients/calories.
But what I do for most meats, look up the nutrition for the percentage lean meat you have and that will be universal. Fruits and veggies will have the same nutrition no matter where you get them from if you get them raw.
Also check the official ratings for raw ingredients are usually good, but you can also check the USDA site if you aren't sure. Some items do have nutrition facts even if they are raw ingredients, so be sure to double check. I know some people weigh out the food they make and then set 100g as the serving size and then you can just weigh and not worry about eating exactly 1 cup or whatever. In otherwords divide the total amount by the amount per serving to find the number of servings.
Divide the total calories by the number of servings to find the calories per serving.
It is as simple as that.
My mom would make this about once a month and for my dad's birthday:
- Home made fried chicken
- Biscuits from scratch with butter, and strawberry jam
- Broccoli with cheese
- Mashed potatoes with gravy made from the chicken drippings
- Sweet ice tea
- Banana pudding with waffers
That was it, simple, delicious and it tasted like home. How I can match that for my kids it as question I may never answer but I do make a delicious pasta sauce from scratch that leaves them hungry for more. But I am not sure if they will remember it the same way that I remember that treat.
My grandma used to make the best Shepard's Pie ever. I was so giddy everytime I knew she was making it.
Sorry, I guess I just felt sentimental today.
