Tips for Getting Back Into a Routine - Meal Planning/Prepping

With school back in session and new routines underway, it can be hard to maintain healthy habits amidst all the busyness. Over the next three weeks, we will be going over different ways to help you maintain a healthy lifestyle through meal planning/prepping, hydration, and sleep.

This week’s topic is meal planning and prepping.

Meal Planning

Meal planning can be a daunting task because of all the resources, recipes, and suggestions out there. When you are meal planning for just yourself or for you and your family, keep in mind the health goals you have, the foods you like to eat, the appliances you have in your kitchen, the time you have to cook the meals, the ingredients you already have on hand, and your budget. From there, you can begin your search for meals and recipes.

A tool I love to use is: The Real Food Dietitians. Not only do they have many amazing recipes, but you can also narrow down your search for recipes based on diet preference (e.g. gluten free, dairy free, whole foods, grain free, egg free, etc.), protein preference, and cooking method. You can also print out the recipes or save them on your phone.

Once you have your recipes and meal ideas on hand, you can begin to create a shopping list. Evaluate what you already have on hand, then go through your recipes to see what you need to pick up from the store. Creating a shopping list based on the meals you will be making saves you money and time.

Meal Prepping

If you’re away from home most of the day during the week, you’ll need to find time on the weekend to meal plan, shop, and prep. You don’t need to prep all of your meals for every day of the week. For example, if you’re away from your house during lunch time everyday, but are there for breakfast and dinner, just focus on prepping lunches.

Keep in mind cooked leftovers only safely last in the fridge for about 3-4 days. You’ll want to prep your meals in such a way that you are within this range.

Breakfast

If you’re short on time in the morning, breakfast can be prepped the night before. Some meal suggestions that work are overnight oats, hard boiled eggs, and chia seed pudding. A breakfast casserole can be prepped the night before and cooked in the morning.

Lunch

Depending on the dish, lunches can be prepared at the beginning of the week or the morning of. If it’s something cooked like chicken, vegetables, and rice, I would suggest preparing three days’ worth on Sunday afternoon. Then, prepare two to three days’ worth Wednesday evening for Thursday and Friday, or have leftovers from your dinners, or have something completely different for those days.

Dinner

If you are home most evenings, one of the easiest ways to prepare dinner is to have the recipe and ingredients laid out for that day. When you get home, all you have to do is put it together. If you are using meat, make sure to thaw out your meat the night before. You can also make a double batch so you have leftovers for the next night if you know you’re not going to have time to cook or use the extra for another meal.

Tips

The best thing about meal planning/prepping is that it is totally customary to you and your needs.

Think outside the box.

If planning breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the whole week is overwhelming, just choose one of those to plan and prep.

• Use glass and stainless-steel containers instead of plastic, especially if you are warming up meals. You don’t want the plastic leaking into your food.
• Bring back family mealtimes.
• Get your whole family involved.
• Don’t let it all fall onto one person. If there are multiple people in the house, take turns cooking meals. Collaborate on recipes and meal ideas.
• If you have kids, give them small jobs to do in the kitchen (bringing you the ingredients, setting the table, mixing ingredients, clearing off the table, etc.). Make it fun, not a chore.

Don’t let the busyness of life get in the way of you making healthy habits. You may have to change some things around, plan a little more, and sacrifice some time here or there, but putting good nutrients into your body is totally worth it! Give it a shot and let me know how it goes!

Happy cooking!

Your Local RD,

Amber Sproule, MS, RDN, LD