Preparing meals from scratch can be tiresome after a long day of work and taking care of the household. Juggling between the demands of motherhood and daily errands, it is understandable how cooking a healthy meal for everyone can seem like a mammoth task.
When dealing with your children’s meltdowns amidst office meetings, settling for pizza delivery or the good ol’ PB&J for dinner is often the scenario. Your healthy goals for your family and yourself are often pushed back due to daily chaos.
Making healthy food and practising a healthier lifestyle can be easy if the right tricks are used. Whipping healthy meals will be a breeze once you get the hang of it. For your convenience, this article will discuss clever, healthy food hacks for busy mothers.
Plan Your Meals Ahead
Organizing your meals can transform your daily routine, making it more efficient and less stressful. A great way to start is by using a user-friendly tool like Samsung Food’s Meal Planner, a free meal planning app that helps you streamline the process of planning your meals, ensuring everything is on track.
Like every successful strategy, meal planning requires forward thinking and preparation. It might sound like a hefty task, but pre-chopping ingredients and having a meal plan ready can make a huge difference.
This method not only saves time but also reduces expenses. Planning allows you to purchase specific ingredients in advance, which is especially useful if you use services like vegetable box deliveries or fresh meat subscriptions. For high-quality meat options, there is a helpful Crowd Cow Review focusing on sustainably raised, organic meat. Although monthly meal planning is possible, a weekly plan offers more variety and flexibility.
Set aside a day each week to review your schedule and plan accordingly. Some days might call for simple meals due to events or special occasions. Mark the calendar for days when you anticipate a hectic schedule, and prepare accordingly. It’s also wise to plan for days when you can spend more time cooking a nutritious dinner.
For families with young children, finding appealing and healthy recipes can be challenging. Websites like PickyEaterBlog.com are great resources for wholesome, tasty, and easy recipes that even picky eaters will love.
Involving your kids in meal planning, particularly on weekends, is a wonderful way to cater to their changing tastes. Encouraging older children to assist with meal prep tasks, like washing and chopping vegetables, teaches them about the importance of a balanced diet.
Utilizing leftovers for lunch is a smart way to reduce food waste and minimize kitchen time. Cooking in bulk and storing meals like stews, soups, and chili in the freezer is also a time-saver. Remember to cool the food properly and use clean containers for storage.
Some parents find success in planning meals for a whole month. This approach involves creating a rotating schedule of five different meals over four weeks, simplifying grocery shopping and helping you stay on track with your health goals.
Feel free to mix things up by replacing a planned meal with a new recipe occasionally. Sticking to a plan ensures you are familiar with your ingredients and can manage your pantry efficiently. This makes preparing breakfast, lunch, or dinner a breeze, even on your busiest days.
Distract with Screen Time
Despite the common advice of limiting screen time for children, TVs and iPads are lifesavers during mealtime breakdowns. Strategically using these visual entertainment devices will distract your exhausted and hungry kids.
Early evening is the peak time for your children grappling with each other, having an attitude, or exhibiting an outburst. Playing their favourite shows on the television or tablet while preparing dinner will divert their attention.
These devices are also a great tool to let your children decompress, especially when coming home after an eventful day like sports practice or other extracurricular activities. With your young ones kept busy with their favourite videos, you will be less likely to be stressed out in the kitchen.
If you are concerned about screen time, then limit the screen time to mealtimes only. This will also keep the exhaustion caused by digital appliances to a minimum.
Veggies at the Front
Vegetables are integral components of a well-balanced meal. Besides having high amounts of nutrients, fresh veggies are ideal as they are more palatable and easier to cook.
At least once in their lifetime, many individuals have suffered stumbling upon a rotten vegetable forgotten in the refrigerator drawer. It is wise to invest in clear food storage containers like Tupperware. Store your veggies in these transparent containers in the front of the fridge.
Ensure that they fall in your field of vision so that you do not forget about any perishable veggies. You also need to make sure that they are readily accessible. Storing in such a way is super convenient, and you can effortlessly incorporate veggies into your meals every day. You can store away leftover vegetables for the next day.
Take Less Time for Meal Prep
It is best to minimise your meal prep times. The recommended meal prep time is about 30 minutes. To reduce the time for meal preparation, cut your vegetables and protein beforehand and store them in the fridge.
Reap the benefits of using appliances like a pressure cooker for cooking roasts, stews, and curries quickly. If your family likes rice, it is wise to get a rice cooker so you do not have to spend a lot of time standing by the stove waiting for the rice.
Rice makers are affordable and make life easier. Once the rice is cooked or ready to be consumed, the device turns off automatically. The rice stays hot inside the cooking pot for a long time.
Properly Cook the Meat
Blasting the meat in the microwave oven at the highest temperature is common practice. The results are sometimes unpleasant as it often does not cook or heat the centre well.
The outcome is more disastrous if the protein is frozen. Imagine your children having a fit over a meaty dish’s frozen and unpalatable centre. Handling the meltdown and your efforts in making the food more edible can take longer than anticipated.
It is best to take the meat out to thaw the night before to avoid such a fiasco. You can transfer it from the freezer to the refrigerator before sleeping. You can also use a digital meat thermometer to monitor the doneness.
Besides the undesirable taste, improperly cooked meats are also hazardous to the health, leading to digestive issues like diarrhoea and possible food poisoning.
The right equipment also plays a crucial role in preparing the meat so make sure to gear up. Lots of parents like to read this Organic Authority’s article on the best safe cookware for your kitchen so they can figure out what kind of items to get for their kitchen. This ensures that any cooking processes, such as preparing the meat, are done efficiently.
Keep Your Fridge Organised
Besides vegetables, you should keep other perishables like milk and fruits at the front. The best way to keep everything in your view is by keeping your refrigerator organised.
Assign certain shelves to certain items. For example, put all the fruits and vegetables on the top shelf. Keep all the proteins like cheese, milk, eggs, and condiments like ketchup on the second shelf.
Store the things that spoil fast where you can see them. You can also use clip-on dividers on the racks to make keeping everything in your fridge organised easier.
Serve Foods Quickly
The last challenge most parents face is in serving the food. Cutting it with a fork and knife takes time and is often cumbersome when you have various responsibilities looming over your head.
It is of the utmost importance for every mother to ensure that the food is safe. You can use shear scissors to reduce the time cutting up the pieces. These scissors are great tools to cut meat and other chunky components into bite-sized pieces quickly.
Final Thoughts
Whether balancing work life with household duties or simply being more efficient, raising a child is a huge responsibility. Ensuring the little ones have a well-balanced diet is part of being a parent.
Despite being busy, you can still provide healthy meals with the right strategies and planning. These tips will help you master mealtimes for a happy and healthy family.
