Plan Healthy Meals
Eating healthy meals is an important part of staying healthy. If you plan ahead, making healthy meals will be much easier. Help your family (and yourself) stay healthy with good meal planning. Here are a few tips to help you plan healthy meals.
Instructions
1. Make a meal plan for the week. Decide what meals you would like and what your family prefers. Plan what you will make with leftovers. For example, if you are going to roast a chicken, the leftover chicken can be used to make a healthy chicken soup or salad. If you want to make hamburgers, buy extra meat to use in chili or tacos. Choose two or three main dishes to make for the week. When combined with leftovers made into a different meal, you have healthy meals planned for the whole week.
2. Decide what type of healthy side dishes to include with your meals. Soups, salads, coleslaw or steamed vegetables are a healthy choice. Side dishes can also be canned beets, beans, freshly cooked rice or potatoes. Include fresh or frozen vegetables every day for healthy meals. Vegetables can be steamed in the microwave with very little water, which not only maintains the color but the vitamins as well. Think about making a fruit salad served over cottage cheese as a healthy side dish.
3. Check your pantry and freezer. Keep your pantry and freezer well stocked with the basics. If you have a well-stocked pantry, it's easy to make a quick, but healthy meal. Keep stocks and soups in the pantry as well as chicken breasts in the freezer.
4. Make a grocery list for the whole week. When you plan meals ahead of time and do your shopping, it's much easier to make a healthy meal. By shopping ahead, you'll save time and money. You also won't be tempted to eat fast food when fast food is available at home.
5. Include fresh fruits and vegetables in your meal plan, if they aren't available then use frozen products. Also add food items high in calcium and foods that are high in fiber for a healthy meal plan.
Tags: healthy meal, healthy meals, meal plan, Decide what, fast food