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Meal Planning and Cooking Made Easy

By Donna Stark

One of the most important factors in maintaining your overall health and achieving success with your fitness goals is to cook and eat at home. But for many of us, preparing and cooking meals can often feel like a chore, and if your home is anything like mine, getting a balanced meal onto the table before activities start is nothing short of a miracle. To change that, it took some patience and planning on my part, but I was able to do that with ease by using several different “lifehacks” throughout the process.

Lifehacks that Help with Meals

We’ve all heard the saying “work smarter, not harder,” right? Well, in addition to our careers, that can also be applied to our lives at home. Here are some suggestions on how you can “work smarter” while planning and prepping your meals.

  • Keep it simple - It’s great to introduce your children to new cuisines, but that doesn’t mean you need to make exotic recipes every night. Save them for the weekends when you have more time and keep your weekday meals simple. It’s also a good idea to teach your children the rule that only one meal is made for dinner and that you will not be making separate meals for each different family member.
  • Prepare lunches the night before - It’s hard to predict how the morning will run, and more often than not, you are scrambling to get everyone out of the door on time. So stop the chaos and prepare your lunches the night before. Pack some leftovers, portion the snacks into bags, or make your salad … just know that you are more likely to pack something nutritious if you plan ahead.
  • Make breakfast nutritious and quick - Breakfast doesn’t need to resemble a Sunday brunch, so again, keep it simple but keep it quick with pre-cooked meals. You can find plenty of ideas on the internet for recipes that you can make and freeze, such as breakfast burritos, muffins, pancakes, and smoothie packs.
  • Purchase pre-chopped veggies - Buying pre-cut veggies from your local grocer is a huge timesaver and a great encourager to add extra veggies to your meals. All you need to do is unwrap them and start cooking! And if you have trouble finding them or if they are sold out, check out your store’s salad bar. You may be able to find an ingredient you need there as well.
  • Cook extra - If you are preparing a meal, double the batch if you can and freeze the extras for another night. This way, you don’t have to cook twice, you are only making a mess once, and another night’s dinner is ready and waiting!

Following these tips will make meal planning and cooking so much easier for you, and will give you so much more time to enjoy with your loved ones.

To learn more about your health, wellness, and fitness, see your local chiropractor at The Joint Chiropractic in Eagan, Minn.

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