During calls with my clients this past week, there seemed to be a common theme coming up with each of them: wanting to make good and healthy meals during the week but feeling like its been a struggle to get there and do it consistently, especially after work.
They feel exhausted and really don't want to spend another 45 minutes to an hour in the kitchen, does this sound family FNAME?
So, let's figure out how to make dinner time easier!
Start on the weekends, you don't have to have everything prepped and ready to go and just reheat all the meals, BUT can we do these three things?
lay out your week, what obligations do you have going on? Will you have things to do after work? Or do you already have plans to go out? look at it and lay it all out
Find 3-4 recipes you'd like to make this week and survey what already have in the fridge
lastly, what can you start to prep ahead of time? what can you chop or prep to make your evening easier? Can you start to marinate the meat?
On busier nights, I always like to do a crock pot meal that can be prepped the night before and cook all day or thrown together in the morning to save me time at night. You can even prep a casserole ahead of time and leave it uncooked in the fridge or freezer until you're ready to bake it. There's also no shame in using some convenience items to make prepping dinner easier, I love to use the chicken sausage and steam bag veggies for meals to make them easier to prep and have ready in no time Remember, dinner doesn't have to be huge either. For most, the evening is the time to decompress from the day and relax around the house, meaning, there's not much of an energy usage at night time so we don't NEED to have a huge dinner. Dinner can absolutely be soup or a sandwich to help with holding you over until the night time because we don't utilize as much energy during this time. Weeknight dinners don't have to be fancy, but you can make them nutritious with my combo of Protein, Carb and Color on each plate. The protein helps to keep you fuller for longer and helps build muscles, the carb gives you energy while the color gives you powerful vitamins and minerals!
Try pork tenderloin (protein) with rosemary potatoes (carb) and green beans (color)
Try Crock Pot Beef Stroganoff (protein) with Egg Noodles (carb) and Asparagus (color)
Try Caesar Salad (color) with Chicken (protein) and Croutons (carb)
These are all easy combos that can be prepared fast or ahead of time for a good, well-rounded meal! Tell me, what do you week night dinners usually look like? do you do take out? or do you prep ahead?
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