We have talked about the importance of meal and ingredient preparation on the blog before and I could go on and on about the importance of it when it comes to healthy heating. It makes meal time so much easier. Can you think back to a day that you did not have anything prepared for lunch or dinner and you ended up making a bad decision and either eating fast food or skipping meal time all together? Below are some of the things we do to make meal time easier.

For me the most important “tips” are taking a few hours each Sunday or Monday evening to prepare and organize food and making my lunch and snacks the night before, I guarantee if I don’t make my lunch the night before,  chances are my sleepy butt is not getting out of bed early to make lunch.

Here are things that work for us, let us know anything that works for you.

 Prepare all your food once a week: We buy our groceries for the week on Sunday and we take about 1 hour each Sunday afternoon  to prepare, I cut up all my veggies and store them in Ziploc bags or Tupperware so I have easy snacks during the week and salads can be made quickly. I cut up my celery, broccoli, slice up my peppers and chop up spinach if needed. We decide what meat we will need that week and any meat that needs to be cut, we cut right away and freeze in a Ziploc bag. This way our meat is already cut up for meals like stir fry’s On Sunday we also cook a batch of rice or quinoa, for lunch or dinners, we boil eggs for snacks, we cook up chicken breast or ground beef to add to lunches or dinner and store everything in an air tight container in the fridge for the week. Cooked meat and eggs when handled, packaged and stored properly should stay good up to 4 days in the refrigerator.

Have a menu planned out for each night of the week: This will save you from last minute shopping trips, and you will know what you must take out for dinner the night before or that morning.

Start early when possible: The less work during the stressful dinnertime the better. To make dinnertime quicker, during the day when kids are busy playing, in school, during nap time or anytime you have a few minutes, do your prep work.

(Example: If making sweet and sour chicken cut meat into cubes, cut up veggies and make sauce. Then put each in a separate bowl and store in the fridge until dinner.  Salads can also easily be made ahead of time.

 Make your lunch the night before: As we are preparing dinner we also make lunch for the next day. Or plan to make a double batch of your dinner and have the leftovers for lunch. This will make your mornings much easier.

(Example: As my chicken and sweet potato is cooking in the oven, I make our salads and wraps for lunch)

Oatmeal can be made the night before: If planning oatmeal for breakfast, make it the night before and store it in the fridge. Oatmeal can be warmed up in the microwave and protein powder and berries can be added once warm.

Make yogurt parfaits the night before: If planning to have a yogurt parfait for breakfast or snack make it the night before. Layer your yogurt, berries, protein powder and oats in a container and store it in the refrigerator, mix just prior to eating.

Prepare cheese: If I know we will be having pita pizza’s later in the week I grate my mozzarella on Sunday or if my weekly snacks have 1oz of cheddar cheese I cut up my cheese in 1oz portions so it’s easy to grab and go.

Bake your own protein or granola bars for snacks: This way you can keep all the ingredients natural and healthy and you have lots of bars for your weekly snacks. You can find our favorite protein bar recipe here.