How to Eat is officially made over! Have a look around, check out our new and improved recipe index, services and about sections (with our new cutie team photo!). Shoot us an e-mail to let us know what you think!
How to Eat is growing and one of the fun new ways we want to help YOU is with meal planning.
Have you ever stared into your fridge for what feels like an eternity wondering how you will answer the age old question “what’s for dinner?”
Have you ever left work in a panic wondering what you will feed your kids, all while fighting rush hour and line ups to make an emergency grocery store trip?
Do you feel overwhelmed and frustrated at the thought of getting dinner on the table for yourself and your family night after night?
This is where meal planning can help you!
Setting up a menu plan at the start of the week can help alleviate meal time stress and give you peace of mind knowing you will have a delicious, healthy and affordable meal on the table each night of the week. Meal planning is a skill we’ve spent years developing and honing and now we’re eager to share those skills with you! Eating healthfully is not about eating a specific amount of carbohydrate or protein, or even about counting calories or grams of fat. We want it to be about creating a system that enables you and your family to sit down and enjoy a meal together.
How to Eat can help!
With all this in mind, we’ve created a four part meal planning guide to help you create your own meal planning system. What this guide won’t do is give you a set breakfast, lunch, and dinner plan to follow. While this might sound appealing, in order to create a sustainable lifestyle change you need to have the knowledge and skills to make your own meal plans. As dietitians we have an extensive food and nutrition knowledge and a unique understanding of behaviour change, meaning we can provide you with those concrete skills needed to set you on the path to meal planning stardom!
Do you want access to this life saving meal planning guide? (Meal planning is truly lifesaving in our homes!)
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We want you to feel inspired about taking the next step toward meal planning at home, so we’ve compiled one week worth of dinners featuring some of How To Eat’s most delicious recipes, right here for you!
Just starting with meal planning? Choose one or two recipes to get started. Add the ingredients to your grocery list, pick a day of the week to prepare them and use our ‘make-ahead’ tips below to maximize your efficiency in the kitchen!
Monday: Slow Cooker Sesame Chicken with Steamed Broccoli & Brown Rice
We like to start the week with a super easy “set it and forget it” type dinner. It sets the right tone for the week ahead. Mondays can be hectic and a slow cooker meal is an easy dinner that’s ready when you are.
Meal prep tip: Chop your broccoli on the weekend and cook up a double batch of rice and set half aside for dinner on Wednesday night. When you get home, all you have to do is reheat the rice and quickly steam your broccoli and dinner is ready.
Tuesday: Easy Tilapia Tacos
These fish tacos are totally dinner party worthy and weekday friendly. They also make a delicious lunch the next day – you could pack them up as a fish taco bowl or bring all the components separately to assemble at work. And they are a complete meal as is!
Meal prep tip: Prepare the sauce and the mango salsa a day or two ahead of time.
Wednesday: Fried Rice
That double batch of rice you made for Monday’s dinner? Now is when we are putting it to good use! Fried Rice is a great way to get rid of any vegetables you have kicking around in your fridge. Our version is vegetarian, but you could also add in any leftover meat or chicken – the leftover sesame chicken from Monday’s dinner would be a great addition.
Meal prep tip: All the vegetables and tofu can be chopped ahead of time.
Thursday: Salmon, Mashed Sweet Potatoes, Roasted Brussels sprouts
This is one of our favourite types of “quickie meals.” Make the maple mustard or hoisin salmon. The mashed sweet potatoes and roasted brussels sprouts really round out the plate and make it a delicious complete meal.
Meal prep tip: The mashed sweet potatoes can be made ahead of time and simply reheated. Chop the brussels sprouts ahead of time. Double your salmon recipe and set half aside for tomorrow’s dinner.
Friday: Salmon Cakes, Quinoa, Salad
Take that leftover salmon and turn it into delicious salmon cakes. With simple quinoa and a green salad – or use one of those bags of kale slaw you can find at any grocery store. We love them for a quick way to get your greens in!
Saturday: Take Out or Go Out!
Woohoo! You made it to the weekend! Take a night off and order in some sushi or pizza or go out to the latest hot restaurant or neighbourhood spot. Or veg out on the couch with some netflix and a giant bowl of popcorn and a glass of wine or two – we get it!
Sunday: Family Pizza Night
This is the perfect way to end the weekend! We like to try to do our meal prep on Sundays and reserve the rest of the day for resting up for the week ahead. So having an easy dinner on tap is the perfect way to ease into Monday. Make your own dough using our easy recipe or use a store bought dough and sauce. Top with your favourite pizza toppings and dinner is served!
Meal prep tip: Chop any vegetables or meat you are using ahead of time. Shred your cheese, make your sauce and dough.
Bonus Breakfast: Apple & Peanut Butter Baked Oatmeal
We both absolutely love this recipe and love that it makes a large batch to give you breakfast for the week. Simply portion out this oatmeal into containers and re-heat in the microwave for a minute or two. If you don’t make your way through all of it, it also freezes really well.
Make ahead tip: The oatmeal will keep in the fridge for a couple of days, so it’s a great thing to add to your weekend meal prep.
One week! Done!
We want to help you create a meal planning system to make this type of healthful eating happen for you and your family every week.
With our personalized meal planning service we can create a plan that is right just for YOU, accompanied with even more prep and make ahead tips and a grocery list for all you need for your week ahead. We can work with you and your family to create a meal plan that suits your needs and tastes. Vegetarian? Loath broccoli? Find breakfast the most stressful meal of the day? We can help!
Head on over to our BRAND NEW services page to read more about we have to offer and send us an e-mail to find out how to get started!
We are so looking forward to sharing lots of amazing new recipes, kitchen tips and all sorts of fun and interesting food & nutrition related goodies.
Dara & Erin
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