Feeling tired, sluggish or don’t have enough energy and suspect it may be due to a poor diet, but don’t have time to plan healthy meals?  The following 6 tips can help you create easy ways to enjoy nutritious meals for you and your family.

1:  Analyze your week. 

• How many people will you need to cook for each night? Will someone be gone one of the nights that you will need to cook less food?
• Will you be eating out any of the nights? If so, you need to adjust the number of meals that will be need for the week.
• Do you want leftovers so you don’t need to cook every night or have leftovers to use for lunches? Then plan on a recipe that you can easily double.
• Will you be home late one night? Plan on a slow cooker night.
• How much time can you devote to cooking each night? Choose recipes in accordance with the time you have to cook or prep.

2:  Come up with a template for the week. 

The templates can be flexible.  If you’re going to be busy and won’t have time to cook on Monday, chose a slow cooker meal for Monday.  Sundays you may have time to make a more elaborate meal, or a meal that takes longer to prepare and cook. Your week should be reflected in the template.  A template could look like:

            Sunday – Big meal with extra meat for later in the week.

            Monday – Soup or salad (depending on the season)

            Tuesday- Mexican

            Wednesday – Slow Cooker

            Thursday – New Recipe

            Friday – Pizza or eat out

            Saturday – Italian

The idea is to make recipe selection easier.  New recipe day is always a great night to try something different that may just end up on your favs list!

3:  Analyze your recipes. 

Choose healthy recipes that meet your dietary requirements.  Toss out ones that are not healthy or ones you never use.  Can’t live without your favorite unhealthy recipe?  Tweak it, and substitute healthy ingredients or look for a similar recipe that is healthier.

4:  Organize your recipes.

– on or off line- by category.  For example, you want to put all of the Mexican recipes together, or all vegetarian recipes together.  This makes pulling recipes for your templates quick and easy.

5:  Pull recipes for the template you have created. 

Check your pantry for ingredients you have in stock, then make your shopping list. 

6:  VEGETABLES AND FRUIT SHOULD BE ON THE TOP OF YOUR SHOPPING LIST!

Vegetables and fruit are key to healthy meal plans.  Pick two different vegetables for each meal and make them different colors.  “Different colors indicate different nutrient profiles, so focus on getting a little of each color in your diet every day to maximize the nutritional benefits.”  https://healthyeating.sfgate.com/benefits-eating-multiple-colored-fruits-vegetables-4676.html

With a little organization and planning, eating healthier can be easier than you think. You’ll save money, time and be a healthier, more energetic new you!

Guest blog post by Linda Cashman.  Linda has been in love with the written word as long as she can remember, and by the age of ten, wanted to write a book.  Although she has not yet achieved her childhood dream of writing a book, she has written for television, as well as produced training and sales informational materials.  As a strong believer in giving back, she has penned several articles for non-proffet organizations.  Linda is currently working on a made-for-television movie