No matter how much I try to convince my husband and children otherwise, they just don’t believe that they can go without eating! Just kidding:-) But in all reality, making good healthy meals can take a lot of time out of an already busy day. In the end, it is worth it, but it does require some planning and prepping. Here is how we accomplish this is our house.
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*Plan a menu. This is crucial for both ease in grocery shopping and ease in cooking. Our favorite way to do this is to use Plan to Eat. With this online tool I can store my own recipes, plan my menu, and print off my grocery list. I can add in multiple stores and Plan to Eat remembers where I buy the items. I have one list to take shopping even though I go to three different stores. It does takes some time to put your recipes in, but it is worth it. Now I know exactly what we are eating each day and I don’t forget to buy any ingredients. This also saves me time since I don’t have to keep running back to the store! *If you sign up for Plan to Eat and want to “follow” my recipes, my username is edeemarie.🙂
*Have breakfast prepared for the morning. We don’t eat much cereal in our house, and my kids wake up hungry. So having breakfast ready for the morning is essential to our day running smoothly. Typically, I make double or triple batches of recipes so we can eat the food for at least 2 days in a row. That may include things like oatmeal bars, muffins, breakfast cookies, sweet breads, or overnight oatmeal. We save things like pancakes and eggs with bacon for the weekends when we don’t have school to worry about.
*Easy meals go a long way. I don’t want you to get the impression that I am cooking gourmet meals all day long. With breakfast done the night before, I don’t have to worry about that in the morning. Our lunches include simple things like Salad in a Jar, crackers and cheese, peanut butter and jelly on rice cakes, yogurt and fruit, things the kids can mostly make on their own. There are also some evenings that I just don’t have the time or energy to make dinner. Right now we are out of the house 5 out of 7 days so we need easy. We may just have lunch meat and cheese wraps with some cut up vegetables, or we may have breakfast for dinner (hurray for bacon and eggs!). Easy meals are good. I like easy:-)
The health of my family is very important to me, so I make it a priority to feed them as healthy as I can. But this does take some time and preparing. How do you prepare and make sure you keep your family well-fed?
Come check out some of the great posts about homeschooling essentials from my Crew-mates!
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Lisa Marie @ The Canadian Homeschooler Find Support
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Water on the Floor 