Running a household can be physically and mentally demanding. Especially if you have young or school-aged children. If you do, you’ll know that getting the household settled of an evening is just as chaotic as the morning rush. That’s why, when it comes to mid-week dinners, meal prepping can be a lifesaver.
In this blog post, we’ll share our tips for meal prepping.
Benefits of meal prepping
Meal planning or preparing – whatever you choose to call it – is a great way to reduce household stress and save time. In addition to being a massive timesaver, it can help you to save money, encourage you to eat healthier and reduce food waste.
How to meal prep
Whether you choose to prepare your weeknight meals in advance, or do half the work in advance, it might be beneficial to get your family’s input into the types of meals that they would like to have. There’s no point in making meals that will go to waste when your children don’t eat them.
Seek your family’s input
Getting your family’s input is a great way to give them ownership over their choices. You can do this by letting them know what you plan to have for dinner throughout the week. If you do this before you go shopping, this can give them time to provide you with their feedback. Alternatively, you could seek their input on one meal each for the week.
Other tips for meal prepping include:
- Setting aside some time to plan for the week ahead and writing down your ideas
- Displaying your meal plan in a common area for the family to familiarise themselves with
- Checking your calendar to see what events are coming up or what nights might be busier for your family. This step can help you identify the nights that you need to do more prep work
- Taking stock of the ingredients you already have at home so that you don’t double up or waste food
- Do some research to compare prices and sales for the ingredients you will need.
You might also like to identify which meals you want to cook and prepare ahead of time and which meals you wish to make on the day. With the meals that you cook ahead of time, they can be stored in the freezer and taken out the night before/ morning of to de-frost and be heated. If you wish to cook your meal on the night, consider ways to prepare ahead of dinner time (i.e. cutting up ingredients or marinating food the night before).
Make it nutritious
When meal prepping, it’s important to ensure that you’re creating high-quality and nutritious meals. Especially if you are cooking for children. A well-balanced diet is crucial for children’s physical and mental development.
A well-balanced diet should consist of fruits, vegetables, proteins and whole grains. You can’t typically capture your daily nutrient intake in one meal. So, when planning your weeknight dinners, take a holistic approach and consider what’s been covered in everyone’s diet throughout the day.
Meal prepping ideas
If you struggle with planning nutritious weeknight meals and are after some inspiration for your family, here are some ideas that might help you.
- Vegetarian Chili (V)
- Vegetable soup (V)
Casseroles and slow cooker meals are a great option for big and busy families. Not only can you make several meals out of one dish, but you can also pack a lot of nutritious goodness into them. You can also make them ahead of time and freeze them, or you can quickly put them together the day of and set and forget about them.
Supporting your family
At Anglicare, our family support programs provide families with in-home outreach, education groups and other services to support them and their young people. Our programs are flexible and can be tailored to meet your unique circumstances.
If you would like to learn more about how we can help your family, please click here.