5 Tips for Stress-Free Healthy Meals

nutrition Jan 09, 2017

I’m going to be honest with you. Eating healthy on a daily basis takes effort!

When you commit to eating fresh, whole food, you also sacrifice the convenience of drive-thru, take out, and microwave options.

I’ve definitely experienced stress over what I will eat for my next meal because I didn’t plan ahead and now I’m short on time.

That’s why I’m excited to have Allison Schaaf, personal chef, dietician, and founder of PrepDish, share 5 tips for stress-free healthy meals. She offers practical tips that will save you time and make eating healthy much more enjoyable.

Plus, she’s been generous to offer you two weeks of free gluten-free and paleo meal plans!

Enter Allison…

Trust me, I get it! Maintaining clean and healthy eating habits when time is short can be challenging. When I was a full-time personal chef, the last thing I wanted to do was come home to cook for myself!

The temptation to lean on the convenience of processed foods, or just simply skip a meal, is high. Fight the urge to hit the drive-thru with my simple tips for fitting healthy, whole foods into your busy schedule. These tips will help you change your mindset and create healthy eating habits all year long!

Plan ahead

Creating a meal plan for the week is the best thing you can do to save your sanity and keep meal time on track. Set aside 30 minutes to review the upcoming week’s schedule and plan your meals accordingly.

Having a weekly meal plan in place before the craziness of Monday morning comes will help to ensure you’re not left hungry at the grocery store at 6 PM struggling for ideas, eating out (again!) or pouring a bowl of cereal.

Grocery lists

Take the time to create a grocery store list template that is organized by store departments. This will save you so much time at the store and help stop you from purchasing things you simply do not need. Hint: some grocery stores have lists set up for you on their websites.

Prep Day

Front load the work by setting aside one day per week as “Prep Day.” For most of our subscribers, this usually happens on Saturday or Sunday. On Prep Day, you will pre-chop veggies, mix marinades, prep a giant salad and/or cook a soup or stew for the week.

Taking 2-3 hours on one day, will save you at least 30 minutes to 1 hour per day of cooking! Don’t believe me? See how Rachel, by doing a Prep Day and re-organizing her meal time, regained a precious 30 minutes each day to spend with her child.

Eat leftovers

Take the guesswork out of mealtime by preparing an extra serving or two at dinner. Leftovers make great lunches the next day or can double as dinner again. I also love “repurposing” my main dish. For example: Baked chicken for dinner makes great chicken salad for lunch. Or beef roast can be reused in beef tacos the next night – just switch up the sides!

Home grow

Start with an herb garden. I find mint to be the hardest to kill. 🙂 When you have that down, experiment with veggies like tomatoes, lettuce, kale, chard, squash. Citrus trees for fresh limes & lemons also come in handy!

The key to success lies in prepping ahead and staying organized. No more answering the dreaded “what am I going to eat?” question!

Are you ready to start planning your healthy meals? Click here to get two weeks of free meal plans, complete with shopping list and recipes. You will get access to both gluten-free and paleo options.

About Allison

www.prepdish.comPrep Dish is a gluten-free & paleo meal planning website. Celebrity personal chef & dietitian Allison Schaaf thoughtfully crafts each plan using her own well-tested recipes. Each meal plan allows you, the home cook, to spend only 2-3 hours preparing a week’s worth of crave-worthy, gluten-free, healthy meals using seasonal, whole foods (nothing processed!). We aim to save you time while keeping your family’s taste buds happy.

Along with a weekly menu, you’ll get a printable grocery list and recipes for prep day — just one day of preparation yields scrumptious, good-for-you dishes all week long.

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