Anonymous wrote:Thanks this is so helpful! Sorry what is WG bread?

Whole grain

I try to stick to a schedule. So, Monday is eggs, Tuesday poultry, Wednesday beans/pulses, Thursday fish, etc etc.

Then sit down a plan a two-week menu. The menu doesn't have to be super complicated. So, Monday can be an omelette with whatever veg you like. I have a large microwave steamer so that I can cook green beans, broccoli, etc in about 2 minutes.

Tuesday could be chicken curry, or Jerk chicken, or chicken meatballs, chicken sausage....I sometimes cut chicken into bite-size pieces and freeze with a marinade. Then dump bag of chicken+marinade into Instant Pot along with a can of tomatoes. Serve with rice (I have a rice cooker).

Wednesday might be veggie chilli, or a burrito bowl. Nothing complicated. Again, a rice cooker is very useful. You can make your own Chipotle cilantro rice by mixing a bit of lime juice and chopped cilantro to the rice after it's cooked.

As others have suggested, try making some sauces or meals for the freezer. We love Thai food in our house, so I freeze Thai curries and add fresh veg after they're defrosted.

I rely really heavily on things like frozen vegetables for quick weeknight dinners, and I’m not afraid to add fruit as a side if I’m light on veggies for the meal.

For me, it’s helpful to think in caegories. So I typically do one night fish, one night beans or lentils, one night egg based, one night meat based, one night pasta, one night cheese based.

Beans/lentils — bean and cheese quesadillas fried in olive oil topped with tomatos and guac; lentil and cheese enchiladas; burrito bowls with TJ frozen brown rice, tomatos, frozen corn, salsa, black beans. I also love lentil soup but can’t sell it to my kids yet.

Eggs— mini quiches using pills ury dough; soufflé (actually it’s really quick!); egg and soyrizo taco; fried egg and cheese sandwiches, carrots and fruit on the side

Fish—scrimp scampi with lots of garlic (so fast using frozen shrimp); grilled salmon; grilled mahi tacos — if you defrost the fish earlier, it costs in 10 minutes; or you can defrost in about 15 but putting it in a bag in a bowl of water.

Meat — thin chicken breast or thighs cooks fast.

Pasta — you can sauté pretty much anything with some good Italian sausage, olive oil and lots of garlic and put it on pasta. Top with fresh grated parm. I used the minced garlic that comes in a jar because it is just so much faster than mincing fresh garlic. I also often do spinach ravioli, butternut squash ravioli, or cheese tortellini with pesto and chopped cherry tomatos.

I really only try skmething new once a month or so. It’s depressing but my kids would prefer to eat the same thing every week.

We literally googled easy vegan recipes, picked like three dozen that looked appealing to us, and started trying them out. Sometimes you have to cook something 3-4 times to get it right, and for it to get easy.

Follow a schedule line the kind above (meatless Monday, etc, and aim to scratch cook one element on the plate.
Get a meal kit box. It will help you figure out possibilities for different ingredients.
When I plan the menu, everyone gets a highlight in the weekly rotation so they have something to look forward to.
Look up copycat recipes for restaurant/takeout favorites.

Meal planning. So much easier to cook something when it's right there in front of you and you don't have to think "what am I going to do for dinner?"

Every Sunday I go grocery shopping. When I get home, I list out what I am going to make for dinner each night, using up the more perishable stuff like herbs or delicate fruits first. I also list what I will make for the kids lunches and my lunches on the days I go in to the office. I tack this list up on the cabinet and every night I just cook what I listed, then cross it off. DH likes it because he knows what's for dinner.

It is also totally fine to keep it simple and think of nutrition through the week. Last week we had peaches and fresh mozarella salad, watermelon, and bread for dinner. The next night we had something with salad. Sometimes I cook chicken or meat or fish, sometimes it's vegetarian and if people (DH!) find it not filling enough, they supplement with nuts or yogurt or fruit. Every night we have either pasta, bread, or rice, because the kids are guaranteed to eat those. DH and I don't always eat the starch if we don't feel like it.

If you are not good cooks, get a bunch of simple cookbooks from the library - Mark Bittman is a good resource - and make simple recipes until you figure out what you like and can easily make. I am a good cook and have a sense of what I can easily make in 30 mins or 45 mins (no matter what the recipe claims), but it took years of cooking to get there. Like anything else, you have to put in the work, but it's easier to do if the end result is going to be something you like. Eg, if you don't like chili or fish, don't make them just because your friends do. Make what you want to eat and will eat. Almost anything you make will be healthier than takeout.

We are boring but planning dinners is way to much brain power. I have a list in my phone of dinners in our regular rotation. But seriously something like the below has been working for us since the pandemic:

Pasta - one week ziti, one week spaghetti meatballs - then repeat
Breakfast for dinner - one week eggs, one week pancakes - then repeat
Something like tacos - one week taco casserole, one week make your own tacos - and then repeat
In the summer we grill once a week - one week chicken on the grill, one week burgers - then repeat
Chicken one night - one week chicken chili in the crockpot, one week jambalaya with rotisserie chicken and chicken sausage then repeat

Other things in the regular rotation: salmon, chicken cutlets, pierogis, pizza, chicken stir fry with veggies and rice, korean beef with rice. I feel fine having pizza once a week.

I don't know how healthy you consider these things but I have fruit / veggies / or salad with every meal.

I second the rotisserie chicken and homemade soups, homemade pizza. I'm just now moving into the territory of homemade sauces for the ones I needed shortcuts for before. All batched and into the freezer. Our baked goods have always been from scratch because there's too much garbage in the processed ones. Make meatballs and chicken nuggets on the weekend and you know what's in them. Same with batches of lentils and rice.

One thing that helps me is to periodically make each child make a list of 5-10 things in each “category” (vegetables, fruit, main dish, etc) that they are willing to eat. Then I use that to cook and make sure that there is enough overlap in each meal between the different preferences that everyone can eat enough (even if every meal isn’t perfect for each kid, over the course of a week everyone is eating a balanced diet).

Thanks this is so helpful! Sorry what is WG bread?

Also a family of 5. My staples for the week are the following:

Pasta with marinara sauce, lots of veggies and chicken cut up to add protein
Taco bowls - ground beef with taco seasoning, rice and beans and corn
Fish - salmon or white fish with some sort of grain and veggies
Stir fry with homemade sauce - lots of fresh veggies (bok choi is my favorite right now), brown rice, some sort of protein mixed together with a lovely soy sauce marinade I make a head of time
Homemade pizzas on thin crusts thrown into the air fryer - make it in less than 10 minutes
Pancakes and bacon - breakfast for dinner for the kids

I often buy premade meals but bulk them out to make healthier. Examples:

Packaged TJ fried rice, add riced cauliflower or plain rice, add mixed veg, eggs, and serve with kimchi. Sometimes add tofu or other protein.

Premade pasta sauce. Buy low sodium with simple ingredients. I sauté whatever vegetables I have like onion, garlic, carrot, add lean bison, beef, or venison, dump sauce. Serve over pasta or a mix of pasta and zucchini.

Prechopped stir fry. Throw away the sauce, add more vegetables and a protein, own sauce without weird ingredients. Can add noodles.

Zucchini lasagna is perfect in the summer. In-season veggies, can cut the meat with mushroom if you want, and my kids eat it happily. My recommendation is to dry the zucchini really well after you cut it/before you assemble the lasagna (we let it sit with paper towels and then quickly grill it on our stovetop) so it doesn't get watery.

Rotisserie chicken has made my life easier, can serve with salad or veggies and rice, I use 3 min WG rice from Trader Joe’s.
Can also make a large pot of soup and add rotisserie chicken and celery/carrots. I use ramen but if you wanted to be healthier you could use something else.
Quesadillas with either chicken or black beans, tomatoes/avacado with it.
Eggs are easy. My kids have an egg or 2 eggs on WG toast most mornings with fruit. You could do breakfast for dinner once a week.
I make baked ziti every couple of weeks with beefless beef crumbles from TJs, Raos sauce and WG pasta, whatever veggies you like with it….
Salmon marinated in whatever you like, baked, with rice and veggies.
It does help to somewhat meal plan at the beginning of the week. I don’t meal prep really because all the things I make take less than 20 mins anyway.I do have a plan for what we’re eating each day though.
All pizza is not create equal either. 3 slices of pepperoni pizza are not great. But 2 slices of thin crust with just cheese or veggies with salad or veggies on the side is not a bad dinner.

I am really struggling with cooking and feeding our family of 5 healthy meals. My Mom is an awesome cook but my husband and I stink. And I want to feed my family well. We are both burnt out from working full time (we will be doing this for the next 20 years with inflation) and I am finding myself putting meals together last minute that no one enjoys. Also I need to be more organized about my grocery shopping. Does anyone have suggestions on what works for them? Any healthy meal recipes that are easy?