Your task for day 24 of the 28 Day Abundant Practice Challenge is to plan your meals for the week.
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to eat the healthiest versions of all your favourite meals? What if you could have quick-to-prepare meals that all of your family loved? Well keep reading because I’m going to tell you exactly how to do just that.
Below are your step-by-step instructions for creating your tailor-made weekly menu.
Step 1
First of all, give yourself permission to have the food that suits you best, for your current situation and your long term health goals. Use your preferred eating style/diet as a reference point.
If you’re currently following a weight loss plan or an eating plan for a dietary requirement, then use that plan to draw your references and recipes from. So whether it’s Slimming World, Weight Watchers, Keto, Paleo, plant-based, gluten-free, pescatarian, vegetarian or sugar-free. Whatever your preference is – draw for that to get a healthy balanced diet.
I follow a plant-based diet for health (particularly energy), environmental and for conscious compassion. In my case, I just search for “quick vegan/plant-based recipes” because I don’t have much time in the evenings and I don’t want to end up eating vegan junk food every day (yes, there’s such a thing – vegan bacon butties anyone???).
Step 2
Buy books, go to YouTube, Pinterest or a Google search for quick, healthy meal ideas.
Step 3
Look for meals that all your family would like to eat, and bookmark either the cookery books or web pages.
Step 4
Make a short list of meals you’d like to make for the week.
Step 5
Buy your ingredients in advance.
Choose a day by which you’ll have all your ingredients at home. If you live or work near your recipe supply, factor that in on your weekly schedule so that you have what you need before you need it.
Step 6
Cook in advance at the weekend, or cook quick, healthy meals of your choice on the day you want to eat it.
Cooking in advance can be broken down into chunks. For example, you could cook a vegetable curry, a big pot of rice and an InstantPot full of soup at the weekend. Put them in containers in the fridge and then you either have curry and rice, soup, or rice to have with something else during the week for lunch or dinner.
Healthy Food Tips
- Find healthy snack ideas. Buy some healthy snacks and keep them at home for when you’re peckish. This is particularly helpful for those of us who work from home. We like fruits because of their portability and tastiness.
- Make sure you choose meals you’re all going to look forward to eating. With that said, don’t be afraid of trial and error. Just make sure you keep meal experiments for either cheat days, or when you have a back-up healthy option.
- Don’t keep food in the house that you’re not supposed to be eating. For example, if you’re diabetic, don’t have a big bowl of sweets and then try to use will power to avoid eating them. Remove the need for will power – just remove temptation.
- Involve children in meal preparation and menu choices to show them how to prepare healthy food. You have the final word in the choices.
- Have fun food from time to time but make healthy, wholesome food your main diet.
- When you buy a recipe book, go through it and save the pages of the meals you’d most like to try. That way, when you come to weekly menu planning you can just go straight to your shortlisted recipes and choose from those.
Do you already plan your meals periodically? Do you like cooking but find it hard to stay on track with your preferred healthy eating plan? Leave your comments below.
Comment on social media with the hashtag #28daysofabundance, join the facebook group here:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/motherofabundance/ Feel free to invite other ambitious mothers to the group.
This post and the 28 Days of Abundant Practice Challenge are inspired by the principles in the 9 Steps to True Abundance infographic. You can get your free copy by signing up below.
