Meal Planning Made Easy!

By: Deanna Snyder, RN Friday April 3, 2020 comments Tags: #BeWellEssentials, #dōTERRA , #DeannaSnyder, MealPlanning, HealthyEating

 

 

Meal planning is a great way to ensure that you eat healthily, and get this: it doesn't have to be hard! That's right, despite how overwhelmed many of us become when we think of planning meals for an entire week, meal planning can save you time and money. 

 

Without being prepared, it is easy to end up eating something on the go, like pastries, fast food, or prepared meals. The problem with this is that often grab-and-go options are not the most healthy, and we end up spending a lot of extra money that could be saved by being better prepared.

 

The trick to successful meal planning is, of course, all in the preparation. Follow these steps to get started:

 

Pick a Day
When meal prepping, you want to start by choosing a day that works best for you where you will have a good couple hours to plan, prep, and prepare your food. For us, Sunday is a good day for this because it gets you ready for the week with a fresh menu.

 

Prepare
Next, you will want to get prepped by getting your food containers ready for each day and clearing out space in the refrigerator for your week of meals.  Can I tell you how much I love Mason Jars?!   I do!  I love adding the food I prepared into various size jars.  I add the food when it is HOT and close the lid.  The lid then self seals with the heat.  This enables food to be in my refrigerator for up to two weeks.  Of course, you want to smell the food before eating, but I've never had an issue.

 

Create a Plan/Shop
Meal planning is about prepping food in bulk to eat throughout the week, so you will want to choose foods with lasting power, so no light greens or foods that are likely to lose their integrity after a few days. You are preparing meals for 5 days, so think balanced. You want a protein, healthy starch and fat, and a bunch of veggies. 

 

Get to Work
Time to get going! Because you are prepared, prep should be easy.

 

Overnight Oats for the week:

• Fill 5 jars each with ½ cup rolled oats 
• 1 tablespoon chia seeds or powdered flax seeds
• 1 tablespoon protein powder or hemp seeds
• Optional - 2 tablespoons of pumpkin puree, cinnamon, and coconut flakes, nuts, raisins, and cinnamon to taste.
• The night before adding enough almond milk to cover your mixture and store in the refrigerator

 

Snacks - Smoothie

• ½ banana
• ½ cup blueberries
• 1 cup chopped kale
• 1 teaspoon each of flaxseed, hemp seed, and chia seeds. 

Put each smoothie combo in a separate freezer bag or mason jar and freeze until you are ready to enjoy.

Simply add water, coconut water, or your favorite plant-based milk - blend and enjoy!

 

"Winning is the science of being totally prepared!" -George Allen, Sr

 

Until the next time,

 

🌿Be Well, de😊 

 

☮️ Peace. 💚 Love. 💦Oils. 

#DeannaSnyder #BeWellEssentials