Making Healthy Meals

How I prep and feed my family of 6 (mostly) healthy meals for less than $150 a week without using coupons.

All photos courtesy Secrets From the Real World

My life is busy, and I know yours is too. My husband is self-employed, working all over the state, keeping odd hours. I work part-time outside the home, and part time developing various hobbies. We have 4 kids living at home (ages 7–12). All of them play competitive sports 3–4 days a week, and attend a blend model school 40 minutes away from the house. We are busy people.

There isn’t enough time to prepare fresh food for every meal each week, and I don’t like force feeding them fast food. There’s a balance.

If you’re not sure why you should be making diet a priority in your family, there is has a great documentary HERE about the way our food is made that will help you see the light.

Being informed is a must, but it doesn’t always come with a road map that won’t drive you mad, and/or break the bank. We changed the way our family looked at food a few years ago, and after months mixed with major successes and colossal failures, we finally found a meal routine that works for us.

Meal prep is a must.

Planning ahead is crucial if you want to succeed. Here are the steps I follow to ensure the smoothest possible week ahead.

1. Always modify to fit your needs. This menu, prep plan, and grocery list is just a starting point. This works so well for me because it is tailored to my needs .Modify the menu, meal, and grocery items so they work with your schedule, what you like to eat, and what you already have in your freezer, fridge, and pantry. I rotate 4 plans a season, but modify them a bit every week based on these things.
2. Stick to a routine. Buy groceries on the same day each week. (Buy from a list, and stick to it. I prefer to “click list” my groceries from Wal-Mart on Saturdays, and pick them up after church on Sundays.)
3. Stay organized. I have a menu posted in the kitchen that the kids follow. We all stay on track, and no one eats the box of granola on Monday if it says on the list we need it for breakfast on Friday.
4. Clean your kitchen during your prep time. Nothing will make you feel better than having a clean kitchen, and all the cooking done for the week.
5. Don’t stress if you make mistakes. There are weeks that I miscount, or get confused. Most of the time we do really well, therefore on days (sometimes weeks) that we don’t — I never feel bad or anxious about it.

Pickings on “Fend for Yourself” Day

5. Give yourself a day off. Maybe this is cheating, but I don’t care. Technically, I guess this is only a 6 day meal plan. The last day of every week is designated: Fend For Yourself Day. On this day, everyone is allowed to eat any food that’s left in the refrigerator or pantry. Sometimes I’ll put together a few things and set them out on the table in a small buffet and everyone will graze all day long, sometimes I scour the freezer and make a feast with year-old items I forgot we ever bought. Sometimes I just take the day completely off.

6. Assign a “snack shelf”. Gather any healthy extras left over from your meal prep and keep them in a designated area in your kitchen. People are hungry at different times, and not everyone always likes to eat what’s on the menu. All left-overs and extra snacks go on a shelf in the fridge and pantry. Everyone is allowed to eat whenever they’re hungry from these places.

The Grocery List:

(This list is written with the understanding that you already have basic pantry items stocked, such as condiments, flour, sugar, butter, olive oil, spices, and other cooking necessities. In addition, we eat our own harvested deer instead of beef. If you need a ground meat to round out your grocery list, try Jenny O’s ground turkey. This trade will add under $10 to your weekly expenses.)

After tax, my grocery total with this menu is $145.67. In addition to this list, add some of your family’s healthy snacking favorites to keep on hand.

My meal plans change from week to week, but the following is a great jumping off point. Pour yourself a glass of wine (My Arkansas favorite HERE.) and turn on some entertainment. As you get your kitchen clean, and your groceries unpacked, start with the following make-ahead items.

1. Tuna Salad
2. Egg Salad
3. Grilled Chicken Salad (Layer in a Tupperware container, chicken, mozzarella and Parmesan cheese, lettuce, spices — store in fridge. Add dressing and croutons <I use pork skins instead of croutons>, toss before serving.)
4. Chicken Mediterranean Salad (Layer in a Tupperware container, strawberries, cucumber, chicken, feta and Parmesan cheese, granola, lettuce, spices — store in fridge. Add dressing and toss before serving.)
5. Vegetable or chick pea pasta (Make ahead with spices and pasta sauce, store in fridge. When ready to serve, add to a shallow casserole dish, top with cheddar cheese, and bake until cheese is melted.)
6. Vegetable and sausage sheet pan dinner — I use sweet potatoes
7. Stuffed peppers (Stuff with cream cheese, sharp cheddar, turkey bacon, mushrooms, and onion. Top with sharp cheddar. When ready to serve, bake at 350* until pepper is soft and cheese is melted.)
8. Fajitas (Meat, veggies, Worcestershire sauce, taco seasoning — store in a gallon Ziploc in the fridge. When ready to serve, bake on a sheet pan until done.)
9. Mexican street corn topping (Mayo, Parmesan cheese, garlic, salt, pepper, paprika, and cilantro in a small Ziploc. When ready to serve, place corn cobs on a sheet pan, cut a slit in the bottom corner of the baggie, and squeeze out sauce on top of corn cobs — bake normally.)
10. Hamburger steak (Enough for everyone to have one.)
11. Grilled chicken breasts (Enough for everyone to have two.)
12. 2 dozen homemade Lunchables (Cheese, fruit, vegetables and hummus, lunch meat, nuts, etc. — store in bento boxes in the fridge, my favorites HERE and HERE.)
13. PBJ Oatmeal (3 cups oatmeal, 1/2 cup peanut butter, 2 tbs marmalade or other natural jam, raisins, cinnamon — Store in Tupperware container. When ready to serve, cook on stove top with almond milk.)
14. Boil 12–18 eggs
15. 18 meatballs

The Menu:

Always be willing the modify your menu if it means less stress.

Structure:

Here’s how I handle structuring my meal plan to ensure I stay covered based on my typical schedule.

Breakfast- I only make breakfast once a week. All other days, the meal is prepped or everyone is on their own — (but they ARE required to follow the menu.)

Lunch- If my husband has work or the kids are in school, I pack lunches in advance. I make these with leftover items at the end of my meal prep session and try not to purchase extras.

Snacks- Prep snacks into small containers, and then group them into larger bags by day. I also designate a shelf in the pantry and fridge for extra food. Anyone is allowed to eat from these areas any time they’re hungry.

Dinners- Each week I plan for 4 prepped dinners, and 1 simple dinner I can make in under 10 minute. On meal prep day, I always make a big, fairly involved, dinner. The last dinner of the week is on “Fend For Yourself” day, so I don’t plan a dinner for this night. Leftovers are typically cleaned out on this day.

My servings are small. Some of my kids’ servings are larger. They’re very active and need more fuel!

Always have a fallback. Just like everyone else, I get stressed out and anxious when I’m in situations that are uncertain or unexpected. I try to approach my week as though it’s certain things are not going to go as planned. Each week, I pick up 1–5 additional healthy “quick meal” items, so I am always building a small ready-stock of things in case something happens and I have to come up with a new meal on the fly.

Always give yourself the benefit of the doubt. A big part of why I meal prep is because I don’t like to stress. It’s stressful when your kids don’t feel 100% because their bodies aren’t getting the fuel they need. It’s stressful when I realize I’ve spent more time and money trying to feed my family at the last minute because of my own poor planning and/or time management. However, these things do happen. Life happens. So I take comfort in knowing I get it right most of the time. If life throws me a curve ball, and I can’t get it together enough to meal prep one week; I don’t worry about it.

One thing is certain, my life is better, I am less stressed, and my week goes more smoothly when I take the time to meal prep.

Becoming a Better Sports Parent

Have a dish you’d like me to try? Share it with me and I’ll add it to my rotation. You may see it in an upcoming meal plan.

Secret Coran-Stacy is an author, entrepreneur, and artist living the dream as a middle class suburbanite in Central Arkansas. Find out more by visiting www.secretstacy.com