Saturdays with Sarah: Meal Planning
Happy Saturday, everyone!
I think we can all agree that it’s REALLY challenging to eat healthy when it’s meal time, you don’t have anything prepared, so you find the nearest restaurants and choose from them. It IS possible to find healthy options, but you’re extremely limited to only what those close restaurants have to offer. Which is why I want to talk about a really important aspect of healthy eating: MEAL PLANNING!
Last weekend, my parents and I decided we would work really hard for a couple of hours and try to make as many of our meals for the next week as possible. We picked out some healthy options, made our grocery lists, and got to work. Here is a picture of what our hard work got us.
Meals for the Week
First: Breakfast and snacks. I made some no-bake granola bites. At 78 calories a pop, 2 of these and a piece of fruit could serve as breakfast, or you could just pop 1 of them when you need to curb your hunger before the next meal. I doubled my recipe and made 70-something of these little balls of joy.
Granola Energy Bites
Next: Lunches. Mom had an assembly line going to make 15 summer salads. She rocked the salad station! Now we could just grab our salad on the way to work and we didn’t even have to think about making lunch!
Summer Salads
Finally: Dinners. Dad cranked out these black bean burgers to take care of most of our dinners from the week. With the holiday in the middle of the week, we skipped that day knowing we’d be at parties and such. But coming home after a long day knowing that all you have to do is heat up dinner is a pretty great feeling!
Black Bean Burgers
Not only did we prepare the majority of our meals for the week, but the time the three of us spent in the kitchen together was so much fun. It was so great to have the stressful thinking of “WHAT AM I GOING TO EAT TODAY???” taken away because of good planning. I literally did not have to think about my meals once this week. Our lives are stressful enough, let’s take away the stress of food decisions!
I think the Travises have found a new Sunday afternoon tradition, healthy meal planning and preparation!!!
One quote I love in regards to eating healthy (and also life in general), ”If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” So LET’S GET PLANNING.
Let me know what you’ve planned out for your week to make your meal decisions easier and healthier!
See you next Saturday,
Sarah
Category: CONTRIBUTORS, Healthy Eating
About the Author
As a healthy food enthusiast, Sarah is committed to proving to people that it’s not hard to have a busy life and also find a way to eat healthy, delicious food. Every Saturday, Sarah shares stories about her own experiences with food, as well as recipes and tips for having a healthy kitchen. She says that if she can turn her life around and find a better relationship with food, anyone can. Learn more about Sarah on her Contributor page under the About tab. Sarah graduated Magna Cum Laude from USC in 2010 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Broadcast Journalism. She is also the recipient of a Mark of Excellence Award from the Society of Professional Journalists.Thanks for reading PeeDeeFoodie.com™
@PeeDeeFoodie While that's great she will, I think you have the wrong Twitter name, but I do LOVE your concept! Will now follow your blog!
I would like to have your recipe for the granola bites. I use to cook dinner for a month with my mom. It was great to take it out of the freezer in the morning an just slip it into the oven.
@AnnKlein I hear that @Sarah Travis is going to be making her Granola Bites at our @peedeefoodie booth at the HOPE HEALTH "Health & Harmony Festival" on August 11th in the Breezeway downtown. Looking forward to the event and to trying these out!
@MandyCBuchanan And I'll probably do the granola bites recipe on the blog next week, but I'll DM you the recipe since you asked today :)
@MandyCBuchanan Last week I posted ab summer salad & several weeks ago I did the black bean burgers recipe...I'll track down links for you!
