Planning Healthy Meals and Making Them Happen

It's that time of year when our meals are the most predictable. During a Minnesota winter, someone like me who is interested in keeping our food (in order of importance) local, simple, sustainable and organic needs to get creative with dried goods and root vegetables. I often repeat the same repertoire every week in order to meet the previously mentioned pre-requisites but also to keep the family happy. My four year-old is in a phase where he can find something wrong with everything, so I find the more predictable (like most things in our life) the meal the less arguing.

Making the meal and its preparation simple is key in order for it to actually happen, since I rarely have a moment where a child of mine doesn't need my hands, words or breasts. Ha! Also, I want our food to taste like itself...I want my children to know what parsnips, rutabagas, kale, garlic, etc all taste like. I believe knowing these tastes from the moment they begin eating is what encourages them to grow into adults that will continue to choose and enjoy healthy foods.

So, here's a glimpse into how I plan our weekly meals. "Plan" being the key word. Planning is essential in getting wholesome, simple meals on your table if you plan on feeding people beyond yourself every day of the week.

I plan six dinners a week. We enjoy allowing ourselves one dinner out if we feel up for gathering the children and taking them somewhere...or we simply order pizza. Ordering pizza is a guilty pleasure of mine. Often our lunches are leftovers from the night before which helps guarantee a balanced lunch. These are the categories I use along with some of our most common winter recipes:

1. Pasta
-Cabbage Pasta

2. Chili

3. Lentils
-Lentil Bolognese
-Snobby Joes

4. Tofu

5. Soup
-Potato Leek
-White Bean and Tomato

6. Burritos
-Yes, burritos get their own category, because they are awesome.

Sometimes these categories overlap - like Lentil Bolognese. When that happens, I will then plan for two soups or two chilis that week...or a new random recipe!

I hope this inspires some to simplify and plan their family meals. I hope you have some tips for me! I plan to share some of our staple winter recipes in the coming weeks...