IHP 029: Fixing Healthy Meals and Snacks (Habits Series)

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This is Episode #029 and we are continuing our series about habits.

Listen to the Podcast:

My Notes:

In today’s podcast we are going to talk through some tips that hopefully will help you as you strive to fix healthy meals for you and your family.

Plan Your Menus

If I could give you just one tip to help you as you begin to fix healthy meals for your family, it would be to write out a menu each week. If planning a whole week is too hard, then at least plan out what you are going to eat each day.

When you don’t have a plan, you tend to default back to fixing fast and easy meals, which most of the time tend to not be as good for you.

I created some fun free printable menu planning pages that you can use to plan out your meals. Click here to go to the post where you can download some!

Create a Recipe Notebook

Here is another tip that has made my life easier, and you are going to love this one!

Create your own Recipe Notebook! I don’t know about you, but I have tons of cookbooks and recipes I’ve printed off the internet, and when it comes time to make my menu plans or fix meals, it is a headache trying to remember where that recipe was that I wanted to fix!

You can create your own Recipe Notebook, filled with sheet protectors and divided up into sections. You simply photocopy recipes from cookbooks that you love, and print out recipes you find on the internet, and place them in your notebook! One tip — don’t place recipes into your notebook unless they are ones you have tried and love. That way your notebook won’t get cluttered with recipes you want to “try” but are not sure you like.

I also have some free editable recipe cards that allow you to type into the file and print them out. You can use those too if you want to create a recipe card box or just want to print out the recipes in a nicer, prettier format.

Having all your recipes in one place makes it so much easier when you are making your menu plans and when it is time to actually fix the meals. No more hunting for lost recipes!

Start With One Meal

Get out your Recipe Notebook, or browse all the yummy recipes on my site or on Pinterest, and make a list of breakfast ideas that you want to try.

You can also check out all my recipe ebooks in my store! These are all ready to print and add to your Recipe Notebook!

Choose one recipe to try and fix that the next morning. If you like it, then print it out or add that recipe to your Recipe Book under Breakfasts. If you don’t like it, cross it off and move on to another recipe tomorrow.

Choose another recipe to try the next morning and follow the same instructions outlined above until you have a good variety of breakfast recipes to choose from.

Now spend the next week just focusing on being consistent with fixing a healthy breakfast each morning. Be sure to use my Menu Planning forms so that you can plan out your breakfasts for the week!

Once you feel you have your breakfasts mastered, you are ready to move on to lunch, and then dinner!

Fix Healthy Snacks

I have to admit, that this is the one area where I have struggled the most, and I don’t think I am the only one! Let me share with you a tip that has helped me and also some yummy recipes to try!

Have snacks made up ahead of time.

Yeah, I know! Seems obvious, but I can’t tell you how many times I or the kids have reached for something that wasn’t good for us because I simply didn’t have something made ahead. There are so many yummy snacks that you can make and stick in the refrigerator or freezer for later. I’ll give you some ideas below! (These are some of my Trim Healthy Mama snacks, so they are sugar-free.)

Sugar-Free Snack Ideas!

• Chocolate Chip Cookies (S)
• Chocolate Peanut Butter Chia Pudding (FP)
• Fudgy No-Bake Cookes (S) – These are one of my favorites!
• Lavash Chips (FP) – I like to make a little dip for my chips using about a tablespoon each of 0% Greek Yogurt and 1% cottage cheese, then add in some garlic salt, pepper, minced onion, and some bacon bits. Yum!
• Chocolate Ice Cream (FP) – This is a great snack for after dinner in the summer!
• Brownies (FP)
• Any of my Fuel Pull Cakes – These have been hugely popular in the THM community because of the need for some yummy FP desserts. These work great for snacks too!
• Vanilla Cake (FP) – This is a yummy cake and if you use my Vanilla Cake Master Mix, it makes it really easy to whip up a cake for snack or dessert!
• Chocolate Cake Master Mix (FP) – Use this master mix to easily make up a chocolate cake whenever you need a treat!

If you need more recipe ideas, you can check out all my snack recipes here!

Join the Challenge!

I love it when God puts something on my heart to share on the podcast, and then God confirms again and again that this is exactly what I needed to be sharing!

With that in mind, I was so excited to hear about this free “Healthy Eating Reboot Challenge” that my friends over at Ultimate Bundles are planning. They have teamed up with Wellness Mama to offer this challenge.

Here is how it works:

You register for the free challenge, which runs for 7 days (August 24-30).

Each day, you’ll get a motivational email, along with a mini-challenge.

Most days include a free printable to make completing the challenge even easier!

By the end of the challenge, you’ll have:

• An organized, healthier pantry (you might be surprised at some of the things Wellness Mama calls unhealthy)
• Ideas to make everyday lunches a no-brainer (and super healthy, too!)
• Tips to make healthy meal prep faster and easier than ever (as well as some secret weapons no mom should be without)
• A stress-free meal plan so you can transition into your September schedule with ease
• Plus, so much more!

You can complete each challenge in just 20 minutes or less each day, but I think you’ll be surprised by how much progress you’ll make over the week. I know I am excited to go through the challenge and adapt it to our family. I really need a reboot in this area!

If you are interested, click here to join Ultimate Bundles and Wellness Mama for this challenge! Thursday is the deadline to sign up!

Next time…

In the next podcast I will be continuing the habit series. We will be talking about the habit of exercise!

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For more episodes and information on how to subscribe, visit the Intentional Home Podcast page!