Meal Planning Part 3 - Daily Lunches

One of my biggest weaknesses for eating healthy is remembering to bring a healthy lunch every day. I am always running late and it is so much easier to run out and pick up fast food for lunch than to spend time in the morning trying to remember to pack one.  One of our resolutions was to give up all fast food and to limit eating out in general so I had to come up with a plan.

I decided to use some Ziploc containers that I had in my cupboard. I love these containers because they come in 1 cup, 2 cup, and 4 cup sizes which greatly helps with portion control. I also love that the 2 and 4 cup use the same size lid so I don't have to go hunting for the right lid. They come in several other sizes but these work well for me.

Here is what I made
Five 1 cup containers of plain cottage cheese.
Four 1 cup containers of 0% fat Greek yogurt with a tablespoon of walnuts and dried fruit. (I didn't have enough for 5 cups)
Five Containers of spinach salad with hearts of palm and salsa for dressing.
Five 2 cup containers of BBQ Lentils (Stored in the freezer)
Five 2 cup containers of 15 Bean soup (Stored in the freezer)
I will supplement my lunches with spiced almonds and fruit.

I made enough of the yogurt and cottage cheese so I could use one as a snack or I could mix up my breakfast.  I will also mix up lunches with the lentils, soup, and left overs from dinner so I am not eating the same thing every day.

Another diet tip is that I will eat my salad first before my entree, and drink a 12oz glass of water or tea with each meal.

I love this idea of having pre-made lunches, it is one less thing for me to worry about in the morning and I just might be on time for work more often now!

Meal Planning Ideas #2

I have learned that my hubby and I are very lazy cooks. After work we come home and the last thing we want to think about is what we are going to make for dinner. In the past we would resort to Ramon noodles, cereal, something else fattening and unhealthy, or just go out to dinner. As part of our healthy lifestyle goals we have decided to make more meals at home and eat out a lot less. Knowing how lazy we are I had to come up with some ideas to make preparing dinner easier.
Here are some of our ideas.

1. Use a meal planner (posted yesterday) to plan out healthy meals we both will enjoy and that are easy to make. 
2. Double recipes and freeze left overs for lunches or days we are to lazy to cook. 
3. Plan out more slow cooker freezer meals. 
4. Stop buying convenience foods. 

So last Saturday we made a plan for the next month that included 3 meals each week and a freezer meal. Each meal will provide enough for leftovers that we can freeze for future dinners or use for lunches so we can mix it up and wont be eating the same thing everyday. This also only requires us to cook 3 times a week. 

After grocery shopping I came up with a great idea to help make even those 3 days of cooking easier. I became my own prep chef! 

First I printed out each recipe, then gathered up all the ingredients and placed them with the recipe in a plastic bin. (I only had 2 bins so the 3rd meal I put in a bowl) This way when we have to cook we just pull out the bin and everything we need is there.  I then placed the bins in the fridge. We have a large fridge so there was plenty of room after I did some organizing and through out some of the mystery dishes that I could no longer recognize.  

If you have time you could even pre-measure some of the ingredients and put them in small containers. I got several small plastic containers at the dollar/$0.99 store that were to be used for salad dressing. If you were real energetic you could even prep all the vegetables in advanced. This was too much work for me, I can only handle cutting 1 onion at a time.  

If you don't have room in your fridge, are concerned about storing raw meat with vegetables, or have ingredients that need to be stored in the freezer, clear off a shelf in your pantry  fridge and freezer, and make a not on the recipe as to where to find the items. This is a great way to get husbands and older kids involved with making dinner.