Fast Healthy Meals for Fall

With fall’s arrival, your busy schedule means you need to start finding the right meal planning ideas that will work for your family.  Here are five ideas for Fast Healthy Meals.

1. Set up a meal exchange with five families each month. On a certain day, everyone in the exchange group meets at rotating homes and brings along a box full of frozen meals, one for each family (It’s a good idea to have reheating instructions taped to the lid). The members swap the meals so that everyone takes home one of each meal that they didn’t prepare. (Example: I make five pans of my favorite inexpensive recipe, say pepper steak. My four other exchange families make five pans of their favorites. When we exchange, I have one pepper steak and four other family-sized dinners.) The benefit is that you can but in bulk but you don’t have to eat the same dinner over and over.( An alternative is MagicKitchen.com’s Family Size meals)

2. If you want to go out to eat, but it’s not in the budget right now, you can cook your favorite Carrabbas Chicken Bryan or Healthy Choice Traditional Pasta Sauce recipe. Just do an online search for “copy cat recipes” or “secret restaurant recipes.” Your family will love the meals.

3. Consider trying a meal preparation service like Dream Dinners. For a set price, you go in and choose meals based on your family’s likes, dislikes, eating restrictions, and budget. Then you prepare the meals right there and package them up to bring them home to your freezer. The result? Fast healthy dinner plans and finished meals. The cost may be a bit more than if you did it in your own kitchen, but it’s significantly less than eating out and much healthier. It’s a good chance to learn how to cook better too.

4. Avoid the temptation to buy entire meals of take-out. Instead, mix part of a meal from your favorite restaurant with a partially prepared meal at home. For example, buy a loaf of French bread and heat it up in the oven wrapped in foil. Slice it and pass around margarine. Make a large salad. Then order a large order of pasta from your favorite Italian restaurant and split it. You’ll get more value for your money and also have a fresh meal of something you typically would not make at home.

5. Get organized with meal planning by deciding what works best for your schedule. Can you make a double batch of meat loaf and freeze half for another evening? Hearty soups make great dinners and can be made on the weekend. They freeze well and are filling and healthy.

Here’s a 1950’s take on having a “Dinner Date” with your family. What a time traveling piece of film!!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miLmfM8bFmc[/youtube]

Enjoy!

Melody, MagicKitchen.com Blogger