5 tips and Tricks to Meal Plan for the Unpredictable
You are awesome.
You are a culinary GENIUS, a rockstar with a spatula. You try to meal plan each week and buy the healthiest, freshest ingredients you can find. You plan and you prep, using all of your culinary and nutrition knowledge to create healthy, delicious meals for you and your family. Pat yourself on the back, my friend…you have got it goin’ ON! (And even if you don’t do ANY of that, you’re still awesome AF. Read on to think about how meal planning can help you navigate a busy life…)
What about those days, however, when life throws you 17 curveballs and then your car breaks down? What about those days when everyone is running late and eating at a restaurant is simply not an option? What about those days when you have a flare-up of medical symptoms and creating that 3 course meal you planned for your family this evening simply ISN’T going to happen?
I’m Joanna Wilson Phillips, certified Culinary Nutrition Expert and founder of Patch of Sky Wellness, and I’m about to be your BFF for life.
1) Choose (and Prep) Whole, Unprocessed Ingredients
Aside from the health benefits of eating whole foods, choosing unprocessed ingredients allows you infinite flexibility. A prepped container of deseeded, sliced and diced bell peppers, for instance, can be thrown into a soup, a stir fry, an omelette…the options are endless for all ability levels.
2) Create Multiple Meal Options Using Key Ingredients
With meal planning, it is possible to create multiple recipes from just a handful of healing, healthy ingredients. Take spinach, rice, broccoli, and sesame seeds. At first glance, I’m thinking soup…steamy and warm, comforting and nourishing. But if we add an egg? A frittata or an omelet or a scramble. A stir fry also comes to mind, but a cold salad would work, too. You a separate out the ingredients, too, and steam the broccoli with the sesame seeds and make a risotto out of the rice and spinach.
3.) Buy Local and In Season
When you create a meal plan using ingredients that are local and in season, it means that most (if not all) grocery stores and markets in your neighborhood will carry the ingredients you need. This is great when you have unexpected visitors or the kids have their friends over for dinner: a stew for4 can easily become stew for 8 with a quick stop at any market on your way home from work for potatoes, broth, an an extra carrot or two.
4) Include Recipes in Your Meal Planning So Anyone Can Help in the Kitchen
Uh oh! Dad is running late at work and won’t be home until after 7pm! Little Jenny has a music lesson at 6.30pm and needs to eat dinner beforehand. Mom is home and has all the ingredients they need to make dinner for the whole family, but doesn’t know where to start. If only Dad had left them a recipe….oh wait! He did! He included all the recipes Mom needs in their weekly meal plan packet so that anyone…even little Jenny… can participate in creating a home cooked meal for the family. Thanks, Dad! You rock:)
5) Swap Meals
This may be a no-brainer, but it bears repeating: a meal plan is just that—a PLAN (and you know what they say about “the best laid plans…”). When the unpredictable happens and you’re crunched for time, swap out tonight’s 2 hour Roasted Chicken for tomorrow night’s 30 minute Veggie Burger. Trust me, when the family is busy munching away on your seriously yummy creation, no one will even know the difference.
Happy Cooking!
In health,
Joanna xoxo
