What’s for Dinner
Hey friend!
I shared with you recently that our family eats dinner together at home most nights of the week, but cooking is not necessarily my favorite thing to do (that would be exercising, reading or an all-expense-paid day at the spa). I have however found a way to make dinners doable and not overwhelming, so let's talk about that today.
First of all, I keep our meals simple. We have one protein and two sides most of the time. The sides are typically carb choices. I limit my intake to 1-2 protein choices and 3 (4 max) carb choices at dinner. (Note: 1 Protein choice is 20g and 1 Carb choice is 15g. I teach what that means in my Macro Mapping course.) Unless we are doing breakfast for dinner, one of the sides is a green veggie: canned green beans and steamed broccoli (the purple bags from Aldi are my fav) are usually the "green" but sometimes it's a salad.
Second, I love my crock pot. Being able to pop in my ingredients and then go about my day makes my heart so happy. Pinterest has tons of ideas, but two of my favorite things to make in my crock pot are chicken breasts and baked potatoes. For the chicken, I'll fill my big crock pot with a 5lb bag of frozen boneless skinless breasts and then season them with dry ranch seasoning (it must be Hidden Valley Ranch brand) plus a little salt and pepper. Cook on low for 6 hours. When you get home dinner prep is quick because the protein is cooked. There are tons of things you can do with this: chicken tacos, nachos, pasta with marinara, topping for baked potatoes, etc. Speaking of baked potatoes, all you do for those is rinse them, pour on a tsp of EVOO, sprinkle with salt & pepper, wrap in foil and cook on low for 6 hours. I make an extra for my lunch the next day. Bonus tip: non-fat Greek yogurt sprinkled with some salt & pepper makes a great sour cream sub!
Third, I keep some "staples" in our weekly meals. Once a week we will have tacos or nachos (I also make the taco meat in the crock pot!), breakfast for dinner and then Friday is typically pizza night (I use this and this to help offset the effects of this meal.) You will also find meatloaf (with mashed potatoes & green beans), pasta with meat sauce, chicken pot pie and other easy recipes fairly regularly.
The bottom line is this: stop overthinking dinner. A "healthy" dinner does not have to consisted of complicated ingredients and recipes. It also doesn't have to take 2 hours to prepare. Here's a little challenge for you: eat at home 5 nights this week and use your crock pot (or instant pot if those don't overwhelm you like they do me😬) for at least one of those meals. You'll save money and create some meaningful time with your loved ones: win/win.
Your Friend,