Cooking a well-balanced, nutritious meal during a busy week can be stressful, but my tips can help you keep healthy meals on the table with a little planning and prep.
Use Fresh Herbs in your cooking:
Chop fresh herbs or simply throw the leaves in a ziplock bag and freeze them for quick access when cooking dinner. Take out the amount you need and keep the rest in the freezer for herbs all year! Use basil to top this Avocado Caprese Toast.
Freeze extra pasta sauce:
Pasta sauce from the store is loaded with salt. It makes such a difference when you make your own sauce at home. Make pasta sauces ahead of time and freeze in freezer safe containers. Take container of sauce out to thaw the day you want to cook with it and you have an easy, good for you meal in no time.
Eat less carbs by swapping for vegetables:
Lighten up carbs by swapping regular pasta noodles for zucchini noodles or use cauliflower rice instead of white rice. You can spiralize zucchini when meal prepping and keep in refrigerator until you’re ready to eat. This Ground Turkey Bolognese Zucchini Noodle recipe is quick and easy making it the perfect weeknight meal. Don’t forget to use that extra sauce you have in the freezer 🙂
Dice onion ahead of time and freeze:
Buy a large bag of onions, take 5 minutes to dice them up then store in individual ziplock bags in the freezer. Remove from freezer when ready to use.
Jar your own minced garlic:
Chop garlic using a knife and put it in a glass jar then cover garlic with olive oil to store in the fridge. I love using garlic in most of my dishes, but it takes time to chop and mince so having it readily available in the fridge really cuts down on prepping time. Use it when you’re ready to make recipes such as my Asian Chicken Lettuce Wraps.
Make Big Pots of Soup:
You will feel more relaxed knowing you have a warm meal already prepared and waiting for you. Make this Chicken Tortilla Soup on Sunday and enjoy it all week long! Freeze the leftovers and store in the freezer for up to 6 months.
Keep on hand Homemade Energy Filled Snacks:
Need a kickstart to your day or an energy packed on the go snack, try these No-Bake Peanut Butter Energy Bites. You also might like No-Bake Cranberry Almond Energy Bites or Homemade Cranberry, Nut, and Chocolate Quinoa Energy Bars.
What do you do in your kitchen to cut down on prep time, eat healthier, or save money? Share in the comments below!
Really great tips, I will definitely try and jar my own minced garlic. I always buy mine but I’ll give it a go myself next time.
Thank you! I buy the jarred, minced garlic and use it in some of my recipes, but I love using fresh garlic whenever possible and having it already minced ahead of time really helps out during the week when I don’t feel like spending the extra time in the kitchen 🙂