This article is about how to make healthy dinners easier. I’ve got four kids and I’ve been a mom for eighteen years so I have a lot of experience successfully making healthy dinners for my family… and a lot of experience with wishing I would have.
Because let’s be honest, meal planning is one thing, grocery shopping is another but if you actually turn all that prep work into a completed meal —with all the other responsibilities you have— it’s a massive victory.
Today, I thought I’d share what actually helps me to consistently feed my family in a way that feels best to me: healthy, whole foods, ingredient diverse. Whether you’re cooking for one or cooking for eight, I hope these ideas might help with how to make healthy dinners easier.
1. Create a “Recipe” for Dinner
This piece of advice is aimed at anyone who is new to the dinner game— so, basically me 20-ish years ago. That was the first time I really tried to figure out how to grocery shop and cook dinner with consistency (before then it was all frozen dinners, canned soup and take-out). The bit of wisdom I wish I’d known back then is to establish a baseline for what every dinner is going to include.
Don’t have one yet? Feel free to steal mine: protein + greens + complex carbs(think rice, potatoes, quinoa… whole food carbs). Nearly every dinner we make is a combination of those three things. I say “nearly” because on Saturdays we make a big family dinner which usually involves swapping out our complex carb for a simple one: homemade bread, pasta, naan, etc. By having a “recipe” for each dinner you make it infinitely easier to grocery shop. Ever read Atomic Habits by James Clear? He says “make your habit so easy you can’t say no”.
2. Cook Once, Eat Twice
I have three teenage boys, that means we’re basically cooking enough to feed an army. Every night. The simplest way I’ve found to make dinnertime easier, is to set yourself up for tomorrow while making today’s meal. We do this in two ways: making enough so we’ll have leftovers for lunch and doubling up on anything we could repurpose later. This includes things like…
- Roast two whole chickens instead of one (or double your thigh recipe or grill more breasts) and tomorrow you’ve got the perfect base for chicken salad or stir fry. You can also use the carcass of the chicken to make your own bone broth— which is so stinking easy you’ll never want to pay for chicken stock again. Make extra roasted or grilled vegetables to toss into omelets, grain bowls, or wraps.
- Making Spaghetti Sauce? Always double (or triple!) your recipe; it freezes beautifully. Allow the extra sauce time to cool, then portion it out and store in the freezer. If you’ve always got frozen sauce in the freezer and dry pasta in the pantry, you’ve got spaghetti (my kids favorite dinner) on very little notice.
- Making ground beef for tacos, spaghetti, etc? Double your mince and keep the seasoning simple (I do salt, pepper, garlic and onions so it can be used for almost any type of cuisine we eat). This week when I made tacos I made extra and then this morning I used the leftover ground beef as the base for my slow cooker chili we’ll eat later tonight. *I took a picture to show you guys below.
3. A Little Prep Makes a Big Difference
There’s a reason so many chefs swear by mise en place—the simple act of prepping ingredients in advance. Whether it’s washing and chopping vegetables for the week, marinating proteins, or making a big batch of homemade soup we can eat on all week long, small efforts on a Sunday afternoon can turn a rushed Wednesday evening into a peaceful, joyful cooking experience.
Not sure where to start? My best meal prep tips are right here on the blog.
4. Shop Your Freezer
A well-stocked freezer isn’t just practical—it’s a little luxury. Ours is stocked with the proteins we eat all the time, frozen fruit and spinach for my smoothies plus a bunch of other super helpful ingredients.
- Meat – If your family eats animal protein, then the freezer can be your best friend. Ours is filled with various cuts of venison (we’re on the subscription from Maui Nui because 1. we love that brand and 2. wild venison is so lean and healthy) We also keep hamburger patties, chicken thighs and one gigantic brisket that producer Jack got me for Christmas that I still haven’t smoked yet. Look for your favorites to go on sale and then stock up the freezer.
- Fruits / Veggies / Herbs – I keep spinach and frozen berries in the freezer at all times so I can easily add them to my green smoothie everyday. I’ve also got a container of fresh mint I washed and froze that I use to make “fresh” mint tea almost every night. We’ve got tons of sliced bananas frozen in there too because every time bananas are about to go bad we freeze them and then later, Cez bakes them into our favorite gluten free banana bread.
- Bread – I’ve typically got sourdough bread and burger buns in the freezer so we never run out when we need them. Also, anytime the sourdough bread gets down to the last dry piece or nobody ate the heel, I tear it into pieces and add it to my “crouton” bag. When you want croutons, just put the frozen bread pieces on a sheet pan (it defrosts in about 15 min) drizzle with olive oil, salt and dried herbs and toast up in the oven. Delicious!
- Shop Before you Shop – Here’s the thing, you actually have to use what’s in the freezer for it to be helpful. Start your meal planning by opening the freezer first to see what you can use. Pull out the proteins you want as your base for this week and put them in the fridge to slowly defrost. Then plan your grocery list.
Making Home a Place of Intention
I started working on my home almost 25 years ago. It’s taken me at least that long to find rhythms and routines that work for us. Every new season of our lives brings new challenges: like learning to make baby food when the kids were infants or prepping school lunches when the started school or learning to eat for my cycle when I entered perimenopause. I mention this because it’s so incredibly easy to hear someone else’s ideas and feel like we should be further along in our own process. If for any reason these ideas made you feel anxious about not doing more, take a breath, wiggle your toes and feel yourself present right where your feet are. You are exactly where you’re meant to be. You don’t need to have it all figured out (none of us do!) Just start with intention. That’s what matters. What’s one thing you can do this week that will better set you up for success in some way? Start there, take it one step at a time, build your life and your home with a solid foundation.
