It is never easy to coordinate your professional and your personal life. If you are a mother and have a family you deeply care for, it is even more difficult. You want your family to lead a healthy life and you want your career to prosper. Not an easy thing to do but it can be done. One of the main concerns of every mom is – is my child eating healthy? We all know what nutritionists say: you should prepare healthy meals for your family. But what if you are working and you just don’t have time for cooking? Here are some time-saving hacks that can do wonders.
Planning ahead
When you are a working mom there is little spare time on your hands, so use it wisely. It is almost impossible to shop for groceries every day. Try to do that once a week on a day you have the most time. Make a list of groceries you need for a whole week and make a menu for a whole week. That way you will not be caught pondering what to prepare for dinner when you have so little time on your hands.
Buy your food wisely
Try to buy food that is easy and quick to prepare. Use all conveniences you can, such as pre-sliced vegetables, frozen vegetables, canned food such as beans, sardines, wild Alaskan salmon, chicken, beef or vegetable stocks, pre-sliced meat. It all can be used to prepare quick but healthy meal for your children. Pre-sliced vegetables are easy to use and the fact that they are sliced, cuts your time for cooking in half. Frozen vegetables are as nutritive as fresh vegetables but quicker to prepare. Canned food can make a tasty, healthy meal. Use pre-sliced meat and choose one that is quick to prepare, like chicken.
Cook when you have time
Make your freezer your best friend. When you have time for cooking, prepare larger meals and freeze them in portions that are easy to heath when you don’t have time for preparing meals for your family. There are a lot of meals that are very good when taken out from freezer and heated before eating. You can cook a few meals or cook for a whole week ahead. That way you’ll be sure that your children will have a healthy dinner when you come home from work.
Delivered meals
You may think that ordered food can’t be healthy, but that isn’t the case. There are companies that focus their energy and dedication to the goal of preparing healthy, nutritious, well-balanced meals, such as My Muscle Chef, where you can choose from a fine selection of different meals. This option can prove itself to be very convenient if you just can’t find time for cooking and you don’t have anything prepared. Why not treat you and your family with tasty meal of their choice? You’ll have more time on your hands for other activities with your children.
Leftovers
Leftovers can come handy when you don’t have time to cook new meal. Save leftovers from previous meals and use them for serving interesting dinner. You can give new life to what is left from previous meals by using them to prepare interesting pasta dinner or some nutritional salad, or you can use leftovers to make sandwiches. Let your imagination be your guide.
Healthy snacks
There will be time when you just can’t find time to cook anything and you don’t have any prepared meals on your hands. Healthy snacks can solve your problem when you are not very enthusiastic about ordering pizza and your children are hungry. When you are shopping for groceries make sure you buy raw nuts, fresh fruits and vegetables such as baby carrots or cucumbers, hummus or some sliced canned tomatoes and make your own salsa. Slice vegetables and arrange them on a plate with hummus or salsa, put whole grain bread toast on the side and your children can have a light meal. If you add raw nuts and fruits as a dessert you can be sure you have given your children a well-balanced meal.
You can coordinate your professional and personal life and feel good about it. Your family doesn’t need to suffer and you don’t have to feel guilty as you can manage to provide healthy meals for your family. Occasional pizza or fast food will not affect your children but you can make sure they have nutritional and tasty meals most of the weekdays.
guest post by Helen Bradford
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