Back To School Family Meal Tips
Updated: Aug 16
By: Kate Leeney- NASM CPT, Nutrition Coach, FNS
Here are my top tips to surviving this crazy time for making dinners! The Luminous Wellness app always has easy recipes and meal prep ideas so that you can plan your weeks easily!
With homework, work, and extracurricular activities it can be super overwhelming for most parents to find time to make dinner. Here are my top tips to keeping some sanity while still giving your family nutritious meals.
Keep it simple with your base. I tell most of my busy mamas that the easiest thing you can do is choose a meat and a sauce for your instant pot meals or baked meals. Some favorite meat ideas are: chicken, pork roast, flank steak, chicken andouille sausage, shrimp, tilapia, turkey or beef burgers, ground beef, or ground turkey.
Add a good sauce!Some of my favorite sauces/ideas are (I will include my favorite brands at the bottom of this post): buffalo sauce, caesar dressing, green or red salsa, bbq sauce, pesto, curry, green chile enchilada sauce, cheesy cashew dressing, teriyaki, ginger and sesame dressing or just a jar of pepperoncinis!
Some of my favorite brands to use for sauces are: @coreandrind @primalkitchen
Choose your sides. Every night, think about a carb/veggie that you want for your meal. Keep this simple. Some of my favorite things to serve are: chickpea or edamame pasta, white potatoes, sweet potatoes, cauliflower gnocchi, brown rice, and seasoned rice. For veggies, mix it up and keep it fun!
Get the easy stuff delivered and focus on picking up your meats/produce. I order at @thrivemarket monthly(they also have a ton of on the go kids snacks), primal kitchen monthly, and look @wholefoods prime member deals or @costco to stock up on clean ingredient meal/snack options.
Again, KEEP IT SIMPLE. Most of the recipes that you see on instagram or on blogs can be very intricate and overwhelming. I usually save those for weekends. During the week my main goals are serving a protein, carbohydrate, veggie, and fat/sauce.
