Tips and Techniques for Getting Meals on the Table: Meal Planning Part 1

A ‘few’ years ago, I was in college studying for my Bachelor’s of Science (yes, this was the same time when I had the famous hiccup fest). One of the classes I had to take in my Junior year was Physiology and the professor was one of those that did not seem to have much of a sense of humor. You know the kind: after a few months you are convinced that are not capable of smiling.

Well, this this seemingly incapable of smiling but nice and highly intelligent professor wanted each of us to choose and present on one hormone. Mine was Aldosterone. I felt confident and until the 2 minutes prior to the class starting. The order of presentations was strictly volunteer based and I had already decided that I would volunteer to be first. The time came to volunteer and my arms were glued to my sides. I could not for the life of me raise my hand to volunteer.

As I sat there listening to each person, I  became more and more nervous. I finally forced myself to go third but by them my nerves had taken over and I was sweating. As in sweating enough to be obvious. I presented but felt completely zoned out. The only thing I was conscious of was the sweat rolling down the sides of my face. That had never happened to me (not even at the gym)!

I finished my 10 minute presentation and the first hand that went up for questions was the professor. She was looking at me with her glasses perked at the bottom of her nose and this is what she said: ‘I had never heard of this hormone called ‘Aldo Sterone’ Is that a new Italian hormone?’ You may not get it but say it out  loud: instead pronouncing the hormone ‘AlDOSterone, I was saying ‘ALDO STERONE’ the entire time’. I apologized, sat down and waited for the class to stop laughing. Ugh.

Why am I sharing that? because I was kinda-sorta of shaking in my boots at about 2:45 on April 24th before I spoke on ‘Time-Saving Tips and Techniques for Getting Meals on the Table’ at the Southern New England Women’s Expo. I did well and once I started, I forgot all about the incident.

So, onto some of the information I shared. I will share more in a subsequent post:

1. Use the leftovers:  Why not turn that roasted chicken from Monday night into chicken quesadillas two nights later? You do not need to create a complete meal from scratch 7 nights a week and this leads me to…

2. Try “Pot-luck” nights: Take it easy on yourself and create balanced, healthy meals using odds & ends. It may be an egg salad sandwich, a tuna fish sandwich, a big salad, a soup or leftovers. We still sit down and eat together and have that family mealtime experience, but it’s much quicker to prepare (and helps get rid of leftovers and odds and ends.

3. Make the meal the night before. I know you are tired but while you are down in the kitchen putting away the remnants left on the table that no one helped you put away, go ahead and prepare or plan out tomorrow’s meal.  In fact, turn on some tunes and go ahead and prep the fruits & veggies while you are packing lunches. Or maybe you work from home and can prep or start the meal during lunchtime.

4. Breakfast for dinner (and helps get rid of leftovers and odds and ends). Nothing like a frittata to take care of the miss-mash of cheeses, herbs and vegetables. Plus, the eggs give you plenty of protein. Or heck, make whole grain pancakes using the frozen fruit.

4. Clean the produce and Prepare when unloading the Groceries. I know, you want to shove it in the fridge and get on with your day but cleaning the fruit, veggies and prepping them now is a great idea. Slice and chop the peppers and onions as stick some in the freezer as thaw so quickly – just toss say into a stir-fry.

What are some of your ‘Time-Saving Tips and Techniques for Getting Meals on the Table?’