If you haven’t been able to do much food preparation or organisation for the April 28 Day Weight Loss Challenge then try and give it a go for this final week of meal plans.
See whether it makes a difference for you and if setting aside an hour or two before the week commences as well as prepping a few meals or snacks in the evening for the days to follow, makes it easier to stick to your healthy eating diet plan?
Here are some suggestions for ways to get organised and on track to reaching your healthy eating lifestyle goals.
- Do your basic food planning steps to start with – work out exactly what you’d like to try in your weekly Meal Plan. What do you already have in the freezer? What ingredients can you use up from last week? What do you need to start from scratch with? What don’t you like or need to amend ingredients to suit your food intolerances or tastes?
- If you’ve made any of the delicious snacks from previous weeks of the Challenge like the Chocolate Bliss Balls and have leftovers in the freezer, fridge or pantry then remember to add these into your Meal Plan for Week 4 and defrost if required.
- If you have a really busy week ahead with a lot in your schedule then look for recipes that you’ve either made before or are simple so you’re not under pressure with time. Keep the more involved recipes for those days when you can enjoy the cooking process as you have more time available.
- Make the soups like Lentil & Pancetta, Cauliflower & Walnut or Easy Chicken & Corn in larger batches so you can freeze or refrigerate in individual portions to enjoy throughout the week for lunch or dinner.
- You can make the chicken mixture from the Asian Chicken & Mushroom Lettuce Cups ahead of time and either freeze or refrigerate and then heat up to serve with the lettuce at dinner time.
- Make the Vegetarian Cannelloni on a day when you have more time and in a larger batch. If not eating straight away cover and store in the fridge or freezer until ready to defrost and reheat in the oven. Cover with aluminium foil and reheat at 180C for 20 minutes or until heated through. If serving the whole family then make a larger batch to share or to freeze leftovers.
- Slice up the vegetables and other ingredients needed for recipes like the Lightly Fried Tofu with Thai Style Dressing or the Pork Steak on Pepper & Noodle Bed. Store them in containers for each recipe and then you can just grab them from the fridge and cook to get lunch or dinner on the table really quickly.
- Even peeling garlic cloves and storing them in a jar in the fridge will save you time with making meals in the evening.
- If you made extra of the Pea Pesto from last week’s Meal Plan, you can defrost what you need for this week’s Baked Potato with Pea Pesto recipe.
- Prepare desserts like the Grilled Tropical Fruits with Zabaglione Sauce or the Rhubarb Ginger Glories earlier in the day you want to serve them so it’s easy to offer a healthy dessert after dinner.
- If you’re having the Healthy Mummy Smoothies for any of your meals then ensure you have the ingredients to make your favourite combinations easy to access. Get the blender out the night before and just add everything in the next morning, whizz and your healthy breakfast or lunch is done.
- Remember to make extras of the recipes you really enjoy and freeze these so your food prep for when the Challenge is over is already started and you can continue with your healthy eating until the next Challenge.
You are probably finding it easy to work out ways you can food prep your meals and how much time this saves you in the long run. So try our tips as well as the ones you’ve learnt to make following the healthy eating meal plans from the 28 Day Challenges really easy.
Click here for time and money saving tips when shopping for the Challenge and other organisational tips too.
