Healthy Weeknight Meals for Busy Families

Transcript:

Leah: Welcome to Dishing Up Nutrition. Have you ever stood in your kitchen at 5:30 in the afternoon hungry, exhausted and now wondering what in the world am I going to make for dinner?

Teresa: I don't know. I think you might be in my house, Leah.

Leah: Yeah, I think that might've creeped in on in my week too, once or twice and I hear this from clients a lot too, so if this sounds relatable, this is the episode for you. I mean, most of the time we all have good intentions of putting together a healthy, balanced dinner each night. But making it a reality, that can be challenging. And let's face it, by the time dinner rolls around, you've made a thousand other decisions during the day, and this is one more decision that you really don't want to make in this moment.

You've already thought about what you're supposed to wear. Did I respond to that email appropriately? Where did my kid's shoe go? Did the dog get fed? Et cetera, et cetera. So now the thinking about planning or shopping or chopping or cooking, cleaning up a meal, I say especially the cleaning up a meal part, I mean, it just feels like again, in that moment at 5:30, it feels like too much, but that's what we are here to help with today.

And even if it's just one or two little ideas that you take away that hopefully makes your afternoons and your evenings a little bit better, it'll all be worth it. Okay, so my name is Leah Kleinschrodt, and I'm a Licensed and Registered Dietitian. I am also a mom of two small children, ages three and a newly minted 7-year-old.

And today we're diving into practical real food solutions for busy weeknight meals. And I'm here today with Teresa Wagner, also a Licensed and Registered Dietitian. And a busy mom of three kiddos, a little bit older than mine, but I'll let her tell you a little bit more about that. And Teresa, I'm sure you can relate, as you said to the busy weeknight rush.

Teresa: Can I ever. And it's, you know, it just changes, right? Like now I have a junior in high school who actually, relatively independent now. He has his driver's license.

Leah: Yeah.

Teresa: And then a freshman and a fifth grader. So it is busy. I mean, we've got lots of evening activities between softball and volleyball and all the other extracurriculars that come into our lives, and so I absolutely can relate to this topic.

Leah: Yep.

Teresa: So let's just start out by acknowledging maybe the obvious. Weeknights actually, any night, they're pretty chaotic.

Leah: Yep.

Teresa: Just kind of depending on where you are in life, right? Between work, school activities, the last thing many of us want to do is spend our energy on planning what's for dinner. But at the same time, we don't want to make the habit of relying on fast food or takeout every night because for many of us, we truly do want to feed ourselves and our families well.

Leah: Yep.

Teresa: And there is beyond the, beyond like the mental load of, of planning and shopping and all those types of things, there's also the guilt factor of I know I should be doing this. And so having that plan in place, like we're going to talk about today, really will be helpful in helping to lighten that mental load too.

Leah: Yeah.

Teresa: Because while we put a little bit of work in the front end. It really starts to pay off on the back end.

Leah: So yeah. And I've talked to my clients about that as like, okay, what would your future self thank you for if you did it today or if you kind of scheduled it that one time a week, like your future self is going to look back on that and say, thank you so much.

Teresa: Yeah, I couldn’t agree, couldn't agree more.

Leah: Yeah.

Teresa: So yeah. So let's talk about that and you know, for us dietitians who are also busy moms, really our goal for our families many of the times and for the people that we try to help is to provide simple, yet nourishing meals that don't take that much time or too much thought and saving some of those more culinary things for when you do have time.

Leah: Mm-hmm.

Simple, healthy meals: balance real food protein, fat & carbohydrates

Teresa: Because there are times where that does become something that we want to do. So ideally we, what that looks like, that simple sort of low thought, low effort looks like is a balance of real food proteins, real natural fats and real food carbohydrates that include vegetables and maybe some whole grains.

So if I have at least those three elements, right; that protein, that fat, a vegetable, I know I have the basics met, and then of course with my kids, how active they are, having that component where it provides a little extra energy, some of that starch, I mean, I really feel like we're knocking it out of the park.

Leah: Yeah. That balance, you know, assembling that balanced meal includes those three macronutrients. Longtime listeners, I mean, you can probably hit that on repeat, like you might say PFC or protein, fat, carb, again, like it kind of becomes our mantra around here.

Teresa: Right.

Leah: Yeah. And so, yeah, when, when I'm meal planning, probably when you're meal planning, we're always thinking, okay, where does that protein come from? What are my vegetables? Maybe there's a starch in there like a potato or some rice or some quinoa or something like that, and what's my healthy fat?

Tip for success: meal plan

My biggest tip for success in making sure that my family eats well, and also when I counsel with clients or when I'm teaching classes, is that we do need to set aside that time to plan it out. Meal planning is the key to whether or not myself or my clients will be successful for the week.

And this for me has always been the biggest mental hurdle of like actually sitting down, making the plan. I feel like I can execute the plan well. Like once the plan is in place, boom, we got it. It's just actually sitting down and making that plan in the first place.

And for me it was always like, I don't have time to do this. I had to start challenging that belief in my head to say like, alright, really, how much time does this actually take? Because in my mind it felt like it's going to take an hour. When I actually sat down and did it, 10 minutes, maybe 15 minutes, depending on the day.

So sitting down, making that plan, some, some of my clients make that plan for the whole week. Some of my clients make it for maybe three or four days, and then they're sitting down and planning again. They're kind of breaking it up into smaller, more manageable chunks, just depending on what their schedule looks like.

Like there's no right or wrong way to do it, it's just is there a system that works for you that feels like you can have that, you can have those lane lines, you can have those boundaries, or you kind of know where you're going in your week.

Teresa: Yeah, I agree with you so much in this topic, and maybe it's just because we are in that phase of life. But it does seem like it is a gigantic chore.

Leah: Mm-hmm.

Teresa: But when you actually sit down to do it, really, it, it isn't that much. I think you just take the whole project in and of itself, all like, it's almost like you take the cooking time and the prepping time, and you, you all try to, you put it all at that one moment.

Leah: Yeah.

Teresa: Whereas it is just sit down, plan a few things, and then it'll be done before you know it.

Leah: Mm-hmm.

Teresa: And like you said, your future self will thank you for it.

Leah: Yes. Because I, again, you and I still have those weeks that get out of hand. We don't have that plan. And I always look back and kick myself too.

I was like, you know what? I know what I should have done at the beginning of the week, and it just didn't happen for whatever the reason.

So it is, it's always a little bit of a painful reminder when it doesn't happen. So I, I kick myself into gear again and be like, all right, we're sitting down and we're making a plan for this week.

Teresa: Yeah.

Leah: But yeah, when you don't plan you, you will find yourself taking those little shortcuts or going through the drive through or the fast food lane, getting delivery, something like that. If that happens every now and again, so be it. But on a consistent basis, over time, we're just, we're trying to keep that food in the home as much as we can.

Teresa: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. When I am taking the time to plan my meals for the week, I also have to plan in that time for grocery shopping and for time for prep.

Leah: Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Teresa: And for me, a lot of times it's a combination of actual grocery shopping in the grocery store, because I'm one of those people who like to pick my own produce.

Leah: Yep. Same.

Teresa: But I combine that with the pickup options that you can do at the grocery stores too, which I find that saves a ton of time where so many of those things that I get, I get on repeat.

Leah: Yeah.

Teresa: Right? And so if somebody can assemble that, put them in bags and get them out to the, you know, get them out to me, it saves so much time. So that's one of the tips and I think a lot of people are, are doing those types of…

Leah: Taking advantage of that.

Teresa: But one thing I think about like, at least for vegetables and for fruits and things along that line, once I buy those, one of the ways that can save some time is by chopping and prepping and getting them ready to go. Because, anytime you start cutting and washing, you're going to start the process of them starting to go bad.

Leah: Yep. Yep.

Teresa: And so I'm very particular about which ones I will do that with and which ones I won't. Berries I do not touch until it's time to eat them.

Leah: Yep, same.

Teresa: But some of the other sturdier things, yeah, you can chop those up and have them ready to go. That way I'm not spending time scrubbing vegetables and cleaning cutting boards and you know, chopping things up. So that saves some time on those busy week nights.

Schedule in meal prep tasking

Sometimes, like even in thinking about, and you know, going off a point that you make is scheduling it in, like you would schedule other things in your week. This is the time, this is the day of the week that I am going to grocery shop. Setting that aside and just doing it so you're not thinking about oh, there's time here.

Leah: Yep.

Teresa: I'll do it Saturday morning. Oh, wait, no, Saturday morning gets busy. I'm going to do it Sunday. You know, really picking that time where you can just, okay, this is what I do at this time.

Leah: Mm-hmm.

Teresa: And then it's just a part of the week. And that's very helpful, I think too, because you, once again, that mental load. If you don't have to keep track of when you're doing it, you just know. It lightens that load.

Leah: Yep.

Teresa: So it's already part of the schedule.

Leah: Yeah, and like you said, many people take advantage of the grocery delivery, the store pickup options. I mean, maybe for some people it is worth that extra bit of delivery fee or like that, just that little bit extra saves you time from driving around store to store, going up and down aisles looking at things.

Teresa: Also saves money though, too, right? Because when you're at home.

Leah: Depending on what kind of shopper you are, right? Like I remember growing up, my dad, I'll just tell the story super quick. My dad is always the guy, like it's on the list. We get what's on the list and you don't get anything that's not on the list.

Teresa: Sounds like my husband.

Leah: Yeah, exactly. So then, then typically the other spouse, like is a little bit more like, oh, that sounds good; picks out a little something. Or, oh, that's on sale, like a little bit more free for all that.

Teresa: That sounds me.

Leah: Yeah. There you go. So like, there's, there's always one of those in, in the relationship. So it depends on like the kind of shopper you are, but you're not faced with the thousands of options, like literally staring at you in the aisle when you are just on your computer and you're just searching very specific things to put in your cart.

But I mean, no matter which way you go about it, you have to start with that plan, whether it's for that plan for a couple of days, the plan for the week, the plan for 10 days, whatever it is.

Plan your protein first (& strategies of how to cook it/have it on hand)

And I don't know how you do this, Teresa. I usually am kind of like when I'm picking my meals, I'm looking at the kind of protein usually first. Usually that's kind of the star of the show. I also find like that's the one where it's like you have to thaw it, you have to cook it like to a certain amount, otherwise it's kind of dangerous. It takes a little bit more forethought, a little bit more prep. So I'm looking at what are the proteins I'm using and like, if I'm not paying attention, I will very easily default to like three ground beef dishes in a week.

So it's like, if I'm planful and mindful about it, I try to get a variety of proteins in there and then for there I can build a meal around what I want it to be. You know, the protein does tend to be a little bit more of the expensive part of a grocery bill.

So one money saving tip is to just look for the deals at the grocery store that week on meat or fish or seafood. Build your meals around what's on sale that particular week or that particular month. And I mean, now you can go online and just look at, you know, the ads and stuff like that on, on your computer or on your phone and just see what the specials are or see what's advertised or what's coming up in the next week.

And when you buy more of like the as is meats, like the frozen meat, the seafood, usually that's cheaper than getting the precooked stuff, or it's like I'm thinking about things I'll see in Target where it's like, it's the flavored meats or like it's all, it's already kind of all doctored up in one way.

And that's nice if you're looking for a little bit of maybe some flair to your meal or just trying something different. But those types of things do tend to be a little bit more expensive. So if you can start a little bit more blanch should we say, but then season it up yourself, probably going to save some money there as well.

Teresa: Yeah. And just a note on that, I, the Primal Kitchen marinades and sauces, they are so good for this because, you know, the Primal Kitchen brand follows a lot of the principles that we do. You know, low sugar, no added sugar, no high fructose corn syrup.

Leah: Use good oils.

Teresa: Yes, exactly. So everything really on that label are things that we would approve of, that you know, are good for us. And so then if you pick up, you know, a packet of chicken breasts or something like that, you can just throw in that teriyaki marinade. Leave it for a few hours. And then it's set to grill or pan fry or whatever you're going to do with, bake it off, however you like to cook it. And then it has that flavor. It's not just a boring old chicken breast anyway.

Leah: Yeah, for sure. And if you're not a hundred percent confident on herbs and spices and stuff, it's like it's just something pre-mixed or something that's kind of like put together for you just to take some of that pressure off too.

Teresa: Yeah. And it's so easy. Just put it, and I don't like to use too much plastic either, so just put it in a glass bowl.

Leah: Yeah.

Teresa: Cover it with a marinade; throw a top on you're, couple hours later, it's ready to go. Some of them take a little bit longer marinating time, but you know, it's really, really very simple. Which kind of leads me into like how I do some prepping for the week as far as the protein sides of things. In the summer at this time of year, in the spring or however long this weather will hold out in Minnesota; we never know.

Leah: I know.

Teresa: I love to use the grill.

Leah: Yes.

Teresa: I can't remember who was teaching classes, but they would always say, fill the grill. And that's sort of what I think too is fill the grill. So you don't have to, if you know, if chicken's for dinner tonight and I'm making that teriyaki chicken I was talking about, that doesn't have to be the only thing that's on the grill. The whole grill is hot. So I might as well put something else on it;

Have that prepped and ready to go. So they can be used for future meals. You know, I feel like chicken and fish and things like that are so versatile that you can just throw it on, throw it on and have it and it's just ready to go. So I love to do that with the grill.

But as we are moving into the fall and the winter when Crockpot cooking and Instant Pot cooking is maybe a little bit more the appliances I'm going to utilize because I'm not going to grill as much in the winter. Sometimes, but not very often.

Leah: You're not out there in your snow boots, like flipping things on the grill?

Teresa: Not typically, no. Not typically. So we have put it in the garage and we have tried. It doesn't work as well. You know, our winters are just too cold usually. With the crockpot or the Instant Pot, I find that this kitchen appliance is, something that's very easy to cook protein in bulk. So I will make double and triple batches to make several servings for leftovers, for lunches, whatever. For example, one of my go-to protein hacks is using the instant pot to hard boil eggs. And I feel like this is the best because the shells come off so easily. I mean, it's like peeling a Christmas present, you know? They just come right off.

Leah: Yeah; does now, do they really, because I feel like every time I hear somebody has this awesome hard-boiled egg recipe, they're like, it peels so easy and then I'm always defeated when they don't.

Teresa: 100% this works.

Leah: Alright, I believe you. I'm going to have to have to try this now.

Teresa: And it only takes about six minutes. Granted, you know you have to let it like pressurize, right and do all the things, but really it's so simple. So then I have like these hard-boiled eggs that are ready for the week. But my hack for this to make it really fast is before I go to the grocery store, I get the Instant Pot out and put that cup of water that you have to put in there. So it's ready to go. As soon as I get home from the grocery store, the bag that has the eggs in, as soon as I unload that one, they go directly in the Instant Pot. I set it and it's going and with a family of five, unloading groceries is also another chore.

Leah: Is an event in and of itself, I'm sure. Yeah.

Teresa: Yeah. So typically by the time I'm done getting everything put away, you know, getting some of the vegetables washed and chopped that I'm going to do, getting, you know, the apples taken care, all the, the stuff is done, those hard boiled eggs are done too. And then we've got a protein source. So having that, having that appliance work for me while I'm working is one of those hacks that I use.

Leah: Yeah, that's amazing. I love that idea. And yeah, it's like, put that appliance to use while you're busy doing other things, like time that's already being filled anyways. Like might as well like have a protein going at the same time.

Teresa: Might as well.

Leah: Yeah. So we do need to take a quick break. We will be back in a moment to talk more about healthy meal ideas for busy families.

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And we're back. We're talking about healthy weeknight meals for busy families, and we've just been going through some… Teresa had a really great idea with the instant pot, hard-boiled eggs, getting those going while she is putting groceries away.

Another example that I'd love to throw in there, this is, this is where, I would use the slow cooker. We've got a really great recipe on our website for citrus pork shoulder, and even in that particular post, so it has, how do you make the citrus pork shoulder, but then it also has links three different ways that you can use that pork shoulder for various meals throughout the week.

And it's got a downloadable grocery shopping list for you right there. So again, if you're just kind of looking for that shortcut meal planning thing, this is a really great recipe to look at on our website and then get, get that list for what you need at the grocery store.

But you, it's the, the ingredients are very simple. You throw it all in in the slow cooker, cook that up. You shred it up then, and then you use that. One example is then you turn it into like a fajita type dish where you're using some roasted bell peppers. You throw some avocado on there, and then you have that pork, and then maybe you're throwing it either on top of a little bit of rice, or you're using maybe a small corn tortilla or something like that on the side.

So again, fajita night. Can't go wrong there. Another example is you could take that citrus pork shoulder and you could do this either the next night or maybe another night during the week, and use that in a fried rice kind of dish where you're using frozen riced cauliflower, and a stir fry veggie mix.

If your family likes that little bit of sweet when it comes to stir fries, like you can throw in some little tidbits of pineapple. And then for that soy sauce flavor, like some people can do soy sauce. I love coconut aminos or Bragg liquid aminos, which is, you get that flavor of the soy sauce, but it doesn't use the soy component in there.

And soy sauce often comes with wheat. So if you need it to be gluten free, these coconut aminos or the Bragg’s aminos would be a way to kind of get around that piece. And you can use chopped frozen veggies, get the canned pineapple chunks that it's just like, it's sitting in its own juices. It doesn't have any sugar added.

You throw that all in the pan, heat it up with the precooked pork. I mean, really it's just the heating up part that takes just, I don't know what, eight, 10 minutes, something along those lines. It's ready to go and it's surprisingly tasty and it's quick. I mean that's the real issue there is that it's quick on a busy night.

Teresa: Right. And you had that plan, right? This night we're going to do the fajita style. The next night we're going to do the stir fry style and there's no questions there.

Leah: You've looked at your week already and you know, like where do you have even like 20 minutes of time to like throw this together or warm it up?

Teresa: Yeah. And if that’s too much pork in one week for you, you can take the rest of it, throw it in a container to freeze it. And then use it a different week.

Leah: Yeah. Absolutely.

Teresa: So you have it and it's ready to go.

Leah: Yeah, it's already cooked.

Teresa: You, there's a similar recipe to that on our website that I like to use too. You can batch cook beef brisket in the Instant Pot, or you can use a slow cooker too. That beef brisket recipe is on our website, weightandwellness.com. And it's similar to what you were saying, where it's a bigger serving of the beef brisket and then there are links to three other recipes that you can use that particular protein base with.

So, you know, I like to use it for Mexican rice bowls, similar to like that fajita style that Leah had mentioned, but over a mix of rice and cauliflower rice. So for, at least for me, that's what I do.

Leah: Yeah.

Teresa: I would love to say my kids do that too, but they do not yet.

Leah: Yeah.

Teresa: But for me, I put a mix of the cauliflower rice; sometimes I just do the cauliflower rice. Right? And you know, it tastes just as good. And then you can add toppings like you would for a burrito bowl like you were at, maybe like at Chipotle.

Leah: Yeah.

Teresa: And everybody can just put their toppings on that they like. So you could use sour cream, guacamole, you could add black or pinto beans, lettuce, salsa, fajita, onions and peppers, shredded cheese. The world's your oyster, right?

Leah: Yeah.

Teresa: Those bowls are so versatile. I just love it.

Leah: Right.

Teresa: And then another night I'll use that particular beef brisket and then I'll make these barbecue beef bowls. I just heat up that cooked beef and mix it with some lower sugar, you know, no high fructose corn syrup barbecue sauce, and then just quickly air fry some sweet potato wedges, and put that barbecue all over that base with some coleslaw that I'll buy.

Just buy the, you know, the coleslaw or the cabbage pre shredded and then, you know, very simple to make a coleslaw dressing. Have that all together. Maybe there's some pickles on the side. The kids can eat it in a sandwich form. I'll have it more with like all the fun stuff.

Leah: Yep.

Teresa: Their tastes are relatively bland at this point. So with these bowls and with these options, they can have theirs more bland. I can have mine a little bit more, what I would consider exciting.

Leah: Mm-hmm.

Teresa: And everybody's happy.

Leah: Yeah.

Teresa: And like Leah had mentioned, you could easily make this into a stir fry or fajitas. It's very versatile.

Leah: Right. Yeah. I mean, like the shredded meats from either the slow cooker or the instant pot, this can be a lifesaver for those busy weeks or busy seasons of life. I know, you know, I think I am in a busy season of life now, but I also remember postpartum for me was, I think, well, any family, like postpartum is another just different busy season of life.

And I remember I leaned a lot on shredded meats and doing things in the slow cooker, instant pot in those early, I would say for sure for that first like year postpartum, just as a, like, trying to just make sure that there's food on the table; and you can use ground meats, you can use chicken, you can, I mean there's so many different, you can rotate through those protein options and just get some variety in there.

Rotisserie chicken: another fallback idea

And if the Instant Pot or slow cooker just isn't in the cards for that week, I mean, here's another great fallback. Just grab a rotisserie chicken from your local grocery store. I admit, I only bought my first rotisserie chicken like two years ago, because I was like, I don't know what I'm doing with this thing.

And then like, but I haven't looked back since. Like, now this is a staple where it's like I just have that protein that's cooked and ready and it's in the fridge for those nights where it's 6:30, it's 6:40 and we're trying to get dinner on the table in 10 minutes kind of thing. Like throwing something together. This is where the rotisserie chicken for us is a lifesaver. But all rotisserie chickens are not created equal. Right?

Teresa: That's true.

Leah: So really look at the ingredients before you grab that rotisserie chicken off the, out of the, what are those? The warming lights or, or out of the refrigerator section. Really, we're just trying to keep the ingredients list as simple as we can. It should probably be like maybe some salt and some pepper, some other recognizable spices that you might even have in your own spice cabinet.

And that should be about it. And when I grab the rotisserie chicken, I bring it home and kind of like you were talking about prepping vegetables right away or chopping up some certain things right away, I try to make sure I just take that rotisserie chicken off the bone right away. I pick it apart and then into a glass container. And then that is what we're using for a quick chicken salad during the week. Or maybe I'm throwing it in a lettuce wrap. You know, actually usually as I'm de-boning that chicken, my kids are kind of coming in and they're sneaking pieces of the chicken out of the glass container.

Especially if we're getting closer to dinner and stuff like that. So, they're not always the best meat eaters like sitting down at the table, but like put a rotisserie chicken on the counter that I'm actively working on and they'll just come and nab it, which is kind of funny.

Teresa: Well, and even in that thought with rotisserie chicken, that is something that, you know, you could go through a drive through and pick up a fried chicken sandwich or you could drive by a grocery store, run in, grab a rotisserie chicken and a bag of frozen veggies. You know, maybe a couple other things; some fruit or something.

Leah: Yeah.

Teresa: And that could be dinner. You can just throw that whole chicken up right on the table and people can debone it themselves.

Leah: Yep. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, just go at it with the fork, just, yeah. Might get a little, a little interesting.

Teresa: Well, maybe we carve it up like a Thanksgiving turkey or something.

Leah: There we go. Something a little more controlled chaos.

More easy protein ideas

Teresa: Yeah. One easy protein that I try to keep stocked in my fridge are precooked sausages or, or maybe something like a kielbasa. What I really like about these proteins is that they're a little bit more shelf stable than some of the other types of proteins.

It's something that we can have maybe towards the end of the week when we've gone through some of the more fresh things and it's there and available for us to use.

Leah: Yeah.

Teresa: I love to do a sheet pan with a kielbasa. And speaking of some of these, yes, these are a little bit more processed meats and we don't necessarily recommend eating too much processed meat. But when we're looking at the ingredients, really what we want to look for is are the preservatives in this processed meat the thing that's keeping it a little bit more shelf stable?

Are they more natural ingredients like celery or cherry powder? Or are they more chemical sounding names? And if they sound like something that you might have on your spice rack, like Leah was saying, then this is probably an okay additive versus something that sounds like it comes out of a lab, then we'd rather not have that.

Leah: Yep.

Teresa: So even in some of these processed meats, we can find that. So for doing a sheet pan meal, we can use that kielbasa. These types of meals are a working parent's best friend. There's fewer dishes, faster prep, easy cleanup. You just top a sheet pan with some parchment paper and then throw on some sliced nitrate free sausage links. Like I was saying, that keilbasa with some chopped veggies like bell peppers, broccoli, onion, sweet potatoes, whatever kind of veggies you like.

Leah: Mm-hmm.

Teresa: Drizzle it with some avocado oil, some herbs and spices and bake at 400 for about 20 minutes. It kind of depends, because it's pre-cooked meat that you know, you just want to get that warmth, so you're probably looking more at your sturdier vegetable, like that sweet potato or whatever you're using there to see when that done.  

Maybe you stir it halfway through, and you could spice it up with some interesting spice mixes that you can get at those specialty stores. Like, you know, in the Twin Cities we have Penzey’s spices, but you know, you can find them everywhere. It really takes these simple ingredient style meals and takes it to the next level when you use some different spices.

And try not to be afraid of those. I know. It is intimidating. I'm intimidated by some of that stuff too. But it really, when you find a good one, it's so great. These sheet pan meals make such simple, convenient, and nutritious dinners. And that's what we were talking about from the go, right; is we want low thought, low work.

Teresa: But fueling the body.

Leah: Yep.

Teresa: And we have more ideas on our website, weightandwellness.com for sheet pan meals, so we can check that out too.

Check Out Some of Our Recipes

Are frozen vegetables as good as fresh?

Leah: Yeah. And I want to circle us back to, we've brought up frozen vegetables a couple of times now, so let's just run over those really quick because there is a whole like aisle dedicated to frozen vegetables, right? So what are we looking for? Are all frozen vegetables created equal? So the question I get a lot, you probably do, Teresa also in counseling or teaching is like, okay, are frozen vegetables just as good as picking all the fresh vegetables?

And I always say, hands down, yes. These vegetables, they've been picked, flash frozen at kind of like their peak ripeness, and then they're just transported wherever they need to go. They're packaged up, they're transported, so you don't have to feel like fresh is your best option. It's the only option and everything else is inferior.

Like, no, actually the frozen veggies, depending on where you live or the time of the season might actually have more nutrition in it. So frozen pre-chopped veggies, they're a great option for convenience. And they don't lack the nutrition. They can be less expensive than fresh produce.

And we do just want to be mindful of the label. So the only thing that should be in there is like just the vegetables. There shouldn't be anything else in there. Sometimes you will see like maybe some olive oil or some avocado oil or salt or herbs like, so you might see some of that in there.

That's fine. It's just when they come coated in a cheese sauce or they come with, if you look at the label and it says like, vegetable oil blend or something like that, or now we are starting to see some interesting seasonings in there. That's where it's like, okay, like let's pivot. Let's try to just get back to the basics or get back to a simpler kind of mix.

And that's the nice thing about the frozen veggies too, is like you can get just the bag of frozen broccoli or you can get a mixed bag of other things. So you are just, you're, I always think about it as feeding your microbiome all those different little fibers, like there's, there's a difference in the color and the phytonutrients that's in there. So when you get the blend, you're feeding all those little different gut bacteria.

Are pre-packaged frozen meals okay?

Teresa: Yeah. I love that idea. I've never thought about it like that. While we're in the freezer section, something I get asked about is frozen meals. Are they okay? They're convenient. Can we, you know, can we just take something out of the freezer, pop it in the microwave and call it good?

And so what I would say, like we say for most things is, you know, while the front of the package might really look desirable, what we have to do is flip it over and really read the ingredient list. The most important thing on any label is the ingredient list. What am I eating?

Leah: Yep.

Teresa: So if you flip that label over and the ingredients are good, these are all ingredients that you could have theoretically in your house and you're willing to cook with, well then, okay. The chances of that happening with a frozen meal aren't the best.

Leah: It's a little slim.

Teresa: But I'm not saying that they're not out there because there have been times where there have been brands where I've seen some things where it's like, yeah, you know what? Maybe this could work. So if you're really a good detective in some of those aisles, perhaps there is something there.

You know, since I've been a dietitian and I follow these sorts of trends, you can see the marketing though, that goes into these packaged meals where they're designed to be low calorie or low fat. Now they're maybe a little bit more low carb, high protein.

Leah: Yes.

Teresa: They spend millions and millions of dollars on market research to know what consumers are looking for in order to increase sales. So keeping that in mind, what are they trying to sell you? And is it actually high protein? Because protein is expensive and so it's very hard to find an actual high protein meal that is good quality protein.

Which goes into some of the other ingredients ideas, right. Where it's like, is this a good quality protein? Should we be eating this particular protein? Or did they choose the cheapest, you know, available protein there? You know, what is made, like what is this made up of?

So, one thing I was going to mention though is that when we're thinking about that good, better, best idea, the rotisserie chicken versus having a fried chicken sandwich or something like that, you know, we can upgrade our choices and there are some options out there that I have seen that are the Sous Vide option where they're sort of precooked.

Leah: Yep.

Teresa: Kevin's is a brand that I've seen that if you go on their website, a lot of his mission or that company's mission is similar to ours as far as used, trying to use clean ingredients, keeping things higher in protein, vegetable forward. So I have found some of those options at Costco and I will say I have had those and I find that they're on that good, better, best scaling system. Is it the best? Maybe not, but it is, it's better than some of the other options out there.

Leah: Yep.

Teresa: But what I like to do is I usually like to like to add to it a little bit. I like to add extra vegetables. I like to add extra protein to it. But that extra, those things are usually things that I've pre-made or frozen or like, okay, this bag of broccoli is about to go bad, or I have an extra zucchini from my, from my garden. I'm just going to chop it up and throw it in.

Leah: Yep.

Teresa: It works pretty well.

Leah: Yeah. You're working off of a base and just filling in a little extra where you need that extra balance.

Teresa: It's a lifesaver on some of those nights where you're going from school and work to practice or you know, whatever activities that you may have for the evening. And you just don't have time. And so what, what are, what are we going to do?

Leah: Yep. Exactly. Yeah. And I mean, we definitely understand why the frozen meals seem appealing, where you can just heat it up in the microwave and it's ready to go. And I always think too, like usually when you get those containers out there already in the little divided, the, their little divided plates. So it does kind of give you that essence of like, oh, this is balanced because we've got it all divided out for you.

You can see the protein, see the carbs, so again, like it's just, remember as Teresa said, it's like, okay, how they've, they've really designed it to look like this. So what, what exactly are they trying to sell you on? Hopefully we've given some simple and quick meal ideas for those busy weeknights that you can throw together at home. And because we all run into those nights where we just have no time to cook or we're very limited on that time. So what do we do?

Healthy “Snackle” box options

We understand there's not always that 20 minutes to throw something together. So on those nights where the oven isn't going to get turned on, the microwave could barely run for 10 seconds, where you need that ready to go option. Like let's just, let's talk through one of those. Because I think you had a really great idea, Teresa.

Teresa: Well, there's this fun trend out there that I learned about. I don't know if how new it is, but it was relatively new to me. It's the “snackle box”. Like a tackle box for food.

Leah: Right. You had to explain that to me, because I had never heard that term before and I was like, oh, okay. I get it.

Teresa: Yeah. So these are great for nights where you are on the go and the kids need to eat in the car or at practice, it's kind of like a bento box except for it's bigger. So they're basically an on-the-go container with divided sections, and the idea is to fill it with finger foods.

So if we're going to do this in a balanced way, the finger foods we were looking for are proteins, fats, carbohydrates. So cubed turkey or even deli meat could go in there, cut up nitrate free turkey or beef sticks, those hard-boiled eggs I mentioned. That gets a little tricky because temperature is always, so, it kind of depends on how long is this going to be sitting, is it, how are you going to keep it cool?

Leah: Liked putting it in a cooler or something.

Teresa: So if it's just me grabbing it and taking it to my kid and we're going in practice or going straight to practice, not a big deal. But if it's going to sit in a hot car, we might want to think about how we're going to transport this.

Leah: Yes, definitely.

Teresa: For, for the carbs, I like to have a few raw sections of raw vegetables: jicama sticks, baby carrots, cucumber slices, fruits. You can do some berries, melons, cuties. You can just, they fit right in there just perfectly. Maybe you have some good quality gluten-free seed crackers. There are the fats as far as like what kind of fats I put in there. You can put olives in there, pistachios, cashews, pumpkin seeds, you know, just whatever you can think of.

Just that kind of finger food. And what's fun about it is that they like that option of like picking a little bit of this, a little bit of that, a little bit of this. And it just is cute. The presentation is really fun. It's kind of like what you were talking about with the chicken on the, like, when you have that out on your counter and your kids are going to take it, it's just like the presentation is fun and so they want to eat it.

Leah: Yeah, it's something that, yeah, a little looser, not quite so formal meal like. Yeah, there's just something fun about it.

Teresa: Yeah. So even though it's all finger foods, kids still get a balance or, or me.

Leah: I was going to say, I'm not saving this for my kids. I'm doing this for myself too.

Teresa: Yeah. A balance of the real food, protein, fat, and carbs to sustain their energy for their evening activities. I mean, you can throw in peanut butter packets or apple, you know, almond butter packets with cut up celery or an apple. I mean, really, there are so many options for this. So dinner doesn't have to be a hot sit down meal to meet nutrient needs.

Leah: Yeah. Absolutely. I saw something on social media. My husband actually showed it to me once and it was using those finger foods, but like put a toothpick in it and call it Costco sampler or Costco samples and like because that's part of the Costco experience, right? For a lot of kids or like for adults too. Yeah, the sample. It's like go through and sample everything, but you just, put something like that snackle box together, you put a toothpick in it and just call it Costco sampler night or something. And like just sometimes that fun name for kids can just put a different reframe on it.

Teresa: Yeah. I love it. So I got a chuckle out of that. But yes, as, as parents, most of us can relate to our kids, like having some picky tendencies or just having, you know, we're either refusing to eat their dinner altogether. Maybe there's just certain portions or certain parts of the meal that they're not crazy about.

So for some reassurance and just to fill some of those nutrient gaps, sometimes I know for my kiddos, one thing I like to use is our Key Fruits and Greens powder. One scoop or like one serving size of this powder has the equivalent of 20 servings of fruits and vegetables.

There are a lot of different flavors to them. They are sweet, but there's a lot of different flavors. My kiddos like the strawberry kiwi flavor the best, so that's one we keep around, but it's just a great way that you can, I'll throw it in my kids' Greek yogurt, mix a little bit of that in there just so it has a sweet flavor.

I've made popsicles with them. I’ve tossed them into water because there is a pink lemonade flavor that's pretty nice. So it's just a way that we can still make sure we're getting some of those great plant antioxidants and some of those phytonutrients if your kiddos just aren't crazy on the fruits and vegetables at this point. Or maybe it's just a little bit more hit and miss.

Teresa: Yeah. And you, speaking of powders, you can use protein powders too.

Leah: Yeah.

Teresa: Sometimes kids just don't like the flavor or texture of eating meat. Our whey or Paleo protein powders go over well with kids because they're not chalky or gritty like a lot of protein powders.

Shop Quality Protein Powder

So for an option that a lot of kids like, there's many options when it comes to using protein powders, but a yummy way to make a nutrient rich protein shake for breakfast, a snack, really anytime is I use our vanilla whey protein powder, a half a frozen banana, the chocolate greens. But if you don't have the chocolate greens, you can always just use cocoa powder.

Leah: Sure.

Teresa: And then one to two tablespoons of peanut butter. And then the liquid I put in there is, you know, I just use a little bit of milk for a little bit more protein, a little bit carb, some fat. And blend that with some ice. And it's like a chocolate peanut butter milkshake. Versus like it being a protein shake, right? So it's more like, it sounds like it's not so healthy, it tastes like it's a treat, and so it's a great way for getting protein into the diet when sometimes it's a challenge.

Leah: Yeah, absolutely. We do that same combo in our house, and that's what I have made that into popsicles. Just pour that into a popsicle mold. That works out really well. Yeah. My kids love that combo too. The chocolate peanut butter banana combo. So good.  

Teresa: I love that combo.

Leah: Yeah same. I have had this before where sometimes I have parents that they're like, you really want me to give my kid protein powder and it's, we just kind of talk through like, okay, like I have a 3-year-old, I'm not going to be giving the three year old my serving size of protein powder. I'm not going to give her the full scoop. It's more like maybe a third of that scoop, maybe a fourth. Like it's just something that like bump up with five, 10 grams of some protein in there so that we just still get that macronutrient in there.

So it's, it's not, we're not trying to make our toddlers buff. We're not trying to like do anything crazy like that or overload them on protein. You can really, that is the nice thing about powders is like you can scale up and scale down as you need to.

Teresa: Yeah.

Leah: So, and my kids, I mean, depending on the day, they like to help add the ingredients to the blender.

Teresa: Yeah. It's fun.

Leah: And they like run it. Yeah. So, you know, sometimes when the kids are a part of that process it does, it makes it more interesting to them or they, then they have some ownership over that. So that's just another piece. You know, I don't have any real great suggestions on that, but the smoothies are one option or one thing that my kids like to help out with.

So I try to let them do that as often as they can. My 7-year-old has actually taken to like wanting to cook his own eggs in the morning sometimes. So like where you can give them that little bit of ownership in a safe way of course. Like that's just going to help, that can help just bring some of that, some of that ownership, some of that autonomy with their food starting at a young age, like starting while they're still under your, under your roof.

Teresa: Yeah. And as you know, my kids are getting older, and they're going to be leaving my house before I know it.

Leah: Yeah.

Teresa: And it's my job as the parent to prepare them for the world. And a part of that preparation is you need to learn how to cook, you need to learn what a balanced meal is. You need to learn some of these things. And I haven't quite instituted this yet, but I have a friend who has done this, and she has all three of her kids have to pick a night where they plan and put the food items on the grocery list for a meal for the week.

Leah: Nice.

Teresa: And I feel like that is such a good idea because it helps them, like you're saying, that autonomy. So they'll probably eat that meal because they're in charge of it. But then also it gives them some of those skills that we talk about how it's, it's difficult to do some of that planning.

Leah: Yeah.

Teresa: And so they can, you know, if it's taco night, right? Ground beef, shredded cheese and lettuce, tomato, guacamole, whatever it is. Easy peasy. It doesn't have to be a culinary delight, it just, let's have all three of those components, protein, fat, carb, and it teaches them some real life skills as well. So that's up and coming. I'll have to, we'll have to do another episode on this and see how it's going.

Leah: We’ll come back on Teresa's grand experiments sometime and see how things are going in her house.

Teresa: We will see.

Leah: Yeah. So we want to thank you for listening to Dishing Up Nutrition, and if you enjoy listening to our podcast, please share this episode with a friend. Take a moment to leave us a rating and a review. This is the best way to help us share our real food message with more people around the world. So again, thank you for listening and make it a great day.