I am a wife and a mom to three great kiddos. I am busy with a job, taking care of the house, taking care of my family, my hunting and outdoor pursuits and many many things!  Usually when meal time hits it feels like something that has to be done and got through as quickly as possible so I can clean up and get on to the next thing on my list.  When life is hectic and you are the main cook for your family it can seem overwhelming to try to add your own nutritional needs into the mix. Everyone has their own nutritional needs and sometimes they can be quite complicated. I for example, have Hashimoto Thyroiditis and my body and hormones are healthier when I avoid some foods. As the main cook in the house, it can be difficult to feed a family meals that they love and still be able to stay within the guidelines that provide me optimal health. I don’t have time to cook two completely separate meals but over time I have realized that I really don’t have to. If I think ahead, I can usually use a few elements from the dinner I am making for my family and add a few other elements that fit into my nutrition program without it adding much work at all during mealtimes. I wanted to share a little of what I have learned along the way to hopefully save some time for those of you who are making the meals in your home while also trying to stick with a nutrition program that will help you reach your goals.

I used some of these techniques yesterday when I made dinner for the crew. My day had been long and I had not prepped anything in advance for dinner. When I asked my crew what sounded good they said,” Nachos!” I avoid grains due to my autoimmune disease so I knew that I couldn’t eat that. Usually when I make them nachos or tacos I just make mine into a taco salad and it works great. Tonight I had recently ran out of lettuce and spinach and had no greens to use. I still knew I could use the meat, cheese, tomatoes, lime, olives and sour cream that I was using for their nachos but I needed a good carbohydrate as a base for these other ingredients. I could have used a baked potato that I had leftover in the fridge but I also had a big bag of baby peppers that needed to be used and they were bright and cheery looking and simply satisfying. I cut them into bite sized rounds and piled them on my plate under all of the other ingredients and it really was a delicious and simple way to repurpose the family’s meal into something that would help me meet my goals and stay within my own nutritional needs. If I had wanted to spend more time on it I could have sauteed the peppers and some onion and made more of a deconstructed fajita. My point in all of this is to just try to help you think outside the box when it comes to your health and nutrition. It doesn’t have to be all Martha Stewart every night and you don’t have to force your family to eat the way you do just to make it simpler. With a little thought and time invested you can really begin to see your meals as elements and it will become easier and easier to move elements around to create meals that both you and your family can love.

I have included the 5 Great Meal Management Tricks PDF for you to download if you want!