Sneak Peek: How to simplify summer meal planning
It’s Sunday evening, you spent your day outside enjoying a beautiful summer day; you went to the farmer’s market, a park, and snuck in time at the pool. Now you’re back home, everyone is ravenously hungry and you have no idea how to get dinner pulled together.
Am I the only one this happens to?
Summer is busy, in a good way, and no one wants to spend their days worrying about what to make for dinner. So I’ve set out to ease this burden for you. In the summer installment of the Meal Prep Made Easy guide I provide one week's worth of dinners and an accompanying comprehensive grocery list. The goal is that you can print the list, shop quickly & efficiently and successfully put healthy meals on your table all week. The best part is the meals are designed to be flexible and therefore enjoyed wherever life takes you on a warm summer night!
Challenges for Healthy Summer Eating
The first is obvious, time. I truly believe that time is our most precious resource. Who in their right mind wants to spend it listing out what they’ll make for a full week, let alone figure out what ingredients are needed? If someone could simply do the planning for you, you can instantly be given back time, allowing you to focus on the areas of life that bring you joy instead of frustration.
The second issue is complexity. Where do you even start when there are so many options? You want everyone in your household to be happy, so there are lots of opinions and requests to consider. You are seeking healthy, simple dinner options, with limited and quality ingredients.
Lastly, it’s summer, and if you’re anything like me, you want to enjoy your days and soak in the wonderful weather, and not have to worry about what dinner will look like for any more time than it takes to prep and cook. Meals can often be less routine than during the school year, so for this reason I’ve focused on dinners as opposed to a comprehensive full day of meal planning.
Now it’s time to share the exciting details of the second installment of the Meal Prep Made Easy guide! This self-guided program was launched in the spring, with such a great response, I couldn’t wait to tackle summer. There are some adjustments I made to the summer guide, below is a sneak peek into the details:
Summer Meal Prep Made Easy
7 days of simple dinner menus and accompanying full grocery list.
Versatile menu suggestions that are flexible to serve your family, or a group, encouraging you to enjoy home-cooked meals with your friends & family.
Two bonus recipes! In addition to seven dinners, I’ve included an appetizer and dessert recipe. These are ideal for summer gatherings and are easily portable to a friends home, park picnic or an evening boat ride.
Simple swaps - Each recipe will have options for easy swaps, so you can start seeing the variety that is possible from one menu.
How to involve kids - For the family guide each recipe will give you suggestions where your little ones can be involved. The more your kids are involved in the preparation the more likely thy are to enjoy the meal.
Learn what items to prep ahead. How a little extra time one day can save hours throughout the week, and the items can be used in multiple recipes.
Custom guides depending on how many people you’re cooking for. There will be a family guide, which is aimed at a family of 4-5 people. There’s also separate versions for people cooking for two, or single households. The work has been done for you to adjust quantities and serving sizes.
Lastly, I want to remind you of my philosophy for the creation of this guide, and how this differs from traditional meal planning. I provide guidelines and suggestions as opposed to stringent plans. My hope is for this to empower you to modify meals to fit your preferences, but gives enough structure to keep the analysis to a minimum.
So there you have it, a sneak peek into Summer’s Meal Prep Made Easy guide! The Summer edition will be released in June 19th, so mark your calendars! I hope this is going to be a game changer for you & your loved ones.