Keeping Family Meals Healthy During the Holidays

This time of the year is the hardest for me to balance my life as a mom. Keeping the house clean while trying to successfully wrap and hide mountains of gifts, making healthy meals inside instead of on the grill (it’s too chilly for this desert girl to grill in December!), and spending quality time with my family don’t fit easily into a 24-hour day.

Since I can’t add hours to the day, I do what we all do – I prioritize. In my book, keeping family meals healthy can’t be compromised even during the hectic holiday season. Quick recipes and little bit of prep work a couple of times a week saves me a lot of time and helps to make sure we are eating good food, not fast food.

When thinking about quick meals, soups and stews always come to mind first. For a long time, I thought eating soup meant that I was going to be hungry in an hour. That’s not true at all! I was just eating the wrong ones. Soups and stews need to be rich in protein to count as a meal and hold you over until the next time you eat. I’d love to add some chicken to this potato soup recipe, and InspiredRD has some amazing soup recipes that have become favorites of our family on these chilly winter nights when we are low on time. My family’s favorite is her Easiest Chicken Tortilla Soup.

Since I grocery shop twice a week, I prep twice a week. The first thing I do is make a meal plan. This sounds much more difficult than it really is. I use a piece of notebook paper to write down what meals we will have for each day of the week. Don’t feel like you have to strictly stick to the plan during the week – I often switch my days around depending on what comes up last minute!

I think about the ingredients in the meals I have written down and do a quick search of my refrigerator and pantry to see what we need. I make my shopping list using a mobile app because I know that I’ll never forget my phone when I go into the grocery store, unlike the paper lists I make.

For soups and stews, I forgo the boneless skinless chicken breast that I normally use and buy rotisserie chicken from the grocery store because it adds more flavor and is much less time consuming than cooking chicken. I pull the meat off the chicken and store it in reusable containers in the fridge – one container for each meal that needs chicken. Most fruits and vegetables can be prepared the same way, going into a reusable container for a few days. For foods that brown when cut, like potatoes and apples, just know that you’ll have to cut them the night that you eat them.

It takes about 20 minutes to chop my fresh ingredients for 3-4 meals before putting them into the refrigerator. I count on spending 5-10 minutes slicing and dicing before we eat, even if I prepare most of the meal ahead of time. It’s also a good idea to have a container of fruit or veggies to snack on while preparing dinner. I know it saves me from snacking on the holiday cookies and candy that seem to always be around this time of year!

Making a meal pan and preparing my meals ahead of time saves me time and stress. I like walking into my house and knowing what’s for dinner. Having that dinner almost completely prepared makes me even happier.  

What are your go-to dinners for this time busy of year? What are some of your favorite soup and stew recipes? I’d like to try them!

Becca Ludlum was born and raised in upstate New York and currently lives in Arizona with her amazing husband and two sons, Michael and Jack. You can find her in a middle school classroom two days a week, and in her kitchen the other five. She’s a master recipe-tweaker and can often be found re-baking a recipe multiple times while trying to reach perfection, which is just fine with her co-workers and neighbors who reap the benefits. Read her personal blog at http://ourcrazyboys.com.