Having a snack between meals is important to continuously provide you with energy throughout the day. Nutrient-dense snacks can help satisfy your hunger craving and prevent you from overeating at mealtime. Although, it’s important to not mindlessly snack throughout the day. When we choose to mindlessly snack we might choose more low nutrient-dense options. How can we work around this? One option is planning your meals.
Left photo before and right photo showing the prepared soup, kale chips and massaged kale with lemon to prep for salads. You can keep radishes, carrots, and other vegetables in water to last longer in the fridge.
How to:
Before heading out to the grocery store make a list. What recipes do you want to prepare for the week? You can set this up a few different ways. It all depends on what is most sustainable for your lifestyle. It’ll depend on the amount of meal variety you enjoy or time you have to create the meals ahead of the week. A few simple tricks to make it easy:
- Choose similar ingredients to each recipe.
- Shop your OWN pantry first.
- Consider your food groups. Are you including protein, grains, vegetables, and fruits?
- Determine how much time you have to prep and make your meals.
- Have a leftover day. Most likely you’ll have food leftover by the end of the week.
Easy mason jar salads you can take on the go.
Here’s a simple guide:
| Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | |
| Breakfast | Overnight oats with berries and nuts | Hard boiled eggs with avocado toast | Hot bowl of oatmeal with frozen blueberries and peanut butter | Veggie scrambled eggs with toast | Protein packed blueberry and avocado smoothie |
| Lunch | Mason Jar Salad | Mason Jar Salad | Mason Jar Salad | Mason Jar Salad | Mason Jar Salad |
| Snack | Apple with peanut butter | Greek yogurt with granola and berries | Veggies and hummus | Quinoa bites with sweet potato and black beans | Avocado toast |
| Dinner | Mediterranean stuffed sweet potatoes with quinoa and black beans | Shrimp fried rice | Burrito bowls | Carrot Chickpea soup | Leftover Meal! |
