No stress, a family who is enjoying home cooked meals and a week’s worth of meals planned? It’s not the twilight zone, it’s challenger 2BFitIn10’s home!
It may take a bit more time, but cooking at home definitely beats take out any day. For one, I can control what’s going into the food my family eats. Ever since I started Weight Watchers and read Jillian Michaels’ book, I’ve become more conscientious about calorie content and ingredients. I’m often shocked at what I see on food labels for products I buy in the store or foods I eat in the restaurant. Earlier in my Weight Watcher’s journey, I went to Ruby Tuesday’s with my sister and husband. I didn’t have time to look up what was healthy before we got there. So I picked what I thought was ok. Did you know that chicken quesadillas at Ruby Tuesdays have over 1000 calories and 70 grams of fat??? Yuck! Now, I often choose not to eat certain foods because I don’t feel its worth it putting it into my body.
Last week, I decided to put a meal plan together. I selected what we would eat for dinner each night, and shopped for the ingredients. I really believe planning ahead is key to eating healthier. This is what my meal plan looked like:
It definitely took the stress off of trying to figure out what to make each night. But more importantly, we ate at home – saving money and saving our health. I’m sure my meal planning skills will improve as I continue. I’m actually starting to like this! And, so is my family!
Don’t you just love when you find a healthy homemade meal that you want to make again and again? That’s the case for challenger 2BFitin10 with this amazing pizza… that they added cooked pineapple to!
We love pizza every now and then. One of our favorite recipes is Greek Pizza with Chicken and Artichokes. The crust is homemade, with regular flour and stone ground wheat flour. The pizza is topped with chicken breasts, heart healthy olive oil, greek olives, low-fat feta cheese, low-fat mozzarella cheese, fresh oregano and usually artichoke hearts. I decided to substitute some fresh pineapple for the artichoke hearts. The result? Yummy! The natural sweetness of the pineapple nicely balanced the olives and feta cheese. Everyone agreed – extra pineapple next time!
Challenger 2BFitin10 is full of good advice this week! From the benefit of reading labels to creating a menu plan, cooking at home has grown a lot of legs for her healthy lifestyle.
Cooking at home may take a bit more time. But, it definitely has meant better nutrition for my family. Ever since I’ve started Weight Watchers and read Jillian Michaels’ book, I’ve become more conscious about the foods I eat. I peruse labels now with a vengeance. Not only for the calories and nutrients, but ingredients. I’m constantly amazed at all the unnatural ingredients that are in the foods we eat.
This week, I decided to put a menu plan together. I’ve cooked every day so far, with the exception of one when I was sick. Saturday’s and Sunday’s meals are planned and have been shopped for. It’s nice to know what’s for dinner ahead of time, so that I don’t have to rack my brain at the last minute, which usually means fast food or processed food. It does take time to make dinner every night. But, I’m starting to enjoy the process. It allows me to better control what goes into our bodies. And ultimately, that means a healthier family.
Hard to believe such a bold and flavorful dish, like this one from challenger 2BFitN10, took only a half hour. Once again, proving that cooking doesn’t have to be the time constrictive task many of us make it out to be.
Went to the freezer and decided to cook chicken breasts. I wanted to do something different with them. So, I picked up a bottle of Tikka Masala sauce. I used it to marinate the chicken and cook them in a skillet on the stove. I also made some jasmine rice and peas. Finally, sauteed some sweet potatoes, then finished it off with the Masala sauce. It took less than 30 minutes and was delish! My son and husband loved it.
