My Top 7 Tips & Tricks for Feeding my Family Quick but Healthy Meals
1. Stock the Goods
Even if meal planning isn’t your thing, having a freezer full of meats and veggies plus some pantry staples means you can put a healthy meal on the table, fast.
Bake or pan cook a pack of our pastured chicken thighs, make a quick batch of rice or quinoa and a bag of frozen veggies - dinner!
Being part of our Monthly Meat Share makes this extra easy. I’ll stock your freezer once a month with our homegrown meats, then you’ll just need to shop for side dishes!
2. Invest in Quality Kitchen Tools
There’s nothing more frustrating than trying to cook without the proper tools!
A couple sharp knives, a meat thermometer, a cast iron skillet and my Dutch oven or Crockpot seem to be my most used kitchen tools.
I’ve also heard amazing things about the Instapot and airfryers too. If you use them a lot I’d love to hear more about how they save time you and effort cooking!
3. Keep it Simple
Feeding your family real food doesn’t mean you need to transform overnight into a gourmet chef, just keep it simple!
A meat and veggies, that’s all you really need. Extra sides are a bonus!
Also - we don’t need to cook different recipes all the time. If you find a few simple meals your family enjoys, don’t feel bad about making them every week or even more often.
I’ve even heard of families who cook the same rotation of meals on the same night every week. I don’t go that extreme, our days are too random and I’d get bored, but it would make shopping and meal planning so much easier!
4. Plan Ahead - Or Not
When I’m on top of my game, I’ll have at least a general idea of what I’m planning to cook for the week ahead of time. That doesn’t always happen though.
I have found success when I pull a few packs of meat from the freezer on Sunday evening and as the meats thaw through the week, I create a meal around them.
When I’m really organized I’ll pull the meat for tomorrow’s dinner out the night before to thaw, and maybe even chop the veggies to speed up the cooking.
Sometimes I’ll pop dinner into the crockpot during breakfast so it’ll be ready at the end of the day.
Most of the time though, I’m quick thawing frozen meats in a bowl of cool water an hour or so before I start cooking dinner and making up a meal on the fly with whatever I have on hand.
It might feel impossible now, but once you start spending more time in your kitchen creating meals from local foods it becomes so much easier to make up meals!
5. Leftovers are Life
I’m a huge fan of cooking once then turning leftovers in to new meals.
Cooking a few times a week then simply heating up leftovers on busy nights is a great strategy for avoiding the drive thru line between activities.
Most of my family will eat leftovers fine, I tend to be the pickiest about eating the same thing multiple times, so I try to create something new with the leftovers.
Meat from a whole roasted chicken can easily be stretched into multiple dinners - especially if you make broth with the bones!
Soups from leftover chicken, broth and veggies, crumble leftover meatloaf into spaghetti, leftover taco stuff into quesadillas, leftover beef roast into beef and noodles or vegetable soup - get creative!
6. Freezer Meals
When I have an open Sunday afternoon, I like to spend it in the kitchen whipping up freezer meals for the week or month ahead.
Muffins, breakfast burritos, bone broth, soups and stews, and cooked shredded meat are all great options to have on hand! Most will also freeze well to be heated up on the busiest days.
Making a homemade chicken noodle soup could be as simple as adding a quart of frozen broth, a couple cups of frozen shredded chicken, a bag of frozen mixed veggies, then adding your favorite noodles to cook right at the end.
7. Give Yourself Grace
Life and feeding our families well is about balance.
Don’t feel like a failure if you find yourself exhausted, without a plan, and ordering pizza or making a box of mac n cheese on a random Tuesday night.
Dust yourself off and try again on Wednesday!
I’m adding an 8th thing in here, because I just feel like it needs to be said - your meals don’t need to look like they do on Pinterest to be healthy, filling, and taste amazing.
As a matter of fact, nothing in our lives needs to look Pinterest worthy to be perfect. We gotta let those expectations go!
We’d love to help you stock your freezer with pasture-raised and grass-fed meats so you’re ready to create healthy meals.
Head into the Online Farm Store here to see what we have in stock, or pop out to visit us in the farm store Sunday afternoon from 1-3pm or Tuesday evenings from 5-6pm.
If you aren’t already on our email list, it’s the place to be! Be first to know when we open up Monthly Meat Share spaces and send out stories and recipes from the farm. You can unsubscribe at any time, but we’re pretty sure you’ll want to stick around!