How Do You Cook Healthy GOOD Meals for Your Family?

I cheat!

I have found the easiest way to keep it healthy is by adding a fresh fruit and fresh vegetable..I just throw them on the table along side
..there is not ALWAYS a rhyme or reason, its whatever is on sale, in season & looks good.

I am lucky to have a family that likes most things, I think it helped that I have consistently offered them too.

Lots is salads
Fresh sliced fruit
Raw finger veggies (snap peas, cucumber, anything)
Olives
Tomato
Etc.
Etc.

Just try adding a couple trays of 'munchies' like that on the table w/every thrown together meal and watch it disappear!

It's just my son and myself, but you could probably do this with a family too... I cook in 2's. So, for example, if I'm making meat loaf I make enough for 2 loaves and then I freeze the second one. Then it's so nice when some night I want meat loaf I can just throw in the ready one. So, maybe you could do that with casseroles and stuff like that... make extra so you can freeze a meal for later. If you are already making one it doesn't take long to double it.

When my girls were first born I used to just cook one extra thing in a crock pot on Saturday or Sunday: chili, soup, spaghetti sauce, curry, chicken/veggie casserole, or even just a big crockpot of chicken breasts/thighs to shred... Then I divided it in two and froze it (vacuum sealer is best for meat). If you do this each week you have an extra meal later in the week and you also have another meal that will be in the freezer in the future. It builds up after a while and you then have a selection of homemade frozen meals. You can buy a crockpot with a timer. 11 hours is very long to cook. Also stocking your pantry and freezer well will help as someone else mentioned. There are even meal plans you can subscribe to that plan your whole week and grocery list. EZ Meals?? There are meal plans on allrecipes.com that will give you an ingredient list for the month, you stock up on the ingredients and they give you recipes based on those ingredients. I find that type of meal plan relies a bit too heavily on processed food however it is useful to look at it for ideas and maybe come up with several easy meal ideas that you like and are always stocked for. I use a lot of frozen fish and thin sliced chicken during the week because it cooks so quickly and there is lots you can do with it. We just pair it with a salad most of the time. When our girls were younger they got frozen veggies. I also sit down at the beginning of the month, coupon, meal plan etc... Make it a family activity once a month for everyone to come up with a recipe idea, grocery list and cut some coupons. Also when I need a "fast food" night I get a rotisserie chicken from the deli and we slice up raw fruits and veggies and call it dinner. Its a night off for me and I don't feel guilty about unhealthy junk food. And also don't beat yourself up over having an easy dinner night like making a sandwich or something. You are both working long hours and have kids. Realistically you can't do everything! There's nothing wrong with quesadilla and carrot sticks for dinner or almond butter and apples. It's just fuel. My mom always tells me that back in "her day" they had their big lunch midday and dinner was just oatmeal at night. Give yourself a break. I stay home with my kids and my husband is a Marine who is mostly gone so I don't even have to cook for him. I have it WAY easier than you and still barely manage dinner some nights. Trust me - every week there is a night when we eat oatmeal or cottage cheese for dinner!

I have a hecic schedule also but I find that if I pull my hubby into the kitchen with me after the kids go to bed to prep for the next days dinner, it makes it way easier! I've also found that if I make a menu for the weeks meals then grocery shop only for the meals for that week it's helpful. So tonight I had decided on tacos (dairy free), my hubs and I took to chopping up the lettuce, tomatoes and browning the turkey then put it in the fridge. When I got home tonight, I just had to throw the meat back on the stove and heat it through. Dinner was on in less than 5 minutes. I served it with some fresh fruit kabobs that my hubby through together while the meat heated through. Other meals I've done this with are:

Noodles with spaghetti sauce or pesto (made night before). Serve with a veggie and salad.

Stirfry. Pre make some brown rice and cut all your veggies.

Chili. Throw it together the night before, just heat through when you get home.

Do you have a Crockpot that can shut off after a designated period of time? I usually set mine up for overnight cooking, so I can get up and tend to it when I wake during the night and before I leave in the morning. (I get up to use the bathroom, wash my hands, and check on my food.)

A couple of quickies that I come up with are: fish (individiually packaged tilapia) that I can season--apple or lemon or orange, and whatever spices and/olive oil or butter--and toss in the oven; chicken wings that I can season and toss in the oven. Fresh sides can be carrots, potatoes, green beans, broccoli.... These don't take long to steam. Potatoes I slice and put on to boil. I let them get soft and pour off the water (keep them in the same pot) and put season with butter, garlic powder, parsley and stir. They're kinda mashed because they're soft, but not quite. The carrots I cut (unless they are the babies) and do the same as the potatoes with pouring off the water and buttering. They don't have to get so soft. Fish/chicken and potatoes and carrots is my stand-by quickie meal.

I do very little standing over the stove these days, with a baby. I like to put stuff on that I can walk away from for a bit or stand in front of for a few minutes.

For the crockpot - you have to go buy a timer and set it. It will turn your crockpot on at a specific time so that the food will be done at the time you get home! You just have to cook healthy but quick and easy recipes. There are magazines and websites dedicated to this and there are tons of great recipes! Maybe you should get a subscription to Cooking Light magazine. They have a Quick and Easy section. You can also just google it and look up the recipes online.

We cook a lot of chicken breast or a lot of ground turkey at once and then use the leftovers in different ways, pasta and sauce and meat or tortillas and salsa and cheese and meat, or add veggies and make Chinese or stew .....It's easier to prepare a meal when the meat is already cooked.
If my son just picks at his dinner, I dont stress gets fresh fruit or fruit and carrots or cherry tomatoes or nuts at his bed time snack.

look online for simple meals. I like a lot of the dishes from "eating well"... Pay attention to the prep time. Spend part of a day off looking up a few recipes, and plan a shopping list. I find that it is easiest to cook meals if you use some of the same ingredients in a few different meals. Some meals you can make DOUBLE batches of... then store half to eat again later (or make double the sauce for a pasta dish, and freeze it--- then reheat that and simply cook fresh pasta, and you can have an easy quick dinner.

I also like to pre-mix some of the ingredients. Mix up the sauces for something you plan to make, and then store in the fridge

Also, use a slow cooker! the "fix it and forget it" cookbook has tons of recipes that you basically dump ingredients in, turn on the slow cooker... and then go to work. When you get home you have a delicious dinner.

Also, don't be afraid of new proteins, grains, and veggies. Game meat can be delicious (bison, elk, deer) and also meat we don't often have, like mutton, goose, etc... and don't forget fish! Grilled Salmon is just as easy as chicken... and breaded fish is simple and delicious... eat with brown rice and some simple steamed veggies (you could even chop the veggies in the morning and store them in a bag so all you need to do it cook and serve!

Crockpots are great.. 11 hours is ok, maybe add a little extra liquid.. casseroles.. put in the oven and put the oven timer to turn on and off. Other than that, if you can afford it, hire a personal chef to make meals for the week and warm them up as necessary! There really is no easy way to "do it all".

sneak in some wholegrain here and there (bread/pasta/brown rice)

Sneak in some veggies (put some broccoli into your stews/pasta dishes)

Make enough for two nights, tomorrow night you eat leftovers, and if you have time, cook a meal for the next day and refrigerate.

I recently read wild rice is better for you than white rice so you could make much more than you need so you have it for 2-3 nights. And I've found grilling is fantastic. (gas grill outside) Marinate chicken breast in regular italian salad dressing all day and then grill it. It comes out so moist and it's so easy to do. And you don't need to wash a grill like you do pots. You can grill veggies too. Grilled pork chops are also great. Put some oregano and a very light coating of bread crumbs or just the oregano. Steaks and lamb chops are also obviously easy to grill though more costly. It's more expensive but you could buy brocolli already cut up as well as garlic already cut up and then stir frying it is easy and tastes better to our family than steaming it. I also buy bags of spinach already washed and stir fry that - just oil and garlic and it's done in 3 min. My kids also love the Adele mini chicken and apple sausages. I believe they're pretty healthy and you can just bake them for 8 min or so. My friend's kids love the turkey meatballs from Trader Joe's with spaghetti. Another easy one is chicken tenders in teryaki sauce. Just put the chicken in a baking dish and pour the sauce over and bake. Doesn't take long if the pieces are small. Same with Shake and Bake which we love. Finally, salmon in tinfoil w/ dill baked/broiled is really easy and good.

My favorite quick and healthy meal is a skillet chicken dinner. You take the chicken and season it with chili powder and or cumin and cook in skillet. You then add in beans (black or pinto), corn, and your favorite salsa. We like to garnish with cilantro. If you want the exact recipe, pm me and I will copy from the book.

I think planning and having a well stocked house are key. Make sure you have plenty of staples on hand. For me, that's cheese, tortillas, rice, beans, frozen veggies, salad greens, eggs, pasta, heavy cream, olive oil, and lots of meat. When I cook meat or casseroles, I try to do a double batch. It doesn't take any longer to bake 2 sheet pans of chicken than 1. I serve half and the other half pull the chicken off the bone and freeze it in ziploc bags. Then if I come in last minute, tired, allI have to do is grab a bag of chicken. I can put it on top of the salad greens or in a quesadilla or a wrap or in some fried rice. Keep lots of quick ideas on hand, like Black Bean soup - it takes just minutes to add water or chicken broth and salsa to a can of black beans, top with a little sour cream and cheese - practically instant dinner. But, you have to have that can of black beans in the cabinet.

I solved this with "Dream Dinners" do you have something like this near you? I go once a month with some friends (in the evening) have a glass of wine and make meals for the freezer for a month at a time. Well worth the two hour investment. It certainly costs a little more but made meal time so much less stressful and introduced much needed variety (like you we are dairy free and also gluten free)

If the kids were available I would bring them with me. hHey were more likely to try something new if they "made" it.

Once I got the hang of it, I could start to do some of them on my own for less money. I would do a costco run and divide up the meats into 4 serving portions in ziplocks with marinade. If I made spaghetti sauce or chili, I'd double it and toss half in the freezer. I'll double rice or potatoes and put half in the fridge to be used for another meal later in the week.

leftovers from a big pork roast on a sunday becomes bbq pork sandwiches later in the week, roast chicken becomes chicken salad or chicken soup in the crock pot.

pre-made Pizza crusts are great. I assume you have discovered rice cheese or Daiyo? It actually melts. Sometimes we'll just do soup (the organic kind from the cartons) with homemade bread from the breadmaker that we start before we leave for work. "Breakfast for dinner" is another favorite. We use the pre-cooked bacon and throw some pancakes or eggs on the stove.

I feel like I sound way more together than I really am. ;-) Some weeks are better than others... no shame in picking up the roasted chicken and a salad at the store on the way home....

Echoing "Inmy30salready", uncooked raw fresh veggies and fruits can do a lot. My kids actually eat raw veggies and fruit much better than cooked ones anyway. Unless the cooked thing is a potato. Broccoli, carrots, red bell pepper, celery sticks, black olives, cucumber, strawberries, apple slices... all these are wonderful and simple/quick to wash and slice and put on a serving plate. OR, you can buy a bagged salad mix and add some of these items to dress it up.... and toss a few walnuts or pecans or sunflower nuts on top.

Or you make the veggie/fruit tray and let hubby grill some meat. A chicken stuck in a gallon ziploc bag with some marinade is ready to go on the grill when you get home. Or steaks. Or pork chops.

One of our favorite UNcooked meals is a chef's salad. The only cooking is boiling eggs. Bagged lettuce is faster, but I prefer to buy romaine and wash it myself. Then dice some deli ham and turkey, or roll up slices and cut pinwheels of them. Or get a deli cooked rotisserie chicken (usually you can pick one up for less than the price of an UNcooked chicken--$5) and pull the meat off and use that. Cut up some cucumber, onion, bell pepper or radish, black olives, toss in some grape tomatoes, sprinkle shredded cheese and a handful of nuts, the sliced egg and voila! Plus the only cleanup is your plate and the cutting board. :)

Roast is always good in the crock pot the longer it cooks. You can do soups also and steam the veggies once you get home. If you buy prechopped, it only takes 7-9 minutes to steam them. Keep a lid on the pot of water (maybe an inch of water) so it boils faster. Frozen veggies are an excellent choice though, if you can't do fresh veggies. I find that meat always takes the longest amount of time. You could grill one day and make extra meat and freeze it, enough for even a month so it's not every weekend. Also if you bake the meat like chicken, you can spend time with your family while it cooks for 35 minutes, instead of cooking on the stove where you have to stand over it & flip it, etc...Also, boil in bag rice saves time for me--no measuring & it only takes 10 minutes in the microwave!

I don't cook "all day" on weekends, but I'll make a casserole dish or two for the week ahead. For us, there really is no other way to do it.

The crock pot is your friend. Get a crock pot cookbook and then set it up and let it go.

You can also learn to do chilis and stir frys which are easy ways to get veg and meat together. A good wok has been our best friend on nights when we just need to toss food together. It varies greatly on what's in the fridge/pantry. Some days we might do baby corn and some days there's broccoli and sometimes we throw squash in the chili...whatever.