Nutritious choices made simple®
When you’re making freezer meals, one of the handiest things about them is not having to process your protein. You can save costs by buying bigger packs of meat when they’re on sale and save time by preparing them all at once. You can save time and money by cooking a big bag of beans at once and freezing them in batches to add to recipes later. For texture and safety, you’ll get the most out of this method by following a few basic guidelines.
The meal kit delivery industry has grown significantly since I first wrote about “delivered to your door” recipe subscription companies back in 2015. At the time, I wrote of the two options that were dominating the market. Today there are about 150 meal kit delivery services to choose from. With greater choice has come different approaches to streamlining the plan/shop/prep process for the home cook, as well as questions as to the industry’s future.
Freezer meals are an awesome option to work into your weekly cooking routine. You won’t use them every night. You might not even use them every week. When you do need a quick meal, however, you’ll be glad you worked a bit ahead. This week, we’ll talk about what goes into a balanced single-dish meal.
Several of my sisters and I like to share photos of our “used it up” culinary creations on social media. I’m not sure if it’s because we were raised in a big family by two parents who were children during the Depression, but I think that likely has something to do with it. Our mother managed to feed lots of mouths by making wise and creative use of inexpensive, yet healthful, food. Seeing her refashion leftovers or aging ingredients into something new taught us how to stretch our food dollar and avoid wasting food. She wasn’t heavy-handed about teaching it; we just sort of “soaked it up.” We now all pride ourselves on being able to “make something out of nothing.”
Don’t miss the tips in our series that walk you through planning a freezer meal, freezing protein, and freezing produce! This recipe roundup offers some delicious ideas for making your freezer work hard to save you time and money.
“Eating healthy is expensive.” “Nutritious foods cost more.” This is what I sometimes hear when I’m serving in my role as a retail dietitian. It may not surprise you to learn that I disagree and that I show shoppers how to both stick to a budget and still buy for nutritious foods.
Spiralized noodles have become something of an internal conundrum for us at Guiding Stars. The whole craze started with zoodles, which are, of course, zucchini noodles, but you can spiralize so many things! And it would make no sense to call all of them zoodles, right? Tell someone they need to make zoodles, but out of sweet potatoes, and the conversation goes immediately downhill. Who can make sense of that? It’s only moderately more helpful to tell someone to make spoodles, of course, because the term hasn’t been standardized through use. We, in a spirit of helpfulness, propose the following A-Z guide to help people navigate the nutritious delights available from eating oodles of voodles and froodles.
Kids are sometimes more receptive to processed foods, making whole wheat pasta a great choice for making sure they’re getting more whole grains in their diet. If they tend to balk at eating their greens too, pureeing them into pesto with the lovely flavors of cheese and garlic may encourage them to gobble down their meal