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How to streamline healthy food prep?



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mommyla




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Nov 14 2022, 2:50 pm
Eating healthy is so time-consuming!

I'm dieting (nothing extreme, just more fruits and veggies and fewer carbs etc.) and trying to get my entire family to eat better. I'm still cooking "regular" dinners and sending typical lunches to school (and making regular baked goods), but just having more fruits and veggies on hand is taking up a lot of my time.

Like yesterday and today, I spent a lot of time prepping for the week - I do a lot of bulk prep but it still never lasts the week. My kids will grab an apple or orange, but they're a lot happier to eat more labor-intensive foods: strawberries, blueberries, mango, grapes. I cut up peppers and cucumbers for school snacks (some of them will take baby carrots and/or grape tomatoes) and I like to have a big salad for my own lunch every day. But everything needs to be washed, checked, cut up... the lettuce especially takes forever (the "kosher" romaine has been terrible lately). And the kids gobble it up before I can finish preparing it! I make a big batch of vegetable soup and another of grilled vegetables, but they go quickly too.

Please share any tips or shortcuts!
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MiracleMama




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Nov 14 2022, 2:54 pm
Following. I feel like I'm a slave to the kitchen. I can spend an hour making a crudite platter or fruit salad for my family that I think will last 2-3 days and it's vanished in 2 hours. If I don't do the prep work the fruits and veggies just sit in the fridge until they rot. Everyone wants to eat fruits and veggies and be healthy. So long as they don't have to actually do anything besides pop it into their mouths.
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Rappel




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Nov 14 2022, 3:04 pm
Tinkerbell peppers instead of sliced peppers. Cherry tomatoes. Clementines and other easy peel/insta fruits

Get a fun chopper/peeler/ spiralizer gadget so the kids can do their snacks themselves.

Set yourself "open kitchen" hours. You will do X much meal prep in a day, and then you close down the kitchen, and the hungry horde can grab a fruit from the sideboard.
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mommyla




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Nov 14 2022, 4:15 pm
Rappel wrote:
Tinkerbell peppers instead of sliced peppers. Cherry tomatoes. Clementines and other easy peel/insta fruits

Get a fun chopper/peeler/ spiralizer gadget so the kids can do their snacks themselves.

Set yourself "open kitchen" hours. You will do X much meal prep in a day, and then you close down the kitchen, and the hungry horde can grab a fruit from the sideboard.

Thanks! Yes we have the fun "grab-n-go" fruits and veggies but they like the more high-maintenance ones better LOL

The gadget is a good idea but doesn't help with things like strawberries or lettuce. And I'm thrilled that they're eating well (a couple of them have gained a lot of weight lately, I'm hoping it's just pre-puberty gain but trying to make it easier for them to grab healthy food) but they're way more likely to eat well when there are delicious prepped fruits and veggies rather than a boring apple or pear...
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mommyla




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Nov 14 2022, 4:16 pm
MiracleMama wrote:
Following. I feel like I'm a slave to the kitchen. I can spend an hour making a crudite platter or fruit salad for my family that I think will last 2-3 days and it's vanished in 2 hours. If I don't do the prep work the fruits and veggies just sit in the fridge until they rot. Everyone wants to eat fruits and veggies and be healthy. So long as they don't have to actually do anything besides pop it into their mouths.

Same! Especially the strawberries, I can buy three cartons and spend 15 minutes washing them and they don't even make it into the fridge. And today I made a big sheet pan of grilled veggies, hoping that they'd last me a couple of dinners (I like to throw them into sandwiches and salads for myself) and DH ate a third of them while they were cooling off.


Last edited by mommyla on Mon, Nov 14 2022, 4:21 pm; edited 1 time in total
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BrisketBoss




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Nov 14 2022, 4:21 pm
We don't talk enough about how fruits and veggies are really the hard part of keeping kosher.
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mitzva




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Nov 14 2022, 4:22 pm
kids can help you with vegetable cutting as soon as they can use a relatively safe butter knife.
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Amarante




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Nov 14 2022, 4:31 pm
Big pot of vegetable soup/minestrone

I make a big pot of gazpacho

I make a big pot of ratatouille

Make twice or even three times the amount of roasted veggies at the same time - once you are actually prepping the veggies, it doesn't take significantly longer to make more

Also there are some very healthy recipes that actually are very good when frozen so make a double batch when you cook.

Sheet pan dinners are a big time saver as well - the protein, veggies and starch all cook at the same time with the same flavorings and each of them flavors the other. Some of these also lend themselves to being frozen and then cooked when your day is hectic.

There is the always reliable whole chicken cooked in the crockpot. I don't cook with the skin and try to get rid of as much fat as possible.
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amother
Outerspace


 

Post Mon, Nov 14 2022, 4:34 pm
My kids enjoy cutting up veggies. They don’t eat them though Laugh
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amother
Outerspace


 

Post Mon, Nov 14 2022, 4:36 pm
Amarante wrote:
Sheet pan dinners are a big time saver as well - the protein, veggies and starch all cook at the same time with the same flavorings and each of them flavors the other. Some of these also lend themselves to being frozen and then cooked when your day is hectic.
I tried the sheet pan dinners but the kids got upset that the foods ended up mixed together and refused to eat. Any recipes to share that don’t have that issue?
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amother
Copper


 

Post Mon, Nov 14 2022, 4:37 pm
I think bulk prep is the best your gonna get. its still prep but it lasts longer.... ready smoothie bags- sliced banana sorted berries and whatever else you would put in, in small ziplock bags then frozen ready to blend.
"salad bar" containers of diced veggies, each in a separate container so it lasts a few days, ready to choose and toss in a plate. sliced melons in a container with a folded paper towel at the bottom to preserve.
healthy cookies or muffins, just bake allot at a time and freeze in small batches, alternatively freeze ready to bake.
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Amarante




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Nov 14 2022, 4:40 pm
amother Outerspace wrote:
I tried the sheet pan dinners but the kids got upset that the foods ended up mixed together and refused to eat. Any recipes to share that don’t have that issue?


Ha ha - just separate them out so they don't see they are all mixed together. How do you generally plate the foods. Plate it from the sheet pan or just put the food in the usual serving bowls that are separate.

Seriously these aren't casseroles where there are little bits of food. This is - for example - chicken breast or piece of salmon with potatoes cut up and then some form of vegetables that the chicken or other protein typically cooks on top of.
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