Back when I first started blogging and developing a meal planning business, it was a desperate last-ditch effort to get my kid(s) to eat properly, so naturally I shared my successes and struggles. It's so funny how so much can change in just a matter of years. Now I meal plan to manage our lives - it helps keep us healthy and full of energy to take on whatever we happen to be doing. Somedays I feel like the Energizer Bunny- do you know what I mean?

My greatest passion has evolved from helping picky kids eat to helping busy women eat. They might be mothers, and/or wives, or they might not. But all of them default to take care of everyone and everything else before themselves and I know this is true because it's my natural default too, and I've talked to hundreds of women who admit the same. It's somehow hardwired, or perhaps society encourages this "super woman" mindset? Regardless, most of us are really good at it and not likely to stop any time soon.

I'm a meal planning coach. It's helped define who I am, what I stand for, where I'm going, and who I want to serve. I'll always have a heart for those picky kids- because I'm still living it. But for the caretakers of others, your nutritional backbone matters too. You need real food, not the quick gulp down of energy bars or fast food, or the food leftover on your kids plate. That's why I do what I do. I've found time, energy, and money- I want you to find the same.

If you're in Canada, celebrate our amazing country this weekend, but celebrate yourself too and eat something that makes you feel good. Take some time to yourself to savour real food, because nutrition is what keeps us "going and going". Start weaning yourself off of the quick-fix food lifestyle, and discover how planning can help you find time, energy, money, and happiness.

One of my favourite movies from the 90's was Blast from the Past. I'm not a prepper like Calvin was, but if I had the time, space, and capital I can see myself leaning towards those tendencies- I am, after all, a planner. Having that amazing stocked storeroom would be high on my list of priorities. In everyday life, knowing the meals I'm making and knowing I have the ingredients I need frees up my brain to relax and gives me the mental space necessary to be able to take some downtime if I can, or if I'm busy it gives me the mental space required to be that much more organized.

I have friends who feel the opposite, however. Meal planning feels like a prison to escape from. The idea of being constrained is enough to keep them free-flowing at dinner time, throwing meals together if they have the ingredients they need, or fitting in a shopping trip if they don't. The very idea of that makes me anxious! But that's because we're obviously very different in personality.

There are many stops along the way between these 2 extremes- do you fit somewhere in between? What kind of meal planner are you?

We all have that sort of day where cooking is hard, and that day for me was yesterday.

As a meal planning coach I preach the art of cooking and planning ahead, and so it happened to work out in our favour last night, and I wanted to share a couple of tips to help make sure it works out most of the time for you too. Because it's unrealistic to assume that we will always feel like cooking. Am I right?

Convenience will always win over intention. We can have the best intentions ever but still find it hard to make them happen when we're *that* exhausted. Here are a couple of food rules I live by:

• Freeze cooked proteins in meal-sized bags. Sliced meats become stir fry, sandwiches, soup, salads, wraps, and so on. Frozen beans can translate to meatless chilis, soups, casseroles, burritos, bean bowls, and so on.
• Keep enough useful items in your pantry that you can throw something together in under 15 minutes that makes a meal but doesn't take a lot of effort.

It's the little things that slip us up when we try to stay on top of meal planning and eating at home. It doesn't take long for actions to become habits, and when we start making take-out or fast food the default choice, that begins to creep into other meals besides our exhausted ones, and that's when our nutritional balance begins to suffer.

Consider what you can do to make life easier for yourself tomorrow, and start doing it. One baby step at a time will completely change your life.

Have a great day, friends!
Stacy
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Freezer Meals- Getting Started

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• How often do you have the time or energy at the end of the day to pull a meal together from scratch? Every night? A few times a week? Once or twice a month? Never?

In our fast-paced lifestyle, eating a traditional meal of "real food" seems to have been left behind. We're simply too busy, too tired, too overwhelmed, too overextended to get it done. We are shown ads constantly (just watch for it the next time you're watching live TV- you'll be amazed) about how wonderful it is to be eating out instead of cooking at home. There are ads for junk food, diet food, weight loss programs that include the food, and fast food. The themes continue in sitcoms and books. Cooking at home is a dying art.

Our recent Canada Food Guide, unveiled in January, places a high importance on eating with others, enjoying whole foods, limiting processed foods, and so on. But there's not a lot of awareness put into the "how" of home cooking. In fact, it's laughable, and it's exactly the kind of information I found when I was a new mom and trying to sort out meal planning for my life with a squalling infant, no sleep, no energy, and healing a post-partum body. It didn't translate then, and it doesn't translate now.

How do you implement it when you are literally away from home more hours than you sleep? When you've got a household to run and a million things on your "to do" list?

The thing is, it's complicated and different for everyone. No two people share the exact same meal planning complications. But here are a few ideas to start you thinking, and I'm just a phone call away if you want to get serious about cooking at home.

• Begin with your "why". Why do you want to meal plan? Why do you want to eat at home? Why do you want to cook more or eat out less? If you don't really care, you won't do it.
• Decide "when". Make it specific. Once a week? Twice? Five times?
• Pick and plan meals appropriate to the time you have. You can't serve a 5 course meal when you have very little time to do it in. Can you plan a more intense meal when you've got some vacation lined up? Or some half days at the office?
• Make a list of what you need to buy for those meals- check your pantry, fridge, and freezer first
• Just buy those things, and use them. (Even if you don't cook what you planned initially, use it for something!)
• Consider freezer meals, "meal starters", and meal planning strategies such as leapfrogging and piggybacking.

For more information on meal planning that suits your life, let's talk.

​All the best, friends! Stay warm!
Stacy

I love summer!

I love the blue skies, the sunshine, the warm breezes, and the bird song. I love the lazy days, the play outside, the lack of routines. I don't love heating up the house with cooking, however, so now is the time I start cooking ahead to make summer easier for us at meal times.

I realized today that we're well into summer weather already, and I'm fortunate to have had a jump start in freezer stocking, but it's never too late to start planning and executing some of these tips and tricks for yourself. Here's a short list on ways to get started planning for your own hot-weather meal ideas.

1. Make a list, brainstorming all the foods you like to eat in the summer
2. Separate that list into its cooking needs- grill, slow cooker, stovetop, oven, no cooking, etc.
3. Note what requires cooking, and research if (and how) it can be done ahead of time.

• Can it be partially made and frozen, then reconstructed when you want to eat it?
• Is it something that can be fully made and reheated in the microwave?
• Is there a ready-to-eat substitution you can budget for?

4. Start cooking and stocking your freezer.

• Double your usual meals (as applicable) and package the second half
• Plan on some days being less nice than others, so you can re-stock your favourite freezer foods
• Cook ahead pizza, burgers, meatballs, casseroles so they can be reheated when needed
• Small, individual sized meals reheat quicker than large ones, so consider miniaturizing your favourites- meatloaf muffins instead of meatloaf, for example.

5. Consider how to move your cooking outside.

• Grill
• Slow Cooker or Induction Stovetop on your deck
• Fire pit
• Other people's homes (pot luck meals, neighborhood progressive dinners, etc)

As a family we like to eat a lot of fresh fruit, vegetables, and sandwiches in the summer, but we also enjoy "bowl foods", such as chili and meat sauce and pasta.

Having lean proteins cooked and sliced in our freezer means sandwiches are easy to pull together, and by consciously doubling our chili, meat sauce, casseroles, and meatballs now means there's a supply of meals ready to pull out and reheat. I plan on roasting chicken this week as well as cooking a pork loin in the next week or so in order to put away extra cooked meat for summer. It also makes sense to batch cook rice and quinoa to keep in your freezer so your side dish is ready to serve or turn into something else, such as fried rice, filler for meatloaf, or a salad ingredient.

Recognizing that sometimes summer isn't hot in Alberta, there are also frozen portions of cooked soup ready to reheat on those dreary days or for quick lunches or dinners to serve with salad and sandwiches.

Did this jump start your ideas? I hope you have found some inspiration to keep summer happy and carefree. Cooking doesn't have to stress you out, and I'm happy to offer you custom-built solutions for your situation. Email me here to learn more about my pre-summer cooking mini session.

All the best today, friends!
Stacy

You may also like:
​Fish Taco Recipe
Cool Summer Meals
​Planning Meals in the Heat


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Having a stocked fridge is more complicated, because it has a lot more to do with knowing what you have and using it before it rots then the pantry or freezer.

Our fridge has a lot of condiments- different types of hot sauce, bottled salad dressings for when I'm running low on ingredients or time to make my own, and flavourful sauces for stir fry's and meals such as soy sauce, rice vinegar, maple syrup (the real stuff!), and dijon mustard. I think condiments could take over the world if we let them, and they are one of the groupings in a fridge that can definitely get out of control. If you haven't looked at your condiments lately, spend a few minutes getting rid of expired, old, or moldy items. I've seen jarred garlic, ginger, and jam go moldy, so never assume it's ok if it's been a while since you've opened it.

We have grapefruit accessible as my husband eats that every day for breakfast and they are too big to fit in my fruit crisper. I have the baby carrots my son loves ready to go and easy to see in a container on the lower shelf. I've grouped all my dairy together in 3 places- cheese strings in the pull out drawer on the bottom for the kids to grab for their lunches, coffee cream and milk in the middle, and cheeses, yogurt, and sour cream on the lower shelf next to the carrots.

All our leftovers are hanging out together by date- yesterday's leftovers on the top, and previous ones in the middle. Today I'm assembling the leftover moussaka ingredients to make one for the freezer, and that will clear out the middle space to leave room for any other leftovers we make.

My crispers are full of vegetables and fruit. We generally plan our meals around what's living in these drawers, because if something is going to go rotten and get thrown out, it's vegetables and fruit. We have lettuce, beets, carrots, parsley, and celery in the one...apples, oranges, clementines, and kiwi in the other. Before I buy more vegetables and fruit these need to be substantially emptied. I have a butternut squash living up on the top of my fridge with leftovers, and that is going to be roasted tonight for dinner, and we'll eat steamed beets as well.

I'll share a couple of ideas to make the most out of your fridge space. Please don't hesitate to connect with me if you need some more personalized help :)

• Repackage food into stackable containers if space is an issue. Rectangular and square are more easily fit then round.
• Group like items together, and pay attention to their dates. Plan to use what you can before you know it's going to go bad. My big challenge this week is coffee cream. It's in my fridge from our dinner party, but we usually drink black coffee, so we need to be creative to use this up.
• If you want to eat more fruits and vegetables, plan stir-frys, salads, and soups. I keep a plate out on my table because I don't like eating cold fruit (tooth sensitivity). Figure out what's keeping you from eating more, and try to find a way to fix it.
• Watch the added sugar component in condiments. Sugar is found everywhere, especially in condiments like hoisin sauce, ketchup, and sweet chili sauce. If you're trying to cut out added sugar- start with these items, and develop recipes to make your own flavourful sauces from scratch.

A stocked fridge is more personal, depending on what you like to eat. A wide variety of fruits and vegetables, dairy, and condiments are my main go-to's when planning meals and snacks. The point of shopping for fresh food each week is to eat what you buy, so plan your meals and stick to your list. It's so easy to go overboard with good intentions when shopping, especially when you've got people with you or you're hungry to begin with, but that's how food waste happens. 

Your fridge and freezer are the perfect places to put together flavourful, healthy meals that make your tastebuds sing. You can make your food budget go so much further when you cook for yourself, and I encourage you to find a way to incorporate more of this in your own life. Not only will your wallet thank you, but your body will as well. I offer a meal-planning service that can be personalized to you, your time, your tastes, and your fridge/freezer/pantry. I'd love to chat to see how I can help you use what you have!

Enjoy your day friends! If you enjoyed this post, please share it. I'd love to see you hop over to my Facebook page, where I post almost daily tips, tricks, recipes, meal plans, and interesting news from the world of food and nutrition. Come "like" me so you don't miss anything!

Stacy

For many years, my fridge freezer was all I had. It was a typical top freezer and it was a struggle for me to know what was in there because I was too short to get into the back of it.
This fridge was a huge improvement for us- I wanted the pull out drawers and I love them still. We bought a small upright deep freezer for the basement just a couple of years ago, and the majority of my uncooked meats, ready-to-eat meals that I've cooked ahead (chili, meat sauce, shepherds pie, etc), extra vegetables, dinner rolls, containers of soup, and bones that I'm keeping for stock live in it. I routinely bring up food from that one as I meal plan each week so that I don't have to run down to the basement to grab the food I need each day.

Right now my freezer isn't as organized as usual because I'm in the middle of using up what we have so we can restock for the fall, but in this small snapshot you can see leftover rice, leftover navy beans, a bag of perogies, bagged vegetables and fruit, whole tomatoes, sliced ham, cooked chicken and meatloaf, a ginger nub, vegetable scraps, a couple of baggies of soup stock, and several freezer packs of various sizes. The kids lunches also live in here- in the top right compartment (where my vegetable scraps are right now) is everything I have made for lunches- meatballs, burgers, cheese strings, and muffins. When I get organized I also like to roll and freeze wraps so they can just grab and go.

I consider my freezers reasonably well stocked. But why? What makes it stocked? Why does it matter?

1. Having a stocked freezer makes the difference between ordering in and picking up take out, or being able to cook a meal from scratch. With the meal starters I've got upstairs in my fridge freezer, I can whip up dinner in a few minutes that will satisfy our bellies and wallets. For example, I can make a rice and bean dish with the ham and frozen tomatoes to eat as is or stuff in peppers for baking. I can make chicken fried rice, ham and bean soup, chicken and rice soup, meatloaf or ham sandwiches, pierogi soup, fried ham and perogies with steamed vegetables.
2. Having a stocked freezer makes grocery shopping quicker, cheaper, and more efficient. If you have food in your freezer that you routinely use and restock, your grocery shopping will reflect your efforts. It will be easier to put a meal together when you stock up on proteins and other items that can be frozen for those weeks you run out of time to shop.
3. Knowing you can cook or prep once and eat twice will put a smile on your face. If you make a batch of chili, why not make two? Double up on that shepherds pie, slice that second meatloaf and freeze the slices for quick meals, marinate your chicken and beef for a super quick stir fry that flavours as it thaws, and freeze your extra grains such as quinoa and rice. 
   
4. Having a well-stocked freezer creates time, space, and happiness for one of the most stressful tasks for most people- dinner time and meal planning. Having less stress makes meals automatically more enjoyable, no matter what food you end up making. You will save money in your grocery budget by reducing waste (leftovers get used rather than tossed) and help ensure you are feeding yourself (and/or your family) food that supports your health so much more then fast food ever will. 

Here is the best article I've ever read with tips and suggestions on correctly stocking and organizing your freezer. I've done most of these things, myself, and if you want to start getting the most out of your freezer space I recommend you start with this resource.

You can always call for a companion to help you out if you're ready to do a fridge, freezer, or pantry audit. The big jobs are easier with a helping hand, and I'm just a message away.

Did you enjoy this article? Please share!
Have a great day, friends!
Stacy

Why use Herbs and Spices?

Strictly from a food lover’s perspective, herbs and spices add life and flavour to food. You can cook a chicken breast using the same oil and the same method, but changing up the herbs and spices used creates a different meal each time. It’s a way to travel the world without even leaving your home! It keeps food exciting and new which helps us to feel satisfied.

​Creating your spice blends in your own kitchen allows you to control the ingredients, right down to the last grain of salt. As you adjust the blends you’ll find different combinations that become your signature flavour. In this way you can start your family recipe traditions and/or be the best cook you know.

From an economic perspective it’s cheaper to make your own spice blends than to buy ready-made ones, from chili or burrito seasoning by Old El Paso™ to a shaker of Old Bay® seafood seasoning. And because you made them yourself you’ll never run out or worry that your child’s favourite meat sauce and pasta will taste “funny” one day when the company you buy from decides to adjust its blends.

There are a plethora of health reasons too. Herbs and spices used to be the only medicines we had to keep fever down or recover from illness. Here’s an interesting article about the health benefits.

It can seem overwhelming to start creating your own blends. But start small, taste as you go along, and experiment. Most spices are fairly inexpensive, and the end result will make you proud. You can do it!

If you want a little bit of help starting with fresh recipes and spice blends, each of my coaching clients receive 14 custom-developed recipes as part of our coaching program- you can take those spice blends as a starting base and reconfigure them to make them your own. I look forward to helping YOU find the magic in your kitchen!

​Have a great day, friends.
Stacy

To know them is to love them.

Not convinced? Let me try.

Aside from the rhyme we learn as children, beans and other legumes are not as well loved in North America as they are in other parts of the world. Legumes make up a large part of diets around the world, from Africa to Israel, and are especially useful in regions where religion or poverty play a role in the kinds of food people eat, such as India.

If you do a quick google search you will find out many reasons why you should or should not eat legumes. I leave the final decision up to you.

In my role as a nutrition coach I stand firmly behind “common sense nutrition”. I think any food in excess is detrimental to your health and well being.

Pulses are part of the legume family. Pulses refer to beans and lentils (the seed part of the plant). Common legumes are alfalfa, soy, and peanuts.

I use both pulses and legumes as a whole often in our cooking. As a family we enjoy meals that are made strictly vegetarian but also enjoy meals where legumes complement traditional meat-based meals. For example, chana masala was my latest test-kitchen dinner for a client, and that’s a vegetarian dinner. My oldest son loved it in spite of it being a new recipe for all of us, and even went for seconds. We also eat chili a couple of times a month that incorporates both beans and meat.

Lentils can be pureed and added as filler to meatballs, meatloaf, or burgers. They add bulk with nutrition so the meat goes further, and they also give an extra boost of fibre and iron. Beans can be added to salads and soups. Roasted beans are a fantastic snack to keep with you to enjoy when you’re on the run and you know you’ll be hungry. They’re packable, require no special care, and a small amount is very satisfying. My roasted bean recipe will be posted on my Facebook page this week on #foodiefriday. Come check it out!

It's almost summer. Eating meals based on legumes and pulses makes sense in the summer because they can require no real effort beyond opening a can, rinsing them, and eating them cold. When cooking a hot meal with them they really only need to be cooked long enough to heat all the way through- much less cooking time than meat.

*Important Note: Beans and legumes usually require soaking, draining, and boiling. Always follow the package instructions or they can be toxic.

One of my final reasons to eat and enjoy this variety in our diet is a financial one. You get amazing nutrition from pulses and legumes at a fraction of the cost of meat. As someone who is the grocery shopper and meal planner for the family, I know I can attest to the cost of meat on the rise. It makes sense to branch out to seek our nutrition from a variety of sources if nothing else then to stretch the grocery budget further.

Fortunately for us, it’s not a hardship to enjoy this branch of the meat and alternates food group. Do you eat legumes and pulses on a regular basis? If not, I encourage you to schedule a few meals this summer that incorporate beans or other pulses into your regular meal.

Stuck for ideas? I’m only a message away.  

When it comes to improving our "eating in experience", one of the easiest ways to pull ourselves out of our boring meal route is to try something new.

​This came up in a recent Facebook conversation. When I asked about what it would take to improve our eating in experience, Shelley and Chantel both commented, "Being more creative with menus; sometimes we get caught in a rut and eat the same things!!", and "How to make my own sauces and dressings taste as good as in a restaurant!"

It's surprisingly easy to stay with what you know when it comes to food. Trying new flavours or textures isn't always a guaranteed hit, and it's hard to make the effort when you're pretty sure you'll hear "eww, gross" or "that looks weird" or "I hate this so much!". The truth is, not everything you try will work. Honestly, I've heard it all before from my family. But don't let the fear of failure prevent you from trying. It's not a failure if your family doesn't like it- it's a win for being brave enough to even put it out there.

Sometimes the simplest changes can make a boring meal plan a little more exciting. And if you don't like it, the worst that will happen is you will make a note not to try it again. RIght? In the larger scheme of things, a failed meal isn't the end of the world. Trying new foods and flavours can broaden your sense of taste or your enjoyment of texture. It can transport you to a new place. You will further your nutritional edge when you experiment with new foods, and maybe discover new favourites. There's not a lot to lose, and so much to gain.

10 Ways to Try Something New

1. Plan a new recipe using familiar ingredients once a week
2. Plan a new recipe using a new ingredient once a month
3. Switch up your usual spice blend with a new one
4. Experiment with your slow cooker
5. Host a potluck and assign a country of origin to each participant's food
6. Exchange cooking lessons with someone from a different ethnic background then yourself
7. Get inspired by eating something new when you eat out
8. Watch The Food Network and try to recreate what you see
9. Look up Copycat Recipes for your favourite dinner
10. Try using familiar ingredients in unfamiliar ways- like coffee, beer, juice, or wine

Another way to try something new is to hire a meal planner such as myself. You will receive recipes that use the foods and flavours you like, but are put together in different ways. You may receive something completely new to you, too. Grocery lists are included to make it even easier. Why don't you take my meal planning for a test run today?

Enjoy your week, friends!
​Stacy