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Let me just say something that not everyone agrees with...
Pinterest is just pretty pictures.
Because you can't TASTE those recipes!
And it doesn't tell you what you need, day in, and day out for your family’s ideal health.
Now don't get me wrong, I love Pinterest and Instagram and all the others for everything from brain candy to food porn to actual real life kitchen inspiration!
But let me guess... you’ve pinned the pictures and followed the food ‘grams… and you are STILL in a rut, facing down your ungrateful children on a regular basis!
Totally kidding about the kids being ungrateful. Sort of.
Pinterest is just pretty pictures.
Because you can't TASTE those recipes!
And it doesn't tell you what you need, day in, and day out for your family’s ideal health.
Now don't get me wrong, I love Pinterest and Instagram and all the others for everything from brain candy to food porn to actual real life kitchen inspiration!
But let me guess... you’ve pinned the pictures and followed the food ‘grams… and you are STILL in a rut, facing down your ungrateful children on a regular basis!
Totally kidding about the kids being ungrateful. Sort of.
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I mean I’m not dissing them. I’m pretty sure I was an ingrate until about 25 years old. It’s normal.
I’m just saying it would be sooo nice if they set the table, then sat at the table patiently waiting for the food to be prepared, then cheered and thanked you profusely when it was brought out. I’m pretty sure you can imagine how AMAZING that would be!!!!
Anyway.
The point is, the world is full of too much information. You can get recipes for free on the internet. You can get so many that they get lost in the pins and boards and tags and bookmarks and pics.
And yet you can STILL be sitting there thinking about cooking noodles again because you are just OUT of freaking ideas.
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I remember some random TV show about life in the 1950s. Happy cute family, stay at home mom, all that. And the ONE scene I remember, I mean I don’t even remember the name or the plot or anything… but I remember this one scene where the teenage boy was complaining about how he had to do something he didn’t want to do. And the mom says something along the lines of this:
We all have to do things we don’t want to do. Your dad does, I do, everyone does. Do you know what I make when I don’t want to cook? I make tuna casserole.
And the son says:
But mom! We have tuna casserole ALL the time!
Scene ends with her staring at him with a face that in this day and age would be like “FML” and him like “WTF.”
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So I guess we all have this feeling of being stuck and "having" to do things, thereby turning them into chores… about all kinds of things, but if you’re a mom, then you can probably relate to the whole tuna casserole / noodles / take out / frozen food / fill in with your crutch food here.
But wait! You’re also committed to your family’s HEALTH!
I know. Me, too!
This whole parenting thing is rough!
And then there are those days you spend all night – you LOSE SLEEP – to make some cute and delicious healthy thing from Pinterest.
And you have your very own Pinterest Fail.
Or worse, you nailed it, I mean for real nailed it, and it comes home from school lunch… UNEATEN.
Things like this are crazy making.
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Okay, so what can I offer you?
Get your sample meal plan for a taste of what life can be like when you take meal planning beyond meal planning.
This meal plan follows my amazing system that is faster than meal prep Monday, tastes better than once a month (frozen) meals, is cheaper than take out, is healthier than frozen food, and is easier than following all those pinned recipes.
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My system does take some adjustment to integrate into your life.
And it does take time on a few days each week.
And it does take a commitment to healthy food and cooking from scratch.
But it will be the system to break free from a rigid meal plan, to be free to choose what you cook on any given day, to spend 45-60 minutes once a week and mere minutes on every other day, knowing that YOU are in control of your family’s meals, that YOU choose the ingredients, and that YOUR FAMILY is eating healthy wholesome, and clean every day!
Except those days you CHOOSE to splurge on take out or a fun indulgence, and even then you can TOTALLY RELAX AND ENJOY the occasional treat, resting easy with the knowledge that your family is supported by a super strong foundation of healthy eating!
It is meal planning for healthy family harmony!
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The best thing is that you can STILL use pen and paper.
I get it, pen and paper… it’s always sitting right there, it doesn’t distract you with pop ups and notifications like your phone, when you go to look up a recipe and 15 minutes later after checking your email and looking at some instagram photos you’re all, “What was I doing again?”
(And in the mean time your kids started pouring water on the kitchen floor to the point you kinda thought the sink was flooding... Yeah, happened to me once.)
I LOVE my pen and paper. It prevents all kinds of distractions and disasters. And it’s ALWAYS right there.
And while I do recommend printing out the sample meal plan you will get when you sign up for my Meal Planning for Healthy Family Harmony, I can also say that once you get the hang of the system you can actually be creative AND prepared with just a piece of scratch paper, if that is what you so prefer! I know I do.
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“How does it work?” you might be asking. Great question.
Basically, you are constantly prepping ahead so that your leftovers aren’t simply “leftovers” that may or may not be eaten, but your leftovers become prepped ingredients.
It’s simple. It’s genius. And it saves you time and effort in the kitchen while at the same time ensuring your family is eating all kinds of wholesome, nutritious, clean foods.
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The basic steps are:
Cooking grains (most weeks they should be whole grains in their WHOLE form, like brown rice, quinoa, barley, etc). This can also be making a double batch of noodles to throw half into a healthy mac and cheese in the freezer for “those days.” (You know which days I mean!) Chopping veggies, making sure the few your kids will consistently eat are almost always in the fridge in chopped form (for example my kids will almost always eat cucumbers and red bell peppers, so they are ALWAYS in rotation). This also means that when you go to cook a recipe your ingredients are prepped and ready to go. Cleaning and/or chopping fruits; this happens every few days whether washing berries and leaving in a colander in the fridge, chopping apples for a days or two of lunch and snack, or chopping melons for dinner and breakfast. You can also focus on keeping your fruit bowl filled with instant fruits like bananas and clementines and save time on this step. Using prepped ingredients; the individual prepped ingredients are used on their own and also mixed into more complicated recipes to keep your healthy food fresh all week long. |
These basics are interspersed throughout the week with the proteins and assembly, so you don’t spend one long day doing them, and you have fresh ingredients on hand on a rotating basis.
While you emphasize the freshest immediately after going to the store, you slowly cook foods as individual ingredients, so throughout the week you are accumulating other prepped ingredients that are cooked and ready to reheat or repurpose (into soups, quiches, etc).
End of the week is healthy "smorgasbord," as we always called leftovers night (it doesn’t actually mean leftovers, it’s Swedish and means more like a fun picnic-ish spread, but it’s so fun to say, we always used it to mean leftovers night growing up!).
Or end of the week means something fun and versatile like pizza (anything can be a topping!) or quiche (all veggies go great with eggs and cheese!).
Plus I love to use up all the leftover cooked grains as hot cereal for breakfast!!! Just add enough milk of your choice to cover the grains (rice is our favorite), add one generous handful of the dried fruit of your choice for each serving (we prefer raisins), lots of cinnamon, a bit of vanilla, and bring to boil. This is the fastest, easiest whole grain rice pudding you've ever made! I always double the rice in the week to make sure we can have this.
While you emphasize the freshest immediately after going to the store, you slowly cook foods as individual ingredients, so throughout the week you are accumulating other prepped ingredients that are cooked and ready to reheat or repurpose (into soups, quiches, etc).
End of the week is healthy "smorgasbord," as we always called leftovers night (it doesn’t actually mean leftovers, it’s Swedish and means more like a fun picnic-ish spread, but it’s so fun to say, we always used it to mean leftovers night growing up!).
Or end of the week means something fun and versatile like pizza (anything can be a topping!) or quiche (all veggies go great with eggs and cheese!).
Plus I love to use up all the leftover cooked grains as hot cereal for breakfast!!! Just add enough milk of your choice to cover the grains (rice is our favorite), add one generous handful of the dried fruit of your choice for each serving (we prefer raisins), lots of cinnamon, a bit of vanilla, and bring to boil. This is the fastest, easiest whole grain rice pudding you've ever made! I always double the rice in the week to make sure we can have this.
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This method of meal prepping integrated into meal planning takes you into a rhythm that keeps the healthy food fresh on a daily and weekly basis.
This approach works great for individuals and families of any size, with ANY type of cuisine, any dietary constraints, and any health goals.
This approach is actually even easier with young kids because they so often would prefer raw veggies over cooked veggies any day, so instead of cooking everyone’s food, you can serve them the same ingredients in raw form by setting a handful aside before cooking the rest in the style you prefer. Same ingredients, different presentation.
(Setting theirs aside FIRST means you can eat spicy again, too! Yeah!)
So sign up today to start learning how to break out of the rut AND leave behind the stress and annoyance of meal planning!
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Wow, I'm impressed you stuck with me all the way to the end!
I'll share a secret with you... not only will you get access to a week's worth of meal plans by signing up, but you'll be able to grab the rest of my Meal Planning for Healthy Family Harmony course, which includes another 3 weeks of dinner meal plans PLUS a week of breakfasts, and of course shopping lists to go along with it!
All at an amazing value!
You can get a sneak peek at all the amazing content you'll be grabbing for a steal by clicking here.
But why wait? Go ahead and get the first week FREE by signing up now!
Ready to buy? Grab it below:
I'll share a secret with you... not only will you get access to a week's worth of meal plans by signing up, but you'll be able to grab the rest of my Meal Planning for Healthy Family Harmony course, which includes another 3 weeks of dinner meal plans PLUS a week of breakfasts, and of course shopping lists to go along with it!
All at an amazing value!
You can get a sneak peek at all the amazing content you'll be grabbing for a steal by clicking here.
But why wait? Go ahead and get the first week FREE by signing up now!
Ready to buy? Grab it below:
This eCourse covers EVERYTHING you need to know to be meal planning like a Pinterest star! (Even if you've never used Pinterest in your life!) You will learn my system for meal planning that relies on minimal time throughout the week, you will master the essentials needed to healthy shopping with or without your list, and you will end the course with the ability to make your own plan every week AND the confidence to know when to wing it instead!! Includes one week (7 days) of breakfasts, and four weeks (20 days) of dinners to get you started, plus explains how I plan my weeks to end overwhelm and keep everyone healthy and happy. Not currently available. Please find many of my coaching techniques in my guided journals, printables, video series, and audio books. No purchase necessary! Cut and past this link to find a variety of support tools and links to my books: www.alegraloewenstein.com/buy-my-books THIS COURSE IS BEING CONVERTED INTO A BOOK!!! Coming in Spring 2020 - check back soon!!! |
This eCourse covers EVERYTHING you need to know to be meal planning like a Pinterest star! (Even if you've never used Pinterest in your life!) You will learn my system for meal planning that relies on minimal time throughout the week, you will master the essentials needed to healthy shopping with or without your list, and you will end the course with the ability to make your own plan every week AND the confidence to know when to wing it instead!! Not currently available. Please find many of my coaching techniques in my guided journals, printables, video series, and audio books. No purchase necessary! Cut and past this link to find a variety of support tools and links to my books: www.alegraloewenstein.com/buy-my-books THIS COURSE IS BEING CONVERTED INTO A BOOK!! It will be available in Spring 2020. Check back soon! |
Not ready to buy yet... just sign up below to get the first week as my gift to you! (And access tot he premium program at half off!!)
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