Friday, 29 November 2013

Menu Planning and Pantry Storage Can Help Busy Families

Nearly every busy family that juggles life's many commitments struggles to maintain a healthy diet. If the on-the-go lifestyle is wearing down on your family and your meals seem to be coming out of the microwave more frequently, there are a few ways you can turn things around. From simple meal planning to proper organization with good pantry storage can help you stay on the go while eating well.

First, you should evaluate why your family isn't eating how they should. Is it because you have no plan? Do you open the cupboards and feel like there's nothing in there? The best way to solve this is by planning out your menus well in advance. Pick one night a month and fill out a calendar, plotting out your menu for each night. Try to keep your schedule in mind when doing this so you can choose easier meals on the nights that are more hectic. Then each week, bring your plan to the grocery store and purchase all the ingredients you will need for the week.

Once you get home from the store, organize your pantry storage by meal. That will make it easy pull out in a hurry when preparing the meal. If you want to be extra organized, you could even label the shelves by days of the week. Keep in mind that you don't necessarily have to adhere to each individual day's menu for this to work. Feel free to swap out Wednesday's meal for Monday if you feel like it.

If you don't have enough pantry storage to set things up that way, you shouldn't worry as long as you are able to keep things easily accessible. This will promote healthy eating and a plan should help you skip the drive through. Best of all, it might even be a money saver for your family.