Indian Springs Baptist Church Women's Ministry: Tips for Eating Healthy in a Hurry

Genesis 9:3
"Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything."

We all have busy lives and it is sometimes hard to feel like you can eat healthy and be hurrying around all the time. I have had a few people ask how to cook and prepare meals and eat healthy when you work, or have small children, or just a busy family. I am going to give you a few tips on how to not look like the picture #1 up there but more like the pretty girl with the pot and a heart.

If you notice my verse above, God gave us all we need for food. A lot of His foods need no preparing, because He has made them perfect to eat right off the vine, tree, and plants. If you are eating healthy, you need to avoid processed foods, chemicals in your foods, and convenience items. But, that does not mean you have to make everything from scratch and labor for hours a day.

Tips for Eating Healthy in a Hurry

1. Be Prepared: I know I say this a lot, but being prepared is the key. Take just a few minutes each week and plan meals. We rotate breakfast items or pretty much eat the same thing for breakfast everyday. That one is easy to plan. Snack can be the things that are the easiest. Fruits, nuts, cheese, yogurt., cut up veggies , just Grab it and eat it. Lunch and Dinners vary by the day and what I plan has to do with how busy we are. If you know you need to eat out due to ballgames or dance lessons, plan in advance where you are going so that you can choose healthy options. I will post a few of my favorite quick dinners at the bottom of this article.

snack items..this took less than 5 min to prepare for a week....

2. Cook more than you need or cook in advance: Out of all the tips that I am going to tell you, this one has to be the one that I most rely on. I cook a lot of stuff in advance, when I have the extra time. I will fry a whole package of nitrate free bacon all at once and keep them in a baggie in the fridge and heat them up for a few seconds in the morning. I cook a whole week's worth of oatmeal at a time, again, heat up the portion you are going to eat in the microwave that morning. You can boil a few days worth of eggs and keep them for heating in the microwave as well. If we grill or bake meat, we put on a few extra for lunch or dinner the next day. I also cut up a bunch of fruit and keep it in a bowl mixed or put in baggies so I can grab them and go.

a whole week's worth of oatmeal

fry the whole pack all at once of bacon

3 Cook with quick appliances: I have two favorite items now that I love to cook with. The George Foreman indoor grill, and my newest gift from my parents..the New Wave Oven. It has halogen, convection and infrared cooking elements. This versatile tabletop cooker roasts, bakes and broils your meals 3x faster than traditional methods. I LOVE it! You can take frozen food from your freezer and put it directly in it and cook it. I had frozen chicken breasts on our plates in less than 15 minutes and it was the moistest chicken ever! My boys loved it and said it was the best chicken they ever ate! You can cook meats, veggies, baked goods, anything you can imagine and it is done super fast and is super moist! No, I don't get kick backs or work for them, they are just that awesome. Thanks to my cousin Mindy for telling me about it and bringing it over to cook in one day. They have these at Sam's, Wal-Mart, and Costco's now for a reasonable price! Make quick and healthy cooking so easy and it comes with a cooking guide and ideas for all foods! I also like my microwave with my Pampered Chef steamer to quickly cook any veggie!

this is the new wave oven

the dials on the new wave..so easy to use

here is some broccoli in my cooker

4. You don't have to make everything from Scratch: Read the labels on everything and avoid anything that you can't identify as food or added sugar. Our bodies were not made to process additives and chemicals in foods. That doesn't mean you can't buy anything in a package to be healthy. That just means, check the label and make wise choices.

Here are a few packaged item that I have purchased to give you some examples: