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The lives of busy mommies are crazy and hectic. often we need a little help and encouragement to stay organized and get through the day with as little anxiety as possible. here at the healthy mommies magazine we are dedicated to educating busy mommies on how to make basic lifestyle changes to take care of their whole self, mind, body and spirit. As parents we are our children’s first teachers. They learn by our example, as a result if we are going to raise a healthier generation we need to put ourselves first. Therefore, we have put together a collaborative post from our top expert contributing mommies to help you stay organized and sane while managing your busy life. We want to help you. below is our “Ultimate guide for busy Moms.”
Simple meal planning ideas for busy Moms
by: Cascia Talbert – founder of the healthy mommies Magazine
It’s 2016 and families are busier than ever. even though we wake up early we still rush to get the kids ready for school in the morning and ourselves ready for work or our daily tasks. The day flies by and before we know it, it’s time to pick the kids up from school, and hurry off to extra curricular activities. When we get home we still have to eat and feed our kids before bed time. It’s no surprise that fast food, quick dinners, and frozen microwave meals are so popular for Americans. We just do not have the time to cook and prepare healthy meals.
But, there is hope. There is a way to fit in healthy meals into our busy lives. I am going to share my secrets to how I help my family of seven eat healthier while still maintaining our hectic lifestyle. If we can do it, you can too.
The first idea is plan your meals out ahead of time.
Meal planning done ideal will save you time, money and keep you and your family on track to eating healthy.
Materials You will need for successful meal Planning:
Calendar or meal planning app (I use both, my favorite meal planning app is Food Planner, complimentary on the app store and Google Play)
pen dry erase board and dry erase marker, recipes, cook books, Notepad to write grocery lists, or you can use the built-in grocery list from the Food Planner app
4″ x 6″ Line Ruled White Index Cards Index Card file Box for 4″ x 6″ cards
Alpha Self-Tab Card Guides 4″ x 6″
Some of my favorite places to find healthy recipes online are:
• CookingLight.com
• AllRecipes.com
• FoodNetwork.com
• EatingWell.com
A few of my favorite healthy cookbooks are:
• The big book of Recipes for Babies, toddlers & children (suitable for families with children 3 and under)
• natural Superfoods: 150 Nutrient-packed Recipes for complete Health, Vitality and Healing
• The Soupmaker’s Kitchen: how to save Your Scraps, Prepare a Stock, and Craft the best Pot of Soup
• The Passionate Vegetable
• serve it Up, A Parent’s guide to Kid-Friendly portions (suitable for families with children ages 3-10)
• Appetite for Life, The Thumbs-Up, No-Yucks guide to getting Your kid to Be a great Eater, by Stacey Antine (suitable for families with children ages 3-12)
• smart eating Made Simple
Once you have all of your materials you need to decide how far ahead you wish to plan your meals and which meals you need to plan. For some people, planning a week in development is enough, others may wish to plan meals for a whole month. If your children eat breakfast at school or daycare, you might not have to plan breakfasts. If you like to serve healthy breakfasts for your family, then you may wish to add breakfast recipes to your meal plan. families with small children 3 and under must plan healthy snacks for their kids. In buy to stop your family from wasting too much food make sure you set aside at least one night for leftovers. I like to serve leftovers on nights that I don’t have time to cook.
After you decide how far ahead you would like to plan your meals you can go through your recipes and pick out family favorites and new and healthy recipes you would like to try. Some breakfast ideas are, whole grain pancakes with turkey sausage and eggs, steel-cut oatmeal topped with cinnamon and chopped apples, fruit smoothies, Greek yogurt topped with fresh fruit and granola. For lunch you may wish to try a healthy soup recipe with home-made whole grain bread, sub sandwiches or a healthy salad. family dinners must include a lean protein, fresh vegetable or salad and a whole grain. Make sureyou mark your recipes with bookmarks, or print out your online recipes for easy access when it is time to prepare your meals.
Write down your meals in your calendar and or your meal planning app. The Food Planner app also allows you to plug-in your recipes and includes a grocery shopping list.
Once you have all your meals planned out, go through the ingredients in your recipes, check out your inventory, and make your grocery list. Some items can be purchased in bulk from a wholesale store and portioned out for several recipes to save you time and money. These may include, meats, seasonings, whole grains, nuts and seeds. other items such as dairy, and produce will need to be purchased once a week at smaller grocery stores or your local farmer’s market.
If your children are old enough to read you can display a dry erase board in your kitchen with all your meals written on it for the week. If they have a favorite breakfast you may wish to serve it on the same day every week.
When you try a new recipe and your family likes it or you have some family favorites, write them down on your index cards and file them into your index card box for easy reference.
Tips for nights When you Don’t have Time to Cook
• cook up your protein a head of time and chop it up to top already prepared salads, or add to sandwiches and wraps. store in your refrigerator in a plastic container. This will keep for about a week.
• Make your own whole grain bread dough and freeze for later use.
• cook up grains like, brown and wild rice and beans a head of time and store in your refrigerator for later use. These will also keep for about a week.
• Prepare casseroles and lasagna recipes ahead of time and store them in your freezer. Make sure you label them with baking instructions.
• try new slow cooker recipes. You’ll be shocked to find out how lots of different kinds of meals can be prepared in your slow cooker, lots of of them are healthy too.
• Freeze soups to heat up later.
You can download this complete meal planning guide in PDF along with Talbert family favorite recipes for complimentary here: basic meal planning ideas for busy Families.
7 steps to a better Night’s Sleep
Everyone knows a night of tossing and turning makes you irritable and foggy, but skimping on sleep over time can wreak havoc on your body, too: It’s been linked with heart disease, memory impairment, weight gain, even premature wrinkles. For a better night’s sleep, follow these basic tips.
1. Reset your internal clock. Most adults need seven to nine hours of sack time per night. If you can’t fall asleep early enough to hit that goal, tuck in 15 minutes sooner every week until you do. Your body will adapt.
2. create a pre-bedtime ritual and stick to it. It can be as basic as massaging cream into your hands each night or writing a few lines in your journal. The point is to train your brain to recognize the signs that it’s time to wind down.
3. Don’t hype up your brain. Stimulating TV, books, or computer games get your mind racing, and that can make it harder to fall asleep. Ditto for job-related stuff; don’t work ideal up to bedtime.
4. Make your bedroom a sleep oasis. Keep your space tidy and enjoyable, with gentle lighting and a good mattress. and of course, be sure your bedding and jammies are super-soft and sweet smelling—launder them with fabric softener and scent-boosters in a layered scent, such as lavender and vanilla, you find soothing.
Related health benefits of Licorice Root
5. Sidetrack your worries. Organize the next morning’s essentials before you hit the sack: pack school snacks and put out the kids’ outfits (or your own). write a to-do list for any tasks that invade your thoughts and hide the list in another room so you don’t see it and ruminate.
6. limit alcohol. A nightcap might kick back you, but it’ll have the reverse effect a couple of hours later, as alcohol disrupts sleep and causes wake-ups as it’s metabolized. (Similarly, individuals sensitive to caffeine must abstain four to six hours before bedtime.)
7. switch off the night-light. Sleep scientists recommend sleeping in a room that’s slightly cool and as dark as possible. Both signal the brain that it’s sleepy time.
How to Make a lot more Time for Prayer
By Rosie Moore
As mommies and wives we often ask ourselves how we can make a lot more time to spend with family, exercising, working, cooking, cleaning, laundry, school activities and the list goes on. We have lost some of the time that we used to spend at the dinner tables asking how our kids or our spouse’s day went because we are so busy that dinner is often on the road in-between activities. then one day something happens, a child is sick or a parent is sick and we ask someone to pray for our loved one. once that loved one gets well, we realize at that moment that all the things of this world don’t indicate as much if they are not in it with us. We start to realize that we need prayer in our life.
It is not enough to just go to church every Sunday and pray there once per week or for our meal. We realize that we need God in our lives daily all the time. but how can we make time for prayer when we are already so tapped out? one of the things that I always do in my daily prayer life is read a daily devotion. I start out my day before getting up out of the bed and reading my daily devotion and then praying ideal after that in the still quiet of the morning while the kids and my husband are still sleeping. often my husband is up walking the pet dog and he will also sit outside on our back deck and do his devotion and pray at that time. We find that starting our day with God before the hustle and bustle of the day begins, affords us the time to pray and give out first moments of the day to God so that our day can be blessed.
If you are a night person, then the morning routine may not work for you because it does require waking up earlier to allow this quiet time between you and God to pray. At night it is a little different it will indicate waiting until everyone has gone to bed and you can have your moments alone before bed to read the devotion and pray. often it is hard to stay awake and pray before bed, but if you are able to stay awake and take advantage of it, then absolutely do it. prayer is a special time for you to connect and be refreshed. Whenever it works for you whether in the early morning or late at night take advantage of it because we all need prayer in our lives.
6 ideas for saving at the grocery Store
Busy mommies are always trying to find ways to save Money
Saving money is something that we all love to do. Whether it’s using a voucher or just getting something on clearance there is a type of excitement that we get from knowing that we saved a buck. considering that we all have to get groceries, this is one thing that we can all afford to save a few bucks on. here are some ideas that you can use each time you grocery shop to help lighten the load on your wallet.
1) always have a plan. I never suggest that any individual enter a grocery store without a plan. knowing what you’re going to get helps to distractions at a minimum. A list is great idea for keeping up with your estimated expenses for your trip as well as how lots of of each item you plan to buy. less time spent in the store= less money spent!
2) never shop hungry. This is a classic piece of recommendations that still carries great meaning. along with having a plan, shopping on a full tummy can minimize your urges to get things not on your list and as a result saving you from spending extra. get hold of a snack on the way out the door to the grocery store. This is a terrific way to get something in your tummy without having to eat an entire meal.
3) check your store circular for sales. before you head out the door for your big shopping trip, take a moment to look through the store’s circular for that week. I personally never purchase anything that is not on sale. one of my philosophies in fact is, if it’s not on a sale, I don’t need it. If you need something that is not on sale that week, there is a chance that within the coming weeks it could go on sale. keeping an on your stores sale cycle, you’ll start to notice a pattern of what they will have a sale each week. For example, at my Publix something that’s on sale every 3 or 4 weeks is I Can’t believe It’s Not Butter Spray. I know it will be on sale so I never get it unless it is.
4) use COUPONS! There is a common myth among some people that getting a store brand is more affordable than getting the name brand with a coupon. This is simply just not the case. often times, you can combine your vouchers with a sale to get major savings on the brand name items. as a result you can snag the brands for even less than you’d pay for a store brand.
5) Don’t be brand loyal. One thing that I learned early on was to break away from my brand loyalties. If you really want to save the most money, you’ll need to try new things t