Recently, I’ve been thinking about my family’s overall health. I’ve been prioritizing my own healthy, balanced lifestyle while also considering how to improve my children’s overall wellbeing. One of the best ways to make a change to your family’s health is by planning healthy dinners that encourage nutritious eating habits. As always, I’m going to be completely honest with you. I’m not a foodie mom. I‘m more of a girl dinner, charcuterie mum. I don’t have the patience (or time!) for fancy, multi-step meals, and I definitely don’t have the motivation to meal prep an entire week’s worth on food on Sunday nights. However, I can search Pinterest and find easy, healthy dinner ideas that fit my busy lifestyle but still improve my family’s health. I wanted to share some recipes I’m dying to try along with some tips and tricks for making cooking a little easier.
Tools for Healthy Dinners
If you’re not a frequent home cook, you might need to stock a few key supplies before you start making healthy dinners every night. I’ve put together a list of cooking essentials over on my Amazon storefront to help you get started. Here are some highlights that are hugely helpful for busy moms:
- Silicon Baking Mats: The absolute worst part of cooking for your family is the dishes. You can use these silicon baking mats on your sheet pans and your food won’t stick. These make clean up super easy.
- 6-in-1 Vegetable Chopper: I just do not have time to chop a million vegetables every night, and this tool is a lifesaver for cutting down prep time. You can chop, dice, and slice tons of vegetables in this same chopper. Also, the attached bowl collects all of your prep so you don’t waste any dishes.
- Fold-Away Digital Air Fryer: We all know that air fryers are still the hot way to make dinner without a ton of additional fats and oils. However, I love this air fryer because it’s extremely convenient to use, and it folds up to free up counter space when its not in use. It’s great for quick dinners or reheating leftovers on a busy night.
Healthy Dinner Recipes I’m Trying
As a proud millennial, I am a huge supporter of Pinterest recipe searching. When I’m stuck on what to cook or even what to buy from the grocery store, I always start by browsing Pinterest. There are some amazing food bloggers across the Internet writing easy, healthy dinner recipes and sharing them with us for free! These are some of the healthy dinner recipes I’ve saved and can’t wait to try!
From I Wash, You Dry: Spinach Herb Baked Chicken
This healthy dinner is made in just one pan, prioritizing low prep and easy cleanup. It has simple flavors, so I don’t have to make huge adjustments for my toddlers. It also has really easy-to-find ingredients, so I won’t have to travel around to multiple grocery stores to gather everything. Doesn’t it look great?!
From Spoonful of Flavor: Banh Mi Rice Bowls
I really like the idea of this banh mi bowl, because I can tell it will be super easy to customize everyone’s bowls to fit my family’s varying tastes. It can be very hard to cook for both adults and toddlers, but this recipe has a couple of components that my husband and I can add to make our bowls more “adult”. This is something fresh and different for dinner!
From Cooking Classy: Tortellini with Pesto and Roasted Veggies
Like a lot of families, we are trying to reduce our meat consumption. I love to find meatless healthy dinner options that reduce time but still have a lot of nutritious values. Like the banh mi bowl, this recipe allows you to customize what each member of your family adds to their dish. That way, both toddlers and parents can enjoy!
Improving Dinner Time
Remember, trying new foods can be intimidating for kids. If you make one of these recipes and it doesn’t go over well, don’t give up! It can take time for kids to figure out what they really like. Keep dinners and clean up as easy as possible, so if it’s not a hit, you haven’t wasted a ton of precious time. Like any improvement you make to your life, the results won’t be instant! You’ll still need to pop in frozen chicken nuggets sometimes, and that’s okay! You’re making an improvement, not striving for perfection. I hope these healthy dinner ideas have inspired you to try a few new things in the kitchen!
xoxo Fil
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