Need meal ideas that won't add to the chaos? Learn my go-to formula.

If you’re like many people these days, finding time to shop for groceries, cook said groceries, eat the meal, and clean up the mess from making the meal may feel nearly impossible. Let me know if you relate!

To help calm the meal-time chaos, I like to use the following formula: pick one key ingredient and plan to use in multiple ways over several days and meals. Here’s what I mean:

You could likely come up with several ideas like these off the top of your head. One thing I like to do is cook extra of the most time-consuming ingredient, such as chicken, pasta sauce, turkey meatballs, chili or taco meat. But it’s boring to eat the same thing every day and contributes to a lack of nutritional variety too. So, using my formula examples above, we can turn those ingredients into multiple meals.

Taco meat becomes: tacos, quesadillas, taco salad

Chicken becomes (in addition to the ideas listed already): enchiladas, chicken wraps, a mediterranean bowl

Pasta sauce is served with spaghetti, on a baked potato, a pasta bake, or sloppy Joe’s

Turkey meatballs can be served with rice, pasta, with a salad, or as a sandwich

Chili can be eaten out of a bowl with garlic or cornbread, served on a baked potato or atop nachos

What ideas do you have? Want to personalize some ideas for your household? Schedule a complimentary call using the button below to see how working with a registered dietitian may benefit you.

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