Weekly Meal Plan & Time Saving Kitchen Tips

Only one more day left in your Whole 30 if you started on January 1st. If not, no worries, I will get to that in a minute. With each of our meal plan posts in January, we focused on writing posts that would support your healthy resolutions with knowledge to last a lifetime.  This week, we are focusing on time saving kitchen tips. Before I share the kitchen tips below, I also briefly talking about all the shame posts lately, which are unnecessary and self destructive.

In case you are just joining us, you can start your Whole 30 anytime and we have free meal plans and shopping lists to go with it. Accompanying those meal plans are tips and tricks to keep you kicking butt while focusing on your goals. So before we get to this week’s kitchen tips, here are the gems from earlier this month:

• How to Meal Plan and Grocery Shop effectively
• Freezing Food Tips
• Eating healthy while Traveling
• Eating Paleo on a Budget (with infographic)
• And of course this post with Kitchen tips to save time!!!

I have a confession to make, I started the Whole 30 at the beginning of the month and I didn’t make it. I have had to recommit twice and continue to focus on my goals. I have noticed a huge amount of self-shaming and negativity around falling off the diet, lifestyle or goal bandwagon. IT IS NOT OK.

The first key to success with any goal or change, is to always believe in and love yourself.

I propose we commit February to being No-Shame February. For this month, let’s focus on the positive and building ourselves and others up for all the amazing decisions that are made. Love goes a long way and it’s up to us. Leave me a comment letting me know if you commit to not shaming yourself, others, or anything for the whole month (it’s the shortest month)!! Just give me a yes :)

Best part is, if you make this commitment and slip. You get to recommit with a smile and have to be nice to yourself. See how this game is all about winning all around. Do you have any creative hashtag ideas for us to focus on No Shame February?

This should be fun, and without any further delay, here are some kitchen tips to get you started.

Kitchen tips to save time – and some sanity!!

• Make weekend waffles for the week – Use these easy paleo waffles and quadruple the recipe on the weekend. Freeze them and have ready to go breakfasts for the week.
• Take a shopping list with you to the grocery store – This will save you from wandering the grocery store aisles trying to remember what you need to buy.
• Keep a well-stocked pantry – Always have on hand the ingredients you use the most.
• Have all of the ingredients prepped ready before you start to cook – Chop, slice and measure all of your your ingredients before you cook.
• Chop ahead – Chop the vegetables you need for upcoming meals and store them in the refrigerator for later use.
• Learn to (safely) use a knife – The time it takes to slice, dice, and chop will decrease as knife skills increase.
• Use a Crock Pot or Instant Pot – Take a few minutes to meal prep and let the Crock Pot or Instant Pot do all of the cooking for you.
• Clean as you cook – Load dirty dishes into a dishwasher or place them in a sink filled with hot soapy water to lessen the clean up time after the meal.
• Enlist helpers – especially little ones – While this might not always be a time saver, you will at least be spending time with the ones you love while you cook.
• Stock your freezer – Take advantage of discounted prices on meat or butter at costco and store them in the freezer. (Take meat out of the butcher paper first and store in freezer bags.) You’ll have plenty of options when meal planning and you’ll reduce trips to the grocery store (saving gas).
• Freeze leftovers – Extra ingredients, like broth or tomato paste, can be frozen in ice cube trays to be used later as a ready-to-go base for sauces.

Armed with these kitchen tips, all of our free meal plans and shopping lists, a hearty appetite and a huge smile, the world is your oyster. Or bacon, or chocolate, really whatever food you want.  Go eat it :)

Monday

Zucchini Breakfast Casserole

Kale Caesar Salad from Savory Lotus

Cold Weather Hearty Chicken Sausage Stew from Intersection Coaching

Tuesday

Roasted Cinnamon Pear “Oatmeal” from Healing Family Eats

Chocolate Espresso Pork Belly

Wednesday

Lime Cilantro Coleslaw

Tandoori Lamb Meatloaf from My Heart Beets

Thursday

Cauliflower Steaks with Ginger, Turmeric and Cumin from Things My Belly Likes

Sirloin Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette

Friday

Coconut Oil London Fog Latte from The Blenderist

Heirloom Tomato Avocado Salad from Cook Eat Paleo

Shrimp with Sweet Potatoes and Bacon

Saturday/Sunday

How to Make Bacon Salt from Wishful Chef

All Purpose Seasoning Salt Mix from Have A Delicious Life