We know it isn’t easy to prepare home-cooked, healthy meals every night of the week, but your chances of success are much higher if you’re not starting from scratch every night. Realizing this, experts suggest you dedicate a small chunk of your weekend to getting a jump on healthy cooking for the week. If you tackle one or two easy, time-consuming cooking tasks while you binge-watch your favorite TV shows, or simply roast a chicken while you work in your garden, you can guarantee healthy eating all week with a little bit of Sunday slicing and simmering.
- Chop vegetables. Dice the onions, peppers and celery you’ll need this week. This simple tasks saves a lot of time during the dinner rush.
- Cook grains or lentils. Brown rice and dried lentils take about 30 to 45 minutes to cook. Let them simmer while you watch a movie on Sunday.
- Make a sauce. An already prepared, flavor-packed sauce in your fridge is like money in the bank. Withdraw it on a busy night for a quick, flavorful meal. Do the same with salad dressing, too! You’re likely to eat more salad with ready-made ranch on hand.
- Roast one vegetable. Some ideas to try: butternut squash, carrots, parsnips, cauliflower or beets. Then add roasted vegetables to salads and grain bowls all week.
- Cook a protein. If you prepare salmon on Sunday, you’re halfway to salmon cakes or salmon Nicoise salad on Tuesday. A Sunday roast, chicken or turkey as your protein is a good idea, too. Stretch them by simply adding leftovers to tacos and salads.
