HEALTHY FOOD HACKS FROM A NUTRITIONIST MOM

It can be tough finding time to cook and eat healthy when you’re a busy mom. As a nutritionist who’s a mother to a 4-month-old, stepmom to a 13-year-old, and wife to a man who likes 80% of his meals homemade, I have learned a few hacks. Here’s how I make it work:

Batch cook. If you’re going through the trouble of shopping and preparing, you might as well make extra to have later in the week or put in the freezer. Consider cooking a triple batch of items that freeze well, like soup, meatballs, and chili. I’ll make a batch of mashed potatoes on Monday to have with chicken and then save the rest for Wednesday to have with fillet mignon.

Keep your freezer stocked. Tired and don’t want to cook or don’t have time to go to the grocery store or just came home from vacation? Just pull something out of the freezer. I usually have frozen chicken-bone broth, chicken, salmon, turkey meatballs and burgers, lentil soup, cauliflower crusts, Ezekiel or Base Culture bread, berries, bananas, kale, spinach, California blend (cauliflower, broccoli, and carrots), stir-fry vegetables, baked egg white frittata cups, and gluten-free chocolate muffins. I can always make a smoothie or last-minute meal. You can find grass-fed, organic beef or turkey meatballs in the freezer at stores like Whole Foods or Fresh Market.

Buy ready vegetables and fruit. Buy precut broccoli, cauliflower, and baby carrots to have in your fridge. You’ll save a lot of time not having to rinse, cut, and peel. You can even find roasted and ready baby potatoes that you can just pop in the microwave. Don’t have time to cut up fruit all the time? Keep grapes and watermelon slices in the fridge.

Have quick food options. Have some super quick meals that you can pull together easily. This could be a bag of salad, a bag of potatoes you can just pop into the microwave or pouch of 90-second organic rice, and a ready-made rotisserie chicken. I buy an organic premade rotisserie chicken from Whole Foods every week. Then I can make chicken quesadillas one night and use the rest of the chicken to throw into a salad, soup, or use in a wrap. You can even put a bag of California Blend vegetables in broth and then add some chicken in for a yummy soup.

Plan your dinners for the week. Every Sunday, I plan my meals so that I can also order groceries accordingly. For days I know will be particularly busy, I plan easier meals like gluten-free pasta and meatballs. For days when I know I’ll have more time, I plan a more elaborate dinner. I mark each dinner down on my calendar. Having certain family traditions like pasta Monday and taco Tuesday can also make life easier.

Have 5 to 7 go-to meals that you rotate. These could even include healthy takeout! Some of our rotating meals include rotisserie chicken, Cooper River salmon, snapper, grass-fed fillet mignon, zoodles and/or high fiber pasta with turkey meatballs, shrimp and veggie kebabs, almond-flour-coated chicken with salad. Our meals always include at least two non-starchy vegetables or a salad. I just repeat these meals and try something new every couple of weeks. This makes it super easy to stay on track, since I know exactly what I need for each recipe and usually already have the ingredients on hand.

Simplify cooking and cleanup. Putting everything on a sheet pan reduces cleanup. You could season some salmon and stick it in the oven alongside some cut vegetables. My weekly roast chicken I put on a pan along with herbs, chicken broth, baby carrots, cut onion, broccoli, and cauliflower. It’s such an easy meal to make, and it’s also my family’s favorite. You can microwave some rice, stir-fry some frozen vegetables, add some frozen shrimp and soy or shoyu sauce . . . and voila!

Shop often. It winds up eliminating the aggravation of not having anything to make. Grocery shopping every two weeks or even once a week isn’t enough for me. In addition to my Sunday grocery haul, I replenish my salad greens and other vegetables, fruit, seeded crackers, hummus, high-fiber tortilla wraps, pasta sauce and whatever else we need at least once a week. It’s impossible to be organized and eat well if you don’t have options in your kitchen.

Remember, once you’ve made something a few times, it gets incredibly easy to make again. Also, do what works for you and your family. Trying to meet a standard that is impossible is only going to frustrate you and lead to choices that aren’t as great. The healthiest food tends to be simple. Accept that half-homemade is great because it gets food on the table.

Turkey Meatballs

1 lb ground turkey

¼ cup almond flour

½ cup caramelized sweet onion

3 tbsp chopped fresh Italian parsley

1 egg

Season with salt a Invisalign a Root Canals a Dental Implants a Gum Disease Treatment a Veneers a Crowns a Dentures a Fillings

Mix together and form balls. Bake for 15 minutes at 375°. Brown afterwards to make them extra tasty.

If batch cooking, double the amount. Freeze the uncooked meatballs for a few hours, and then throw them into a big plastic bag and place back in the freezer. When baking them frozen, allow for an extra 10 minutes.

Use these to top off pasta or to create a soup! I make a low-carb Italian wedding soup by sautéing a chopped sweet onion and two zucchinis to add to chicken broth along with around six cut-up meatballs. Have some soup left over? Freeze it for a rainy day.

Cosmetic, Family and General Dentistry

88 West Lincoln Avenue, Mount Vernon Connect on Instagram: @dr.edly

Experienced and dedicated dentist Edly Destine, DDS, is the founder of 88 Smile Designs in Mount Vernon, New York. In his role as the 88 Smile Designs dentist, Dr. Destine delivers full-scale dentistry care, including root canals, crowns, dental implants, veneers, Invisalign®, and much more. Dr. Destine has an approachable air that patients really relate to, and the whole 88 Smile Designs team strives to make the office a fun environment at all times.