Do you feel overwhelmed when it comes to menu planning? Are you bored with the same old meals? Eating healthy doesn’t have to limit you to plain chicken breasts and steamed broccoli day after day. Adding variety keeps things interesting, and can help you to stick with a healthy eating plan long term. Many people struggle to come up with new ideas for balanced meals, and it can often be a struggle to determine the nutritional value (i.e. calories, fat, carbs) of home prepared meals.
If you feel that meal planning is a struggle, MealsForYou.com could be a great website to check out. On this website, you can do an “advanced search” for recipes which allows you to choose recipes that include or exclude foods (which is great for those with food allergies) or choose recipes that are high or low in certain nutrients. For example, you could pick a chicken recipe that is low in calories and high in fiber. Perhaps you are looking for a meal that is high in calcium that does not include dairy products. The possibilities are endless!
If you are looking for help with planning a whole meal, then you can click on the “meals” tab at the top of the page. They have several categories such as kid’s meals, international meals, meals by ingredients, etc. I would recommend looking under the “Healthy Meals”. If you are trying to control calories, their “weight loss” meals are all less than 500 calories. One great thing about this website is that it gives you the nutrition facts (calories, fat, protein, carbs, etc.) for each menu item and for the entire meal.
If you would like to know the dietary exchanges (how many servings it provides from each food group), you can click on “Tips & Guides” page and use the “Dietary Exchange Table”. One other great feature is that it creates a printable shopping list. For any recipes that you put into your shopping list, it divides them into groups based on grocery store layout and includes the amount you need.
I think MealsForYou.com makes meal planning as easy as possible…I hope you do too!