For Quick Meals and Snacks Start with Good Recipes and a Well-Stocked Pantry
Meal prepping and snacking are common obstacles in the pursuit of a healthy lifestyle.
- A meal should be a serving from 4-5 food groups.
- A snack should be a serving from 1-3 food groups.
Single-serving, grab-and-go, options are a great way to always be prepared. Keep this list of items and try these simple breakfast and dinner recipes during a busy week.
Quick Recipes
These meals are ready in 20 minutes or less during busy weekday evenings when everyone’s hungry.
You can also fill folks up – with something good – using these ice-pop breakfast treats, all of which offer nutrition and flavor.
Pantry
- Whole-grain crackers or pretzels, breads, corn tortillas, whole-wheat English muffins and popcorn
- Beef jerky, peanut butter, nuts, seeds, tuna and dried beans
- Single-serving canned vegetables and freeze-dried sugar snap peas (avoid fried snap peas)
- Applesauce, fruit cups with 100% juice, dried fruit, (but be careful with banana chips as many are fried) or freeze-dried fruit, bananas, apples, pear, oranges or other fresh fruit
- Pudding products made with real milk (check sugar content on these)
Refrigerator
- Cooked quinoa, whole-wheat noodles, lentils or brown rice
- Hard-boiled eggs, shredded or rotisserie chicken, part-skim mozzarella cheese stick and hummus
- Cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, celery, carrots and vegetable juices (only use ones that are 100% juice)
- Fresh-cut fruit, grapes and berries
- Yogurt, cottage cheese, milk or soy milk
Freezer
- Ready-to-steam brown rice
- Edamame, fish and shrimp
- Cauliflower rice, peas, carrots, corn and spinach
- Grapes, 100% fruit-juice popsicles
- A well-chosen frozen yogurt product
Lauren Cornay, RD, LN, is a registered dietitian at Avera Heart Hospital. Get more insight on nutrition and health.
