What’s for dinner?
I ask this question to all my evening personal training clients. While we foam roll and stretch at the end of the session, I ask each of them what they are having for their post workout meal. Half the time I get a reasonable plan. I hear a lot of protein (like chicken or salmon) and veggies. Maybe some soup was put in the crock pot that morning so it’s ready and waiting. Or perhaps it’s breakfast for dinner with eggs and toast.
The other half of the time I get a shrug and I have no idea.
If I asked you the same question would you have an answer?
My personal meal plans are based on dinner. I eat the same thing for breakfast everyday. Lunch is usually leftovers or an omelet, making the planning of dinner even more critical. To create a dinner based meal plan you need 3 things:
- Your calendar: know where you need to be and how much time you actually have to prepare dinner.
- A pantry inventory: what do you have lurking in their that needs to be used (like my giant bag of Costco quinoa)
- A selection of tasty recipes: I rotate through a collection of favorites with the occasional new recipe for kicks.
Once you have these things, you can create a plan of dinners for the week (or two) and build your grocery list from there.
Need some inspiration? Here are 4 great ideas to get you started:
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Egg White and Avocado Tacos
This recipe was inspired by a fridge clean out. You can add other veggies to the basic recipe if you need to do the same.
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Sauceless Pizza
Who doesn’t love pizza? Many prepared sauces have added sugar and sometimes you don’t have time to make your own. Go sauceless with diced tomatoes!
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Black Bean Quesadilla
I keep black beans in the freezer ready to go at all times. As with the tacos, you can throw in any extra veggies you might have.
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Tasty Bites with Quinoa
Have you ever tried Tasty Bites Indian meals? If these are on sale or I have a coupon, I will buy these fragrant vegetarian meals in a pouch. They make a perfect quick dinner for two with the quinoa that is almost always hanging out in the refrigerator.
What about when dinner has to be on the go? Dinning out on a regular basis is not ideal but it’s going to happen sometimes. Here are a couple of my top picks:
- Go to any Mexican restaurant and you can get fajitas. Choose chicken or veggie, but skip the rice and sour cream that comes with them.
- I love Thai restaurants because I can usually get tofu. Skip the noodles or rice and load up on the veggies with your choice of protein.
- I don’t often do chain restaurants for dinner but Denny’s serves breakfast all day. Choose something from their FitFare menu like the Veggie Skillet.
How do you get a fit and tasty dinner on the table fast? Do you have a go to recipe that is always a hit when you’re short on time?
