Health

Life is crazy. Especially now that summer is over and the kids are back in school.

I have high school football players, 3 of them. That means my kids are gone about 12 hours a day between school and practice.

And when they get home, they are STARVING!

On game days or other busy days, I don’t always have time to make a big, elaborate meal.

So I have a few “go to” meals that I always keep ingredients for. That way I know I can throw something together quickly, without advanced prep time.

Here are some recipes for my favorite last minute healthy meals. You should be able to make all of these meals in under 30 minutes, from start to finish.

10 Last Minute Healthy Meals To Feed Your Family in Under 30 Minutes

1. Grilled Cheese and Fruit

Grilled cheese is super easy and a kid favorite. Add some fruit such as watermelon or berries on the side and you have a quick and delicious meal, not just for lunch!

Here is a fun take on grilled cheese:

Pepperoni Pizza Grilled Cheese @ Lil Luna

2. Instant Pot Mac and Cheese

My family loves mac and cheese and this real food Instant Pot recipe is way better than the blue box!

The Best Ever Pressure Cooker Mac & Cheese Recipe @ Delishably

3. Spaghetti

Pasta is very easy to make. It is one of the first things my boys could cook for themselves.

I love this recipe below because it simplifies the process even further. If you have precooked ground beef on hand (maybe cook twice as much for a different recipe), it is even faster!

One Pot Spaghetti with Meat Sauce @ Rasamalaysia

4. Quesadillas

Quesadillas are super quick and easy. At it’s core, a quesadilla is just cheese melted between 2 tortillas. We like to dip ours in sour cream, but that’s up to you.

If you have a few more ingredients, you can add other things to your quesadillas (like beef, pepperoni or chicken) to add more heartiness and flavor.

I love this Chili’s copycat recipe:

Chili’s Chicken Bacon Ranch Quesadillas @ Crazy Adventures in Parenting

5. Garlic Steak and Rice

I fell in love with garlic steak on our trip to Hawaii 5 years ago. It is super easy to make and you can pair it with premade rice or throw some rice in the rice cooker (or instant pot) to cook while you are preparing the steak. You could also serve it with potatoes or green beans, as in the recipe below.

Garlic Butter Steak and Lemon Green Beans Skillet @ Eat Well 101

6. Tacos

Tacos is a staple in our house (and not always on Tuesday). If I know we are going to have a busy few days, I will make some taco seasoned ground beef ahead to cut down on time. Either way, it is a quick meal that is a family favorite.

Ground Beef Tacos @ Dinner at the Zoo

7. Instant Pot Baked Potatoes

Baked potatoes are easy and customizable for whatever your family likes. But cooking them an hour in the oven might not be feasible on a busy night. Enter the Instant Pot. It makes baking potatoes (and a bunch of other stuff) quick and easy. Just keep your favorite toppings on hand (like cheese, sour cream, bacon bits, etc) and you’ve got a meal in a jiffy!

Easy Instant Pot “Baked” Potatoes @ Life Made Simple

8. Mini Pizzas

Pizza is always a hit at our house, especially if each person gets to pick their toppings! The quickest way to make mini pizzas is to use garlic naan bread from the store, add toppings and cook for a few minutes in the oven. Popular toppings at our house are: cheese, pepperoni, canadian bacon, bacon and sausage.

Check out the recipe below for another quick alternative:

Easy Skillet Pizzas @ Lauren’s Latest

9. Chicken Fajitas

Can you tell our family likes Mexican food yet? Yes, we do. And chicken (or beef ) fajitas hit the spot every time. Whether you cook them in a skillet or in the oven, they are a easy way to get meat and vegetables on the table on a busy night.

Easy Sheet Pan Fajitas @ Our Best Bites

10. Chicken Fried Rice

This is one meal that if your prepare ahead, it is super quick, but if not it still doesn’t take too long. If you can cook your rice and chicken ahead of time (rice cooker/instant pot), you just throw everything together and cook for a few minutes.

Here is an easy recipe:

Chicken Fried Rice @ Mommy’s Kitchen

So how do you make these last minute healthy meals work for you? Take a few you would like to try and make a grocery list. Stock your pantry or fridge with the ingredients, most of which don’t spoil too quickly.

Then the next time you get rushed or have a last minute schedule change, you can be confident that you have something to make for dinner. So much cheaper and healthier than driving thru your favorite fast food place.

What quick meals does your family love? Let us know in the comments below. And if you found this post helpful, please share. Thanks!

I use Pinterest several times a week to find new recipes and my old favorites. It is so easy to organize and recall recipes I want to use again.

But there is something about using a real, paper cookbook that is unlike the online experience.

So today, I want to share with you my top 10 favorite cookbooks and what I love about them.

These cookbooks are written by my favorite authors and bloggers. They have easy to follow recipes, beautiful photography and make me happy to cook real food for my family.

My Top 5 Favorite Cookbooks for Real Food Recipes

1. The Prairie Homestead Cookbook: Simple Recipes for Heritage Cooking in Any Kitchen by Jill Winger

I love this cookbook because of it’s simplicity and thoroughness. Simple because every recipe includes real food ingredients you can find in any grocery store (nothing fancy) or grow yourself. No expensive or exotic ingredients here.

Thorough because she not only has amazing recipes, she also has tips for homesteading, gardening and homemaking you don’t want to miss. Oh, and the photography is amazing. If you can only afford one printed cookbook, I highly recommend this one!

2. 100 Days of Real Food: How We Did It, What We Learned, and 100 Easy, Wholesome Recipes Your Family Will Love (100 Days of Real Food series) by Lisa Leake

Lisa is the original way I learned about real food and how adopting a real food lifestyle can positively impact your health and the health of your family. She talks about why they started their journey and gives tips and tricks to help you start your first 100 days of real food and beyond.

Her real food recipes are easy and timeless. They will get you switched to a real food lifestyle in no time!

3. Hand Made: The Modern Woman’s Guide to Made-from-Scratch Living by Melissa K Norris

This book is a great resource for old fashioned cooking and baking recipes, which Melissa excels at making. But it is also a source of non-edible recipes for things such as candle-making, natural lip balms, salves and lotions. Great for any aspiring homesteader.

4. Magnolia Table: A Collection of Recipes for Gathering by Joanna Gaines

As with everything she does, Joanna doesn’t cut corners with this beautiful cookbook. Her recipes are timeless and inspirational. The photography in this book is beautiful as well.

Almost every recipe includes 100% real food ingredients, with only a few exceptions. Her goal is to gather people around the table with food that is classic and memorable.

5. 100 Days of Real Food: Fast & Fabulous: The Easy and Delicious Way to Cut Out Processed Food (100 Days of Real Food series) by Lisa Leake

Because I loved Lisa’s original book (I discussed above), I had to get this one too. In our busy world, we need real food meals that are quick and easy. This helps us move away from the processed lifestyle to eating real, whole foods daily. The recipes and advice in this book is a great companion to the original book, but stands on it’s own as well.

I used to have many more cookbooks, but I lost them in the house fire of 2014. So these are the newer ones I have bought since then.

Browsing thru these cookbooks and trying new recipes gives me such inspiration and reinvigoration to stay on my real food journey. I think it will do the same for you.

So if any of these cookbooks interest you, click on the Amazon links in the name and get them sent right to your house. Then you can try some new recipes and get inspiration as well.

What is your favorite printed cookbook that you refer to often? Let us know in the comments below. And if you found this post helpful, please share. Thanks!

Do you ever think that eating real food is just too hard to manage on a daily basis?

You don’t have time to pick out recipes, go to the store, prepare and cook fresh, real food recipes for your family every day.

First of all, I want to tell you that you are not alone. It isn’t easy. It definitely takes more time than going through the drive thru of your favorite fast food place or popping a pre-made dinner into the microwave.

But it is also so much more healthy and rewarding than those things as well.

So I started doing some research on quicker ways to eat real food at home, and meal kit delivery services kept popping up.

I did a review of ButcherBox Meat Subscription Service awhile back. You can read that review here —> An Honest ButcherBox Review From A Subscription Box Sceptic.

But I decided to try out a popular meal kit delivery service for my blog readers to see what the hype was all about and if it was worth trying out. Here is what I found. . .

What is Hello Fresh?

Hello Fresh is a meal kit delivery service that delivers fresh foods, portioned for your family dinners to your door. You can choose between 2 and 4 servings per meal and everything you need to make the recipe (except salt & pepper, butter and other small staples) are included in each bag.

Why is it important?

Hello Fresh says it’s “America’s Most Popular Meal Kit” and I can see why.

They deliver real food straight to your door in easy to make recipes that usually take about 30 minutes to make.

You can pick from tons of different recipes for all different kinds of meal preferences and styles.

It cuts out looking for recipes, grocery shopping and much of the time of real food meals.

What is included?

Inside the Box Each Week:

• Easy-to-follow recipes with clear nutritional info
• High-quality ingredients sourced straight from the farm
• Convenient meal kits that fit perfectly in the fridge
• A fun cooking experience that makes you feel unstoppable

What is the cost?

Pricing varies on what kinds of recipes you pick, how many servings and number of recipes per week.

Example:

For 4 people, 3 recipes a week it is $7.49 per serving (plus shipping).

For this price you get 3 Meat & Veggies recipes per week for 4 people.

It that price seems high, there are coupons available for new customers. I’ll discuss that more below.

My favorite things about Hello Fresh:

• I don’t have to think about what recipes I want to try, I know whatever they send will taste amazing!
• I don’t have to do the grocery shopping because the food comes right to my door.
• All of the food arrived at my door fresh and cool, even though I live 4 hours (or more) from a major city.
• I learned alot about cooking by making these recipes. Mostly I have learned that I need to add more spices and variation of vegetables to make my dinners more amazing.
• I don’t have to think ahead at all at dinnertime. I just grab a bag of ingredients and start cooking.
• All of the recipes look really good, even though I’ve only tried 8 so far.
• I know I have said this before, but it is worth repeating. The recipes are really good!

The things I don’t like about Hello Fresh:

• There isn’t enough food for our whole family. We have a family of 5 with 3 teenage boys. They don’t eat a recommended serving size, and even if they did the serving sizes only go up to 4. So while I have been testing these recipes, I just did the servings for 2.
• It is more expensive than shopping for yourself at the grocery store. You can buy in bulk at the store and you can mix and match ingredients for later.

Who is Hello Fresh right for?

• Those that want to cook real food but are short on time.
• Those that don’t like grocery shopping.
• Those that don’t want to think about their dinners ahead of time.
• Those that eat out often, but want to start cooking more at home.
• Those that want to be a better cook by learning these new recipes.
• Those that don’t want alot of leftovers after dinner.
• Those that see the value of real food delivered to their doorstep.

Who is Hello Fresh not right for?

• Those that are on a tight budget.
• Those that have a large family.
• Those that like to have leftovers for the next day’s lunch.
• Those that prefer prepackaged foods over fresh foods.
• Those that don’t like to cook.
• Those that are picky and don’t like to try new things.

My recommendations:

Honestly, if it was just me and my husband we would use Hello Fresh every week. We loved the convenience, quality and taste of the Hello Fresh meals.

But right now, we have 3 teenage boys in the house and they eat massive amounts of food. They weren’t too happy when they would smell all of these amazing meals and they weren’t allowed to eat them. I made other food for them while testing out Hello Fresh.

But in 4 years, when they are out of the house, I will highly consider Hello Fresh again. It would be perfect for our goals and lifestyle then.

If you have a small household, I would highly recommend Hello Fresh for your family. For all of the reasons I listed above, I think it is a great and valuable service.

If you would like to try Hello Fresh and see for yourself what the fuss is all about, you can use the link below (affiliate link) to get a coupon off your first couple of orders.

$40 off your first box with this link —> Hello Fresh First Time Customer Coupon.

If after that you don’t feel like it is worth it or you can’t afford it, you can cancel at any time. There is no certain number of meals or time you need to have before you can cancel, so you aren’t locked in forever!

I hope this review has been helpful. Hello Fresh (and other meal kit delivery services) are an easy way to get fresh, real food meals on the table in less time.

Have you tried Hello Fresh? Let us know in the comments below. And if you found this post helpful, please share. Thanks!

The balance between healthy meals and busy lives can be a hard place to find.

I love my Instant Pot for quick, easy dinners that can be done in 30 minutes.

Here are my favorite Instant Pot recipes —> 20 Instant Pot Recipes That Will Revolutionize The Way You Cook Dinner

But I have recently discovered a different type of quick meal solution, and that is what I want to share with you today.

What are sheet pan recipes?

Sheet pan recipes are meals that can be cooked all together on a cookie sheet in the oven in a fairly short amount of time.

Sheet pan recipes are great to add to your cooking list because:

• You don’t have to dirty tons of pans to make dinner.
• They are healthy.
• Almost everyone already has an oven, so no new or special equipment necessary.
• They are an easy way to put together a meal that is quick for your busy family.

So let’s dive in to some sheet pan recipes and see what all the fuss is about!

20 Healthy Sheet Pan Recipes for Quick Family Dinners

Sheet Pan Chicken Teriyaki and Veggies @ Just A Taste

Sheet Pan Chicken and Asparagus @ The Girl on Bloor

Sheet Pan Garlic Ranch Pork & Potatoes @ Together As Family

Sheet Pan Green Beans and Sausage Dinner @ Wonky Wonderful

Easy Sheet Pan Steak Fajitas @ The Busy Baker

Ranch Pork Chops & Potatoes Sheet Pan Dinner @ Jo Cooks

Pineapple Ham Sheet Pan Dinner @ Food Gasm

Crispy Sheet Pan Gnocchi and Veggies Recipe @ Sizzle Yum

Sheet Pan Honey Garlic Chicken @ Savory Experiments

Sheet Pan Chicken Fajitas @ No 2 Pencil

Healthy Sheet Pan Tilapia & Veggies @ Gimme Delicious

Sheet Pan Honey Mustard Salmon and Rainbow Veggies @ Cooking Classy

Lemon Butter Chicken Sheet Pan Dinner @ Veggie Balance

Sheet Pan Balsamic Basil Chicken Cauliflower Rice Bowl @ Mommy’s Kitchen

Sheet Pan Cilantro Lime Chicken Dinner @ Easy Family Recipe Ideas

Sheet Pan Eggplant Parmesan @ The Two Bite Club

Hawaiian Chicken Sheet Pan Supper @ My Recipe Magic

Sheet Pan Recipe for a Mini Meatloaf Dinner @ Live Laugh Rowe

Sheet Pan Shrimp Tacos @ Wholesomelicious

Sheet Pan BBQ Smoked Sausage Dinner @ Meatloaf & Melodrama

Don’t these meals just look amazing! And so easy too. That’s a great combo.

So don’t think that healthy meals need to be complicated and take a long time. Spoiler alert: they don’t.

Try out some of these amazing healthy sheet pan recipes on your family this week and see if you have a new favorite way to cook!

What is a favorite healthy sheet pan recipe you have tried and love? Let us know in the comments below. And if you found this post helpful, please share. Thanks!