5 tips for Cooking healthy family meals

May 29

Written by Dr. Jordan Valdez, ND, RD

Cooking healthy for a family, especially a large one, can be difficult — trying to work around everyone’s schedule and satisfy everyone’s preferences is no easy task. Having tools that make this more manageable is essential to maintaining a lean physique – especially when the family as a whole becomes a source of support and accountability!

Here are our top 5 tips for cooking healthy for families:

Have a set time for dinner every day
Having a set time for dinner sets the expectation for everyone – it’s a solidified plan that everyone can then work into their schedules. You and your family can rely on this time to be together and nourish together.
Make a hard no-phone rule at the table
Allowing phones at the table keeps everyone distracted and disconnected from each other and their eating experience. A hard no-phone rule ensures that there are no special privileges for anyone and that time spent together is of quality.
Make cooking together a fun experience
Cooking can be therapeutic for the soul and entertaining for the family – bringing everyone together to put together the meals they will soon indulge in! Assigning tasks, pulling recipes out of a hat, or watching cooking videos are a few ideas!
Get in the habit of meal prepping
Eating healthy throughout the week becomes a lot simpler when half the work is already done. Have everyone take time – whether it's the night before or 1-2 days at the beginning of each week – to prepare food for the week’s meals.
Find the healthy recipes your family loves
No one wants to eat healthy food that doesn’t taste good, especially the younger family members! Take into consideration favorite meals and restrictions for everyone and create recipes based on this, having recipe resources is helpful!