Do you ever find yourself feeling ravenous by the end of the day? It can be hard to make healthy choices when you work long days. You are tired, hungry, and have little energy or effort to resist unhealthy foods in our environment. We know that eating home-made healthy foods is better for our health, but there are many barriers that prevent us from making healthy food. Working long hours is associated with shortened time for meals, more processed and fast-food meals, and eating while driving. It can be hard to prepare meals when you have limited energy, time, or meal ideas. Did you know that the average Canadian spends close to ½ hour commuting to work? This time is almost doubled when we travel to work by subway, train, or bus!

How can I manage commuter cravings?

• Bring healthy snacks to eat with you while travelling home, to balance the long time between eating lunch and dinner.
• Healthy ideas: fruit and veggies (apple, pear, cherry tomatoes, carrots, etc.), small handful of unsalted nuts or trail mix, roasted chickpeas and popcorn.
• Bring water with you on your commute to keep hydrated!
• These ideas will help manage the unhealthy eating environment of our culture. Managing hunger with small snacks will help prevent unhealthy snacking.

How to prepare healthy meals:

• Get your family involved. It is important to teach children about food preparation. Help them learn about healthy eating at a young age, to build healthy adults!
• Plan meals early in the week with your family. Eatright.ca has great tools to help with meal planning!
• It doesn’t have to be complicated. You could try simple meals such as: fajitas, or pasta with lots of veggies
• Give everyone in the family a task to help with supper preparation. Example: the older children can help prepare the meal. Younger family members can grab spices, or help set the table. Make sure everyone knows their role, so they can help with dinner preparation as soon as you come home!

Other tricks for saving time:

• Have all your ingredients laid out in the fridge, so they are ready when you come home.
• Use the weekend to do meal prep for the coming week (wash, and cut veggies for the next few meals)
• Cook double, so half the batch can be frozen for busy weekdays such as hockey practice.
• Get everything ready the night before (measure spices and dry ingredients, and grate cheese)

5 quick meal ideas:

If you have:
Vegetables….you can make:
Stir fry some veggies with chicken. Serve with brown rice, couscous, or quinoa
Eggs….you can make:
A yummy omelette with roasted red peppers, olives, and cheese
Pasta…you can make:
Sautéed tomatoes and mushrooms, and cook some ground beef or turkey to add with the pasta. Yum!
Cheese…you can make:
A quesadilla with whole wheat tortillas, black beans, corn, cheese, and cilantro
Lentils…you can make:
A curry with lots of spices, or a soup with red lentils carrots, potatoes, and tomatoes
Still not sure what to make? Check out www.cookspiration.com for more ideas!

My Challenge for this week: _____________________________________________

Example(s):

1.     I plan to cook a double batch of chili, for my family to have on swimming lesson night, instead of picking up some fast-food.

Remember; keep it SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely)