It can be really difficult, in this day and age, to get everything done. I know that I am not the only woman who has gazed wistfully at the past, imagining how nice it would be to have that fifties lifestyle where all I had to do was keep the house up and get dinners ready, as well as whatever social obligations I might have. Now, this is only a fleeting fantasy, because pretty soon the reality of the times actually set in, and I've got no desire to live in a sexist, racist reality. I also really enjoy having the level of education level that I do, as well as my ability to pursue the career of my choice. I just wish I had time to make healthy meals for my family!

Well, fortunately, there is a solution- quick easy meals are nearly as rare as they might seem. You might be familiar with a TV show called "30 Minute Meals." Well, I've discovered that with a little forethought you can plan for healthy meals for an entire week and be good to go. At first, I was a little big concerned about the nutritional content of these meals. I know a fair bit about nutrition- certainly enough to know that any rice that will cook in under fifty minutes is not a healthy grain to be feeding your family. You want to be eating whole grain brown rice for maximum nutritional content and digestibility. Once I started doing some research about quick easy meals, however, I discovered that there are a number of healthy alternatives that can be cooked in a much shorter time frame- quinoa, Bulgar wheat, couscous, etc.

For dishes that absolutely need rice, a pressure cooker has become my new best friend. I've also learned about soaking beans overnight, and doing small steps to prepare my food before it is meal time. If you're going to make a 30 minute meal, you either need to be working with materials that are easy to prepare and quick to cook, or you need to be doing some prep work at some other time. I've found that making soup in large amounts is great- we'll have the soup a few times during the week, usually once for dinner as a main course, and then once as a side dish. After that, I freeze the rest and re-thaw it a few months later. To keep things interesting, I'll add in new ingredients or change the spicing to make it seem like a whole new soup.