One of the ways I try to keep myself sane is finding ways to do healthy things for myself efficiently.
(I must admit up front that efficiency has always been a hobby of mine, even before having children made it a pressing issue.)
Healthy things before kids were a given in my life. Like, you know, exercise. Vegetables. Quiet time.
After kids, they became an afterthought.
Exercise? I’ve chased my toddler all day. That counts, right?
Vegetables? I ate a few carrots off my son’s plate while doing the dishes. And don’t veggie sticks have spinach powder or something?
Quiet time? …….. yeah, I got nothin’.
I kept all these things in my “someday” list in my head. Someday when I have more time. Someday when the kids grow up a bit.
But bodies don’t stay healthy with a promise of “someday”.
So thank goodness there are moms who have gone before us who have figured out ways to do healthy things for ourselves while raising little loved ones. And they’ve shared that wisdom with us.
One of my favorites is “Salad in a Jar”, a trick I learned from my dear friend Mary. Mary is an elementary school principal and mom of three kids under age 10. If it’s on her sane & present list, then it’s worth a try for me!
Pack five of these on a Sunday night and you’ve got a healthy lunch for yourself to grab from your fridge every day of the week. It’s pretty simple:
Add dressing to the bottom,
then hard veggies like carrots and peppers,
getting softer as you go up (like avocados, zucchini, apples, dried fruit)
then add proteins (cheese, egg, nuts & seeds)
and then pack the remaining space at the top of the jar with greens.
It works! Greens don’t get soggy, veggies stay fresh…all the way through Friday. Combine this with a few crackers or pretzels and I have a healthy, delicious meal 5x/week.
These salads always bring an extra smile to my face because I feel like I’m getting away with a good secret. Vary your dressings to vary the taste, or experiment with other fun salads to plan when grocery shopping.
My winter variation on this trick is soups. And this is where it gets fun: have a soup party!
Invite up to five friends to a dish-to-pass party on a weekend evening. Have each bring a big pot of soup, enough for 10 or more servings, and five jars for themselves. The soup should come to the party cold.
After eating a sample of each soup (warmed up) for dinner, fill up your five jars with a variety of soups for the week. Put ‘em in your fridge and enjoy them one at a time all week.
Healthy? Absolutely. Efficient? Definitely. Fun & social on top of all that? Of course! That, dear friends, is a perfect sane & present solution.