178: 3 Ways to Simplify Your Schedule by Scheduling Your Food

January 13, 2023

We are better parents when we have less mental fatigue and more energy to give to parenting and connecting with our kids. -Katie Kimball

A real food diet can be a time-consuming lifestyle – I might even venture to say that making unprocessed food from scratch and running around to specialty markets or farms for natural organic food to eat is a greater time-suck than (gasp) Facebook.

As you balance your kids and your healthy eating goals, how about scheduling food (just a bit!) to simplify your schedule and help make real food feel more possible?

3 tips to simplify your schedule by scheduling your food:

Try grocery shopping every other week
Consider packing lunches during dinner prep
Keep breakfast simple by using (and re-using!) a schedule

How do you save time or simplify time in the kitchen?

Can’t see the video? Watch Simplifying your Schedule here on YouTube!

No time for the video? Here are the notes!

Simplifying Your Schedule

0:11: Sometimes parenting healthy kids is about simplifying your schedule and creating routines so that you can function as a parent while still making healthy choices for your family.
0:47: These are 3 tips I’ve learned over the course of 17 years of being a mom and eating a real food diet.

Limit Grocery Shopping

1:10: Try grocery shopping only every other week. This can seem really hard if you’re already going several times a week, so maybe start with only once a week.
2:08: If you’re eating lots of produce, you’ll need to do some planning to get it to last 2 weeks. Buy both short and long-lasting fruits and vegetables and eat the short-lasting ones first. Here are tips for making vegetables last longer, and tips for using cabbage.
5:08: Buy frozen vegetables for longevity. Yes, some nutrients are lost, but nutrients are also lost on the way to the store and while the produce is sitting in your fridge. Frozen fruits and veggies are still a great way to get produce to last longer.
6:11: When you have food on the verge of going bad, put them in the freezer. Freeze browning bananas and spinach about to turn for smoothies.

Variety is good when it comes to vegetables. -Katie Kimball

Hone Your Lunch Packing Routine

7:36: Save time on lunches by packing lunch during dinner time. Before you clean up from dinner pack up some leftovers or raw veggies you have out for lunch the next day. Use these dinners to make great leftover lunches, and find more packed lunch tips here.

Your morning is so much more peaceful when you’ve packed lunch the night before. -Katie Kimball

Kids don’t need plastic knives. They need real skills.

Teach safe technique, focus, and confidence in the all-time fav lesson from our kids cooking class! (ages 2-12)

Or find out more about the free knife class here.

Routinize a Breakfast Rotation

9:36: Lastly let’s talk about breakfast. If you aren’t a cereal family, it’s stressful to decide what’s for breakfast every day in the heat of the moment. Set up a breakfast rotation so you (and your kids!) know what’s for breakfast every day.

Resources We Mention for Simplifying Your Schedule

Here are tips for making vegetables last longer
Tips for using cabbage
Use these dinners to make great leftover lunches
More packed lunch tips for kids

What You Should Do Next

1. Subscribe to the Healthy Parenting Handbook Newsletter

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2. Try a Free Preview of My Cooking Class for Kids

Our members’ favorite lesson is always our 10-minute knife skills and safety class, teaching techniques with unique & memorable phrases from butter knives to chef’s knives (ages 2-teen). Take a peek here and try it out with your kids.

3. Enroll in the Online Cooking Course for Kids

Enroll now in the Wall Street Journal’s #1 recommended online cooking class for kids (also rated 5 stars on Facebook). See what fits your family best HERE.

About Katie Kimball

Katie Kimball, CSME, creator of Kids Cook Real Food^™ and CEO of Kitchen Stewardship^®, LLC, is passionate about connecting families around healthy food. As a trusted educator and author of 8 real food cookbooks, she’s been featured on media outlets like ABC, NBC and First for Women magazine and contributes periodically on the FOX Network.

Since 2009, busy moms have looked to Katie as a trusted authority and advocate for children’s health, and she often partners with health experts and medical practitioners to stay on the cutting edge. In 2016 she created the Wall Street Journal recommended best online kids cooking course, Kids Cook Real Food^™, helping thousands of families around the world learn to cook. She is actively masterminding the Kids’ Meal Revolution, with a goal of every child learning to cook.

A mom of 4 kids from Michigan, she is also a Certified Stress Mastery Educator, member of the American Institute of Stress and trained speaker through Bo Eason’s Personal Story Power.

Responses

4waystoyummy

01/15/2023

Kudos to Katie for helping families and children connect to a most important life skill. My mother grew up in a small village in Austria. Her family raised almost all their own food. Her grandmother was even the village meat smoker and they had a smoking kitchen in their 500 year old home. Life was simple with few conveniences. Families worked and enjoyed life side by side. My mother used to say the downfall of the human race will be when they no longer know how to cook from scratch. What she meant was people survived hardships and isolation by knowing how to feed themselves, which included foraging, cooking, raising livestock, growing and preserving food. I’m all for a shortcut, but I hope we always will value what it takes to bring real food to the table. I think it tastes best and certainly is healthier than packaged foods.

Reply
1. Carolyn
  
  01/17/2023
  
  Thanks so much for sharing your family’s story! Beautifully said!
  
  Reply

2 thoughts on “178: 3 Ways to Simplify Your Schedule by Scheduling Your Food”

4waystoyummy

01/15/2023 at 6:49 am

Kudos to Katie for helping families and children connect to a most important life skill. My mother grew up in a small village in Austria. Her family raised almost all their own food. Her grandmother was even the village meat smoker and they had a smoking kitchen in their 500 year old home. Life was simple with few conveniences. Families worked and enjoyed life side by side. My mother used to say the downfall of the human race will be when they no longer know how to cook from scratch. What she meant was people survived hardships and isolation by knowing how to feed themselves, which included foraging, cooking, raising livestock, growing and preserving food. I’m all for a shortcut, but I hope we always will value what it takes to bring real food to the table. I think it tastes best and certainly is healthier than packaged foods.
- Carolyn
  
  01/17/2023 at 10:01 pm
  
  Thanks so much for sharing your family’s story! Beautifully said!