Healthy Food Preparation

Due to our busy schedule, I needed to figure out a healthy and inexpensive way to have fruits and veggies available to grab and go.  So here's what I figured out works best for us: meal prepping bags of fruits and veggies.  Every weekend during my shopping trip, I buy enough fruits and veggies to last the week (another reason why you need to pick GOOD produce so it will last all week and not go bad).  I try to buy berries to leave home because they are easier to crush in a cooler or on the go.  For the fruits on the go, I choose apples (which I buy in bulk already pre-sliced to ease the preparation process), oranges/clementines, and mangos (watermelon and cherries are also good but very seasonal).  My on the go veggie choices are those vegetables that are hearty and can hold up to being in a cooler part of the day (carrots, cucumbers with the skin on, peppers, celery, broccoli).  I also add a small container of salad dressing to each veggie bag.  These containers are inexpensive and easy to pick up at Walmart or even the Dollar Store.  Each evening when I am packing everyone's coolers, I grab a bag of their favorite fruit and a veggie bag.  If I know we have a busy activity schedule during the week, I will prep extra of everything so we can have enough for lunches and dinners.  So my hour worth of prep work on Sunday allows us to all eat healthy throughout the week!