Fast and Healthy Meal Tricks from a Mom of Five Boys

Looking great starts with feeling great.

Taking care of yourself is important – but where do you start?  Visit MerckEngage for some good ideas like Health Goals—Small Steps to Getting Healthier. Learn how to set how to get started.

Are you too busy? If you can find just 10 minutes a day we can help.

Now read on to see Fast and Healthy Meals Tricks from a Mom of Five Boys.

Cooking with resentment.  That’s pretty much how I feel about making dinner after a long busy day.  The idea of prepping for dinner, cooking dinner, spending 15 minutes eating with a ravenous clan (my family of four), then cleaning up after dinner…well, lets just say I’d rather stick pins in my eye.

I need a quick, but healthy meals ideas.  I need inspiration, short cuts, easy recipes and a little love in the kitchen.  For all those and more, I turn to someone that manages mealtime every night for a family of seven (five boys between the ages 4 – 13 years old, plus her AF active duty husband).

Sharon Smith, is a busy mom of growing boys and a fellow military spouse living at Ramstein AB, Germany. She is also a professional artist and Goodfellow AFB MSOY 2013.  Surely, she has enough practice managing hurried mealtime than most.

I sat down with her recently to find out some of her favorite tips, tricks and healthy go-to-recipes she uses in a pinch.

How do manage to feed five growing boys and a husband every night with healthy dinners without pulling out your hair?

Sharon:  I have lots of bald spots. Ha! No really, it’s never easy, but I no choice but to manage the growing men.  The key is to have LOTS of staples on hand, especially proteins.  With my size family, I have a freezer stocked; I mean seriously stocked, full of chicken, turkey and other meat. And a cupboard stocked with basics like brown rice, chicken stock and other essentials.   I can make something healthy and fast if I have the basics on hand. I mainly go to the commissary for fresh vegetables, fruit and dairy once or twice a week.

Do you menu plan for the week?  

Sharon:  Oh, gosh, no! I can’t because our lives are too busy – school, my painting, my husband’s crazy schedule – it would drive me nuts to not have things go as planned.  I’m more of a palate cook – I know the flavors of what I want to cook and eat for the week and I buy accordingly.  I always have the basics around to fill in the flavor profile I need.

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Stacy Huisman: Stacy Allsbrook-Huisman is an Air Force spouse, writer, mother and advocate within the military spouse community. As a former Parent-to-Parent trainer for Military Child Education Coalition, she led workshops and seminars on many topics related to the education of military-connected students. She is the coauthor with Dr. Amanda Trimillos of Seasons of My Military Student: Practical Ideas for Parents and Teachers (Elva Resa, 2018). In her “other” life, she worked in public affairs and project management for the city of Las Vegas for 14 years. She was the Executive Director for the Las Vegas Centennial. She had a hand in baking the world largest birthday cake, hosting a 100,000 person parade, marrying 100 couples at once, organizing an amazing Red Hot Chili Peppers concert and managing 450 other events, programs and public relations celebrating her hometown birthday! She met her husband while he was stationed at Nellis AFB. She was whisked away on a crazy military spouse journey around the globe and hasn’t looked back since – only forward. Stacy is connected to many aspects of military life. She writes for one of our other Victory Media publications - GI Jobs Magazine - where she features successful transitioned Veterans in the workforce. She continues to write for myriad of websites and blogs, including a mini-think tank she co-founded called Families on the Home Front. Stacy was published in the popular book Stories Around the Table - Laughter, Wisdom, and Strength in Military Life. She is also a judge for Operation Homefront's Military Child of the Year 2015.
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