The Colors of the Rainbow

This is not a food blog, mostly because I am not a big cook.  However I do TRY to menu plan, grocery shop and prepare healthy meals for my family.  Normally, I enjoy doing this because the methodical process of cooking relaxes me, and sitting down together for dinner, as a family at the table relaxes my family.

Meal planning can be the toughest part, though, because often I run out of groceries/potential meals, before I find time to plan for a new grocery trip.  I have discovered that the grocery store without a plan simply turns into an expensive snack run.  This year when I was in the busiest part of my work season, I found myself at the store with no plan, but a desperate need for a few days worth of meals. So I developed a new personal meal strategy that defies all conventional meal planning wisdom:  color coding.

Yes, that's right, I planned meals with a meat, fruit and vegetable with ONLY ONE COLOR featured.  We may not have had a color balance, but the meals were filling and the substance felt complete.  Imagine something like the following:

ORANGE NIGHT:

roasted salmon

roasted sweet potato

fresh cantaloupe with mint

 YELLOW NIGHT:

Fish tacos in a YELLOW corn tortilla, roasted YELLOW corn salsa and fresh pineapple

Don't those sound like fun, delicious and EASY options?

Let's go further!

GREEN NIGHT:

pesto chicken, roasted brussel sprouts and a green salad

RED NIGHT:

crockpot BBQ, red slaw (red cabbage, red delicious apples, red onions) and watermelon

And the variations in the colors are probably quite endless.  So the next time you need a simple meal solution, try thinking monochromatically and see what creative meals you make.  I would love hear your ideas!

XO,
Emily