How to Get More Time Outside: Make Weeknight Meals Easier!

You might ask, “What do weeknight meals have to do with getting outside more?”

When striving to make a change in life, something has to give. If you want more time for something you’ve decided is important, the time has to come from somewhere!

The reason that we as a family can get outside for a walk every weeknight afternoon is because we’ve built that habit. It’s not just about the habit of walking out the door though. Many other things have to happen in order for that routine to make sense, and work for our family.

I won’t name all of those factors here, but do you want to know one of the most important ones? DINNER!

If we are going to take a walk before dinner, we have to have a solid dinner plan. When dinner is set, we can enjoy that fresh air as a family relatively stress-free!

Over the years of building this habit (we are going on 13+ years), we’ve acquired a few tips and tricks that make getting those weeknight dinners on the table easier. Easier dinners, means more time outside!

Make Weeknight Meals Easier. Spend More Time Outside!

Meal Plan. If may sound like a pain at first, but trust me, it saves so much time, and prevents decision fatigue. We meal plan on Saturday & Sunday, and then grocery shop accordingly.
Set up several go-to meals. Go-to meals are meals you can throw together quickly, usually everyone loves them, and they utilize simple ingredients that you most likely have on hand. Here are a few of our family staple meals:
Prep veggies & protein ahead of time. I steal a pocket of time (to chop, cut, defrost, clean, prepare, etc) earlier in day so that when it’s dinner time, the cooking process is much more streamlined.
Measure ingredients ahead. Same idea as chopping, but if there’s spices or add-ins such as rice or maybe a dairy item, it’s so much easier to have it ready!
Utilize “easy-button” appliances. We use the rice cooker at least once a week, and make crockpot meals regularly. So nice to have these appliances do the work for us while we are out and about! Another “easy-button” tool I use that isn’t an appliance? The sheet pan!
Plan for leftovers. Make more than you know your family will eat, and then you can enjoy it later in the week. Or we often save a whole family portion, freeze it, and get a super easy meal the next week (or later).