Healthy Eating - The Best Foods To Help Make Meal Prep A Breeze

If you're looking to maintain a healthier eating plan, one thing you will want to be doing as often as possible is preparing your meals in advance. Preparing meals up ahead will both help you stay on track and help save cooking time during the week when you tend to be most busy and less likely to squeeze meal preparation into your busy day.

The important thing to note in all of this, however, is not all foods prepare as well as others. In fact, particular foods will only last a day or two while others may hold up quite well for 4 to 5 days, or, freeze very well so can be used at a later time. These are the foods you might want to focus on when doing your meal preparation.

Let's go over the main foods you need to focus on...

1. Chicken Breast. On the protein side of things, you can't beat chicken breasts. They're a firmer protein source, so can do very well in the freezer for weeks at a time. Grill up a batch of 10 to 12 breasts and serve them throughout the week.

Unlike other protein sources such as fish, for instance, they won't lose their texture when reheated.

2. Brown Rice. Brown rice should be another staple in your menu. Not only is it slow to digest so it won't impact your blood sugar levels all that much, brown rice is also an excellent way to promote long-term energy.

It's easy to whip up a large batch and keep it in a Tupperware container until you're ready to use it. As it is a heartier grain, it should stand-up to microwaving very well also.

3. Peppers. When it comes to vegetable options, many of them won't stand up that well to reheating. Broccoli, for instance, will turn mushy, as will cauliflower.

Peppers, however, tend to do quite well. Provided they are cooked to be slightly firmer in the first place when you reheat them for meal two; they should work just fine.

4. Hard-Boiled Eggs. Finally, don't overlook hard-boiled eggs. Boil up a dozen eggs and grab these as you need snacks throughout the day. While most egg variations won't taste all that good when cooked ahead of time, hard-boiled eggs are one exception to this rule.

So there you have some of the top foods to consider as you get ready for your meal preparation. Use these and you'll find meal preparation is easier than ever.

Although managing your disease can be very challenging, Type 2 diabetes is not a condition you must just live with. You can make simple changes to your daily routine and eating plan, lower both your weight and your blood sugar levels. Hang in there, the longer you do it, the easier it gets.

Make Some Great No Bake Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies

I love to be in the kitchen, maybe because I don't get enough time in there, but regardless when I have the chance, I get in there and bake or make cookies for my grandchildren, cook dinner for my kids or prepare some tasty treat for my co-workers. It gives me great pleasure to spend time in the kitchen because I know that many will enjoy the outcome of my time there.

Of all of the tasty treats that I will make or bake, the one that seems to get the most comments and compliments is the No Bake Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies. They love these cookies at work, at home and at parties. Many times people will ask me to make the No Bake Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies for a wedding or shower, at a graduation party or even at a church social.

I started make the No Bake Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies at a young age. When I was a child, my grandmother made these cookies for our family reunions. They were in BIG demand by everyone. She would have to hide a stash of them so that they were not eaten all at once and when everyone thought that her No Bake Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies were gone, she pulled out the stash, only to see big smiles yet again.

Sadly in 1979, my grandmother passed away and somehow I obtain her recipe and started making them for the family reunions. I found that I, too, had to put a stash away for a later time in the day (or weekend) so that they would be spread out for the group to enjoy. Since that time, I've been requested to make them for many occasions.

Do I think my recipe is special? No. Do I think there is anything different in my No Bake Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies that is not in other recipes? No, not really, but I do have a few handy tips that can help you to make good No Bake Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies.

Before I give you the recipe, please let me give you a few helpful hints:

1. Do not double the recipe. It never seems to work for me because of the formula of the ingredients and the amount of heat and boiling that it requires. If you need to make more than one batch, simply make them individually. It really doesn't take any more time and they will be perfect each time.

2. Be sure to use the timer. The recipe will call for bringing the ingredients to a boil. Make sure it comes to a complete full boil and then start the timer for one minute. You do not want to over cook or under cook these cookies. Over cooking them will result in crumbly, dry cookies. Under cooking them will give you a runny mess.

3. Let Stand for One Minute: I typically let my cookies in the pot for about one minute before dropping them by spoonful on the wax paper. This gives it a little cooling time and will not drip as much.

4. Shape them for appeal. After dropping them by spoonful on the wax paper, I take a fork which has been dipped in cool water, and press them around the sides to give them a more round appearance and eliminate the round oatmeal edges that tend to spread. Then I press the top lightly to flatten the top without squishing the cookie. Dip the fork in cool water often to keep it from sticking to the cookies.

5. Lift the Wax Paper to loosen. After the No Bake Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies have hardened (several hours later), you can remove them from the wax paper more easily, if you list the wax paper off the counter or table top so that they are not stuck. They will easily peel from the wax paper.

6. Store in air tight container. For longer lasting cookies that will not dry out, keep them in an airtight plastic storage container. Keeping them on a plate with plastic wrap is good, but a container that is air tight works better.

The recipe for No Bake Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies that I make follows:

1 stick of margarine
2 cups of sugar
½ cup of milk
Combine in a sauce pan, cook ingredients and bring to a boil. Once the margarine is completely melted and the sauce comes to a hard boil, boil it for one minute, stirring occasionally.

Add:
½ cup of peanut butter

One melted, add:
4 tablespoons of cocoa
1 teaspoon of vanilla

Mix well and add
3 cups of 1-minute oatmeal.

Stir well. Let stand and then drop by teaspoons on wax paper. Yields approximately 42 cookies

Enjoy.