Organize Yourself Healthy: Easy Meal Planning and Prep Ideas From Productivity Expert Leslie Osborn of Moms Get It Done!
What motivated Leslie Osborn to revamp her meal planning? It was the weight gain she experienced from working long hours at her desk job.
A little organization can go a long way when trying to get fast easy, healthy meals on the table for your family!
In this episode, productivity expert Leslie Osborn walks us through the systems she has in place to ensure simple, healthy meals are ready to go for her young family.
Leslie shows how meal prep can be super simple even for the busiest of moms!
Takeaways:
Set a timer and food prep for that amount of time. You can get a lot done in short spurts.
Do meal prep for dinner while you're getting lunch ready. You already have the plates, utensils out.
Stock your freezer with just in cases. You never know when a last minute change will create lack of time for the meal you had planned.
Leslie is so generous and is sharing her weekly planner which can be customized to your needs. Click https://mailchi.mp/246342fbd353/w764jw9azb for the planner.
Transcript of the Episode
Andrea Heyman 00:00 Adventures In Feeding My Fam is a weekly podcast discussing the challenges and fun around feeding your family healthy meals. I'm Andrea Heyman, and I've been a registered dietician for over 25 years. So I know the importance of good nutrition. But I'm also a mom of three, so I understand the challenges and tumor that comes along with trying to make this happen. In this podcast, I'll share my tips, tricks and menus, but also share the stories and food prep failures that come along the way to interview guests, we'll discuss family food traditions, how to strengthen bonds around the family table, as well as their favorite family recipes. There isn't one right way to feed your family. But there are countless stories, you can take bits and pieces and learn from all of them. Everybody, before we get into today's episode, I want to tell you a little bit about what I'm doing with one on one coaching. As you all know, I'm a mom of three and a registered dietitian. And I am definitely a meal planning expert. I love helping busy moms like you need their nutrition and wellness goals by focusing on the basics. And what I'm talking about is meal planning. There are tons of meal planning programs, where they give you a menu for the week and a grocery list perhaps and tell you to make these foods. But I believe that the main reason why these types of programs and other diets. The reason why they don't stick long term is that they're not tailored to each individual family. We know that each family has different needs different preferences, different routines. And that's one of the things that I love doing the podcast is because we talk to so many different families. And we know that each family balances things differently and has a way of making things work for them. That is why when folks work with me one on one, we take into the end, take into account these differences. And we address all of those factors, so that you can be successful with your meal planning, meet your wellness goals, whether that be weight loss, or just getting healthier in general, while also teaching your kids good nutrition and being a good role model for your kids. Right now I'm accepting a few one on one clients. And if you want to find more out about that, you can go find me on Instagram at adventures in feeding my fam, or on Facebook at Andrea Heyman. Either please send me a direct message and I can give you additional information about that.
Now on to today's episode, Welcome friends to another episode of adventures and feeding my fam. I'm really excited for this episode today because we've got my good friend Leslie Osborn. I've actually only known Leslie for four or five months now. But she's the kind of person that once you know her, you know you've got a friend for life. She is a super busy mom of two, all of who's seven and Logan, who's four. She's the president of a nonprofit moms club in Michigan, a fitness instructor and she also runs a group called moms get it done. Moms get it done is a group. Really, it's a business and a movement to support busy moms and getting more done and feeling efficient and fulfilled. You can find her group on Facebook, and you can also check out her podcast anywhere you enjoy listening. And actually a couple of weeks ago, she had me on her show, which I really enjoyed being a guest. So without further ado, here's Leslie. Oh my goodness, lovely. I am seriously tired. Just thinking about all that you're involved in.
Leslie Osborn 04:25 Yes, I'm very busy, but I really like being busy. So that's good.
Andrea Heyman 04:29 That's great. Do you have a favorite project that you're working on right now?
Leslie Osborn 04:34 Well, right now I'm working on moms get it done, which is about making moms feel more effective and more productive. I know, as a busy mom, it's hard to get anything done. I feel like I have lists and lists of things to do and when am I doing it? When do I get on the phone with the insurance company? How do I What am I making for dinner, you know, all of those things and I feel like there's so many things that we do to save time and To make it easier that I think we can share that with each other and really help each other along and this crazy mommyhood ness.
Andrea Heyman That's a true really good mission. And I can, I'm sure many of the listeners can use your help. So tell me a little bit about the house you grew up in as it relates to food, did you have family meals as a child who cooked who shopped, all that kind of stuff.
Leslie Osborn 05:27 So growing up, my mom and dad both worked. And so my mom and dad sort of split the responsibilities. I remember when I grew up, the grocery store was sort of far from where we lived. I grew up in northern Michigan, and it took like 30 minutes to drive to this big, you know, grocery store. So my mom would buy food for the entire week. And we always had dinner together at the table. And you know, I'm from Michigan. So our food consists a lot of, you know, meat and potatoes, and my mom would always make me eat my salad first. So that's something you know, she's like, you have to eat the vegetables first. And we put ranch on everything. And now that I'm a mom, I sort of realized that like doing these big grocery shoppings you know, like, at the end of the week, she'd be like, Hey, we're having breakfast for dinner. And I'd be like, yeah, that's so exciting. And what really was happening was she needed to go grocery shopping and shipping every now and then I was eating out of the fridge. I have like eggs and toast. And you know, I do this with my kids. And they're so excited. And really, it's cuz like, I'm out of vegetables.
Andrea Heyman 06:33 Right? So we, together. Yeah, your parents really split the responsibility. And so they were really like, ahead of their time. They were ahead of the curve.
Leslie Osborn 06:42 Right. They were my my stepdad actually is he loves cooking. And he's always loved food. And he comes, you know, from a background where his mother had 12 children and would make food. I mean, just all day long. So he really liked cooking. So she was really lucky in that sense, because they were both really busy as well.
Andrea Heyman 07:03 Just does he have a specialty? Or like, was there a particular meal growing up that you really love when your stuff doesn't mean?
Leslie Osborn 07:11 You know, he used to make these very elaborate breakfasts. And he still does it. Like. He has this like custom cheese sauce that he makes and puts it all over eggs and like this green cheese. It's like a cheese sauce that he put over the eggs. Again, like I'm not sure that it was like the most health conscious menu at the time. Like, was there a vegetable in there? Probably. But you know, it was so delicious. And he still makes it like he still will invite people over and have these like gigantic breakfasts. And so even if it was dinnertime, he would make that and it was really exciting to me.
Andrea Heyman 07:45 That's such a wonderful tradition. Do your kids get excited for his breakfast?
Leslie Osborn 07:50 They do when they stay over there. He makes, you know, all kinds of ridiculous things for them. And they come home every fall. And you know, Mom, I want this, I want this and I'm like I am not. I you know I am special for his house. Right? Right. I think they discovered Captain Crunch over there, which was, you know, very exciting for them.
Andrea Heyman 08:12 Sure. And how how would you compare? or How would you describe your household now? Like, are the the rules in in meal planning and prepping? Are they split in your household?
Leslie Osborn 08:26 Yes. And no, my husband is very busy with his job. And when I decided a few years ago not to work full time. You know, I started the meal planning, and all the prep and everything like that. And since his job gets crazier and crazier. It's mostly me that does it. Now that I am working. He is stepping in and I think two days a week he'll do it and he'll be like, Okay, great. On Wednesdays, I will be doing all of the cooking and cleaning on you know, Saturday nights, I'll do all the cooking and cleaning. But that's a recent development, it used to just be me doing all the shopping all the planning, not for nothing. He does like going grocery shopping, which is very strange. But if I send him he buys the he'll go with the list and then buy like 30 other things that are that they'll see typically, right and I mean, not necessarily even now like he'll buy like four pineapples or like two pies are like, really crazy. So I mean, thank God, you know, during COVID we really got used to doing like, ordering online, which is nice because you can't grab those extra things. You know, you just throw and they put it in your car, you pick it up or they deliver it and then you you know you have what you have so An
drea Heyman 09:37 So it sounds like you do a lot of the meal planning. And now you are you know that your husband's doing a couple nights a week or you kind of telling him what's on the menu.
Leslie Osborn 09:51 Yeah, so we actually have a system that works out really well. So excuse me, like on Saturdays, usually on Saturdays or Sundays. We'll sit down and literally put our calendars side by side because we're both so busy. We'll look at what the week has at around dinnertime. So this week, I'm slammed all night, every night this week, I have something. So like tonight, we knew we had to get dinner on the table at a certain time. We had to have it cleaned up by a certain time the kids in the pajamas and then he would literally stop working, swoop in and take over. And like it. We're planning it accordingly. Right. So like tonight, today is Monday, we made spaghetti tomorrow night. I'm out all night. So we're gonna they're gonna get some takeout, some healthy takeout that we always have kind of on the backburner, but it's planned, right? And then this spaghetti leftovers from today will give to the kids on Wednesday, because we want to make this shrimp dish that they don't like, you know what I mean? So we literally look at the entire week, we look at our calendars for every single night. He knows on Wednesday, or whatever day he's gonna be cooking. So he's the one that chooses that day. Like, oh, I
Andrea Heyman 10:59 This is really an unusual collaborative effort. I don't know that I know. I'm a family yet that doesn't quite like you guys, it's really good to hear that you guys do it like this.
Leslie Osborn 11:14 I also prep all of our lunches. We eat salads with chicken on them every day, because that's the healthiest way for us to be healthy is to like plan it out. Like I literally buy the same salad ingredients. every single week, I grilled chicken on Sunday nights. They're all in like these little containers in the fridge. And we literally no matter how busy we are, where we are, we can just grab the salad and eat it. And if you know the dressing, and everything is already there, like we don't have to do anything. And I think my biggest meal planning tip is to make it so you don't have to think like think all at one time. Like we think all of it on Sunday. Do you talk to your kids about what you're going to eat that week? Like do you ask them what they want?
Andrea Heyman 11:55 Absolutely, especially now that they're older. Over time I've really gotten I'm actually I'm really proud of the fact that I've gotten my kids involved in not only the meal planning, but the preparation. So Mondays and Thursdays, I'm particularly busy. So I have a 16 year old who really likes to cook, and he is willing to do it. And he so I assigned him so tonight he made a tofu vegetable stir fry with rice, and it was waiting for me. And it was very lovely.
Leslie Osborn 12:34 That feels like a goal. Like for mine now, I mean, all of his own Olive is seven and she likes to help Logan loves cooking, he's going to little chef camp,
Andrea Heyman 12:44 Oh, you got to take advantage of that.
Leslie Osborn 12:47 I will, I will. And they do help me, you know, set the table and they bring their plates up afterward. And you know, our whole family is the one that sort of cleans up afterward. So I feel like that takes a load off of me too. I feel like a good I feel like like you were saying before, a lot of the times it's one person that does everything. And in my experience, just because I talked to a lot of moms, it's a lot of moms, you know, and I think at some point, if you can integrate your family into being a part of the process as they get older, you know, the kids, not the husband, as they get older, they'll get you know, more used to doing stuff like that, and you'll be more of a team rather than mom doing everything.
Andrea Heyman 13:27 And and the reality is, is you're setting them up for so many life lessons like you don't you, you have to be an active member in these everyday tasks. And if they're ever if your kids are ever to have partners later in life, the partners will be very happy because they will appreciate cooking and appreciate, hopefully healthy foods since we've made that a part of our lives.
Leslie Osborn 13:58 Do we have like a list? A master list? Like do you ever sit there and you're like, Oh my gosh, what do I want to eat this week? I have no idea. And you're searching your mind for what you normally make and you have no idea. So we actually have this like master list of things we like. And then we can like, be like, Oh, we want tofu stir fry or whatever. Like I like tofu stir fry, too. So or whatever. I want that on Wednesday. I forgot all about that. Or we're making Korean meatballs on Thursday, you know, or whatever. So it's I think it's important to have a list of what you like, and what the kids like because then again, with no thinking. I think that Yeah, so
Andrea Heyman 14:37 I like your style. You're You're just like all about making things easier for yourself. So meanwhile, I'm super impressed Korean food. Nobody ever says that they're trying to make Korean food. That's cool.
Leslie Osborn 14:49 Yeah, we when we lived in New York City, we had a lot of Korean restaurants near us and we I mean we love suit. We love Japanese food. We like you know all kinds of Asian food and Indian food. When I moved to Michigan, I really found the lack of, you know, different cultures food was surprising. So when we really wanted something like this, we would make it. So we make a bed and bath. It's a Korean dish. It's actually like a Korean leftover dish, literally, but we can't find it anywhere here that we love. So we're like, you know what, we're just going to make it. And so we decided in New York, we never made any of this, we just ordered it. Right. It was so amazing. And now it's so amazing, it's cheap, they deliver it to you, you know, we both worked on Wall Street at the time, we are busy. And so now that we've found like, the tricks like the first time we make a new recipe, we always go literally, exactly to the recipe. Sure. And then the next time we find the shortcuts, and we find, you know, this past week, we made it this new carnitas recipe that I mean, literally took almost the whole day, where you have to like, you know, make everything from scratch, and you're making pickled onions, and you're making the salsa from scratch. And it's actually from a cookbook that my husband got me. But it took us all day. Well, now we're like, okay, we can pre make the meat the night before, we can totally have this on a you know, I can make it on a Sunday. We can have it on Tuesday, as I like leftovers in a different form. Like maybe it's carnitas bowls instead of tacos. So like the first time, we always go right to recipe, and then we find the shortcuts later. So I think that really helps because you get what it's supposed to be like, and then you can kind of work it into your own life.
Andrea Heyman 16:30 Yeah, I love the way you're talking you you seem to like, kind of repurpose the leftovers, and not just have the same exact leftovers necessarily, which is what I usually do, but you kind of reinvent them in another way, a couple days later or a day later.
Leslie Osborn 16:48 So that's actually kind of nice not to have to make it twice. Right. So like by making tacos one night, maybe the next night. It's, you know, case ideas. I mean, it's similar. It's not, you know, but to make it a little bit different kind of makes everybody happy. I feel like
Andrea Heyman 17:02 so I know you didn't really plan meals, but do you have any meals that are your go to meals when you're super short on time?
Leslie Osborn 17:12 Um, yes, we do. And this is gonna sound we do quesadillas. Because, you know, they love them. And also, I always, always have avocados and I know they'll eat them. And they're good for them. Right. So if you add that and usually I have, I always have like a big thing of rice in the fridge. Like I'm always I have a rice cooker that I was did not want to buy but my husband like made me buy now I use it like every other day. So, but I always have like rice in the fridge. And then I always and this is gonna sound weird, but I buy these organic like all chicken chicken nuggets that I leave in the freezer, and they love them. And it's not the worst thing. You know, like ice always be like, I don't want to give them you know, frozen food and all that stuff. No, of course I don't want to but every once in a while when everything goes crazy. It's okay. You know, it's okay. Yeah, I always make sure that we have frozen vegetables so that I can just, you know, heat them up really quickly and give it to them. I think it's important to stock your freezer with just in cases, right? Like you're going out to dinner. And it cancels or something happens. Somebody doesn't feel well, you know, you should always have something that you can just go to.
Andrea Heyman 18:23 And I agree. I think you should have some fallbacks there.
Leslie Osborn 18:27 Yeah. Yeah. And if it's a weird meal, sometimes they like it. You know, like, I'll be like, oh, we're having eggs and they're like, Yay. Again, with back to my like, breakfast thing I didn't know. You know, I just thought it was exciting. We are having eggs at nighttime.
Andrea Heyman 18:44 It is it is exciting. All right. So Name three things that are in your refrigerator
Leslie Osborn 18:49 right now. The salads. Okay, I always have watermelon in my frigerator in the summertime. It's like one of our favorite things. I always have slices of cheese. Our entire family would be like I'm hungry. I need a slice of cheese. And I always have I don't know why. And then I always have organic half and a half for my coffee. Because I literally I coffee in like organic half and a half in the morning is the thing and if it's not in there, I'm sad, ma'am.
Andrea Heyman 19:21 Oh, okay. Yeah, that's fair.
Leslie Osborn 19:25 Yeah, girl needs her half and half your business moms get it done is really just perfect for you. Yes, so many systems in place. And then also it's very clear that you really do get a lot done.
Andrea Heyman 19:39 So tell us what you're doing right now with moms get it done.
Leslie Osborn So moms get it done right now is a Facebook group where I post a lot of videos and tips and tricks and a lot of research that I'm doing about productivity and how I mean really how you can feel more effective because I mean, you could do three things in a day. And I could do 10. And we might feel the same at the end of the day, right? So it's really about like tailoring what works for you. It's about talking about all of the craziness, right? Like, there's a lot to talk about in the world, and not just in mommyhood. But as it relates to you and your kids. And, and I'm not saying anything, you know, controversial or anything like that. It's more about like, how do we handle our kids being home all day? And, you know, what are we doing with them? And how do we, you know, how do we form playdates and socialize them and stuff like that? So these are important things to talk about. But my main focus is, you know, how do we get more done? Like, how do we get it done to make it easier? I think there are ways to make it easier. I think pre planning makes it easier. I think having a mom clan makes it easier. You know, in some of us, it's harder to find those people, you know, it's and it's if we can find each other even in the online world. That's, that's good. Like, I want to see that somebody else is sitting in the middle of a big mess and has no idea where to start. And I want to say, hey, start right there. And they're like, okay, you know, and then we do. I do have a podcast coming out soon. I think you're gonna be my guest, as I'm very excited about that. There is going to be a podcast coming out soon. And it'll be you know, me talking about things that will be me talking to experts at meal planning and nutrition. And I think I have somebody coming on that's like an organizing expert, which I mean, I'm organized, but I feel like I need more like I always want way more organized. Oh, yes. So it doesn't even matter what I do to organize, like, I need more, I need more people to tell me what to do with that. So I feel like moms, you know, want to hear stuff like this. They want to hear that they're not the only ones, you know, in the madness, but that there's tricks to the thing, you know, there's no book written, but maybe there's tricks. That's great. So tell our, this has been really fun talking to you. And I can seriously like hang out with you all night. But tell us tell the listeners where they can find you.
Andrea Heyman You said you have a Facebook page.
Leslie Osborn 22:03 I do. The Facebook group is called moms get it done. And then I am on Instagram and it's mom's get it done. But it's mom's dot get.it done. So there's like just dots in between it. So definitely find it. There's that separating the words. And then you know, the website is being worked on now.
Andrea Heyman 22:26 Oh, fantastic. Lovely. We I will be sure to look for all of these new things coming up for you. Isn't Leslie just a powerhouse, you can tell she's in the bright line of work with efficiency and productivity work because she is so busy and manages to get so much done, but has such incredible tools, advice and kind of systems in place to be more productive. I love it when she says stock your freezer with Justin cases. And Leslie is sharing her weekly planner. And that's pretty much her master tool to keep herself productive and efficient throughout the days and the weeks. If you liked this episode, please share it with a friend and rate the episode as well. I am I want you to know that I am having so much fun doing this podcast and that I'm really doing it for you the listeners so that I can help you in any way possible as it relates to food prep and feeding your family. So let me know. You can find me on Instagram and you can let me know if you have any other feedback or comments. And if you want to see any other specific topics I'd love to know. Take care until next week.