Met RX Meal Replacement bars are a lifesaver for those who are too busy after a strenuous workout to take time to sit down for their nutrition shake. Sometimes, difficult gym schedules make getting to that next appointment on time a real problem that can be compounded when there isn’t a simple way of giving your body that added protein burst that it needs to get you through the rest of the day. This is why so many enjoy the convenience of high-energy protein bars that can be eaten while rushing down the road.

However, Met RX makes a very tasty high protein shake formula that comes in powdered form for after workout breaks. Shake powder is available in flavors like berry blast, original vanilla, and an extreme chocolate flavor that seems to be a favorite at many area gyms. The Met RX protein shakes are a meal replacement shake for those who are on a training routine that requires many small meals per day. While the shake powder does not travel as well if you are jogging off to your next appointment, it can travel if necessary.

The Met RX Meal Replacement bars come in a size called the Met RX Big 100 bar that has a full 27g of Metamyosyn protein that is easy to digest and works quickly inside of the body to get the job done. These bars can be combined with a shake powder drink to support a total nutrition diet if necessary. The Met RX Company is well-known within the bodybuilding industry for having a product that tastes as good as the flavors sound on the wrapper. The top three flavors seem to be:

• Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
• Peanut Butter Cookie Dough
• Chocolate Chip Graham Cracker

The nutritious Met RX Meal Replacement bars and shake powder is normally used by people who are participating in sports oriented training routines where muscles are receiving a workout and need food designed to give the body helpful ingredients that promote muscle regeneration and growth. However, in recent years, high protein food bars are being used by many other members of the public that have schedules that do not always allow time for proper meals. The US president claims that he eats nutrition bars.

With the Met RX Big 100 bar variety of flavors, and the shake powder coming in another variety of flavors, there is never any reason for people to become bored with this companies scientifically developed product line. For convenience, Met RX offers variety packages of flavors so that there are flavor choices available for every mood or situation. Bars make great snacks for business meetings, trips, and for those days when leaving your desk is hard to do at work.

A green salad is a perfect go-to meal when you’re in the mood for something in between – a meal that’s not too light but not too heavy either. It is easy to prepare and you can choose what dressing to use according to your current mood.

If you’re in the mood for something refreshing yet easy to prepare for your next meal, here are 3 green salad recipes to try:

Mint Greens Mix

What you need:

• 4 cups fresh spinach
• 1 cup sliced avocado
• 1 cup sliced cantaloupe
• 1/2 cup diced red bell pepper
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint leaves
• 1 tablespoon mint apple jelly
• 1 1/2 teaspoons white wine vinegar
• 1 clove garlic, minced

In a medium bowl, combine vegetable oil, mint apple jelly, white wine vinegar and garlic to make the dressing. Divide spinach leaves, avocado and cantaloupe between 2 serving plates then sprinkle with red bell pepper and mint leaves. Pour dressing over salad, toss and serve.

Tropical Twist Green Salad

What you need:

• 1/4 fresh pineapple, peeled, cored and chopped
• 1/4 red onion, thinly sliced
• 4 cups torn arugula leaves
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 teaspoons maple syrup
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Mix together apple cider vinegar, olive oil, maple syrup and salt in a bowl to make the vinaigrette. Set aside. In a salad bowl, combine pineapple, onion, arugula leaves and cilantro. Pour dressing over fresh ingredients and toss to coat. Serve immediately.

The Orange Surprise

What you need:

• 1 can mandarin oranges, drained
• 4 cups baby spinach
• 4 cups mixed salad greens
• 1/2 cup slivered almonds
• 1/2 cup creamy salad dressing
• 1/3 cup thinly sliced red onion
• 1/3 cup white sugar
• 1/3 cup white vinegar
• 1 teaspoon poppy seeds

To make the dressing, whisk together creamy salad dressing, white sugar, white vinegar and poppy seeds in a bowl. Place mandarin oranges, baby spinach, mixed salad greens, and red onion in a serving plate and top with slivered almonds. Drizzle poppy seed dressing over salad and toss to coat before serving.

Regular consumption of fresh salads will keep your body healthy and energized. Not only that, your appetite will be satisfied as well. Try these delicious and refreshing green salad recipes for your next meal – you’ll definitely want to start eating healthy more!

Not all of us can prepare a meal for one reason or another. The most common people who need prepared meal delivery are the elderly and the sick. It is very important that these people get the very best prepared meal delivery that not only tastes good and is nutritious, but also punctual and always on time. Here are some things to keep in mind when looking for prepared meal delivery company that’s right for you.

Any good prepared meal delivery company will cater to your needs and what you want, not the other way around. If the person is a diabetic, make sure that the company has a large selection of diabetic meals. You don’t want your friends or loved ones to have to eat the same thing every other day. Some other meal restrictions may cross other companies off your list. People who keep kosher or halal will have special needs that must be catered to. The company that does your prepared meal delivery can’t send pork products to those particular customers.

A good prepared meal delivery company should also be very punctual. People rely heavily on prepared meal delivery because they cannot leave their homes or apartments to go shop on their own and don’t have family or friends that can stop by on a daily basis to shop and cook for them. Make sure that when you search for a company, read reviews that other customers have left behind. If there seems to be a pattern of late deliveries or no-shows, then you should avoid this company. Also, some companies may not deliver in bad weather. The last thing that you want is for your loved ones to starve during a snowstorm. Sure, you cannot expect people to deliver food during a hurricane, but a little snow should not stop the trucks from running.

The final thing to look into when searching for a prepared meal delivery company is range. If the person that the food is for lives in the outskirts of town or near a dangerous neighborhood, the company may not deliver. In large cities known for high crime, there are entire neighborhoods that have been ‘blacklisted’ because it is not safe to send deliverymen there. Make sure that the home the person lives in is not on a companies blacklist.

Now that you know what to look for when searching for a prepared meal delivery company, go out there and find one for your loved ones to take one thing off their minds.

Do you feel that planning menus takes too much time or is too complicated? I think people that don’t take the time to make out a meal plan end up causing themselves lots of stress and are more tempted to eat out and spend more money. Just a few minutes of your time can save you hours in the long run. Here’s how to plan a menu without much effort. The key to easy meal planning is all in the recipe.

1. List meals your family likes – Each person should be able to come up with at least a few favorites. If they can’t think of any, just start listing some meals you know they don’t like and they will probably quickly think of some they would rather eat. Or you can just keep a running list of meals your family likes as they come to you.

2. Use the grocery store – Look around the frozen food section in the grocery store to get ideas for meals. It’s tempting to buy all the prepared box meals and frozen meals, but they are loaded with preservatives, sodium and many other things that you don’t want to be putting into your body. Just use this grocery trip for collecting ideas.

3. Create a recipe book – Get a 3 ring binder and a bunch of sheet protectors and extra paper. Go through your recipe file and place your favorites in the sheet protectors. If you have recipe cards, just tape a few of them to a sheet of paper and put them in your binder. This way you will have all your favorite recipes on hand for when you make your meal plan. You can put any other recipes in another file or throw them away. Your recipe book should only contain recipes that you use often that you enjoy cooking and eating.

Then take 10-15 minutes to write out 10-15 meals that you want to fix. Be sure to write down any ingredients you don’t have on hand for those meals. Take that list to the grocery store and then you have all the ingredients you need to make those 10-15 meals. Each day you can choose a meal from your list and when they are all crossed off it is time to go grocery shopping again.

If you are like many people, you groan at the thought of doing meal prep. While you know it is something you need to do, it does not mean you like it! Meal prep takes time, but if you look at preparing say your vegetables just once for the whole week, then you will find it easier to eat healthy home-cooked meals each evening. Some foods, some vegetables are easy to prepare ahead of time and save well. There are steps you can take with your meal planning to make the task easier and then you will find you spend less time doing the meal prep and more time enjoying your food!

Let us look at a few meal-prep ideas…

1. One Recipe, Many Variations. Perhaps the most significant time-consuming task with meal prep is trying to figure out what to cook in the first place. You have to hunt down recipes, figure out what will work with your weight loss diet and then purchase all the groceries required. Time-consuming stuff!

Instead, look at finding one recipe offering several variations. For instance, you might make a vegetable stir-fry. You can just alter the vegetables you put in the stir-fry, swap out the chicken for beef as desired, and even change the sauce a little. It is the same meal overall, but with small changes that should be enough to keep you interested in continuing to carry on with your weight loss diet plan.

The more you become accustomed to preparing the same type of meals over and over, the easier it will be to plan your meal prep out for the week.

2. Two Words: Slow Cooker. Slow cooking is super easy, and a method of cooking everyone should get into doing from time to time. Just put all the ingredients in the slow cooker in the morning, turn it on, and by the time you arrive home from work, the food will be ready to serve. Plus, you can make a significantly sized batch, which means you will be eating healthy meals several times during your week.

3. Buy Pre-Chopped Vegetables. The last idea to consider is buying pre-chopped vegetables. Cutting up vegetables is often one job people dislike doing the most, so make it easier for yourself. Buy them ready to go, so there is little to no prep work involved.

While you will pay a little more for pre-chopped vegetables, it is money well spent.

There you have a few ideas to think about using to help make meal prep easier. If you follow these tips, sticking to your weight loss diet will be easier than ever.

Cooking home-cooked meals every day for the whole family can cost you, but food doesn’t have to be expensive to be delicious especially if you know how to budget your money. If you’re on a tight budget but still want to enjoy fulfilling home-cooked dishes with your family, here are 3 slow cooker meal ideas that everyone will love – so will your wallet!

Try these slow cooker meal ideas today:

Coco Sweet Potato Curry

What you need:

• 1 kilogram sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced into chunks
• 2 onions, halved and sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 2 red chillies, seeded and sliced
• 2 red peppers, seeded and sliced
• 1-inch piece ginger, peeled and grated
• 2 1/4 cups passata
• 2 cups shredded red cabbage
• 1 3/4 cups coconut milk
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons peanut butter
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne

Small bunch fresh coriander, chopped (for serving)

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a pan and cook onion until tender, about 6 to 8 minutes. Stir in garlic amd ginger then season with paprika and cayenne. Pour mixture into a crock pot. Return pan to heat then cook chillies, red peppers and cabbage in 1 tablespoon oil for 5 to 10 minutes before transferring mixture to crock pot. Heat remaining oil and cook sweet potatoes for 5 minutes. Add potatoes to crock pot. Pour passata and coconut milk over everything. Stir, cover and cook for 6 to 8 hours on low. When ready, stir in peanut butter and top with coriander.

Mixed Herb Potato Wedges

What you need:

• 2 large potatoes, sliced into 8 wedges each
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 2 teaspoons oil
• 1 teaspoon dried mixed herb
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

In a large bowl, mix together flour, mixed her and cayenne pepper. Add potatoes and oil. Season with salt and pepper then toss to mix ingredients and to coat potatoes. Transfer to a crockpot and cook for 1 to 2 hours on low or until potatoes are cooked through.

Spicy Garlic Mushroom and Tomato Pasta Sauce

What you need:

• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 1 clove garlic, thinly sliced
• 1 stick celery, finely chopped
• 1/2 red chili, seeded and finely chopped
• Small bunch parsley (leaves only)
• 2 1/2 cups chopped tomato
• 2 cups spaghetti pasta, cooked
• 1 2/3 cups sliced chestnut mushroom
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• Pinch of salt

In a pan over medium high heat, heat 1 tablespoon oil then cook mushrooms until tender, about 5 minutes. Add garlic then cook for 1 minute more. Transfer mixture to a bowl with parsley. Set aside. Return pan to heat, add remaining oil, onion, celery, tomatoes, chili and salt and stir for 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer to a crock pot and cook for 15 minutes on low. Toss spaghetti with tomato sauce and top with garlic mushrooms.

A delicious meal doesn’t have to be expensive – try these slow cooker meal ideas that are budget-friendly!

This article will serve as yet another short discussion on one of the simple things you can do to lose weight. It’s crucial to understand you don’t have to follow some ridiculous diet or quick-fix program to achieve a “six-pack” physique. First and foremost, getting to that point is unnecessary. Don’t believe you need a six-pack abdomen to be healthy. And quite frankly, many of those people you see on the cover of fitness magazines are unhealthy. To reach such a low-level of body fat often requires drastic measures, which can compromise one’s health and well-being in the process.

Rather, let’s focus on what you can do to lose some of your body fat so you can return to a healthy weight. If you have high blood cholesterol, high blood pressure, or are a Type 2 diabetic, this piece of advice will benefit you as well.

One proven weight loss strategy you may not have tried consists of pushing back your first daily meal as late as you can. So if you are used to eating breakfast, it means you are no longer going to eat first thing in the morning. You will skip breakfast entirely, and eat lunch a little later than usual. The longer you can push back your first meal of the day, the better.

When you resist eating for as long as you can without becoming too irritable or unfocused, will ensure your body burns as much fat as possible during the fasted state. Instead of immediately beginning digestion at the start of the day, your body will be required to draw energy from its supplies, as opposed to breaking down the calories it is usually provided with from eating breakfast.

You’re likely familiar with the fact eating fewer calories than your body requires is what ultimately causes you to lose weight. Though this is just the second best technique to lose weight. The best weight loss strategy involves periods of time where you don’t eat anything at all.

Avoiding meals in the evenings and going to bed on an empty stomach essentially accomplishes the same feat. But not everyone can end their day with a stomach that begs for some sustenance before going to sleep.

We encourage you to give this technique a try. Have your usual morning coffee, and don’t eat anything for as long as you can wait. Have a light lunch in the afternoon, don’t snack afterward, and reward yourself at the end of your day with a satisfying (but sensible) dinner.

The only thing to improve this weight loss strategy even further would be to include some physical activity in your daily schedule. It goes without saying exercise is also beneficial for weight loss.

If you are too tired to cook a full meal by the time you get home from work, being able to cook a quick meal is a great skill to have. If you end up ordering in far more often than your budget can stand simply because it takes too long to cook a fresh meal from scratch, there is good news; it does not have to be that way. There are so many time-saving gadgets, tools and accessories that can help you make fresh, delicious meals in minutes. Whether you combine them with the new breed of fresh-packed convenience foods or use them help you make up your own “convenience foods”, cooking and kitchen accessories can make your entire life far easier.

Food Preparation

One of the most time-consuming and labor-intensive parts of cooking great meals is the preparation time, the time spent cutting, slicing, dicing and otherwise getting ingredients ready to cook them. Great tools can put a serious dent in the amount of time it takes to prepare your food for the oven or the grill.

Cutting fruits and vegetables is much easier when you are using tools that were designed specifically for the job. The handiest food prep tools to have in your arsenal include:

– Stainless steel wire cutters to hold things like tomatoes and onions still so you can make uniform slices for burgers, sandwiches and bagels

– 5-in-1 Egg Slicer, which makes it easy to slice, dice, chop and wedge hard-boiled eggs – and other things like strawberries, onions and mushrooms

– Apple Corers, melon slicers and pineapple corers make short work of cutting up fruits in uniform slices or wedges and getting rid of the core. A must if you like serving fruit salad or fresh melon to your family for breakfast or dessert

Cooking Faster – Or Slower

If you thought your only option to cook things fast was the microwave, you haven’t seen some of the handiest cooking gadgets available. There are ovens, slow cookers (yes, for quick meals!), electric skillets and more. Here are just a few of the ways that you can take advantage of cooking accessories to get healthy meals on the table for your family fast.

Take a whole new approach to cooking with a NuWave counter top oven. The NuWave cooks foods up to 50% faster than a traditional oven – and it can cook from frozen for those nights that you forgot to defrost something for dinner. It’s big enough to hold a 10 lb turkey – or a 16 lb turkey if you choose the deluxe model.

Another countertop oven choice is the 9-in-1 Oven. It may look like a toaster oven, but it’s so far beyond that. You can toast, roast, broil and bake inside, and the top is a non-stick griddle/grill! It even comes with a rotisserie so you can roast a chicken or a roast on a spit. The convection setting cooks foods fast!

How does a Slow Cooker speed up your meal times? Take five minutes in the morning to drop a chicken and some spices into your slow cooker, set it on low and get to work. When you get home in the evening, your meal will be cooked to perfection and ready to serve. All you have to do is set the table and dish it up! Choose a Slow Cooker with easy cleanup features like a dishwasher safe removable insert and save even more time.

One last indispensable cooking appliance is a countertop griddle like the Electric 4-in-1 Grill/Griddle. Grilling is so much healthier than frying, but firing up the grill can seem like a whole lot of work for a quick meal. An electric grill can make it so easy to grill steaks, chops and even vegetables. Pick a multi-purpose grill and you can make Panini, stuffed sandwiches, pancakes, eggs and more.

Quicker Cleanup

Most people would agree that getting food to the table in only half the time with the same taste would be a great improvement. Cleaning up after the cooking sometimes takes longer than the meal. Invest in a few handy gadgets to make cleanup time much easier and quicker.

One of the best ways to reduce the amount of time you spend cleaning up spills in your oven is to keep those spills from getting there in the first place. A silicone oven liner will catch the spills and keep them from baking on. Just pull it out, wash it and put it back in. The oven liners can be cut to fit any size oven, and are even available to fit your toaster oven.

Keep your stovetop clean, too. It’s easy to do with a Ceramic Spoon Rest or a lid and spoon rest that holds your cooking utensils and keeps them from dripping on your stove. Add burner bibs made of spun fiberglass that will keep all those boilovers and spills from baking onto your stove surface, and the cleanup is as easy as popping them into the dishwasher.

Complex combinations of food and raw food recipes are time consuming to prepare and extremely difficult to digest, so I choose to keep my diet very simple. I enjoy a low-fat, raw vegan diet consisting mostly of monomeals, so the following meal plan may seem a bit bland for you. As you progress on your raw journey, however, you will appreciate and even desire more simple meals. Remember, be kind to your body—transition at your own pace.

Keeping your diet simple also allows you to spend more time and energy on other aspects of your life, such as fitness, work, and play. Many raw foodists spend enormous amounts of time in the kitchen dehydrating or sprouting this and that. Aren’t you relieved that you don’t have to spend so much time preparing meals or loads of energy cleaning your kitchen after you’ve used just about every food processor or kitchen gadget you have?

My diet consists of fresh, sweet, non-sweet, and fatty fruits, and tender leafy greens. Nuts and seeds are acceptable too, but I rarely eat them, so you will not see them in the meal plan below. I do not use salad dressings or condiments either. If you feel that you still need salad dressing, try this fruit-based tomato and mango salad dressing recipe: blend 1 cup tomato, 1 cup mango, the juice of 1 lemon, and 1 quarter cup of water (only if needed).

It’s best to eat according to what produce is in season. There are many produce charts available online or in books to help you make the best selections. The winter season is challenging as in-season produce is limited. Summer, however, offers an abundance of yummy options. Following is a one-week meal plan for the summer season. My calorie consumption is between 1,200 – 1,400 calories per day, depending on my activities and exercise for the day. Weekly, my caloric breakdown is approximately 80% carbohydrates, 10% protein, and 10% fat, following Dr. Douglas N. Graham’s 80/10/10 calorie ratio for a low-fat, raw vegan diet.

DAY 1

–Breakfast – fruit smoothie: 5 medium bananas, 2 *Ataulfo mangos, 2.5 – 3 cups water. (Blend)

–Lunch – 4 large peaches

–Pre Dinner – 2 cups pineapple

–Dinner – salad: One half head Romaine lettuce, 1 cucumber, 3 tomatoes, 4 stalks celery

* Ataulfo mangos are also called champagne mangos. They are small and apricot in color. When ripe and ready to eat, they will be a little soft, and the skin will just start to wrinkle.

DAY 2

–Breakfast – fruit smoothie: 3 medium bananas, 1 cup strawberries, 2.5 – 3 cups water. (Blend)

–Lunch – 1 honeydew melon

–Pre Dinner – 2 cups grapes

–Dinner – salad: One half head Iceberg lettuce, 1 cucumber, 2 tomatoes, 4 stalks celery, 1 avocado

DAY 3

–Breakfast – fruit smoothie: 4 medium bananas, 2 Ataulfo mangos, 2.5 – 3 cups water. (Blend)

–Lunch – 1 personal watermelon

–Pre Dinner – 2 grapefruits

–Dinner – salad: 1 red bell pepper, 1 orange bell pepper, 1 yellow bell pepper, 2 tomatoes, 1 cucumber (chop all ingredients) Eat as is, or add lettuce of your choice: Romaine, Boston, Bib, etc.

DAY 4

–Breakfast – fruit smoothie: 5 medium bananas, One half cup blueberries, 2.5 – 3 cups water. (Blend)

–Lunch – 4 large peaches

–Pre Dinner – 2 cups pineapple

–Dinner – salad: 4 oz. baby spinach, 4 tomatoes, 4 stalks celery

DAY 5

–Breakfast – fruit smoothie: 4 medium bananas, 4 fresh figs, 2.5 – 3 cups water. (Blend)

–Lunch – 1 honeydew melon

–Pre Dinner – 2 grapefruits

–Dinner – lettuce wraps: 3 chopped tomatoes, 1 chopped cucumber, and 3 stalks chopped celery wrapped in Romaine lettuce leaves

DAY 6

–Breakfast – fruit smoothie: 4 medium bananas, 1 papaya, 2.5 – 3 cups water. (Blend)

–Lunch – 4 large peaches

–Pre Dinner – 2 cups grapes

–Dinner – *Dine out for a salad and a Beefsteak tomato at J. Alexander’s. Salad: mixed greens, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, celery, one half avocado. Beefsteak tomato: plain tomato with a touch of fresh cilantro.

*For tips on ordering out at a restaurant, go to [http://www.TheSkinnyOnRaw.com], click on “articles,” and read “Eating Out and Staying Raw: Keep It Simple.”

DAY 7

–Breakfast – fruit smoothie: 5 medium bananas, 2 Ataulfo mangos, 2.5 – 3 cups water. (Blend)

–Lunch – 1 lb. Rainier cherries

–Pre Dinner – 2 cups berries (strawberries, blueberries, etc.)

–Dinner – 1/2 head green leaf lettuce, 4 Roma tomatoes, 4 stalks celery

Meal planning is a technique that every household should utilize. It is a very comprehensive plan of what to eat and the products or ingredients necessary in cooking. It is an organized system of identifying recipes and for a certain period of time. It requires a skill to identify needs of a person of his entire family and taking into consideration of several factors that would affect planning activity.

Factors would include: health needs, economic factors, religious practices, dietary concerns, environmental factors and time and ability to cook.

Health needs.

It is necessary to include all the food groups to ensure optimum nutrition. It is very important that we include in our meals the essential nutrients, vitamins and minerals that our bodies require.

Economic factors.

We have to consider our budget and the prices of the ingredients. Budget is foremost the principal factor because you cannot cook what you cannot afford.

Religious practices.

Some religion or faith has restrictions on what they are allowed to eat. Muslims cannot eat pork and Jews are obliged to observe Kashrut practices. Hindus do not eat beef because of the view of the that cows are sacred.

Dietary concerns.

Certain diseases such as diabetes and hypertension restricts or limits an individual’s food intake. They are not allowed to eat fatty foods and even sweets. Another consideration would be allergies that would yield unwanted reactions when trigger foods are consumed.

Environmental factors.

This would include the kitchen materials and equipments that would give you the capacity to cook certain food.

Time

If you have ample time to prepare food then you can go ahead and cook extravagant dishes, however when you have limited time you can opt for easy to do recipes than relying on fast food or instant products.

Ability to cook.

The most modifiable factor. They say you cannot cook if you don’t know what you are doing. However you can research videos or follow cook books to help you prepare the dish that you want.

When you have considered all the factors of course you make sure that your cooking in variety while also acknowledging your family’s preference. Play with texture and color as well as temperature. Add fun to the activity by making it a recreational hobby which involves family members.