Meal Hacks for People Who are Super Busy

For being one of the richest countries on the globe, America has one of the world’s poorest diets. Not poor in quantity, of course, but poor in quality. The United States is among the top countries for eating the most pre-packaged, processed foods. The American Institute for Cancer Research has found that nearly 60% of the average American’s daily food consumption consists of ultra-processed foods such as sodas, chips, and fast foods. As a result, conditions like Type 2 Diabetes, obesity, heart-disease, and certain cancers are still on the rise. 

The encouraging news is that most of these diseases can be avoided by simply eating fresh, whole foods that can be prepared at home.

But that’s the problem you tell us. We already know all that, but our schedule is too slammed to be stuck in the kitchen all afternoon whipping up home-cooked, nutritious meals. 

Enter your Monogram Personal Concierge. If the only thing holding you back from serving high quality, fresh-cooked foods to your family is a busy schedule, your Personal Concierge can fix that for you. There are a number of ways we can help make your dinner table a healthier place, depending on your needs and preferences.

How a Personal Concierge Can Help You Master Your Mealtime Routine

Let’s start with those of you who love cooking, trying new recipes, and planning a healthy menu, but simply lack adequate time. Easy. Let us give you the support you need with the tasks that are keeping you out of the kitchen to free up some of your time. Your Personal Concierge can take care of those little errands that run you ragged and eat up your day: picking up the dry cleaning, dropping off the library books, taking the car for an oil change, bringing your dog to the vet. We can even do the grocery shopping for you so you need only focus on the meal prep itself.

Now, what about those of you who care deeply about the quality of your family’s diet, but honestly are not that into cooking? The idea of sifting through recipes overwhelms you—or worse, ruins your appetite. Could your Personal Concierge come alongside you and just make it happen? Absolutely!

Watch how we can take you all the way from a recipe book to a sparkling clean kitchen:

Start with the Big Picture

You probably have goals for the kinds of meals you’d like to serve your family. If you haven’t thought about mealtime from this angle before, we can help you. Your family’s specific needs and preferences will shape the foods you purchase and the meals on your table. 

As you think about the big picture, you’ll consider the ages and stages of each family member. You’ll also note any dietary or health restrictions they have and their personal preferences. Does your family like a big breakfast? Do you have kids who need school lunches and healthy snacks? Are you following a diet plan like Whole 30, Keto, The Daniel Plan, or the Mediterranean diet? All of these factors will help us stock your fridge, freezer, and pantry.

Move to the Menu

With your big picture in mind, you’re ready to get down to business and think about actual meals and snacks. This is a fun process, and we can do it for you or assist you in doing it yourself. We also encourage you to solicit input from your family members, especially your children. When they participate in the planning, they get more excited about the eating! By making them part of the process, you’ll help them develop healthy eating practices as well. 

We can help you choose tasty recipes that meet your big picture goals and plug them into a monthly menu tailored to your schedule. This step is so important because it saves you from getting caught at the last minute on a busy night and defaulting to fast food or pre-packaged meals. Menu planning also helps avoid those cooking ruts we all fall into.

Master the Grocery List

There are two basic levels of grocery lists: what you might call the macro-list and the micro-list. We can take care of either or both of these for you. Think of the macro-list as your fundamentals. These are the basics that you always need but often forget about because you don’t shop for these items on a weekly basis. This list might include baking staples, aluminum foil, salt and pepper and other spices, and household cleaners. Don’t worry, we’ll create a master inventory for you and even help you organize your pantry and other storage areas to make it easier to see what’s needed. You’ll need to refresh the items on your macro-list about every month (sometimes even less with expert planning).

The micro-list, on the other hand, includes the items you need for a particular week as well as groceries that get used up quickly or don’t stay fresh for long. These will be ingredients for specific meals of the week, your fresh produce, meats, and dairy products. Micro-list shopping is obviously done frequently—ideally every week.

Go Grocery Shopping

Admit it. You don’t enjoy grocery shopping so much, do you? We get it. All that into the cart, out of the cart, back into the cart, into the car, out of the car. By the time you actually put the groceries away, you’ve moved those items seven times. If grocery shopping is the bane of your existence, or you simply don’t have the time, your Personal Concierge is happy to lighten your load by doing the shopping. We can take care of both macro and micro shopping. We can even grab those last minute items that might come up on a busy day. Since we know your kitchen, it’s easy for us to get everything in and put in its place for you. 

Begin Meal Prep

Did you realize your Personal Concierge loves meal prep? Isn’t that great news? Enlist the help of your Personal Concierge for a special meal or dinner party you’re hosting. We can also handle those busy nights of the week that make a sitdown meal at your own table a challenge. Let us come in while you’re busy getting through other important parts of your day and get that delicious meal ready to share with your family. It’ll be such a treat to walk in with the smell of a home-cooked meal wafting through your home. 

We can even prep some meals ahead of time for you—nutritious breakfasts and lunches made ahead that your kids can grab on the go. A quick, easy-to-reheat dinner for a hectic night. Again, preparing ahead is a key part to keeping processed foods off your table and fast food out of your car (and tummies).

Serve the Meal and Clean up

Finally, the only thing you’ll need to do is call everyone to the table and focus on enjoying delicious food and one another’s company. We’ll have your table beautifully set and ready to serve you. And perhaps the best part? We’ll even get it all cleaned up and put away for you, giving you some much longed-for relaxation at the end of a hectic day.

Depending on your schedule, we can work together to determine how much help you’d like and how often you could benefit from our support with meal prep and cooking. Our goal is to come alongside you, offering you services that free up your time so that you can focus on the things that matter most to you. We can help you improve the quality of the meals you are able to share with your loved ones and your ability to share them together.