Quick and Easy 5-Ingredient Meals for Young Athletes

Are you running out of time to cook dinner at night? Are you grabbing takeout because you didn’t have the ingredients for a complicated meal? Most parents of active children know the struggle of wanting young athletes to eat healthy but having little time to prep meals. That’s why we put together these simple, five-ingredient recipes with the help of TrueSport Expert Kristen Ziesmer, a registered dietitian and board-certified specialist in sports dietetics.

The point of these recipes is to combine healthy pantry staples with a couple fresh or frozen ingredients to create simple meals that are ready in minutes. And many of these meals actually feature similar ingredients, so you can easily make meals that look and taste different with only a dozen ingredients in total.

Ingredients

First, let's talk about your shopping list. Consider creating a master list that you take with you to the store every week. This list can have all of your normal breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snack staples so you're not constantly trying to remember what you need.

For dinners, consider adding these favorites from Ziesmer to your list:

• Pantry: Brown rice, canned black beans, Italian seasoning, chili or taco seasoning, canned salsa, high-quality tomato soup, olive oil
• Frozen: Broccoli, peppers, onions, stir fry-ready mixed vegetables, sprouted bread (can buy fresh but if you don't use much bread, frozen is a longer lasting option)
• Fresh: Chicken, salmon, greens, any fresh vegetables that you won't mind chopping and prepping, a good-quality shredded cheese