Most people want to eat a fairly healthy diet and feed their families nutritious meals. However, it seems like so much advice relating to healthy eating involves making every single food from scratch like “the old days.” The problem is most people don’t have the same lifestyle or schedule as people did in past times. There needs to be a new strategy that includes practical ways to cook healthy meals that don’t involve grinding your own flour to make your own bread. Here are several ways to maintain a healthy diet without living in your kitchen.
1. Choose Simple Recipes
Many people don’t have the time or desire to make a dish with 25 different ingredients that come from the specialty health food store. Instead, try more traditional recipes, especially “peasant fare” from European and Eastern cultures. A lot of dishes are built upon the same list of easy to find ingredients including vegetables, cheese, healthy oils and fish. Look for easy cooking techniques as well such as slow cooking and stir-frying.
2. Meal Plan
This is extremely common advice, but the reason is that it works. Planning your meals ahead of time for the week (or even the month) helps keep your budget in check, makes grocery shopping trips more efficient, and saves you from spending every afternoon looking in the fridge trying to decide what to make for dinner. You can use a traditional pen and paper method to plan meals or try a website or app.
3. Keep Your Pantry Stocked
When you keep a well-stocked pantry, you don’t have to shop as often for specialty ingredients or choose a recipe only to find you don’t have what you need. When your pantry has a good selection of canned goods, rice and pasta, tomato sauce, broth, beans and baking essentials chances are you’ll always be able to pull together a meal with what you have on hand.
4. And Also Your Freezer
A well-stocked freezer is the perfect companion to your pantry. Keep a good selection of frozen veggies for side dishes or to add to stir-fry. Frozen fruit is great for smoothies or desserts such as cobbler. It’s also smart to keep a couple bake-and-eat meals such as burritos or lasagna on hand. This way when you have an extremely busy day or just don’t feel like cooking, you can pull something from the freezer instead of resorting to ordering pizza.
5. Enlist Help
Don’t take on the entire responsibility for cooking every meal. Ask your partner to help out if possible, or schedule a take-out night in your meal plan. It’s also a great opportunity to teach your kids to cook. Your children learn an essential life skill and once they are comfortable in the kitchen, you can enjoy a break every now and then.
6. Choose the Right Convenience Foods
There’s nothing wrong with getting some help from the supermarket as well. While some convenience foods aren’t very healthy, there are many choices that can make your cooking easier without destroying the nutrition factor. A rotisserie chicken can be delicious on its own or you can use the meat for a casserole. Pre-chopped fruits and vegetables cut down on your prep time without sacrificing your diet.
7. Utilize the Middle Aisles
A lot of healthy diet advice advocates only shopping around the perimeter of the store (fresh produce, meats and dairy). However, there are many “middle aisle” ingredients and pre-made foods nowadays that are extremely healthy. Vegan mayo and salad dressings from HamptonCreek are made with high-quality ingredients and are low in fat, cholesterol and free of artificial coloring and flavoring.
8. Take Breaks
Give yourself a night off from the kitchen every so often. Cooking every day can be tiring and it’s healthy for your emotional and mental state to get regular breaks. You could take a break from your normal healthy diet and order takeout, or if you prefer to stay with a more nutritious meal, choose a refrigerated or frozen meal from a health food store.
Even if you don’t have the time or desire to make everything from scratch, you can still stick to a healthy diet. Having a well-stocked pantry and freezer makes it easy to plan delicious meals with simple ingredients. Use the grocery store as well for certain convenience foods and pre-made items from companies dedicated to high-quality, healthy offerings. Enjoy a break every now and then by teaching your kids to cook or having a pizza night.
