One of the things people find challenging about improving their diet is the amount of time taken up to prepare and cook “healthy” meals. Most of you will have about 21 meals per week to make and eat. However, it could be more depending in how many meals you want to eat per day. I’m sure the last thing you want to do is spend a lot of time cooking food after you get home from work.
Planning and preparing
Plan what you are going to have in advance. So instead of not having a clue what you are going to have for your meals until you are about to eat. When you plan, you are more likely to make better choices. Leaving it till the last minute can take more of your time up deciding what you want to eat. Also, it can make it more likely you grab something quick that may not be as nutritious.
Prepare your meals at least a day before. You may have heard this before called meal prep where you prepare them a few days to a full week in advance. Depending on how much time you want to set aside will mean how many days’ worth of meals you make. Then all you need to do is store them in the fridge or freezer. So it means your food is already made. So you only need to do is take them out and heat it up before you are about to have them after work.
Cooking methods to save time
Slow cooker, use this as a cooking method. So something like a crockpot. What can you cook with a slow cooker? Well all you need to do is throw some ingredients in. To make stews, casserole, or a hotpot. Stews typically contain meat, carrots, onions, garlic, celery, potatoes and some stock. Which you could put on before work. So that it cooks away slowly for several hours while you are at work.
Air fryer, have become more popular. Air fryers are a bit like an oven but for your kitchen counter where they are intended to imitate a fryer. Without your food swimming in oil. You can cook fish, meat like chicken and roasting vegetables. certain things in them in less time. They are also “healthier” and they use less oil than a fryer, so they will help to reduce your calorie intake for your meals.
Grilling, the most popular home grill is the George Foreman grill, there are alternative options. You can cook many different types of meat on these grills. For example, chicken breast, steak, pork, beef burgers, and Lorne sausage. After pre-heating the grill, it takes no time at all to cook food on it. They also reduce calories in your food by reducing the fat content of foods.
So although you have a busy schedule and fitting in time to eat “healthier” meals can seem impossible. Some methods can help you to save cooking time or need a bit of planning. What strategies you use will depend on what you have at home. But at the very least most people can start to plan meals or prepare them.
