It’s no secret that eating healthy is important. Still, many people think it’s hard to make the switch to a healthier diet because it needs some complicated preparations. Most people are busy and have been used to relying on processed and unhealthy foods because they’re easy to make. The good news is that eating healthy doesn’t have to be complicated or time-consuming. With a little planning and effort, you can easily make healthier choices that fit your lifestyle. Here are some tips on how you can eat healthy without spending too much time in the kitchen.
Meal Planning
One of the best ways to make sure you’re eating healthy is tomeal plan. You’ll need to invest a little effort and time, but it’s worth it because you’ll know what you’re going to eat for the week. Planning your meals also helps you save money because you can buy only the ingredients you need.
You can save effort and time by instead planning a month’s worth of meals in one sitting. That way, you can use the same month-long plan again and again. There will be enough variation so that you won’t get tired of the food.
When meal planning, choose recipes that are healthy, simple, and quick to make. There are a lot of recipes to choose from online. You can even filter them based on the health needs of your family. For instance, you can choose low-fat recipes, low-sodium recipes, or vegetarian recipes. You can also further filter them based on the preparation time required. For instance, if you only have half an hour to prepare dinner, look for recipes that can be ready in 30 minutes.
You can also look for recipes that use the same ingredients in a similar way so you can cook them together. For example, there are several recipes that use chicken broth and also shredded cooked chicken. If you incorporate these recipes into a week’s meal plan, you can boil enough chicken for all of them in one go and keep the extra broth and shredded meat for the other recipes. This will further shorten your cooking time.
Meal Prepping
Meal preppingis another way to make sure you always have healthy food on hand, so you are not tempted to resort to unhealthy food. This involves cooking or preparing food in advance, usually on weekends, and storing them in containers.
You can precook entire meals and freeze them in individual portions. This way, you can just reheat the food when you’re ready to eat. Meal prepping is perfect for busy weeknights or when you don’t have time to cook. This is also ideal for preparing food you can take to work.
You can do this to mix and match precooked ingredients for various meals. For instance, you can cook a big batch of rice or quinoa and store them in the fridge. You can also have separate containers of sliced roast chicken, browned seasoned ground beef, seafood, and stir-fried vegetables. You can then put together whatever you feel like eating at every meal.
This is also perfect for pasta sauce. You have containers of basic sauce on hand and separate containers of variations you can add like meatballs, seafood, or roasted vegetables.
Healthy Baking Mixes
Nothing tastes better than homemade baked goods. They can be made from healthy ingredients if baked from scratch at home. However, very few people have time for that nowadays, so they resort to ready mixes that have unhealthy ingredients.
You can still enjoy homemade baked goods without guilt, though, because healthy ready-to-bake mixes are now available. For instance, you can get aplant protein simple muffin mixthat uses stone-ground whole wheat flour and brown sugar. All its ingredients are non-GMO and have clean, identifiable profiles. There are no preservatives, hydrogenated oils, synthetic colors, and artificial flavors.
All you need to do is add ¾ cup milk, two eggs, and 1/3 cup oil and bake for 14 to 16 minutes in an oven preheated to 400°F. You can use any healthy oil of your choice.
The mix comes in blueberry, banana, and the apple cinnamon and oat variant. You can also choose mixes for chocolate chip pancake and buttermilk pancake. These make an excellent protein-packed breakfast or afternoon snack.
Prepare Snacks
It’s so easy to have a stash of junk food at home, in the car, or in the office that you turn to when you suddenly get hungry or just feel the need to munch. You can replace these with healthy choices that are just as satisfying.
Prepare your own trail mix with a variety of nuts, dark chocolate chips, and unsweetened dried fruit. You can also add rolled oats and use this as breakfast granola.
Every morning, chop up some fresh vegetables and fruits and take these with you in containers that will keep them fresh. These are refreshing snacks that will give you an energy boost whenever you need one. You can also prepare healthy dips like hummus or guacamole to go with your fresh vegetables. These are easy to make, and you can store them in the fridge for later.
You can also prepare energy balls made with nuts, nut butter, oats, and dried fruit. These are very portable and can be stored in the fridge for when you need them. Just take them out and enjoy them as is, or heat them up for a few seconds in the microwave if you want a hot snack.
Healthy Options
There are many ways to make healthy eating easier if you decide to commit to it. You can plan meals in advance and choose recipes that are healthy, simple, and quick to make on hand. You can also buy healthy baking mixes that are ready to use. With a little planning, you can enjoy healthy eating without a lot of hassle.
