How do you make healthy eating easier?

[Ottakee]

Really, eating unhealthy food is so much easier (and often cheaper) than eating healthy.

 

Tonight we had Mexican with homemade corn tortillas, chicken, lettuce, tomato, fresh cilantro, guacamole, sour cream, and rice.

That is a lot of cooking and chopping and mixing and pans and dishes.  It was super yummy and much better for us with no preservatives, fresh veggies, cilantro out of the garden, etc.
 

That said, popping in a frozen pizza would have meant 1 pizza pan to wash and almost no prep/hands on cooking.
 

With fresh strawberries at $5/quart and donuts on sale for $1.75 dozen it is easy to see how families make the choices they do.

 

What are you tips for making eating healthy/healthier easier?  Quicker?  Less clean up?

[lewber]

I was just coming here to ask the same thing! In the be healthy front, I'm pretty good at everything except healthy eating. Too much fast and processed food.

I have cleaned up my breakfast routine with make ahead steel cut oats. A big batch will last.

I'd like easy, non processed foods that require no cooking :)

[NorthwestMom]

What about starting with pre-cut fresh fruits and veggies, to get in the habit of consuming them? Or bags of salad? Yes, you will pay a little more, but if it helps you eat healthier, pay the price while you establish the habit.

 

I try to wash and/or cut up my fruit ASAP after returning from the store, or we might not eat it when it's at its best.

[solascriptura]

Honestly, just like always eating out, eating healthily is a lifestyle. I want to eat well and I want my kids to eat well ( and see an example) so I spend the time and money to do so. It's important to remember moderation however. so yeah, sometimes I eat chips and fried chicken. I'm at about 90/10. That to me is manageable.

[Donna]

We eat a lot of salads and put just about anything in a salad (from the usual to baked vegetables like potatoes, sweet potatoes, beets, etc...). Some nights I chop up some sort of potatoes and vegetables in large chunks, add a bit of olive oil and bake in a foil lined pan in the oven or on the grill. We try to only have meat 2-3 nights a week.

 

For breakfast, Dd makes homemade granola (once a week) and we put it on Greek yogurt with some fresh fruit or we have steel cut oats with chia seeds, nuts, and fruit.

 

I bake with applesauce or pumpkin instead of oil.

 

We grow our own vegetables and herbs so in the summer, we eat whatever is ripe. Right now, that's zucchini and salad...so it is being made into omelets, zucchini spaghetti (vegetti), casseroles, bread, etc...  In the other seasons, we buy fresh vegetables and fruit from a produce outlet and when anything is on sale, we buy extra and freeze it then make it into smoothies with a bit of yogurt.

[tdbates78]

I plan ahead and always make a weekly menu before shopping. If I have all of the ingredients and know what I'm making ahead of time I don't get that urge to reach for convenience foods. I enjoy cooking so for me the extra prep isn't an issue, and due to various food intolerances I don't really have much choice. Today I had a restaurant-purchased BBQ sauce and look like I'm 6 months pregnant! So for reasons like that its just easier to make my own.

 

I agree with the above in that you could have shortcuts like buying frozen veggies (vs chopping) to save time. And when I make things like pasta sauce I will triple the batch and freeze the rest in batches.

[bolt.]

Most of my healthy supper meals are a basic multiple choice scenario:

 

1. Choose a meat, cook it in some way that makes it distinctive (ie with a sauce, with seasonings from this or that culture);

2. Choose 3 hot veggies -- either from fresh or frozen sources (usually steamed in the microwave), or a salad and fewer veggies, or cook some of the veggies together with the meat;

3. End with a fruit serving (fresh, canned in juice, or warmed-frozen fruit compote all work nicely);

4. If it really feels wrong to have 'this meal' without it's specially co-ordinated starch, go ahead with that, but in a small way; probably start the starch first if it takes longer than meat and veggies.

 

Supper is the easiest for me to keep healthy. It's hard to go too wrong with meat and three veggies!

 

Lunch is harder for me: with all its breads and cheeses and such.

[Guest]

Part of it is just adjusting expectations.  

And for me, NOT FOR EVERYONE, part of it was realizing that I really didn't have THAT much to do that was more important than cooking and eating better.  So the time I saved, what was I doing with that time?  Most the time, nothing that was *really* a big improvement. 

 

And for the times when something IS more important, well throw the pizza in the oven! 

 

:0)

 

I also figured out that it took some time to get good at it, but truly, chopping stuff gets faster with experience.  That sort of thing.  My downfall is shopping.  I hate grocery shopping.  So it is hard to keep fresh stuff in the house.  

 

(Also, one of my process changes was just not *buying* stuff that was not good for me.  I just don't buy potato chips...because I will eat the whole bag. Fortunately, my dh has no compunction about buying potato chips...  eye-roll on me.)

 

PS.  I want to come to your house for that yummy dinner!

 

[Heather in OK]

Don't buy the junk.  If it's not in your house, you won't eat it.

Food prep:  I prep fresh fruit/veggies after I get back from grocery shopping.  That way they are clean and ready to eat thru the week.

Use an InstantPot and/or CrockPot. 


Some meals do take more work but overall, I don't find eating real foods (not processed) that much harder. 

[Annie G]

I simplify where I can, especially if it only causes a minimal impact on how healthy the meal is. And I do what I can in advance, even if it's just a few hours in advance. For the meal you mentioned, I would have bought good quality corn tortillas (sure, fresh are awesome but it's a tradeoff I'm willing to make)and sour cream in the squeeze tube (no spoon needed!). During lunch prep or right after lunch I would have made the guac, chopped the lettuce and tomatoes, cooked the rice (it reheats beautifully) and cut the chicken if it needs to be cut. 

 

I do it either right before or right after lunch, which means I clean most of the dinner prep dishes while I'm cleaning lunch dishes.  It doesn't save washing any dishes but it does get some of the work out of the way - by dinnertime I'm tired! I want to be done with kitchen work asap. 

 

But the reality is that eating fresh foods is more work. At least it is for me. 

[Carol in Cal.]

IKR?  I got this great cookbook full of mason jar salads, and bought the stuff to try 3 of them, and ugh, every time I thought about grating or chiffonading or chopping or peelering all the veggies, I'd go have some cheese and skip it.

 

I mean, I LIKE to cook, but that was ridiculous.

 

One thing to do is cook in large servings and freeze half or more.

 

This works especially well for spaghetti sauces and beans or bean soups.

 

Another is to buy a range of durabilities of fresh stuff, and eat the more fragile stuff first.  Arugula before lettuce before cabbage.

Another is to plant fruit trees.  Then you don't pick until right before you're going to eat.

 

For reasons that are not clear to me, my husband likes to come into the kitchen and keep me company while I cook things.  I cook FAST, and he has a lovely knack for standing exactly where I want to go next.  So I'm thinking that an observer's chair is something we need--it's less tedious to do long cooking with someone to talk to there, and if he could be there but not in the way that would be great.

[kiana]

Frozen chopped veggies. Steamable ones if things are really bad. I hate chopping veggies. Frozen ones are just as nutritious (possibly more so if the fresh ones are out of season and have been shipped in from a long way away) and often cheaper and you don't have the problem with spoilage. 

 

Batch cooking. Cook a bunch at once. Freeze some if people don't do well with leftovers. 

 

Develop a couple of go-to meals where you can do them in your sleep and they aren't that unhealthy. An example that I end up with during stressful weeks is frozen/canned meat (chicken or tuna usually) and vegetables and a potato. 

 

Don't buy junk food that's easy to prepare. If you know there's a frozen pizza in the freezer, it's really hard to ignore it and make something healthy when all you want to do is lie down. This is where a few frozen casseroles come in handy -- they serve the same purpose but YOU made them. 

[happypamama]

Aldi

Frozen veggies bought in large quantities when they are on sale

[regentrude]

There is a lot of healthy food that requires no prep at all. We eat tons of fresh fruit. Apples, pears, bananas, berries can be eaten without any prep besides washing. As can carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes. Peppers require minimal prep, ten seconds per pepper. So increasing the amount of veggies is really easy if you eat them raw. 

 

Knife skills. It really only takes a few minutes to chop the veggies for a huge salad, big pot of stew, or for roasted or stir fried veggies. It may seem like a lot of time, but it really isn't - just time yourself. Practice makes it go faster.

 

To make it affordable, buy what's in season and on sale. 

 

Buy whole grain rice instead of white, plain yoghurt instead of sweetened, whole grain bread (or even better, bake your own).

 

And be judicious where making it from scratch makes sense and where it is unnecessary work. Are home made tortillas so much better nutritionally than store bought? (Honest question, I have no idea)

Focus the energies where they have the most impact.

 

Edited June 29, 2017 by regentrude

[TX Native]

For me, a Costco membership. Gallon containers of prewashed spring mix lettuce or spinach, $5 rotessorrie chicken, big bunches of bananas for cheaper than the grocery store, large bag of slivered almonds to add to yogurt or salad, ground turkey for an okay price, large bag of organic baby carrots for snacking, block cheese, frozen veggies that taste decent when cooked, large bags of frozen berries to defrost in single portions as desired, and the occasional economical easy take home pizza when I just need something not so wholesome (paired with spring mix salad or carrots or the fruit I bought there, it's not too bad for you.)

[Pam in CT]

Learn to season and thereafter love what's easy to prepare (i.e. grilled things in summer, roasted things in winter, green salads every lunch and dinner)

 

Learn what shortcuts work for your family (for us: pre-washed salad greens, various Trader Joe sauces, bakery breads, packaged pasta.  I usually forego salad "dressing" and just use good olive oil and a nice vinegar instead.  I buy tortillas.)

 

Lean toward more nutritious starches (sweet potato over white, brown rice over white, quinoa over cous-cous etc) most of the time; return to the old favorites on occasion.

 

Eat seasonally.  (Strawberries are expensive but watermelon is extremely cheap at the moment.)

 

Don't bring stuff into the house that you don't want as a pattern.  It's fine to have chips / Thin Mints / whatever on occasion out and about, just don't invite them home.

 

 

 

On a totally different direction -- my mood while cooking improved a good deal when I got wireless speakers set up in the kitchen.  Worth a try!

 

 

 

 

[fdrinca]

Food prep - always have fruit and veg ready to eat.

Meal plan - especially ways to repurpose meal ingredients into new meals, so it's not so much leftovers as preparing parts of tomorrow's dinner tonight.

Lunches - try to make nutrition dense

NO JUNK FOOD IN HOUSE. It really makes a difference for me.

[eternalsummer]

Well, cheaper is easy to do at least.  We don't buy strawberries out of season (and really, almost ever).  We buy frozen fruit a lot, mostly blueberries, because they don't go bad and get wasted.  For fresh fruit we buy what is cheap, so usually bananas, apples, mandarins (the kids can peel them), pears.  Peaches and melons we buy in season. 11 months out of the year no one has a peach.  

 

Same with vegetables.

 

I simplify meal prep, which I don't have time for, by not doing fancy recipes.  I steam a vegetable, have or make a starch (noodles, rice, bread, potatoes), and bake or saute a protein (generally fish).  I use olive oil and salt and on occasion garlic.  

 

Then I have a few beans I make, which is even easier - just boil the beans with salt.  The kids like black eyed peas, lima beans, and red beans.

 

About half the time I make a salad.  It is always the same salad - lettuce, green onion, avocado, balsamic, olive oil, tomato/red bell pepper if we have it.

 

Breakfast is oatmeal with fruit and nuts and butter and milk; lunch is find-something-to-eat.  We don't keep junk food in the house, ever (it helps that a restricted diet prevents us from buying much of it).  We do keep bread, peanut butter, blue corn chips, salsa, Amy's frozen burritos, fruit, vegetables, sometimes hummus, and leftovers.  

 

 

On very rare occasion - maybe once a month - I try a fancy recipe.

[Joker]

We have salads every week day for lunch. I prep mason jar salads every Sunday and we eat them Monday through Friday. Sometimes I dread having to chop, wash, and prepare everything but it feels awesome when it's done to know our lunches are taken care of. Our salads consist of zucchini, cucumber, tomatoes, peppers, olives, carrots and lettuces. The day we eat them I add grilled chicken, avocado, and hard boiled eggs.

 

I keep washed and cut fruit and veggies in the fridge. I also keep hard boiled eggs. Good cheese, Trisquits, and peanut butter is also always available.

[eternalsummer]

tell me more about these mason jar salads.  

[Laurie4b]

You've gotten a lot of good ideas already. 

 

One of my favorites is to make a jar of seasoning. Our family likes Cajun seasoning, so rather than buy the store kind with loads of salt, I make my own in a big batch. When it's time to cook, I put the chicken in a pan, sprinkle the seasoning on liberally, and bake. I usually serve with oooked frozen greens and rice. It's delicious and takes a couple minutes to prep. 
 

Roasted veges are also super easy: I use baby carrots, chop an onion into 6 chunks or so, fresh broccoli florets, cherry tomatoes---really any vege you have around works. Toss with olive oil in a bowl and add some chopped garlic and bake. The roasting really brings out the flavor of the veges, often surprisingly sweet. 

 

As others have said, buy the fruit that is in season; it's usually cheapest. We're going through watermelons right now. Frozen blueberries are a staple as well.

 

Leave fruit like bananas/apples out in a bowl; it makes it easy to grab when you're hungry. 

 

I definitely think prewashed salad is worth it. 

 

If you learn how to cut veges, it doesn't take long. I learned when I worked in a restaurant. I bet there are youtubes you could watch to learn how. 

[Joker]

tell me more about these mason jar salads.  

 

I was very skeptical at first but I've been doing them for months now and they are great. I only do jars of raw veggies and lettuce since dh works from home and I stay home. My mom works and does 2-3 at a time. I know some do 5 days at a time but I worry about the chicken, eggs, and avocado for that long so I don't add those until the day we eat. 

 

Basically, I just prepare the veggies I listed above and put into the jar in the same order. I did forget that dh gets black beans added before the lettuce. Some put their dressing of choice in first on the bottom. Here, dh doesn't use any dressing and I just add a bit of olive oil and lemon juice. I don't like to add that until the day I eat because it can make the veggies on the bottom too lemony. 

 

There are tons of websites and recipes if you google mason jar salads. You can add just about anything and I've been impressed by how it keeps so long. Sometimes we haven't eaten one of our salads and a week or two later we've had to throw it out and it looks just as good as the day I made it. 

 

ETA: I wanted to add that I do quart size for dh and pint size for me. We each get the same amount of raw veggies but he gets more lettuce and black beans. 

Edited June 29, 2017 by Joker

[Ottakee]

 

 

For reasons that are not clear to me, my husband likes to come into the kitchen and keep me company while I cook things.  I cook FAST, and he has a lovely knack for standing exactly where I want to go next.  So I'm thinking that an observer's chair is something we need--it's less tedious to do long cooking with someone to talk to there, and if he could be there but not in the way that would be great.

I had to laugh at this one.  Part of the trouble I am having is that my 2 girls both want to help and learn which is great but with their special needs everything takes WAY longer.  They can do many things but are much slower and do ONE thing at a time....so no multitasking at this point.

 

Our kitchen isn't overly large either so that makes having 3 people in it harder.  Then again, they want to learn and it is good for them.

[MBM]

Lettuce doesn't need to be chopped. Remove the scraggly outer leaves, cut off the bottom, loosen leaves, rinse in sink, shake off water, cut the bunch in half and you're good to go. This is how my husband's relatives in Italy make a salad. Romaine, radicchio and endive are good choices for these kinds of salads. Dressing is optional. We eat lettuce like finger food.

 

Avocados are also easy to prep. I chop up about 6-8 onions once a week. One-half gets coarsely chopped by hand and the other gets finely chopped in my food processor. Then they go into glass containers in fridge and are used throughout the week. Mushrooms just need a quick wipe and rarely need much chopping because they reduce so much while cooking.

 

Frozen veggies, cans of beans and jars of fermented or pickled veggies are helpful, too.

 

The key is to find ways to do everything easily and prep ahead if you can. I also like to watch videos on my tablet when prepping. Makes the chore less tedious for me.

Edited June 29, 2017 by MBM

[Ottakee]

Strawberries ARE In season here.....but still $5/quart as we had a drought earlier this month which really hurt the berries.

 

Watermelon is NOT cheap at all here (maybe for the 4th on a sale) and the quality is very iffy when we get it.  We all love it but I hate paying $$ for a watermelon to have a not great one.

 

I do tend to stick to apples, bananas, and whatever fruit and veggies are on sale that week.  It will get better here in a few weeks once the local roadside farm stands start opening up.  The farmer's market is expensive around here even though most are family owned local farms.  Our local road side stands are much cheaper.

I do use Aldi but don't have a Costco membership and it is about 20 miles away so not really cost effective for regularly getting groceries.

One thing I do do is buy lots of skinless boneless chicken breasts at once and cook them all up and then freeze them in small portions so I can easily take out some for soups, casseroles, chicken salad, chicken tacos, etc.  I do the same thing with ground beef.....brown up 5-10 pounds at a time with some onion and then bag in 1/2 pound bags for chili, spaghetti, tacos, etc.  That really does help with prep time.

[HomeAgain]

Easy or cheap? :lol:

Right now we're doing Blue Apron.  I'm a terrible cook.  I'm just not good at it.  I made a pork loin the other night that tasted like poo and was raw in the middle no matter how long I cooked it.  Even the thermometer said it should have been done.  It wasn't.

 

Dh set it up so I get a box with three meals a week.  The meals are usually 2 pan, with a cutting board and a few prep bowls used.  There's a variety of ways to prepare different vegetables and the time on the card is usually spot on.  I can cook and clean up at the same time.  It's roughly $20 a meal for us, which is still cheaper than eating out.  The other 4 nights of the week he cooks and it's absolutely divine.
 

 

[MEmama]

Maybe perfect a few simple, healthy family favourites and branch out from there. We eat lots of tacos/burritos/enchiladas--you can toss anything in and they are always delicious. :)

 

One pot meals tend to be easy, as do soups and casseroles or things like lasagna.

 

I wash/rinse/load the dishwasher as I go and rarely have more than a pan or two to clean after dinner (plus the plates or bowls we eat from, obviously).

[SparklyUnicorn]

Thankfully I enjoy cooking, but the only time my meals are easy is when I eat very very boring foods.  Like bagged salad mix with baked chicken or something.  Which is fine most of the time, but I'd be bored so I take the time to do it. 

 

 

[MEmama]

I don't do much actual recipe following, but this is my latest favorite site for inspiration:

 

https://www.budgetbytes.com/

 

Everything is healthy, simple and inexpensive (she includes cost breakdown by ingredient). She even did a SNAP challenge, for those on a serious budget.

[SparklyUnicorn]

I don't do much actual recipe following, but this is my latest favorite site for inspiration:

 

https://www.budgetbytes.com/

 

Everything is healthy, simple and inexpensive (she includes cost breakdown by ingredient). She even did a SNAP challenge, for those on a serious budget.

 

Oh yeah I don't follow recipes exactly.  I use them for inspiration.  It's like a voice telling me what to cook (which is what I need because i can't make up my dang mind).

[Saddlemomma]

We eat healthily and I'm still overweight, but at least I know it's healthy food...lol... 

 

We don't have one chip in our house, absolutely no soda or fruit juices.  We only drink water and occasionally milk.  It's easier for us because we grow and produce most of our own food.  We process it ourselves and freeze it. Our meat is from pigs we raise, geese and rabbits my DH gets from hunting, and grass-fed beef and chicken from the local meat man who delivers it to our house.  We have free-range chickens to supply our eggs.  Strawberries are picked from our 150+ plants in one of our huge gardens.  In fact, this week I've put up 26 quarts already and still have copious berries on the plants. Now I have to pick the rhubarb.  We will also get apples, plums, raspberries, and grapes from our little orchard.  The arctic kiwis are just plucked off fresh and eaten while we're outside.  They're too little to mess with preserving and our cherry trees are still young and not producing heavily yet. Our blueberries haven't been producing well, I think because our soil is too sweet.

 

When we go grocery shopping, we make sure not to pick up any chips.  In fact, the only snack food we buy is popcorn kernels to pop at home.  DD is allowed to pick out one $5 item every other week (we only shop twice a month) as a treat.  Most often she gets some ice cream or goldfish crackers.  We do buy Ritz crackers because that, as well as bagels, hot dog & hamburger rolls, are about the only things we don't bake ourselves.

 

Otherwise, all our baked goods are made at home: breads, cakes, cookies, etc.  In fact, just this year we purchased a GrainMaker grain mill to grind fresh wheat berries, beans, rice, almonds, etc.  With this mill, we can even grind popcorn into cornmeal or peanuts into fresh peanut butter. I could even grind coffee beans into fresh coffee.  This makes it easier to say "I really don't need to make a cake; we don't need it." because if I want to make a cake, I need to hand-grind the flour first.  We don't grind the wheat berries until we need the flour.  Grinding becomes a family affair.  When DH or I make bread, everyone takes a turn at grinding 2 cups of berries.  It's really great exercise!

 

For DH's birthday this past year, I got him a pasta maker too.  Now we are eating fresh pasta made from freshly ground wheat berries.

 

Yes, all of this is a lot of work, but the food is so much better tasting and healthier for us.

[Sarah CB]

During our busy times, I find myself buying more pre-made things at the grocery store. Pre-made salads, marinated meat, even pre-made veggies. They have a "roaster" section in the produce area where they'll have veggies already cut up, seasoned and packed in a tray that can be placed right in the oven. 

 

Costco has some great meats that they do there and sell fresh - last night we had chicken breast stuffed with asparagus, spinach, and feta. I steamed some green beans and made some baby potatoes for the kids. Super easy dinner. 

 

A weird new favourite of ours is crack slaw. Brown some ground beef, add in shredded cabbage (I buy a bag of it at the grocery store), sprinkle in some Chinese Five Spice, add sesame oil, soy sauce, and siriachi (sp) to it and it's actually pretty amazing. It's also fast and cheap.

[zoobie]

For the meal you mentioned, I would make the chicken in a triple batch and freeze two portions for another time. (Works with all kinds of taco meat, bbq, pot roast, etc.) I use a really large cutting board and cut everything on it. Salsa ingredients get chopped and tossed in the blender. The cilantro was washed when I got home from the store, wrapped in a paper towel and stuck in a ziploc. (Thanks, Rachael Ray!) A couple of spoons of the salsa go in with the avocado for guacamole with a little extra salt and lime. Or I chop extra onion when I chop it for the salsa if I'm not in the mood for tomatoes in the guac. I would probably skip the rice because none of us needs the carbs. I'd buy the corn tortillas. They're not as good, but making fresh tortillas adds an hour to the meal for me it seems. 

 

I try to pare things down to a protein, a carb for the kids, and a vegetable. It's simple and healthy. Having picky eaters, DH who's off dairy at the moment, and a toddler who won't eat meat makes it less simple than it sounds most days... But really, the large cutting board and prepping things in order so that I can use only one board cuts down on the mess for me. Having an empty dishwasher to start meal prep is really helpful too. I can toss the things straight in as I use them. I love roasting vegetables. I can roast cauliflower for me and potatoes for the kids. Simple salad. Sauteed chicken breast in the iron skillet. Done. 

 

I try to make meats that I can use twice during the week. If I do a pork shoulder in the Instant Pot, it's BBQ one night and carnitas another. If I roast a chicken (or buy one from Coscto), that's several meals and chicken broth. I'll do twice as many chicken breasts as I need and make sandwiches for the kids another night and salads for me and DH. A big piece of salmon is served as is one night and in salmon patties, burgers, or salad another. I almost never make only one batch of meatballs or meatloaf. Meatballs get cooked, then frozen. Meatloaves get shaped into individual (1/2 cup measure) loaves, frozen raw on a sheet pan, then put in a ziploc to be baked another night. Keep a list of what's in the freezer and schedule the frozen meals or it becomes a black hole.

 

Fruit may be cheaper here. I can get a Costco sized thing of strawberries for $4-5. I wash them in water and a splash of vinegar and put them in one of the Rubbermaid Fresh something containers. (Also Costco--set of three for the price of one elsewhere,) Those are magical. Great for cut up melon, washed berries and grapes, and things like boiled eggs. There's a little perforated tray in the bottom that keeps them out of the juice that collects. I just made fruit salads for my little ones using an apple (cheaper filler), a few berries, and a handful of cantaloupe (which is $1.50 at Aldi). Watermelon is cheap right now, so we eat a lot of that. Aldi is cheaper for cabbage, cauliflower, carrots, potatoes, and eggs and milk and some cheeses. A whole head of cabbage is less than a pack of the coleslaw mix, and it will make at least three of those packs. 

Edited June 29, 2017 by zoobie

[Guest]

There is a lot of healthy food that requires no prep at all. We eat tons of fresh fruit. Apples, pears, bananas, berries can be eaten without any prep besides washing. As can carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes. Peppers require minimal prep, ten seconds per pepper. So increasing the amount of veggies is really easy if you eat them raw.

 

Knife skills. It really only takes a few minutes to chop the veggies for a huge salad, big pot of stew, or for roasted or stir fried veggies. It may seem like a lot of time, but it really isn't - just time yourself. Practice makes it go faster.

 

To make it affordable, buy what's in season and on sale.

 

Buy whole grain rice instead of white, plain yoghurt instead of sweetened, whole grain bread (or even better, bake your own).

 

And be judicious where making it from scratch makes sense and where it is unnecessary work. Are home made tortillas so much better nutritionally than store bought? (Honest question, I have no idea)

Focus the energies where they have the most impact.

Yes - 90% of my diet requires almost no prepwork or it wouldn't get done. Lots of veggies, cheeses, tinned sardines, hardnoioed eggs, roasted veggies and meat, etc. I make my food easy or it doesn't happen.

[heartlikealion]

We have to make conscious choices in the grocery store. Once it gets in the house all bets are off.

 

I don't do much cooking. I can eat healthish without prep, but healthy is relative. Is it organic? Often not. Is it from my own yard? Nope. I will make parfaits for myself (plain Greek yogurt or a mix of plain yogurts), fruit, possibly a little granola, some sliced almonds. The fruit can be sliced myself or come from those Dole containers with presliced peaches, pineapples and/or tropical mix. We try to buy strawberries when they are cheaper (compare stores).

 

We might eat frozen stir fry with riced cauliflower (also from the freezer section). Is it great? No. But I feel a bit better about eating that than some meals. If it's not full of veggies I add my own. If it is, I still might add more. 

 

I started eating bread from Sam's of all places that is multi-grain, organic, GMO-free. It's affordable. It's thick so it's more filling.

 

I struggle with salads. Bagged salad goes bad too fast most of the time. The huge bags from Sam's can't be eaten fast enough. But when dh buys romaine lettuce and we wrap it up separately and cut when ready to eat it seems to last. I'm lazy so I hate the extra work but we should do it again because it does stretch.

 

Keeping less drinks in the house is one of the only ways I drink more water. We have a ways to go with our eating habits. There's always the rotisserie chicken you buy and add to something to make a meal. I like to do that with the bagged soups sometimes and then toss in extra veggies.

[SamanthaCarter]

Simple meals. It somehow took me a long time to figure out that casseroles are not simple. Someone upthread mentioned a meat and some vegetables, starch if you want it. So if you have time, a roast chicken plus maybe some green beans and baked potato. If less time, well seasoned pan cooked chicken breasts, a salad and cook some frozen peas. Some good sausages, and a couple of veggies. Pesto from the freezer smeared on fish filets and baked or some other simple fish preparation.

 

Serving foods separately instead of mixing all together in one pot makes it feel like a full meal, while mixing it together and scooping it on a plate feels like something's missing. Also sticking with a single vegetable instead of trying to do a medley also saves some time. So instead of sautéing zucchini, peppers, broccoli and carrots together, just do zucchini and save the other stuff for another meal. This way you are only pulling one thing out of the fridge, washing and cutting only that. 

 

I have a big, delicious variety of apple with natural peanut butter and a hard boiled egg for breakfast the majority of mornings. I haven't figured out kid breakfasts. 

 

My lunch is usually leftovers. Kid lunches around here are chicken nuggets, hot dogs, an egg roll, tortellini, or macaroni and cheese usually served with a fruit (grapes, melon, strawberries, oranges, depending on what's in season or cheap) and cucumber or carrot sticks. Looks like a standard kids menu at any generic restaurant doesn't it? LOL!

[Liz CA]

I suspect it may also depend a little on availability of fresh fruits and veggies. If most fruit is imported, it will perhaps cost more.

 

I cook ahead - One 8-cup glass bowl with lid has cooked rice in it for the week. I also prepare some veggies ahead but it's trickier than rice. I do ferment veggies (Gardiniera regularly) and this is a preferred way for me to eat cauliflower and peppers.

 

Freezer has enough meat for 2 weeks. Thaw something for dh. But we also keep some quick stuff like Apple/Chicken links by Applegate on hand.

Eggs and fresh seasonal veggies and herbs come from a CSA farm.

 

Equipment that helps me:

My Oster toaster oven is large and I can start meat in it and it will turn itself off at the preset time without burning anything.

Cast iron pan will quickly sautee veggies along with heating up the rice.

 

Condiments to add flavor to simple dishes:

Tamari or teriyaki sauce.

Good assortment of spices & herbs

 

I agree there is a transitional period but once I had trained myself to think ahead, I had things ready.

Edited June 29, 2017 by Liz CA

[Laura Corin]

One trick that I use: I eat vegetarian until 6pm.  Breakfast might be a veggie omelette.  Lunch is usually a big veggie salad with hummus or veggie soup with cheese.  Snacks are fruit and raw veg.  By the time 6pm comes around, I've far exceeded my five a day, have had lots of fibre, adequate protein and moderate amounts of fat.  Then I eat a balanced meal for supper, and the odd sweet snack over the course of the evening.  If the evening meal includes something processed, I feel as if I've frontloaded the health at least.

Edited June 29, 2017 by Laura Corin

[lavender's green]

Part of it is lifestyle. There were a couple of transition times in our life before we had kids, where DH was busy and I had time on my hands, but couldn't get a job because we were about to move, or have a baby or whatever. I put that spare time toward learning about nutrition and homemade meals, and ever since then, healthy cooking has just been part of how we live. That's not to say that things are perfect - we've done plenty of frozen pizza, nachos, and takeout. But I'm glad I worked hard toward setting up that baseline, because we always return to it.

 

I've also learned how to make good use of my freezer. I like to cook up a big hunk of meat on Sunday or Monday, eat it for lunch or dinner until we're bored with it, then freeze the rest. As I'm freezing that I dig something else out of the freezer. Quart bags, frozen flat, are a good size for my family, and thaw very quickly in a bowl or pan of warm water. Moist or submerged things freeze better because there's less surface area to pick up freezer burn. Pot roast, shredded chicken, taco meat, frozen with their pan juices, all freeze really well and are perfect for Mexican night!

 

Once in a while I sit down with my family and we come up with a list of healthy-enough meals that everyone will eat. I keep this list on my bulletin board for quick reference. Next to the bulletin board is my white board where anyone can write down what meals they think sound good. I also keep a running grocery list on this white board (sorted by store, because I already have a good idea in my head of which store has the best price/selection/quality), and before I go shopping I compare the requested meals list with what I have in the house. We also try to eat seasonally, BUT the fact is that some places simply don't have good seasons, so allow yourself some wiggle room on that. Oh, and I'm a big fan of shortcuts, like frozen steamable veggies.

 

I also try to get a few days of veggies out of a single chopping session, and store them in containers in the fridge.

 

Herbs make everything better. I always have herbs on hand, either grocery store or homegrown ones. If I find myself with an over-abundance, like when the mint or basil gardens go crazy, I put a few handfuls in the food processor with some olive oil to make a slurry (remember what I said above about keeping things submerged!), then freeze it in ice cube trays and store in a ziplock bag. Then just add one to a bowl of steamed veggies - the heat in the veggies usually melts the oil.

 

Finally, a new cookbook or two can be really inspiring for getting out of a funk and back into healthy eating. Some use way too many fancy specialty ingredients (I rarely pull out my Williams Sonoma book because of that; somehow I always flip open to the smoked green tea roasted duck page - ha! As if! While I have a baby on my hip and two other kids at my knees!), but others, like The Pioneer Woman are really down-to-earth and understanding about normal family needs and constraints. I have her Dinner book, and there's nothing earth-shattering about it, but it does have useful tips for bulk cooking, what sides pair well, freezer meals, grocery lists, and how to shop for and use ingredients efficiently.