One of the challenges many people face is taking the principles of eating healthy whole foods and turning it into an enjoyable sustainable lifestyle. You don’t have to slave away in the kitchen for hours, nor does healthy eating have to cost a fortune. Neither of these are practical and often mean people struggle to stick to it.
The idea here isn’t to be too restrictive - to say you’ll never ever ever eat fried, sugary or fatty foods again is unrealistic! Many of these foods are fine to have occasionally provided they don’t form the foundation of your diet.
There are many ways you can save time and money when preparing your food without compromising on nutrition or taste.
How to get started
Spend some time working out what it is you personally struggle with! For some people it's time, while for others it's cost.
How to save time
Meal prepping once or twice a week will save you a huge amount of time, especially on those days when you don’t have any to spare.
Taking the time to plan your meals and prioritising shopping and cooking in your weekly schedule ensures you have foods to hand that are quick and easy to throw together when things get busy. I usually advise clients to spend a few hours on Sundays to do their shopping (or if ordering food online then to have it delivered by Sunday) and cooking a few staple items that'll get them through their busy week until Friday when they have more time again.
The aim is to make sure you have something quick, tasty and healthy on standby to prevent impulse delivery orders and reaching for unhealthy snacks when hunger takes the place of rational thought.
Meal prep can mean different things to each person, so it's important you find a routine that works for you. Essentially, it should save you time in the kitchen and make it easier for you to eat healthier during the week.
If you always find yourself in a rush to get out of the door in the morning and your breakfast usually consists of a piece of toast or croissant on the run, then preparing breakfast will help you. Similarly, if you work late and struggle to find the time to get dinner together, you should focus on preparing dinners.
Here's how to go about it
Create a shopping list
Before doing your weekly shop, look through your kitchen and see what items you need to stock up on. Keeping a supply of items like frozen vegetables and berries, as well as tinned items such as legumes and fish is a good idea as they can be used as bases for simple, throw-together meals. Also, look through your favourite recipe books, or search online for 2 or 3 recipes that you want to eat throughout the week and that will keep in your fridge for a few days. Write a list of what you need and you're ready to go!
The weekend cook up
Once you've got your shopping, turn your oven on and start to bulk prep your foods, rather than putting them away in the fridge.
- Roast two chickens or a tray of chicken breasts and drumsticks. You can use some for dinner that night and the rest as your protein source for salads, sandwiches or snacking throughout the week. Chicken will keep in airtight containers for 3-5 days, or you can freeze it for up to 3 months. Leftover chicken is great for adding to things like soup or omelettes.
- While the chickens are in the oven, roast a tray of mixed seasonal vegetables. Roast butternut squash, sweet potato, cauliflower, carrots, parsnips, cauliflower and brussels sprouts are all enjoyable eaten hot or cold.
- Lastly, make one giant salad without the dressing. Vegetables like kale, cabbage, carrots, red onion and spinach are hardier than tomatoes and cucumber, which can go soggy. Keep this salad in an airtight container and it will keep for over five days. You can then eat this as a side dish with your meals or use it as the base for your lunches. Just add some protein (chicken, fish, eggs, tofu, legumes), some grains, roasted veg and dress with olive oil, lemon juice and mustard or mixed herbs.
Other items to meal prep
- Hard boil a dozen eggs. Eggs will keep in the fridge for one week in their shells. Eggs are a great, portable snack and can easily be added to salads or sliced on toast with some avocado and tomato for a quick, easy meal.
- A big pot of soup or stew. This is especially great for using up leftovers from the week and preventing food wastage. Throw all leftover vegetables, chicken, rice, legumes and anything else you have in the fridge in a pot and add in a tin of tomatoes or vegetable stock. Having a supply of soup in the fridge or freezer means you can add a tin of tuna or salmon, some chicken or legumes and there you have it - a perfectly balanced meal.
- Bulk cook one different grain per week. If you cook a big batch of quinoa or brown rice, you can keep it in the fridge for up to 4-5 days and use it as a base for salads or as a side portion with your curries or fish/vegetable dish.
Use a slow cooker
A slow cooker is one of the most time efficient ways to cook a healthy nourishing meal with minimal effort. Assemble all your ingredients in the pot, turn it on and go about your day until it's time to eat. Great items to use are root vegetables, onions, garlic, vegetable stock, mixed herbs, tinned tomatoes and meat of your choice.
Double up
Make 2-3 servings of each meal. You can then eat the leftovers for the next couple of days for dinner, take to work and reheat for lunch, or freeze for another time. Stir-fries, curries and stews are ideal.
Tins, tins, tins
Soaking and cooking from scratch is always the better option and easier on digestion, but tinned beans, chickpeas, lentils or black beans are much better than a takeaway on the way home or an impulse Deliveroo order. Opt for sustainably sourced wherever possible, and look for items with no added salt or sauce. Tuna, sardines or salmon from tins can be thrown on top of any salad to provide you with protein.
Use your freezer
If you’re short on time, cooking extra and freezing meals for later is a great idea. As a general rule, cooked meat will last for 3-6 months. Make sure you label your food so you know how long it’s been there for. You can also par-cook vegetables when doing your meal prep and freeze them in freezer bags. This way you can grab them out and they take less than 3-4 minutes to cook.
How to save money
One barrier to eating well is the perceived cost, that eating ‘healthily’ has to cost a fortune. In an ideal world yes, we would be eating organic, grass-fed, and free-range ‘superfoods.’ But there are plenty of ways to eat healthy without having to aim for perfection.
There’s no reason to reach for eye fillet steak and expensive tender stemmed broccoli when organ meat and leafy greens will do the same job. Some of the foods that are the most nutrient-dense (organ meats, eggs, and vegetables) are also the cheapest.
Buy frozen produce
Frozen produce is generally viewed as having less nutritional value than fresh produce, but this is a myth! Frozen foods can be just as nourishing and in some cases contain more nutrition, as they're often picked and frozen straight away locking in the vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. Buy a few bags of frozen vegetables and fruit when they go on sale, and you’ll always have some on hand.
Buy tinned fish
Tinned fish such as mackerel, sardines, anchovies, and salmon all provide good amounts of omega 3 fatty acids – the health-promoting anti-inflammatory fat. Don’t worry about the bones in small fish, they are perfectly edible and a great source of calcium. Tinned fish is a cheap, convenient, sustainable, and healthy go-to, but do always look for sustainably sourced products.
Buy in bulk
It’s sometimes cheaper to buy large quantities of products than to buy them in smaller amounts, so buying in bulk can save you money, provided you use them and they don’t go to waste. This is again where cooking in bulk, using your slow cooker or freezing meals are great ways to make use of all your ingredients and will ensure you have plenty of meals to hand when time is tight.
Avoid expensive extras
We know that foods like cheeses, chorizo, bacon and nuts can be tasty and healthy additions to your diet when eaten in moderation. We don’t need to completely avoid these foods, but these items are more expensive and aren’t nutritionally necessary to eat all the time. Choose one item you love per week and alternate weekly.Avoid eating out unnecessarily
Eating out can be an enjoyable, social interaction. So too can ordering in on a Friday night after a long week be part of a healthy balanced diet and lifestyle. But, it can be quite expensive if you’re doing it frequently. Having a plan and being prepared means you will be less likely to be caught out and having to buy lunch or dinner regularly. Preparing and taking your lunch to work is cheaper and you have the added bonus of knowing exactly what's in it. Then you can save your money for those special occasions when you do go out and enjoy it.Grow your own
If you have the advantage of having a small garden or outdoor area, growing your own fruits and vegetables can be cheap and enjoyable. In particular, leafy greens are easy to grow and seeds are incredibly cheap.
Snack smart
Once you adopt a whole food way of eating and you figure out what your unique body needs to function, you should find that you have stable energy throughout the day and can usually get by on three meals a day without snacking. If you're physically active or feel the need for an afternoon snack to keep you going, healthy inexpensive snacks can include carrot sticks with hummus, whole fruit, full fat Greek or natural yogurt, oats, oatcakes and rice cakes with sliced tomato and cucumber. You can even slice your own sweet potato and bake them for some healthy crisp alternatives. Add a little olive oil and sea salt when cooking.
Summary
Sometimes all it takes to overcome the idea that healthy eating is expensive or time consuming is a bit of creative thinking. There's no reason a healthy diet has to contain expensive superfoods and organic produce. It’s great if you can afford organic, free range, and grass-fed everything, as we know this is ultimately the highest quality standard, but if this isn’t possible for you, then there are still many ways your diet can be full of healthy and nutritious foods.
