By Bettina Berlin

In our hectic time with longer working hours and a very busy schedule of our loved ones, it’s often difficult to find the time to prepare home-made meals. And what happens when you don’t have the time to cook? It’s again pizza service or burgers, or a ready-made frozen meal from the supermarket.

But these kinds of foods are placing a strain on your budget, and studies have shown that they can have many negative impacts on your health. Fast food often contains lots of fat, and many ready-made meals are packed with unhealthy additives whilst lacking important nutrients.

Cooking yourself is a much cheaper and healthier option. With good planning, preparing your own food does not need to be time-consuming. In fact, you can prepare delicious healthy meals in half an hour or even less if you follow the tips below.

1. Be organized
2. Keep your meals simple
3. Choose fast cooking foods
4. Choose foods that require little preparation
5. Use prepared foods

1. Be organized

Plan in advance what you will cook. A weekly plan before your shopping tour will ensure that you will have all ingredients you need. It also saves you the daily What-should-I-cook-tonight problem. Further, know your kitchen and keep it tidy. You will be much quicker when you know precisely where to find your tools and ingredients.

2. Keep your meals simple

It’s usually quicker to use fewer ingredients than to prepare a complex dish with many different foods. Stick to a basic “vegetable + starch + protein” meal: One or two types of vegetables, a starchy food (rice, pasta or potatoes) and a protein-rich food (meat, fish, eggs or legumes).

3. Choose fast cooking foods

Some foods take longer to cook than others. A kilogram piece of meat will take much longer than a chicken filet because it’s bigger. Potatoes take longer than pasta. And hard veggies like pumpkin and carrots take longer than mushrooms or marrows. If you are in a hurry, choose the foods that are done quicker, and leave the longer cooking ones for days with more time. Another great option is fruits and salads: They don’t need to be cooked at all.

4. Choose foods that require little preparation

Foods that need to be peeled (e.g. potatoes or carrots) obviously will keep you up longer than the ones you just need to wash, like marrows or pepper. As for sizes, it’s less work to peel one or two big butternuts than three to four small ones. If you can get foods that are already cut or small enough to use them (cherry tomatoes), even the better.

5. Use prepared foods

Supermarkets offer a large variety of canned and deep frozen vegetables or fruit that can save you a lot of time because you just need to warm them. Make sure the foods are not processed, and that no or little preservatives, colorants etc. are added. If it comes to seasoning your food, ground spices are helpful. They might not taste as strongly as the fresh ones but nevertheless will spice your meal up nicely.

As you can see, preparing healthy meals in a short time depends to quite an extend on your planning. If you make clever choices, cooking can be a fast job. That does not mean your menu must be restricted and boring. You can come up with many variations of ingredients, and use a variety of spices to give your meals different characters. If you follow the tips outlined above, you won’t need to rely on take-aways and ready-made meals any more. You can prepare your own healthy food, be healthier and have more money for other treats. How about taking your family out to a decent restaurant and spoil them with quality meals for a special occasion?

Bettina Berlin is an Occupational Therapist with special interest in healthy nutrition as it can improve health and help prevent many diseases she saw her patients struggling with. If you want to learn more about healthy eating, visit http://www.elishas-quick-recipes.blogspot.com today and learn how to make your favorite dishes healthier and how to prepare healthy meals in the little time your hectic schedule allows you!

Article Source: Bettina Berlin — Fast Cooking – 5 Top Tips How Your Food Choices Can Create Delicious Healthy Meals in 30 Minutes

Categories : Cooking