One of the biggest challenges when trying to eat a healthy, balanced diet and implement change is time.

We’re all short of it.

We all have so many commitments, work, jobs, houses, family, children. There is also so much more expectation on us than there ever was. We’re doing more now than we ever were.

Eating well shouldn’t take so much time that we feel we can’t manage it or it becomes overwhelming.

So here are my top ten tips on how you can save time in the kitchen!

Buy frozen – did you know that you can even buy chopped onions, peppers and herbs? This means that you can get straight home from the school run or work and get straight on it, cutting meal prep time.

Make a stock sauce – It doesn’t need to be fancy or hard or time consuming to be nutritious. Chopped tomatoes, onions and garlic. Now you’ve got your base you can add different flavours. Curry powder/paste, herbs, spices.

Buy pouches – I love a pouch, I’m talking about the ready cooked lentils/quinoa/brown rice. Ready to go!

Buy a mini chopper – Now this is a serious time savour. Ideal for chopping veg so small it can go any sauce and the whole family will eat it.

Batch cook – Make double and freeze for those days when you’re home late or your children have a club that runs into dinner time.

Use dinner left overs for breakfast – Yep, that’s right. Who said we need to be having cereal and toast for breakfast? Left over potato and veg can be made into bubble and squeak for example, why not add an egg too.

Prep your breakfast the night before – How about some overnight oats? Leave in the fridge and have in the morning.

Create 3 weekly meal plans and rotate – Plan for 5 meals per week, allowing for 2 days of left overs or eating out. Don’t waste time thinking what to have and buy, plan ahead.

Invest in a slow cooker – Put this on in the morning and come home to dinner, no faff in the evening.

Roasted veg – Now this one is a goody, chop a load of veg, for example, carrots, onions, aubergine, courgette, peppers, roast it in some olive oil on a Sunday evening and you have a base for so much. Blend some into a tin of tomatoes for a sauce, have some in a wrap with some hummus or chicken, have as a side to some chicken or fish, stir some into some eggs for a frittata.

Being realistic in what a person has the time to do is key when creating a programme for them. Therefore ideas such as these are ways to boost what each individual can achieve to maximise results and ensure goals are reached. If you’d like to know more about Nutritional Therapy and how I can help then please book in for a free 15 minute discovery call or email with any queries.