Making life easier in the kitchen!

When it comes to healthy eating, it always seems to be overwhelming, expensive and time consuming. Let’s see if we can ease that hardship - I got you!

Making life easier in the kitchen

I used to be a mess in the kitchen, a joke was once made that I was a fast improving cook, that a meal I had made was only slightly burnt, but it was the best salad they’d ever had! It was funny, and I was pretty terrible. No one taught me to cook, my Dad was a single parent of three and he had to teach himself as it was, that was back in the 90s when you couldn’t just Google recipes!

I really started learning properly when I became vegetarian (I’m not vegetarian now) because it forced me to learn when there were so few vegetarian options. Then I had two children and I wanted to make sure that I had the healthiest diet for them - not that I knew what that really looked like.

What I have learned is that I need quick, snappy ideas that I can throw together so that there is always a healthy meal available, and let me tell you - that meal is usually far from pretty, but gets the job of nourishing done!

It’s taken me years to get this healthy eating stuff on track, and I want to share with you tips that I use in my kitchen every day to get a healthy balanced meal on the table while still juggling, hockey practice, karate classes, music lessons and homework. I’m not saying it’s easy - usually the things in life that are best for us never are - but it IS so worth it so that I have the energy to get through my days!

Things I do to stay on top of it all!

Always have options

I am terrible at meal planning, I mean I can do it for other people but when it comes to sticking to that plan myself - it rarely happens, so I have to have options available to me.

Once a year I do a meat and fish order, all of my meat gets delivered to my home by a company that flash freezes pasture raised, grass fed meat and wild caught fish and we put it in a big freezer in my garage. This generally includes chicken, ground beef, ground turkey, salmon, some sort of white fish, steak and pork. That means that when I food shop I never have to think about the meat or fish that I want to serve for dinner because it’s already at home. Having a good quality protein option to start with is such a game changer. If you don’t have space for a big freezer, there are some great options out there for weekly meat orders that you know are coming from a really good source.

When I go food shopping, I make sure to get at least five different kinds of fresh vegetables like brussel sprouts, carrots, cauliflower, sweet potatoes, onion (if I’m out), broccoli, sugar snap peas, beetroot, courgette (also known as zucchini - but I’m British!) leeks, avocados, mushrooms and spinach. Then I get three different kinds of fresh fruit like pineapple, pomegranate, melon, tangerines, apples, berries. In the winter I tend to stick to frozen berries!

In my kitchen freezer I keep things like riced cauliflower, pre-chopped butternut squash, peas, avocado (for smoothies) things that make it easy when I haven’t got any fresh vegetables and I need to get a dinner on the table.

In my pantry I have things like almonds, brazil nuts, cashews, pistachios, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, quinoa, brown rice and oats. I have tinned fish like wild caught salmon and tuna and these make an excellent lunch option when you have nothing else in the house. I have black beans, chickpeas and navy beans as these are excellent for adding to a salad or some ground beef to mix with pasta as added fibre and protein.

In my fridge, aside from the fresh fruit and veg, I keep a good amount of sauerkraut (which I do mostly make myself because it’s easy and cheap!) hemp, chia and flaxseed (I mix them together in a glass jar so i’m not constantly having to open three different packets). These can be real game changers for making a meal different - think about how you make a salad, generally speaking people use some lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers and a bell pepper - this is great, but then if you throw in a few hemp, chia and flaxseed not only do you have an extra boost of nutrients in the form of omega-3, fibre, and protein, stick your sauerkraut on top and you’ve got a probiotic! You’ve also just made a meal totally differently to how you would normally have it!

One thing I could never live without is eggs! Eggs are always in my fridge and I go through about two dozen a week - they are so versatile. Got a load of leftover veggies from last nights dinner? Throw them in a pan with some eggs and scramble it all together for a protein and fibre fuelled lunch!

I also have a variety of herbs, herbs provide extra nutrients and are so easy to sprinkle over the top of veggies and meat when you cook them!

So that’s how I have a wide array of options in my cupboards and fridge so that I will never be without a healthy option!

cooking more than one meal

I hate the idea of batch cooking - spend my Sunday afternoon cooking a load of meals for the week? No thanks! I would rather read a book! For some people it works really well and more power to them, I wish I was like that but I have come to accept that I am not organized enough for that!

So when I cook meals, I cook extra. If I’m making a dish that’s has rice or quinoa, I cook extra so that I’ve got some for another meal and I store it on it’s own in a container where it will last about 3-4 days. I make myself these paleo flatbreads - they are so easy and so good (recipe on the blog) and I usually make up enough liquid batter so that I have enough for at least 4 of these flatbreads, that way when I want a lunch at home I can fry up a flatbread and stuff it with that tinned tuna, some spinach and sauerkraut. I usually boil at least ten eggs, so that after my workout I have a go to protein if I don’t have time to have a balanced meal quickly afterwards. Cook extra meat so that you can throw it in a salad or have it with leftover veggies.

Dressings - I make my own, usually as I’m cooking dinner. They are usually simple, a couple of different types of mustard, some ACV and EVOO and again, I make extra and just put it in the glass jar in the fridge.

Just cook extra - there doesn’t have to be a whole plan ahead of time for pre-prepped meals. You already have the oven on and the chopping board out - why not make it easier for yourself?

tools I use

I use things like blenders for soups and then freeze a few portions so that I’ve got stuff ready to go for lunch, I also use it for smoothies (although more in the summer) and there is a wealth of amazing smoothie recipes out there - find a couple you like and you could even freeze the stuff you want to use together into portions - if you want to do that much prepping. I do not!

I use a slow cooker but mainly for cooking meat, I am not the best at mastering slow cooked meals, the vegetables always come out too mushy and then I don’t see the point of making it ahead of time. But what I will do is put some chicken or beef in the slow cooker in the morning so that when I get home I can just use some pre-cooked quinoa or rice and some of the chopped veggies like bell peppers, tomatoes and cucumber with the chia, flax and hemp mix with the dressing I had already made for another meal.

I use a steaming pan, it’s not a fancy electric one that sits on the counter. It is one that I have to put on my hob (stovetop) but the veggies that I do in there are always delicious and sticking a dressing on them makes them even better.

Roasting pans, I use them all the time, stick the oven on put some veg and meat in a roasting pan (non-toxic) and some avocado oil and herbs - 30-40 minutes later you have yourself an easy dinner!

A decent knife - I have two knives that I love, I spent a bit of money on them because it’s easier to chop things up with decent knives - they don’t have to be super expensive, you can get some pretty decent ones, but having a good knife makes it all the easier!

Summary

That’s pretty much it! Not too many complicated tools, not too much planning, just making sure I have all the essentials and cooking extra every time I cook is pretty much how I operate! I hope you’ve found this helpful and I would love to hear from you to find out if you have anything to add!