The Busy Bees Guide to Healthy Eating
Do you find eating well stressful and just another time-consuming task to add on your never ending to-do list? A healthy eater is always an organised one. Planning ahead will help save money and time, reduce your stress and mental load. This month our resident dietitian and busy Mum Nicky gives us her top tips for eating well when you have a busy schedule!
1. Conquer the weekend
Set aside 20-30 minutes on a Saturday or Sunday and plan your meals and lunches for the week. Write your shopping list once you've nutted out what you're eating and this will save you time and money at the shops. Plan a regular shop once a week- this is a non-negotiable. If you can, batch cook so you cook once and eat twice. Stir-fries, curries, tray bakes, slow cookers, soups, pasta and rice dishes reheat well.
2. Make time for breakfast everyday
Breakfast does not have to be as soon as you wake up. Aim to eat something by 10am. Get up ten minutes earlier and eat it before you start the day or keep a stash of some easy breakfast foods at work like seeded or sourdough bread, pre-boiled eggs, greek yoghurt, natural muesli or low sugar granola, rolled oats or porridge, milk of choice, fruit and protein powder.
3. Go for healthy convenience foods
Pre-cut salad kits and fresh vegetables, frozen vegetable pouches, eggs, premade soups, yoghurt, instant rice cups, fruit, tins of tuna, nuts, low sugar muesli bars and muesli, rolled oats, seeded crackers, tinned legumes, your proteins (steak/chicken/fish/tofu) and a few recipes bases like curry pastes, stocks, pestos, herbs and spices are handy to have so you can easily whip together a meal.
4. Plan your meals
Choose 2-3 easy recipes for dinner for the week ahead. Get the family involved too when it comes to planning what they would like to eat. You could start with a theme like Mexican, Italian, Greek or Asian and pick your meals from there. Look ahead at your schedule and if there is a night you are going to be late home because of work, kids sport or a previous commitment make sure you have left overs or an easy meal like an omelette planned. Some easy meals include stir-fries, curries, slow cooker casseroles, pasta dishes, fried rice, a quick pan fried protein like chicken or fish with a salad or sauteed veggies, troy bakes
5. Swap your takeaway for an Activate Foods meal
Keeping a stash of these meals will save money and time without compromising your health. Activate foods offer a family side of fresh steamed vegetables and fresh roasted vegetables which are so convenient to have in the fridge. All you need to do is quickly cook up a protein like some chicken, seafood, meat or tofu for a quick meal.
