Are you too busy to eat well? Or does being busy get in the way of what you would really like to eat?

We all know that it’s important to eat healthily and it’s even more important when you are super busy. 

Healthy food will give you more energy and it can protect you if you’re a bit stressed or anxious. This supports your immune system to fight off bugs that you may be more susceptible to picking up in a busy season of life. 

But of course, when you are busy, you may not feel as though you have the time to focus on making healthy meals. 

The good news is there are some easy things you can do to gain control over this area of your life, and here I share 7 practical tips that can make an immediate difference to help you on your road to healthy eating.

Think veg: 

Healthy eating can seem little bit complicated, so just focusing on one thing can really help. Increasing veg is a great place to start. 

It could be something as simple as adding a bag of salad to your menu – just grab a handful with every meal and put some oil on.  

Pre-packed salad is relatively cheap nowadays and tastes good. Or if you are in the supermarket, you could grab a bag of carrot batons or a bag of sugar snap peas, as these are good to munch on too.  

Think bulking out meals:

You might not have the time to totally change what you’re cooking at home right now, but you can add some healthier elements into what you’re already cooking. 

Consider adding lentils, chickpeas, kidney beans, grated carrot, grated courgette, or diced mushrooms to bulk out the foods that you are cooking anyway. 

This allows you to retain the same kind of menu and the same kind of taste, but add more health into it.  

Think bulk cook: 

If you’re bulking out your meals, then you are naturally going to be cooking more food. If you double cook every time you cook, you can halve the amount of time you need to spend in the kitchen each week. 

Imagine going to the freezer and pulling out a healthy meal that’s already made. 

Do this also every time you cook vegetables, because preparing veg can be a bit of a faff, if you prepare more than you need for that day’s meal, then you’ve got veg for the next day too, saving you on the next day’s prep time.

Think swaps: 

You don’t have to change too much of what you’re already cooking, but think about making small changes or swaps to a recipe the next time you cook it, so you have some variety. 

• If you’re cooking spaghetti Bolognese one week, the next week you could swap the meat for lentils. 
• Maybe next time replace the spaghetti with some courgetti, or make the same meat or lentil sauce with a baked sweet potato.
• If you make roast beef, you could shred the leftovers, pop that in the freezer and the next week you’ve got some beef ready to add into a stir-fry.  

This saves you time thinking up new and different menus each week, but making one easy swap can still give you some variety.

Think one pot: 

Investing in a slow cooker can be a great idea. You can prepare things for the slow cooker when you have a chance during the day or evening.

If you get a meal ready in the morning set the slow cooker on low all day; if you are preparing a meal at lunchtime, then set it on high for half a day.

Using a slow cooker can make a real difference to the time that you’ve got available. 

Think freezer shortcuts: 

[Some of my favourites are] pre-diced frozen onions, frozen chopped garlic, diced peppers, soya beans, green beans and the best one, diced frozen butternut squash. 

There are so many things you can buy frozen now that taste really good and you can just pop them straight into a pan with no need to peel or chop anything, so you save those extra 15-minutes prepping. 

Think no more perfectionism: 

Now is not the time of your life to be a gourmet cook! 

There might be time for that later, but for now you’re busy and you probably just want to get some healthy food on the table for yourself or for your family. 

So let go of the perfectionist in you, and just focus on making some nice, nutritious meals.

I hope these tips will help you to regain a bit of control in your eating and give you some ideas to keep you on track in a busy season.