Seven time-saving ideas for healthy cooking

Cooking healthy is hard, right? We know that whole foods are the answer, not convenience foods that come in a box. Let’s face it — preparing meals from scratch can be a total drag, especially during the witching hour when the kids are tired and clingy and you’re on your last shred of patience.

It doesn’t have to be another ill-timed chore to put a healthy dinner on the table. Try these time-saving ideas for getting that whole food meal prepared — fast. They are tried-and-true in our household, and you are taking advice from someone who is making orange roughy with fruit salsa and roasted Brussels sprouts tomorrow night, and a butternut squash, sage and prosciutto pizza (with homemade pizza dough for the crust) later this week. It can be done.

• Cook grains, pastas and legumes ahead of time and freeze in appropriate serving sizes. You’ll always have them recipe ready.
• Keep bags of organic frozen veggies on hand to quickly add to stir-fries and pastas.
• Cook a double serving every time you make a meal and pop the other serving in the freezer for next week.
• Use your slow cooker; not all crock pot recipes are unhealthy casseroles based on canned soup, and you can prepare these earlier in the day. Have you tried my crock pot chili recipe yet?
• Chop your ingredients ahead of time so you only have to throw the meal together just before serving.
• Always serve a salad. It takes no time at all to chop a little lettuce and toss in your favorite veggies.
• Buy your naturally-raised meats and poultry in bulk, trim ahead of time, and freeze in meal-sized portions.

Now all you need to do is invest in a freezer and you’ll be on your way to easy, healthy meals. What are your time-saving tricks for cooking fast and healthy?

Portions of this post were previously published by me on That’s Fit.

Clacked by Debbie McDuffee
on Feb 24, 2009 @ 15:00 EST5EDT