No time to make a healthy meal?

It’s not always possible to cook yourself meals from scratch when things get busy, and sometimes you need something that is quick and easy to make.

It can be easy to eat out more, but this can get quite expensive. Here are some ways you can include balanced meals in your diet when you have less time: 

• Buy pre-cut vegetables, salad kits and frozen mixed vegetables to cut down on preparation time. 

• Use recipe bases such as butter chicken or pre-made pasta sauces – these are easy to put together and take less time to cook.

• Ready made meals you can heat up – Try to choose ones that have a serve of vegetables and whole grains, and are high in protein and fibre. 

• If you have enough space, try cooking meals in batches that you can freeze and reheat such as lasagne. 

• Choose recipes that require minimal ingredients. 

• Buy whole grains that are quick and easy to prepare such as microwavable brown rice or microwave ready pasta.

• If you’re finding that you need to eat out more often than usual, try to choose places that provide nutritional information, and make small modifications to dishes if you can such as adding a side salad or grilled chicken instead of fried.