Eating healthy on a tight schedule and budget can be hard, but it gets a lot easier with practice. Allowing me to cheapen most of my ingredients and prep time, and complement them with fresh produce and a few special add-ins has transformed my life. Instead of stressing over time and pressure to make a delicious meal for my family, I cheat and it works! No one will be the wiser and love these fast foods.
Easy Vegetable Tortillas
Frozen bags of mixed vegetables are a staple in my household. Carrots, broccoli, and peas make great stir fry ingredients, and bell peppers, onions, and mushrooms make great omelet or quiche ingredients. Simply heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat, add your bag of vegetables, place the lid on top, and stir occasionally to get started. Add brown rice or eggs and season to taste. The key is to simplify your meals by eliminating prep time and the number of pots and pans needed. This meal minimizes cleaning and chopping vegetables and only uses 1 or 2 pans. Your food should be at the breakfast table by 30.
Chipotle healthy choice at home
Healthy Choice Steamers makes a delicious burrito bowl that you can top with your favorite “Chipotle” fresh ingredients. This food can be very fast, satisfying and cheap. All you need to buy are the frozen meals (1-2 per meal for 2 people), soft tortillas, a head of shredded lettuce, shredded cheese, an avocado for guacamole, and cooked ground turkey or beef if you want meat.
Muffins with Real Fruit
Muffin mixes are inexpensive and make great on-the-go breakfasts or mid-day snacks, so I make a full muffin tin once a week. Blueberry, mixed berry, and banana nut muffins are popular varieties. A little matching fresh fruit puree and a little applesauce for added moisture make these muffins taste like they’re from scratch. Sprinkling the top with sugar after baking, or adding walnuts or flax seeds on top before baking makes them even more special.
Transformed Salad
Salad kits are available between 3:00 and 5:00 and have the basic ingredients for a simple salad. You can choose to deviate from a boring Caesar salad and opt for an impressive salad that makes up a complete meal by choosing to make it a Garden Salad, Greek Salad, or Taco Salad. A garden salad can be dressed with fresh cherry tomatoes, thinly sliced cucumber, red onion and black olives. Greek salads are made up of the latter, with only Kalamata olives and crumbled feta cheese. Taco salads are wide-ranging, but mostly consist of cubes of tomato and avocado, ground turkey or taco-seasoned beef, and strips of tortilla chips for crunch. Corn, beans, and cheese are other great additions. Transform the Caesar salad dressing you have in your kit by adding equal parts salsa and chopped cilantro. This food will not disappoint you.
Chili and Cornbread
Chili and cornbread can be made almost entirely from non-refrigerated items. I usually make my chili as I have successfully made it so many times, but if you need an exact recipe there are plenty online to choose from. Otherwise, get 3 cans of beans of different varieties (black, pinto, kidney, cannellini, etc.), a can of corn, 1-2 small cans of chiles or jalapeños if you want spices, diced tomato, and tomato soup. Always rinse your beans in a colander of water before adding them to your chili because this is known to reduce gas induced by beans, the magic fruit. Add these ingredients to a large pot that you have a lid for, along with a whole chopped onion and a packet of chili seasoning from the supermarket. Your chili is probably thick at this point, but you can add water to your preference if you like because you added a can of tomato soup that needs to be thinned out. Bring this mixture to a low boil with the lid on, then turn it down to medium while you cook the rest of the food. Clean up and hide evidence (cans) in recycling bins before someone follows your nose into the kitchen. With a box of Jiffy Cornbread, you can make amazing, moist cornbread. I prefer to make them in muffin tins. Prepare the mixture as directed on the box, except add a whole can of cream-style corn and chopped jalapeño if you want spice. When everything is complete, offer your guests cheese and sour cream to top with chili and cold milk to cut through the spice.