Given it鈥檚 best to avoid ready meals, what are your recipes for healthy, easy-to-prepare food?

When time for cooking runs out or when cooking feels overwhelming, we tend to go for ready-meals, which often contain more salt, sugar and fat than necessary. Do you have ideas of tasty, easy-to-prepare meals to avoid going for ready-meals?Given it鈥檚 best to avoid ready meals, what are your recipes for healthy, easy-to-prepare food?
I tend to go for quick and easy pasta dishes or jacket potatoes a favourite filling in our house is tuna, sweetcorn and chopped spring onion and instead of mayonnaise I use low fat cream cheese to mix it all together.Given it鈥檚 best to avoid ready meals, what are your recipes for healthy, easy-to-prepare food?
Personally i love stir fries, and you can chop up whatever veg you love using like mushrooms, peppers, onions, courgettes, ...the list is endless, and chop them up in advance. Put them in an airtight container and theyare ready to use when you get in and go straight into the pan and only take a few minutes to cook with some fresh chicken, beef prawns, whatever you fancy.





Also soups are great and can be made in batches and then chilled or frozen, they are very filling too. You can experiment with all kinds of soups like butternut squash, carrot and coriander, tomato, bean soups and even chicken soup, again the list is endless.


You can also warm up a cup of your soup for a snack if you feel hungry and tired between meals.





Another option is do your cooking at the weekend and freeze or chill it so the only thing you have to do is pop it in the microwave when you get home. This could be pasta bakes, fish pie, stews and casseroles.. all healthy and none of the sugar and salt and bad fats that are in the average ready meal.





One more tip is always keep frozen veg, lean meat and fish in the freezer for when you need it. You can defrost it to use for your prepared meals through the week, but you can also microwave them from frozen in an emergency and make a perfectly healthy meal.


This is also good as the frozen food will not go out of date like fresh chilled food can, and so nothing is wasted.
I live alone, so I batch cook things like Bolognese sauce, Chilli con Carne, an ever-increasing range of curries, etc. and freeze them in individual servings for later.





None of my recipes contain sugar or salt, except in the cooking water for potatoes, rice and pasta (and sometimes I forget this). I physically remove any excess fat.





And with a little bit of practice, you can rustle up something like a stir-fry in the same time it actually takes to prepare a ready meal, not what it says on the packet.
Sweet Fruit (Strawberry's, Bananas, Apple, etc.)


Salads, (Radish, Tomato's, Leek, Leaf vegetables, etc.)


Tuna or Sardines,


Pules vegetables (Bean, Sweetcorn, etc.)


Dark green vegetables, (Broccoli. etc.)


Grate the apple, carrots, leek, broccoli and radish. Add some diced leek and apple. Cut fruit in nice chunks, add tuna or sardines, sweetcorn and salad of choice. Add it all together. Add a splash of olive oil and a pinch of pepper, 2 rounds of whole meal bread, low fat butter or margarine.


Glass of whole fruit juice.


Bio yogurt for after.





We always keep a bowl of fresh fruit in to help avoid junk snacking.





ALL DONE IN UNDER 10 MINUTES.


A good all round healthy meal, and cheap!





Question to Dr Christian Jessen. ';Do you read the answers to your questions.';
A salad with just a simple mustard honey oil and balsamic vinegar dressing.





Stir fry Is a quick dish so I tend to do that and either just have a soy sauce or a packeted one if I have one in.





Quick enchiladas that are unbaked. You just get tomato beans of any kind you want garlic coriander and onion. Pop all of that in a pan with some Tabasco just cook through only takes about 5 minutes. Put in some cream cheese. Cook until warm and stir all together. Wraps in the microwave for 30 seconds. Serve with a bit of salad if you want .





Usually it depends on what i have in on what I will cook . A quick pasta dish, a salad, couscous.





Also I have a slow cooker which is a godsend because I can put things on in the morning and they will be ready by lunch by which point I will either eat it or put in on warm ready for tea later on. Brilliant piece of kitchenware
Jacket potatoes are really easy and quick, and while they are in the microwave, you can easily put together a salad to go with it.





stir fry is really easy, quick, and also good for you. You can use prawns, chicken..anything as well as loads of veg to go with it.





Cooking casseroles in a slow cooker is great, as you can turn it on before you go to work, and by the time you get home, its ready!





Also, you can cook your own food, and freeze it for another day during the week!
I find even the M%26amp;S ready meals are mainly sloppy and too salty. If I'm in a rush then boiled pasta with a spoon of pesto (happy for that to be shop bought), freshly grated parmesan, black pepper with a tomato salad drizzled in a little olive oil.


Another standby is to boil some rice, stir fry any left over veg / chicken / bacon in a wok and mix together with a few drops of soy sauce.


To be honest I find even good old beans on toast or an omelette more satisfying than a ready meal.
Yes I am a vegetarian and I find it pretty simple to make most things without heading for the ready meals.


Baked potato - 10 mins in the microwave


Grate cheese and onion and put on the top once the potato is cooked.





Roasted fresh vegetables and stuffed giant mushrooms are also really easy things that I make.
I cook everything from scratch and the longest it ever takes me is 15minutes. Here's a few things I do:-








Homemade burger. Grab some lean minced turkey / beef / lamb. Season. Add a little chopped onion or any herbs you fancy. Shape into burgers. Grill. Toast buns, add cheese, salad and you're done.





Stir fry. The old fail-safe! Grab aubergine, courgette, carrots, radish, onion and mushroom. Cut into big chunks. In a hot pan put a little oil and chuck in the most solid veg first (the one that'll take longest to cook), add the others. You can add a dressing of your choice after.





I bulk prepare things like mashed potato, mashed sweet potato, red cabbage and roast potatoes. Once cooled, I put in freezer bags and freeze. The mash takes about 40 seconds in the microwave and once defrosted, roast potatoes can be re-crisped under the grill.





When I buy meat from the butchers I put it in indivudual freezer bags, before I freeze it I'll either season it or put a marinade in there of some kind, that way when it's defrosting the marinade is soaking away in there.
Fresh veg done in the 3 tier steamer with a bit of salmon. Spuds in the bottom container, carrots in the nest on and the salmon in the top one. Steamer costs about 拢20.00 new less if a used on and the time is around 15 minutes depending how much you have in there. Veg are fast to do in the microwave too. Fish is very fast to cook or diced chicken breast stir fried with about a teaspoon of olive oil and spices to taste. Tomato puree is a good flavour-aid at 拢0.19 a tube from tesco.





EDIT: I try to do the prep before I go to work. I.E salad chopped in fridge and any trimming of veg. Then you only have to bung the veg in the steamer and it seems like no time at all.
A strange question.


All naturally occuring, unprocessed food it tasty. I have three recipes, and all you have to do is select the appropriate one for the food you choose:


1. Eat it, or


2. Wash it and eat it, or


3. Wash it, cook it and eat it.


Simple, really.


:-)
Tomato soup!





2 tins chopped tomatoes , fresh chopped tomatoes if you have time.


2 chopped red onions and garlic to taste


a chopped peeled potato


veg stock cube.


water





Sweat off all chopped veg in a small amount of olive oil. Add water and stock cube. Simmer for ten mins then blend with fresh chopped basil.


Add dash of worchester sauce if you have a cold and crunchy fresh bread /strong grated cheese.


Takes about 15 mins tops.
Oooh I have a few:





1)Steamed Salmon with wholegrain rice (cooked with vegetable stock cube) and a salad... its lovely.





2) Wholegrain Pitta bread with tuna, salad and low-fat feta cheese.





3) Chicken breast - sliced, filled with stuffing and cooked on the george foreman grill with steamed veggies, new potaotes and a little gravy... takes 15 mins.
Cheese packed into peppers, lightly toasted in the grill for about 10 minutes





Maybe mix some rice in there





Though thats just one suggestion..





A bowl of cereal is nice for a meal, only if its full of fibre though, and if your willing to eat that. I suggest shreddies or better yet, poridge.





Making a salad/ham or any other halthy filling sanwich is quick and can easily be a meal.








Heaven x
Boil up some rice and then take a tin of tuna in oil ,give it a warm up in a fry pan then add your rice give it all a stir.


But generally I make enough to feed an army so I freeze my own meals, that way you know exactly whats gone in them!And if I am having one of those days I have a freezer full of home cooked meals!
salards, omlettes, fresh meat grilled with fresh fruit for desserts.


It takes twenty mintues to boil new potatoes and less to stir fry meat and vegtables, it often takes 30-40 mins for delivery of take away meals!
Turkey tacos...


Chicken breast with a tossed salad


Fish (broiled, grilled) with fresh fruit salad


Crock Pots are always a great time saver...put your dinner together before you leave for work and it's ready when you get home. Crock Pot cook book are at most book stores.


bonappetit
I dont like ready meals they dont taste that great.


I always have my fridge packed with salad foods or id make grilled tomatos and poached eggs or have a snack like a peice of fruit or wholewheat bread to curb hunger until iv time to cook something
sweat onions in oil in a saucepan add cut up chicken and brown it then add mixed chopped up peppers. make rice with this overall takes about half an hour. add like thyme and other herbs to the chicken tastes really nice
SALAD!! I just chop-up as many vegetables as possible, maybe add a bit of cheese, some olive oil and top it off with a hard boiled egg. REALLY filling and REALLY healthy!! :)
BACON SANDWHICH mmmmmmmm....
tuna and mayo sandwich, ok so maybe the mayo aint healthy, but it tastes good %26lt;3 :)





Cloud. x-x
jacket potatoes


beans on toast


sandwiches


bowel of cereal


soup
Tuna sandwich.


Stir fried veg with Olive Oil.
dunno a very nutritious jacket potato with very nice fillings e.g.peppers,corn,sausage. watever rocks ur boat.
Beans on toast.
porridge,love it.
we usally have pasta


or waffles, egg and beans





or quarn...........