Healthy Eating

[Sandandgrass]

Wanting to eat healthier and be more inventive,but local shops have an abundance of not so interesting stuff and junk food but limited ingredients to actually cook an interesting meal with? Have to travel out or shop online in a quest for fairly basic ingredients? Tried Mindful Chef box but bit expensive,ditto Riverford,although i like their organic suff. Time supermarkets upped their game and made offers on fresh nice stuff too?!Healthy ideas on a time constrained mum. Bearing in mind time and budget.

One good approach is batch cooking.

I have a mix of minced onion celery & carrot fried with some tomato puree and veggie stock added. Then freeze in portions.
This can be used for curries, casseroles, tomato saucees .... just add herbs and spices, can of chopped tomatoes lentils chick peas, soft cheese or meat.

I do bulk buy my tomatoes and dry pulses so really always have a quick cheap meal available. If you can afford the initial costs and have the space.

What foods are you struggling to get, that your supermarkets don't have? If it's cupboard stuff, we go to the Asian supermarket a few times a year to stock up. And Amazon have a very good selection too. What would you call an interesting meal?

I made some tuna fishcakes last night that I considered quite healthy. They used very basic ingredients: potato, tinned tuna, spring onions, bread crumbs, lemon, plain flour and egg

You don't need fancy ingredients for healthy, tasty meals. Eating seasonal fruit and veg will mean you are eating their best when they will be most flavourful. If you look at the BBC Food website, it has a section that will tell you what's in season and give recipe suggestions.

It would also be worth building a really good store cupboard of spices, oils, vinegars, condiments etc to help your less exciting ingredients sing. If you have a pot you could grow a few fresh herbs in a pot that would be another good addition, simple cuts of meat, fillets of fish etc marinated with fresh herbs and served with a salad are a go to here over the summer months.

What sort of things would you like to cook if you had better access to ingredients?

Thanks for the the great suggestions! I like the idea of bach cooking the base of celery,carrot,onion etc and turning it into diferent dishes and shall be trying this for definite! I tend to do a batch of something and life gets in the way and it doesnot happen again for an age! Shall definitely be doing more of it, homemade ready meals sound good! My gripe really was my nearest supermarket rarely seem to have the fresh fish or meat counter open these days, unless its a supply issue,but others don't seem to have this issue? Being a small household i don't always want to purchase larger prepacked packs . Our local fishmonger has closed down, maybe not as much demand as most go to the big stores? We love spicy food bit do not have an asian supermarket nearby so will keep to online to ring the changes with spices. Never thought of Amazon either, shall peruse that! Love the sound of the tuna fishcakes shall be trying those, as simplicity after work is the key for me. AtleastitsnotMonday..agree fancy ingredients are not necessary for me its about something fresh, quick to make after work, with the environment in mind too, so yes shall be looking to cook with more seasonal in gredients, the less flown in the better! I am of an age where we once used to have far less choice but just went with the flow.

Love fresh herbs too so shall get growing more,have actually just planted up a pot of chillies too! Bulk buying is a great idea with things such as tinned tomatoes which for me with working full time shall be a time saver for sure. Appreciate all of the suggestions and it is going to be about batch cooking,growing more of my own herbs, building up my spices and oils and we love a salad, so a seasonal salad bowl ticks the health box too. Feeling more inspired and thanks everyone.

Must add that i get disgruntled when the local 'convenience' store seems to stock a plethora of confectionery and fizzy drinks but try and get some fruit or veg! Unless you find a jaded bunch of bananas well ast their sell by date or a wrinkly green pepper (not much exaggeration here) . For those that perhaps do ot have access to a car or are elderly etc its time these places upped their game and thought about the health of the community they serve too! Shall step off the soap box now😊

Something super simple and healthy I do at least once a week is fill a big pyrex dish with chopped vegetables and a light seasoning, tonight is mixed peppers, courgette, tomatoes and red onion, then serve with a simple protein of choice.

Takes very little prep time, just decent knife skills to be a bit faster! In the oven for an hour, stir it a couple times and done.

Depending on what protein you add it can even be cooked on top, (only one dish to wash!!) I often add feta to potatoes, peppers, chickpeas and onions, or vegetarian sausage cooks fine on top.

Mix match with seasonal veg, just cut harder veg smaller to cook evenly.