John Myers
Those who are always in a hurry and never have time are usually grateful for all kinds of fast food. Many people also believe that fast food and healthy eating do not go together. But that is wrong. Even for the manager who types in a hurry, there is a solution how to prepare quick but healthy food at the same time. So if you make sure you always have the following ten foods at home, you will no longer be dependent on unhealthy snacks. Read with us how easy it is to prepare healthy food for those in a hurry.
Healthy food for people in a hurry
Healthy food for those in a hurry is not a work of art. All you need is the right information and you’re good to go.
The most urgent of the urgent is the manager types. They never have time and like to eat fast food. Incidentally, manager types are not just limited to the executives of a company. Many full-time housewives often suffer no less from time constraints than a top manager of an international corporation.
While the industry manager usually only eats unhealthy food for himself during his breaks, the stressed family manager often also provides her husband and children with unhealthy fast food. And so the pantry cupboards of many families are full of packet soups, dry tortellini, instant sauces, ravioli cans, frozen pizza, custard powder, UHT milk tetra packs, and much more.
If the supplies are running low, the pizza service is called upon or a woman rushes to the nearest fast-food chain in order to quickly put something on the table between “picking up the little ones from daycare” and “driving the older ones to piano lessons”.
This approach is not healthy, especially not in the long term. What is often missing are crucial tips on how to prepare healthy food in a hurry.
Ten storable and healthy foods
If you have just the following 10 shelf-stable yet healthy foods in your pantry, you can prepare significantly healthier food than you have up to now – and it still doesn’t take much longer than before.
Many of these meals can also be taken to work or school without any problems so that healthy breaks can be taken even in stressful everyday work and school life.
Cookbook with quick recipes
Healthy food with legumes
Beans, peas, chickpeas, and lentils are usually quite underestimated. Basically, however, they are an almost perfect food to make a healthy meal for those in a hurry.
Legumes provide proteins in abundance, as well as plenty of fiber for the intestines, iron for the blood, magnesium for the nerves, calcium for bones and teeth, potassium for the heart, and rapid deacidification.
Legumes – dried or from the jar
Legumes are also quite inexpensive – whether in dried form or cooked as glass preserves.
Your pantry should therefore contain organic legumes in different variations: For example black beans, white beans, adzuki beans, edamame, green lentils, beluga lentils, mountain lentils, champagne lentils, chickpeas, green peas, and whatever else you like from the legume shelf.
Cook legumes in advance
Ideally, the dried legumes should be soaked in water overnight and will be ready the next day in no more than half an hour (pour off the soaking water and cook in fresh, unsalted water).
Cook more legumes at once! You can keep these very well in the fridge for several days and then use them to prepare a wide variety of snacks and small meals throughout the week, e.g. B. Lentil salad with vegetables, or hummus in four variations, which also tastes delicious on bread, or black bean patties with ginger raita.
Quick Chickpea Hummus
For example, you could make tasty chickpea hummus like this: Simply add the cooled, cooked chickpeas (or chickpeas from the jar) to the blender or food processor, pour in some of the cooking water, add olive oil, some fresh garlic, salt and – very important – add some tahini (a paste made from dry-roasted sesame).
If the consistency of the hummus is too thick after the first mixing, simply add a little more water or oil. Finally, season with some herb or rock salt.
A salad is also quickly prepared, tastes delicious, and is an ideal healthy meal for those in a hurry.
Legumes Salad
A very simple salad looks like this: mix cooked legumes with onions, avocado, freshly squeezed lemon juice, or apple cider vinegar and olive oil and season with herb salt and pepper – done! Served with spelled toast spread with coconut onion lard, jacket potatoes with butter, or a chive omelet made from organic eggs, or a portion of quinoa, or, or,….
Fast lentils even without soaking
If you ever forget to soak, use lentils. Of all legumes, these do not need to be soaked overnight. They can be boiled directly in sufficient water, which takes about 30 minutes.
The red half lentils are ready in just a few minutes, try a legume salad variant
Pulses from the jar are super fast
It goes even faster, of course, if you choose some from the jar instead of the dried legumes. Then all you have to do is open the glass, mix it with the other ingredients, season and go to the table.
Millet, couscous and quinoa
Those in a hurry can also prepare a healthy meal from millet, spelled couscous, and quinoa in no time at all. Bring enough water or vegetable broth to a boil, simmer for 10 to 15 minutes, and let it swell for the same amount of time – and the side dishes are ready.
Millet burger
If you also cook these side dishes in advance, you can also keep them in the fridge and use them for the next hunger attack, for example. B. Serve together with legumes.
Cooked millet or cooked quinoa can also be mixed with chopped herbs, grated carrots, ground nuts, an egg or egg substitute, and turned into small burgers or balls. Fried in coconut oil or organic cooking oil on both sides, they will soon become a family favorite. You can change the recipe as you like, e.g. millet fritters with cabbage and ajvar, quinoa, spinach, mushroom fritters, or spinach fritters.
Of course, the burgers can also be made in advance and then placed cold on the sandwich.
Of course, you can also just warm up the millet – once it has been cooked – and serve it with butter and herb salt or add it to a soup or make a salad out of it, e.g. B. the quinoa salad.
Quick quinoa
In organic trade, there is also quinoa (organic Inca quinoa), which is particularly easy to prepare, namely in a cooking bag. A healthy meal for those in a hurry is ready after just 15 minutes.
Quinoa-Quick Maya is just as quick and can be used to create a wonderful quinoa salad or a stew. Quinoa-Quick Maya consists of a mixture of red and white quinoa, chickpeas, and rice.
Of course, millet and quinoa also taste great with vegetables. But it is precisely the preparation of this that is an almost insurmountable problem for most people who are short on time.
Healthy food for those in a hurry with frozen vegetables
Buying fresh vegetables and then turning them into delicious dishes does indeed take time. If you are chronically short of time, you should therefore stock up on a good supply of frozen vegetables.
This is available in many different versions. However, do not choose ready-made vegetable dishes that already contain the sauce or other ingredients. It should only be the cleaned, chopped, and mostly blanched vegetables.
The fastest way to prepare this is to put it in a pot with a little water or vegetable broth, boil it briefly so that it remains al dente, season it, and then serve it with ghee or butter. Plus millet, which is already prepared in the fridge, or a quick fried fish or tofu.
For the vegetables: light sauce made from almond butter
A really light (and of course healthy) sauce for vegetables is easy to make with white almond butter. Before you put the vegetables in the pot, fry a chopped onion in a little coconut oil or ghee, now add the vegetable broth and the vegetables.
Just before the vegetables are ready, stir 1 to 3 tablespoons (depending on the number of vegetables) of almond butter into the broth, taste to taste – and you have a delicious and healthy white sauce.
Healthy eating with sweet potatoes
Sweet potatoes are a fast food – did you know that? Quite simply because they are ready to eat so quickly. In no time at all, you can create a healthy meal for those in a hurry: Peel, cut into small pieces, and boil in a little water – and you have prepared a delicious and healthy sweet potato puree.
Finally, add a piece of organic butter, a large squeeze of lemon, and – for the sweet palate – a dash of maple syrup or – for the savory version – herb salt.
The tasty puree keeps in the fridge for a few days and can even be enjoyed cold. But sweet potato wedges with chili avocado cream can also be prepared in no time at all.
A healthy meal with pasta and tomato sauce
Pasta with tomato sauce is probably one of the most popular and fastest dishes, which is available both in a can and in a ready-made set (pasta with a powdered sauce that only needs to be boiled with water). These fast food variants are rarely healthy.
The powdered sauces in particular are usually a colorful mixture of flavor enhancers, thickeners, artificial flavors, etc. And the pasta that goes with them is usually made of light wheat flour. But there is also pasta in a healthy version, for example, the basic spaghetti made from zucchini, which is shaved into spaghetti.
However, the fresh zucchini variant is not for everyone (although children especially love it!). If you prefer the usual pasta, you can buy wholesome spaghetti (or other wholemeal pasta variations) in organic shops, for example, made from spelled, Kamut, millet or buckwheat, or legumes (lentils, chickpeas, mung beans).
There are also many tasty ready-made tomato sauces in jars in organic shops. They are free from the artificial food ingredients mentioned above but are also very easy to buy in advance and store for a long time. It is also possible to cook tomato sauce in advance.
One Pot Pasta is a great way to cook a quick and healthy meal. The noodles are cooked with vegetables in a pot for 10 minutes and then seasoned.
Various pesto variations bring variety to everyday spaghetti. They keep very well in jars and are tightly sealed and are therefore always at hand when pasta is required.
Healthy food for those in a hurry with oatmeal and chia seeds
Children especially like a sweet lunch. Porridge with banana, some coconut blossom sugar or honey, and cinnamon is very tasty. Of course, you can also omit the sweetener or add some date puree (dates pureed in water) instead.
For the porridge, 4 heaped tablespoons of organic oat flakes (the fine ones) are boiled with 2 cups of almond milk. Then take it off the stove, put the lid on and let it swell for at least 5 minutes. Then add the desired sweetener (coconut blossom sugar can be cooked at the same time) and mashed banana and/or a finely grated apple if necessary. Sprinkle with cinnamon before serving. A delicious porridge with a hot berry sauce is also quickly made.
A more modern variant of a porridge that can be enriched with fruit, almond butter, cinnamon, etc. is the chia gel. Of course, chia gel is only modern in our European latitudes. In Central and South America, on the other hand, chia seeds have been known for a very long time and have been used as a healthy food for just as long, although the ancient Maya certainly weren’t in such a hurry and didn’t have as much time as in our era.
Chia seeds can be stored extremely well (much better than, for example, linseed) and can therefore also be stored in large quantities. Recipes with chia gel can be found under the chia seed link above (sprout bread “paprika” (savory) and chocolate chia pudding (sweet)).
Healthy food for those in a hurry with apples and bananas
The above oatmeal (or chia gel) is also a great snack for sweet cravings. Consequently, you should always have enough organic bananas and organic apples in stock.
Aside from their use in porridge, muesli, and fruit salads, bananas and apples can also be eaten out of hand or as a snack at school and kindergarten.
As there are few fruits that keep better than bananas and apples, these fruits are ideal for people in a hurry, as they can then be bought in advance and are always on hand for a healthy meal – for example, a quick banana almond milk. For this, the almond milk is simply mixed with a banana.
You don’t even have to prepare the almond milk yourself. If it has to be particularly fast, an instant version can be used.
Healthy food for those in a hurry with dried fruits
Of course, the dried varieties have an even better shelf life than fresh fruit. Dried fruits are also exceptionally rich in calcium, magnesium, and iron.
Dates should always be on hand, as you can use them to conjure up many healthy sweets.
Apple rings are also delicious and particularly popular with children. Children also love mulberries, mangoes, pineapples, and bananas.
Dried fruit can be eaten out of hand instead of candy. Of course, they also enhance any muesli or porridge. However, make sure you’re drinking enough water throughout the day when eating dried fruit.
Incidentally, basic cakes or muesli bars can be made very quickly from dried fruit and nuts, which brings us to the next point.
Healthy food for those in a hurry with nuts and nut butter
Healthy food for those in a hurry can also be conjured up with nuts. Nuts can be kept for a very long time in sealable glass containers – and are also known to be very healthy.
Walnuts, for example, are very rich in omega-3 fatty acids and are even officially considered heart health protectors.
Brazil nuts are also always a good snack since two or three Brazil nuts a day should provide enough selenium to cover the daily need for this trace element. Selenium is often used prophylactically against cancer or in Hashimoto’s chronic thyroid inflammation.
Cashew nuts also have a calming effect due to their tryptophan content. At the same time, they taste very mild, which is why they can be used in many different ways, e.g. B. for the production of nut cheese or the o. basic cake. How about a matcha cake or a blueberry cake?
Of course, nuts can also be nibbled straight out of the hand. And together with dried fruit, you can put together your own personal trail mix in no time. But make sure that you eat the nut mixture very slowly and chew it extensively so that it can be digested quickly and does not feel heavy on your stomach.
However, almond butter (or other nut butter) is particularly important, as you can use it to conjure up an unbelievable variety of quick and healthy meals – whether it’s vegetable butter, cream cheese, a sauce, basic ice cream, Drinking chocolate or the delicious almond milk. All of this is difficult to do without almond butter.
Healthy instant smoothies for those in a hurry
“I don’t have time for a smoothie,” it often sounds from the managerial floor. Understandable when you consider the effort involved in preparing an original green smoothie. Bottled smoothies are out of the question, as they usually consist of concentrate, pasteurized juices, too much sugar, too much fruit, too little fiber, too little greens, etc.
But there are now two ways you can get a great smoothie that tastes great, quickly and healthily. On the one hand, there are ready-to-drink smoothies in powder form that can be mixed with water in a shaker, blender, or blender in a matter of seconds. There is a ready-made smoothie for every taste: the balance smoothie with berries, the green detox smoothie, the energy smoothie, and even a chocolate smoothie.
On the other hand, it is quite possible that a manager squeezes freshly squeezed orange juice or buys juice in a health food store. He can now mix various green powders into this juice, e.g. B. nettle leaf powder, dandelion leaf powder, spinach powder, parsley leaf powder, etc., which are also available in the relevant trade. In this way, he saves himself the shopping or even picking and cleaning the green leafy vegetables and can still enjoy a great green smoothie.
And if that’s still too much work for you, how about the green smoothie cube? Unpack, bite into it – even YOU should have time for that.
You’ll see how easy it is, with just a few habit changes, to create a perfect and healthy meal for those in a hurry. In this way, you can continue to pursue your hectic everyday managerial life and still eat the best possible food. Of course, it would be even better and healthier if you could allow a little more relaxation and serenity into your life from time to time.
