Is there such a thing as healthy fast food?
Who has the time to try and eat healthily? How on earth are you supposed to keep up with your body's health when every recipe seems so complicated? Well, here are a few recipes that even you can prepare.
It can be a real struggle sticking to a healthy diet sometimes: you spend all day at work and then head to the gym, so the last thing that you want to do when you get home is spend hours in the kitchen cooking a complicated meal.
At the start of 2019, I set myself a goal: to stop eating ready meals, limit myself to one take out a week and to start cooking healthy, nutritionally balanced meals. A few weeks in and the difference in my energy levels and overall fitness was shocking. I still felt buzzed at 8 pm when I left the gym and headed home, and I no longer found myself hitting snooze repeatedly on my alarm in the morning. You might be wondering how I have managed to stick to this for months on end?
The trick I have found is to have prepared lists of meals that are super quick to make while still be healthy. Then at the weekend, I use this list to plan my meals for the week ahead before heading out to the shops to make sure I have everything I need. Begin organized means that I don't have to pop to the shops throughout the week, saving time that I can then spend in the kitchen.
I have put together a list of 5 super quick and healthy meals that will get you through the week without resulting in you ordering a take-out, or grabbing the nearest salt filled ready meal. Why not give it a try for a week and see the amazing health benefits for yourself.
Below are my top 5 meals to get you through a busy week:
Monday – Loaded Sweet Potato Skins
This is one of my favorites after work meals because it creates very little mess and requires very minimal work. Most of the cooking time is taken up with the sweet potato cooking in the oven, meaning I can carry on with more important tasks while my dinner cooks. As well as being super easy this is an extremely healthy meal that can be altered to suit your taste, the cheese can be replaced with a vegan alternative, and you can easily pack this full of vegetables.
When I know that I have an extremely busy week ahead of me, I tend to cook up a few of these at a time and then keep them in the fridge for later in the week. To reheat, you can just place them in the microwave until they are hot inside and you are ready to go.
Ingredients:
• One large sweet potato
• ¼ Tablespoon of olive oil
• A splash of milk
• A pinch of salt
• ¼ cup of grated cheese
• Filling: this can be adapted to suit your taste, but I tend to use a strip of crisp cut up bacon. To make this dish even healthier, you could instead use a ¼ of chopped bell pepper or shredded chicken. This is where you can really be imaginative and make the dish your own.
• A spoonful of sour cream for the top
Directions:
1. Preheat your oven to 400 F degrees
2. Place your sweet potato on a baking tray and use a fork to stab a few holes into it. If you want to avoid having to wash the tray when you're done, you can line the tray with parchment paper which you can then just throw away when you're done.
3. Place your sweet potato in the oven and allow to cook for 45 minutes. If you're in a rush you can always cook your sweet potato on high for about 5 minutes in the microwave and then finish for 10 minutes in the oven, but you will not get the same crisp skin. I tend to put my sweet potato in the oven as soon as I get back from the gym so that it can cook while I shower.
4. Once your potato is done, let it cool for a few minutes or until you are able to touch it. Then slice the potato lengthwise.
5. Turn your oven down to 350F degrees.
6. Scoop out the center of your sweet potato into a bowl. Make sure you leave a thin layer around the skin for structural integrity.
7. Place your sweet potato back on the baking tray and drizzle with olive oil.
8. Mash the sweet potato that you have in a bowl and add the milk and salt, mix until it is smooth and creamy.
9. Place your mixture back into the sweet potato skin.
10. Add in your cheese and chosen fillings. You can either leave these on the top to crisp up, or you can mix them in for less of a crunch.
11. Cook in the oven for a further 15 minutes
12. You can then add sour cream to the top to taste and enjoy.
Tuesday – Avocado Chicken Salad Sandwiches
This is a super quick and healthy dish that doesn’t even require heat to make. This is a staple of mine that I make almost on a weekly basis, after a look day at work and an exhausting gym session the last thing that you want to do when I get home is start cooking, and this dish is perfect.
You can even make an extra sandwich to take to work the next day for lunch, not just do you save time the following day but your colleagues will be impressed with your fresh looking meal.
Ingredients:
• 1 cups of shredded chicken, this can either be leftovers from a rotisseries chicken or ready cooked chicken pieces from your local supermarket.
• 1 large avocado
• ¼ cup of cilantro, chopped fine
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 2 rolls, I tend to use ciabatta rolls because they form a solid base and have more of a chew to them
Directions:
1. Cut and scoop out your avocado placing it in a bowl and adding salt and pepper to taste. I usually cut my avocado into 1-inch chunks, but you can mash for a smoother texture.
2. Add the shredded chicken and cilantro.
3. Mix ingredients together until fully combined.
4. At this point, I like to toast my rolls, but this is completely down to your taste and how much of a crunch you want the rolls to have.
5. Fill the rolls with your chicken and avocado mixture
6. You can also add a dash of lemon juice and cayenne pepper to give the dish a kick.
Wednesday – Roasted Red Pepper Pasta
This is a dish that requires a little more time and effort but is great as a mid-week boost without you having to spend hours in the kitchen. What I sometimes do is plan ahead and roast the bell peppers the night before and leave them in the fridge, this speeds the cooking process up for those days when you get home from work and just want to eat dinner and chill out. This is also another meal that you can easily make more of and either take it to work the next day or re-heat the following night for a super-fast meal.
Ingredients:
• One red bell pepper
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 1 finely chopped shallot. If you don’t have shallots in the fridge half an onion works as a great alternative.
• 2 cloves of finely chopped garlic
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Red pepper flakes
• 6 ounces of your chosen pasta
• Grated parmesan cheese
• Finely chopped basil
Directions:
1. Slice the bell pepper in half and place on a baking tray with a sprinkle of olive oil.
2. Place the tray in a 500 F degree oven for 30 minutes or until the skin looks charred
3. Allow the pepper to cool until you are able to touch it and peel off the skin. Then remove the seeds and the stem.
4. Cook your pasta according to the cooking instructions on the packet.
5. Sautee your onions and garlic in a pan with olive oil for 3 minutes or until they are soft.
6. Place onion, garlic, bell pepper and red pepper flakes in a blender with salt and pepper to taste.
7. Blend until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Taste and add more salt and pepper if needed. If you don't have a blender, you can use a potato masher, but the mixture will be thicker and slightly less saucy.
8. Place the mixture back into the pan and allow it to heat through and thicken.
9. Once your pasta is cooked drain the water and toss it with your heating mixture.
10. Serve with a sprinkle of parmesan cheese on top.
Thursday – Honey Glazed Salmon
I like to try and incorporate fish into my weekly meal plans, for a varied and healthy diet and this dish is perfect, taking less than half an hour to cook and requiring very few ingredients. I try to vary what I serve on the side, sometimes opting for rice as it can be cooked alongside the fish without too much extra effort. I also like to include some steamed vegetables, such as broccoli, asparagus or carrots. You can easily swap the rice for potatoes or even chips if you’re in a comfort food kind of mood.
Ingredients:
• One salmon filet
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 tablespoon of all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoon of honey
• ½ tablespoons of olive oil
• Zest of one lime
• Juice of one lime
• 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter
• 1 finely chopped garlic clove
Directions:
1. Preheat your oven to 400 F degrees
2. Cover your salmon filet with a thin layer of salt and pepper before rolling in a bowl of flour and covering with a thin drizzle of honey.
3. Place the salmon in a skillet and sear on medium-high heat for 2 minutes on each side.
4. Place the skillet with your salmon in the oven for 10 minutes or until it is golden brown and cooked all the way through.
5. While the salmon is cooking, you can make the sauce. Start by melting the butter in a saucepan on medium heat for 3 minutes and then stir in the garlic, honey and lime juice.
6. Stir for a few minutes until the sauce is mixed together and then add salt and pepper to taste.
7. Serve the salmon onto a plate, cover with sauce and the lime zest.
Friday – One Pan Mexican Quinoa
This dish looks complicated at first because of the long list of ingredients, but it is actually super easy, mainly just requiring chopping a few ingredients and then placing everything in a pan and leaving it to cook. I sometimes even put the dish together and then head out for a short run leaving it cooking and ready for me when I get home. Just like most of the dishes that I have included in this list, you can double the ingredients and easily have enough food for three days.
Ingredients:
• One avocado
• Red pepper flakes
• Salt and pepper to taste
• ½ of a red onion, chopped
• 1 clove of finely chopped garlic
• 1 bell pepper chopped
• ½ cup of quinoa
• 1 cup of vegetable broth
• 1 ½ cups of canned diced tomatoes
• ½ a can of black beans
• 1 cup of corn, this can either be frozen or chopped
• ½ tablespoon of paprika powder
• ¼ tablespoon of cumin
• The juice of one lime
• 1 green onion
Directions:
1. Heat a dash of oil in a large pot and sauté the onions until they are translucent.
2. Add the garlic and bell pepper and cook for a further 2 -3 minutes on a high heat.
3. Add the quinoa, vegetable broth, tomatoes, black beans, corn, paprika powder, cumin.
4. Mix together and taste before adding salt and pepper.
5. Cover the pan and leave to cook for 20 minutes.
6. Stir in the lime juice, green onions, and red pepper flakes.
7. Allow to cook for a further few minutes before serving with sliced avocado on the side.
Let us know in the comments your go-to healthy meals that require minimal effort.
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Sam is a writer from the UK with a strange fixation on making as many things from scratch as possible. Whether it's brewing beer or making hot sauce, Sam is determined to try and make everything, as well as writing or making videos about it as he goes.