Eating healthily without complicated recipes

s_glover

I would give another vote for batch cooking. You can do this and and when you feel like it and maybe more in the winter when the weather is cold and wet. This way you can maybe spend a little more time or a few more ingredients on a dish than you usually might but you end up with several meals worth.
Stir fry is a great healthy meal, which can be made with a few simple ingredients and whatever you have in the fridge.
Risotto can also be made with very few ingredients, a few of my favourites are butternut squash, mushroom and smoked fish.
We often make a warm potato salad with roasted baby potatoes and peppers, then some spinach, basil and mozarella stirred through once cooked.
Other simple healthy ideas would include, jacket potato (cheese, coleslaw, tuna), omlette, egg fried rice (again you can throw in whatever veg you have in the fridge and for a very quick meal use a microwave rice packet) 

sixtiesgal_2

Many thanks for all your replies. I will try and persevere with batch cooking and making fish and chicken dishes less than bland without using too many ingredients.

YORKSHIRELASS

I bought the Pinch of Nom book and have never used it, the recipes just look really complicated.  I do however use my Dale Pinnock Eat Shop Save recipe book all the time.

SadieO

YORKSHIRELASS said:

I do however use my Dale Pinnock Eat Shop Save recipe book all the time.

Not relevant, but I met him once and he was really nice!

I heard a good tip once that I try to use a lot - "just add one more". The "one more" being a portion of fruit or veg that you try and add to everything you cook (or, an extra portion if there is already some in your meal). So... making a curry or a chilli - throw a big spoonful of tinned or frozen veg into it. I think frozen spinach is great and saves you having to use up a big bag of the fresh stuff. Having a sandwich - add an apple or carrot sticks on the side etc. Sometimes I make a big batch of roasted veg (whatever is around, usually including peppers) and keep it in the fridge for a few days ready to be chucked into pasta, rice, omelette etc (usually with a bit of cheese) for a quick, easy and relatively healthy meal.

What kind of sauces/flavours do you like? These can be key in avoiding the bland! A bit of olive oil/butter, some chilli, garlic, herbs etc can transform a plain dish with little effort. Maybe look out for those pre-mixed jars found in the herbs and spices section. I'm using a Schwartz one at the moment (£1 ish from Tesco/Aldi) called "pepper & garlic chargrilled chicken seasoning" that I chuck on all sorts (not just chicken!)

MrsStepford

I would suggest batch cooking and freezing, then reheating in a microwave. Alternatively, how about a slow cooker ? B&M has recipes and I found a slow cooker fry up https://www.bmstores.co.uk/recipes/recipe-easy-slow-cooker-fry-up plus recipes for venison ragu and Irish stew. 

Would also suggest, if your freezer is big enough, grabbing pre-pared frozen veg from Iceland eg onions, peppers, sweetcorn, peas, beans. You can buy pre-cooked chicken breast fillets to shove in stir fries, there. Investing in a wok might be a good idea. You don't have to add Chinese or Thai sauces in, just stirfry the veg and chuck pre-cooked chicken, prawns or shrimps in. You can buy boil in the bag rice, drain and stir in. Or there are assorted Uncle Ben's flavoured rices without additives, preservatives and colourings. 

Not all convenience food is horrendous. It's a question of reading the label and making sure that you buy the product with the least additives. That isn't always the most expensive.