Your Food Personality is:

Last Minute Meals!

You prefer not to spend too much time cooking or preparing recipes—the less you have to do the better. Whether you have a lot of demands on your time or just do not enjoy cooking, you often find yourself in the kitchen hungry without a plan for what to cook. You want to make nutritious meals, but sometimes you have to make do with convenience foods or take out.

Recommendations

Whether you are eating take out or preparing a meal, the basics of healthy eating are the same. Healthy foods are nutrient rich—they have a large amount of vitamins and minerals for their calories. The more nutrient-rich foods you can include in your diet the more balanced and healthy your overall diet will be. Nutrient-rich foods are:

  • Low-fat and fat-free dairy
  • Whole grains
  • Fruits and vegetables
  • Lean meats, seafood, eggs, beans and nuts

It is possible to make tasty, healthy meals with little time in the kitchen. Consider what makes it easier for you to prepare meals. Prepackaged entrees and salads available at the deli counter of your local supermarket offer healthier alternatives to take out or fast food. Try picking up a roasted chicken and a pre-made salad for dinner. You could quickly microwave frozen broccoli or another vegetable to go with any pre-made entree. Frozen vegetables are a nutritious alternative to fresh and are easy to have on hand in your freezer.

The microwave can be a valuable time-saving tool. Use it to reheat precooked meat and vegetables, cook a baked potato that you then top with canned chili and sour cream, or heat a frozen burrito and add fresh salsa and guacamole.

When you have food on hand you are able to generate healthy meals with less meal planning. Keeping your refrigerator, freezer and cupboard filled with healthy foods will make it easier to prepare a healthy meal quickly. For example, fill your refrigerator with cheese, yogurt, precut vegetables, deli meats and eggs. Load your freezer with frozen fruits and vegetables, frozen burritos, precooked meats and even frozen ravioli and rice. Your cupboards can store soups, canned tuna or chicken, peanut butter, tortillas, crackers, rice, pasta, dry cereal, canned beans, vegetables and fruit.

Try one or two of the following tips this week to make simple healthy meals at the last minute:

  • Make easy casseroles with a combination of canned soup, chicken, cheese and vegetables
  • Add vegetables to pizza and serve with a salad
  • Mix pasta with vegetables and canned tuna or chicken
  • Eat cheese and crackers with a bowl of soup
  • Use precooked chicken, meat or beans to make a salad or pasta dish more filling
  • Add beans and shredded cheese to soup

You might also enjoy other features on Meals Matter that make planning meals easier. Our Quick Meals page offers suggestions for meals that can be made in about 30 minutes plus one dish meals and recipes that require six ingredients or less. The Meal Planner helps you organize your meals and balance your diet over the course of each week.

We also recommend using the online shopping list. Once you find recipes you like, just click the Shopping List icon to save the ingredients to your online list and print it when you go the store.

For more meal planning ideas read these related articles:

These recipes are handpicked for good taste and convenience for the Last Minute Meals personality. We feel they meet your need to make healthy meals quickly so they contain more short cut ingredients, such as pre-made sauce, shredded cheese or frozen vegetables.