When you're trying to keep your professional and personal lives humming along, who has time for healthy living? Sometimes it can feel totally unattainable to create any sort of consistent or nutritious meal plan. When you get home at 8 p.m. most nights, or when you have to leave for work in the morning when it's just barely starting to get light out, how are you expected to cook up a delicious, nutritious meal for yourself? Luckily for everyone, there are plenty of lazy health hacks you can deploy in your everyday life so that your body gets the right fuel, and you don't lose the precious hours of your day.
When it comes to creating healthy meals in a short span of time, it's normal to have no clue where to begin. You might imagine (and become instantly overwhelmed by) chopping five different types of vegetables, trying to cook grains you can't even pronounce, or choking down an expensive juice to be your only options, and I think we can all agree these just sound exhausting and stressful.
No matter what type of food you're into, there's a healthy hack that will allow you to incorporate it into your life with as little time as possible. Here are seven lazy healthy hacks to help you get through even the busiest of weeks.
Keeping a few packs of frozen veggies in your freezer at all times is a great way to ensure you can always have a healthy dinner.
Go ahead and add those veggies to everything. All you have to do is pour a bag into a pan and fry them up alongside any dish you're making, and you're guaranteeing yourself all of the vitamins and nutrients that stay locked up in veggies even when they're frozen.
Cooking up a delicious meal? Make enough for three or four meals' worth, and you'll be able to enjoy the fruits of your labor long after you put the effort in to cook it.
I personally like to make two cups of quinoa whenever I make a big batch, and then I add carrots, beets, goji berries, almonds, some fresh ginger, and some cherry tomatoes, and voila! I have a delicious, healthy batch of food that will easily last for a full week.
Chia seed pudding is not only easy to make, it's also just plain fun to eat. It's an added bonus that it's so good for you: Chia seeds are a total superfood, because they're so packed with nutrients and simultaneously easy for your body to digest.
To make delicious chia pudding, all you have to do is soak a half of a cup of chia seeds in two cups of whatever milk you enjoy. I prefer to soak the seeds in vanilla almond milk, and then I add a sprinkle of cinnamon, a dash of vanilla extract, and I drizzle some honey and berries over the top in the morning. Boom — you have an artisanal and nutritious breakfast waiting for you in the morning.
If you're one of those people who sprints out the door in the morning to make a workout class, or conversely, one of those people who hits snooze 15 times before you finally get out of bed, then you know a no-hassle breakfast is essential.
Not a fan of my snazzy chia pudding recipe above? No worries! You can always try out this option: Cook up a bunch of breakfast sandwiches over the weekend, then freeze them in little baggies so you can pop one into the microwave whenever you're ready to chow down.
Spiralizer 5-Blade Vegetable Slicer, $28.97, Amazon
If you can't stand the idea of eating a bowl of vegetables, then play some mind games with yourself and change the way your greens look! Spiralizers are these totally handy little machines that turn your vegetables into little piles of corkscrews. You can then take the spiralized veggies and turn them into stir-fry, or even use them as a pasta substitute.
Cooksmark Copper Nonstick Pan, $19.98, Amazon
Sometimes the biggest hassle of cooking is the cleanup process, which is why a non-stick pan is one of the easiest health hacks you could choose to revolutionize your cooking time.
Using a non-stick pan will prevent any of those awful scraping-at-burnt-scraps moments, and it will also allow you to use way less butter and oil while cooking, making any meal instantly healthier.
There are tons of amazing one-pan recipes out there, all of which allow you to cook up a delicious meal in just one pan, making both the cooking and the cleanup process way easier.
Try out this amazing one-pot vegan pasta recipe from the Minimalist Baker, which is healthy AF and delicious AF, filled with pasta, mushrooms, and eggplants galore. Yum.
