If you work full time, the last thing you will want to do when you get in from work is cook a full meal. Being able to cook quick healthy meals is a skill that most of us should acquire. Cooking a healthy balanced meal should not be time consuming. Here are a few tips.

Plan your meals – Planning your meals is a great time saver. Always plan your meals ahead each week. Do it by having a meal planner. You can plan your meal planner before you do your weekly shopping , this way you will save money too, as you will know what you exactly need to buy, so make a shopping list.

Pre-cook the basics – You can prepare the basics and freeze them, such as if you like to make pizza, prepare your pizza base ahead and freeze it, or make a few that will get you through a few pizzas. Or if you’re too lazy, buy the frozen pizza basis. If you’re cooking a curry, cook the masala or the paste for it ahead and freeze it, and when you need it just defrost it and add to it whatever other ingredient you want to it, whether its a meat or a vegetable. Or you can cook curry on your day off and make extra and freeze the left overs for when you want a quick meal and there’s no time to cook, just buy some naans, Indian bread, from the supermarket and freeze them as well to eat with the curry.

Cook a one pot meal – When you are in real rush and have nothing prepared try a one pot dish, where there are few basic ingredients used and doesn’t use too many ingredients either. Everything is cooked in one pot so there is minimal mess to clean up as well. One pot meals can be such as, pasta with chicken and broccoli, rice salad, or spaghetti with sun dried tomato sauce.