Life with Helen Johnson

We all need to get food on the table for our family, and it is always ideal if the food is nutritious, affordable and easy to make. Rather than sharing specific recipes I want to share 5 techniques that save me hours in the kitchen each week. These are techniques that you can start applying right now to make sure your family eats healthy, whilst still having time for everyday life.

TECHNIQUE NO.1 – MULTI TASK WHEN IN THE KITCHEN

Some people are great at multi tasking, others are not. But I want to share some tips on how you can cook multiple dishes in a short space of time.

1. Cook multiple dishes that include similar ingredients

So many dishes have the same base – onion, carrots and celery. You can make a bolognese, a chilli con carne, a curry or a stew. I often will have two big pots on the hob and add the same base ingredients, but then I start adding different ingredients to make the dish unique. For the chilli I’ll add minced beef, chopped tomatoes, chilli powder, oregano etc. For the curry I’ll add diced chicken, coconut milk, curry powder, lentils etc. You will spend the same amount of time cooking, but you will get two dishes that can be frozen for future meals.

2. Use your waiting time to cook other dishes

Every week I made my wholemeal loaf and a banana bread. I start my making the wholemeal dough and whilst that’s proving for an hour I use that time to get my banana bread mix ready, as they both go in the oven at the same time. Or I might get a traybake in the oven for dinner and whilst that cooks I whip up a quick on the stove soup for lunches. Don’t waste time staring into mid air, get cooking something else – your future self will thank you for it.

3. Make large batches that can be frozen and used for another meal

When I make mashed potato I always add extra potatoes, as having some frozen mash ready to add to a dish is so easy and simple. This doesn’t have to cost much money – I often add some frozen mixed vegetables, beans or spinach to my stews or curries and this results in extra portions for another evening. Always be thinking ahead, when you have the energy and time to cook make the most of it.

TECHINIQUE NO.2 – Utilize your slow cooker for low effort tasty dishes

When my week is extra busy and I don’t have 30 minutes to make a soup or stew, I use my slow cooker. I often use my lunch break to throw some ingredients into my slow cooker and let it to it’s thing. I come back 3-4 hours later and I have delicious soup ready for our lunches. I actually bought a second slow cooker recently, as I use it so often and it means I can make double batches of soup! One of my favourite slow cooker books is ‘Bored of Lunch – the Healthy Slow Cooker Book‘. All my slow cooker soup recipes come from this book, plus my delicious slow cooker pulled chicken.

TECHNIQUE NO.3 – Create a go-to recipe list

I spent 30 minutes one day searching for online recipes that I knew my family would enjoy. This have saved me tons of time since when wanting recipe inspiration. I will say at present I don’t tend to follow recipes, but when I do need a recipe I know where to find one. If you’re a beginner cook or aren’t very creative in the kitchen this will save you tons of time. I would recommend breaking the list down into categories, such as chicken, beef, vegetarian, desserts etc.

Click here to view my go-to recipe list.

TECHNIQUE NO.4 – Keep things simple

One of my favourite meals is some diced chicken, bell peppers and mushrooms fried in fajita seasoning with some avocado and a corn tortilla wrap. The dish consists of 6 basic ingredients and takes 10 minutes to whip up. You don’t need to create Michelin star meals, you just need to get a nutritious meal in you! Some evenings all I can handle is a jacket potato in the air fryer with a tin of tuna and a handful of premade salad. My advice when putting a meal together is making sure that you have protein and vegetables. Protein can come in all types of sources from chicken to tuna or even tofu. And you know what vegetables are – have a good variety of them. Add a bit of flavour (such as herbs or spices) and dig in. The more you try cooking simply the better you will get at cooking, as you will learn to make simple taste delicious.

TECHNIQUE NO.5 – Use premade store bought items to make your life easier

I am not an advocate for ready meals or unhealthy ultra processed oven meals, but there are items you can buy that are healthy and huge time savers. Here are a few of my favourites:

• Pre packaged sourdough kits
• Ready to use pastry
• Frozen chopped vegetables
• Tins of fish (tuna, mackerel, sardines)
• Tins of mixed beans

You can see that none of the above are unhealthy, but they make cooking easier. When I pressed for time I can just throw water in the sourdough kit and that’s ticked off my to do list. When I want a quick dinner I can lay a ready to use puff pastry sheet with veggies and a jar of pesto. When I’m wanting to pad out my curry and get in some protein I can add a tin of mixed beans. You are still cooking a healthy meal from scratch, it just aids you in completing the task a little quicker, often with less clear up.

I hope these techniques have been helpful and I’d recommend implementing one or two this week and please let me know if you notice a difference. I occasionally out recipe videos on my YouTube channel, so please subscribe if you’re interested and I’ll do my best to share further tips on that platform.