.png)
When life gets busy - get prepared! Good organisation is the key to successfully staying low carb when life gets hectic. So what are the best things you can do to make sure you always have good tasty low-carb food to hand when you're trying to juggle work, family and maybe many other things besides? Here we give you some tips on how to stock up with the right foods and ideas about easy meals you can cook when you're short of time.
1. Foods to always have in the house
Keeping stocked up with a good range of staples really helps - using your freezer and having plenty of dry foods in your cupboards makes life much easier when you're low-carb.
Get into the habit of regularly checking your supplies to make sure you have all your staples stocked up - consider yourself a storekeeper or quartermaster with the job of keeping stores stocked up at the right level!
Order or buy more of the foods in good time if you're running low- if you need to place an order for foods you buy in bulk, it can take a few days before you get a delivery.
Remember to store foods in suitable containers - foods such as nuts and nut flours need to be kept in air-tight containers to stop them going off (they will smell rancid if they go off)
Here is a summary of some of the staples you might keep in your kitchen:
a) Foods in the freezer
We recommend you use your freezer - you can freeze most things, and as long as you remember to give yourself a few hours to defrost foods, if you have plenty in the freezer you will never be hungry. Most foods will keep indefinitely in the freezer, however the texture and quality of the foods may be affected over time.
Make sure you wrap foods well to prevent air getting to them, and try and remove air from the bag you wrap the food in, as this will help to preserve them better.
Label and date foods you put in the freezer and keep it organised so you can find the foods you're looking for as shown in the picture below.
Things to keep in your freezer:
Meats freeze well and most meats will keep for 9 months to one year, although bacon is best eaten within 2 months.
Fish - also freezes well - white fish keeps well for 6 months, and oily fish is best eaten within 2 months
Vegetables and fruit - frozen vegetables and fruit can be very convenient and can usually be cooked from frozen.
Buy frozen vegetables or prepare yourself - you can buy ready prepared vegetables from the supermarket or you can buy fresh and chop & freeze vegetables yourself.
Preparing foods such as onions, celery and peppers - by chopping them and putting them into suitable meal-sized packs in the freezer so you have them ready prepared can save time when you're cooking an evening meal.
Vegetables can be blanched before cooking - which saves time when cooking at a later point and helps to keep the colour.
Cook leafy vegetables first - take up less room if they are cooked before freezing - use a silicon muffin cup or ice cubes to freeze.
Celeriac or swede mash - make in bigger batches and freeze so it's quicker to prepare when needed
Fruit -berries such as raspberries and blueberries freeze well on a tray before being bagged up. This way they can be taken out of the freezer in the quantity needed. Fruit such as plums or apricots are best stewed before freezing.
Herbs - can be frozen ready for use
Dairy foods - butter will keep for a year in the freezer, and milk for 6 months. Hard cheese will freeze and can be kept for up to 3 months in the freezer, and you can use grated cheese from frozen. Soft cheeses don't freeze well.
Stock - make your own meat or fish stock and keep in the freezer. You can make your own stock using the carcass of a chicken you have roasted using a recipe such as this one from BBC Good Food. Stocks will normally keep for up to 3 months.
Batch cooking
If you've got plenty of room in your freezer you can try batch cooking meals and freezing them. Make bigger quantities of stews, soups, meals, vegetables and batch freeze for future use. Freeze in suitable sized portions for usual meals. If you're looking for ideas for meals that can be easily batch-cooked and frozen - try the BBC Good Food website, which has plenty of recipes
b) What to keep in the fridge
When you're low-carb you eat a lot of real food, fresh meat, fish dairy, and vegetables so when you're busy its good to have these foods readily to hand. As well as keeping a well stocked freezer, its good to keep fresh foods for the days ahead in the fridge. Foods to routinely keep in the fridge include:
Eggs - Always have plenty of eggs in the house - they're cheap, convenient, and very nutritious. If you have eggs, you always have the makings of a meal - omelettes, scambled eggs, frittata etc.
Fresh meat/fish - use to make quick meals in the week - such as minced beef, good quality sausages (choose ones with a high meat content such as Heck), beefburgers, pork steaks, fish fillets etc.
Cold meats, cooked fish, cheese, tofu etc - easy protein to use for lunch or a snack, eg ham, chicken, smoked mackerel, cheese. Consider buying an already cooked chicken/ham joint or roast one yourself over the weekend, which you can slice and eat cold during the week.
Dairy foods - Milk, butter, greek yoghurt or kefir
Vegetables, including salads - keep a variety of vegetables in the fridge for use during the week - e.g green leafy vegetables, courgettes, peppers, carrots, beans, lettuce, cucumber,etc. Keep ready washed bags of mixed salads to reduce preparation time.
Fruit - keep fresh fruit, such as berries in the fridge for regular use with yoghurt etc. Defrost frozen fruits such as stewed plums or berries and keep in the fridge when you have no fresh fruit.
c) Store-cupboard staples
Making sure you keep stocked up with basics really helps when you're trying to manage a busy life as a low-carber.
Tinned fish - keep a few tins of fish such as sardines, mackerel, tuna or salmon in the cupboard, they are very useful staples, quick to prepare and cheap nourishment. You can use them for a quick lunch or used for a family meal.
Tinned tomatoes and passata - good for making soups, stews and many other dishes
Tinned lentils and beans - particularly if you're vegetarian. Be careful with portion sizes and choose the lowest carb options - soy or edamame beans and green lentils are amongst the lowest.
Nuts and seeds - nuts such as walnuts, pecans, macadamia and almonds, and seeds such as sunflower, pumpkin and sesame seeds are very useful to have in store. They can be used as a healthy snack or can be used in baking, and are a good source of fibre on a low-carb diet.
Buy in bulk for cheaper prices
Consider baking nuts in the oven to make to make them crunchy and reduce the phytic acid content
Buy flaked almonds (roasted to make crunchier) to add to yoghurt and fruit
Chia seeds can be used to make chia pudding or porridge, are a good source of protein and omega 3 fatty acids.
Nut butters - such as peanut and almond butters or tahini (sesame seed butter) - a useful source of protein
Almond and coconut flours for making bread, pastry or other baked goods
Psyllium husk -very useful for making bread and seedy crackers
Olive oil - useful for cooking and for salads
Herbs and spices - use ready prepared versions, such as ready chopped ginger and garlic which you can buy in jars or tubes, and pre-mixed seasoning mixes, as shown below.
2. Easy Meals with minimal cooking
When you're working and busy as a low-carber, its good to have some quick and simple go-to meals you can prepare with ease for yourself and your family, so here are a few ideas to help you.
a) Nutrient-dense meals without cooking
Cold meat and cheese platters can quickly be prepared if you keep the right foods in the fridge. Simply combine a mix of cold foods on a plate using foods such as cold meats, cheeses, lettuce, tomatoes, avocado, olives, hard boiled eggs, fermented vegetables for a quick and simple meal. For example, try the Diet Doctor turkey platter below.
Salads - salads can be easily prepared with pre-washed bags of salad, fresh tomatoes, cucumber, spring onions, etc. Make a simple dressing with olive oil and either vinegar or lemon juice, and add a good source of protein such as tinned sardines/salmon etc, cold meat, cheese, smoked mackerel, hard boiled eggs, nuts,etc.
b) Eggs, eggs, eggs!
We recommend that you always have plenty of eggs in the house – they are a great source of protein and very quick to prepare! Whilst there used to be government recommendations suggesting we limit the number of eggs we should eat in a week, these have now been removed.
Due to the improvements in the egg industry, the Food Standards Authority have also confirmed that British Lion marked egg can safely be eaten runny, or even raw, by vulnerable groups, e.g. pregnant women, elderly people etc. Eggs can prepared quickly for a quick meal, for example:
Omelettes - Plain or with fillings such as cheese, ham, chorizo, mixed vegetables, herbs. Serve on own or with salad or green vegetables.
Scrambled eggs - Cook in a little butter, add seasoning, some fresh herbs. Eat on own or add some smoked fish, e.g salmon or mackerel
Poached or boiled eggs
Frittatas and egg muffins - these are like quiches without the pastry, and you can add whatever ingredients you like, such as bacon, spring onions, salmon etc. See this Diet Doctor recipe as an example.
c) Dump and go recipes
Try using a slow cooker so you can get the family dinner cooking whilst you're away at work. Its wonderful to come back home after a day at work to be greeted by the sight of a warming stew and to find the dinner has cooked itself whilst you've been out! The basics of using a slow cooker are simple:
Just throw all the ingredients in the pot - you don’t even have to brown the meat!
Choose the following:
Source of protein – meat, fish, lentils
Vegetables – whatever you have, chopped
Seasoning, spices etc.
Liquid - stock, tinned tomatoes, miso
Leave for 6-8 hours without taking lid off
You can find many recipes at the BBC Good Food website and the Magical Slow Cooker website.
You can make a range of stews, soups and hot-pots using a slow cooker. And the beauty of it is that all the family can eat the same meal. If some of the family want potatoes served with the stew, that's fine, the low carbers amongst you can just have the stew - or have it with celeriac mash or cauliflower.
Here is a simple recipe for Slow Cooker Beef Stew to get you started:
d) Simple Tray Bake or Roasting Tin Meals
Another great way to get food on the table quickly for a family is to cook tray bakes or roasting tin meals. Perfect for busy people who don't have much time but want to make simple and nutritious dinners. Most of the recipes just require you to throw vegetables and meat or fish in a roasting tin with some olive oil and seasoning - its very easy! And it works very well for low-carbers! Here are some recipes you can try:
Salmon Traybake Sausage meatball & Chicken Cacciatore butternut squash traybake
You can find many more recipes for traybakes in the books written by
Rukmini Iyer as shown below:
3. To wrap up
Good preparation is key to successfully maintaining your low-carb diet even at the busiest times. By taking time to prepare, and stocking up the kitchen with the right ingredients, using your freezer and with good planning, you will always be able to find good food for you and your family to eat however busy it gets. Using simple recipes and one pot cooking you will always be able to serve up nutritious foods without the hassle of complicated recipes. So keep it simple, and enjoy real foods cooked well which all the family can enjoy - even if some are adding a few potatoes!
Comments