No time to cook need tips to cut time

Try meal prep. Throw some rice and veggies in the steamer and bake some chicken in the oven. Package them in tupperware in portioned sizes for the week. Takes very little effort and you always have a healthy meal to reach for. You can definitely get more creative than this, but that's just one basic idea. You can do it with basically any meal by cooking in bulk and portioning everything out. Keep fruit and veggies around to snack on. Portion out some almonds or whatever other nut you like into proper portions and bag them so you can grab them on the go. Canned soups and salads take very little time. Boil some eggs at the beginning of the week for snacks. You can also make large batches of oatmeal and portion it out for the week. Greek yogurt, rice cakes, protein bars... Basically just keep good options around that won't cause you to go over on your calories. Also, take advantage of the crockpot. Throw in some chicken and a cup of salsa with some cumin in the morning and let it cook while you are at work on low and then shred it when you get home (literally takes 5 min or less) and you can make some tacos with it. There are tons of simple crockpot recipes that don't take much prep time at all and dinner can be ready when you walk in the door.

There are tons of recipes that require no more than 10-15 minutes preparation and cooking: omelettes, scrambled eggs, pasta with simple sauces, slices of meat/chicken/fish in the broiler, rice dishes, stir fries, salads, sandwiches. And you can prepare more time consuming dishes when you have time, then freeze them in single portion containers.

One word "Crockpot" learn it, live it , love it.

I don't think even June Clever took an hour and a half. LoL
With a bit of practice and some Google-foo you can learn to cook great meals from scratch in 10-15 minutes

I understand completely. With my new job came a longer commute. Agree with @jonathansilas1984, I use crock pot just about once a week. This week was pinto beans. I had three lunches out of that. Bought two lbs. of carrots, peeled those and put in Tupperware & covered with water, kept refrigerated. They stay fresh that way & I can just grab 3 or 4 to add to lunch bag. Plus easy-peasy snacking item when i get home. Cut & skinned entire cantaloupe all at once for easy servings each morning into individual container. (I found that parsing out into single serving-sizes right away the food didn't stay as fresh as long. Besides, my fridge is only so big - easier to slice right away all into one container, then serve from there into smaller Tupperware for lunch transport.)

Frequently I have lunch meat that I can quickly eyeball the correct number of slices in the morning to make a protein+ sandwich. I used to only use 1 serving of meat in my sammich, but now double it up and find myself my better satiated.

I'm all about leftovers, too. A 9x12 pan of lasagne? Good for 2 or 3 days of lunch & dinner. I keep a couple of cans of soup at work, too. I have an "earthquake drawer" when I kept a stash of non-perishables. Canned chicken, juice box, microwave popcorn, can of chili. You get the idea.

Also found the setting on my microwave for baked potato. I wash & salt a potato stab the fork holes in it & let the microwave cook it while I get dressed. Let potato cool while grabbing a yogurt and a can of chili, then put it all in lunch bag. Use only 1/2 chili on the potato, put can in work fridge & bring another cooked potato in tomorow's lunch. Of course this works best if you job has refrigerator & microwave on site.

Make bulk items as everyone else has said and also put stuff in the slow cooker and turn it on in the morning. I often make pulled meats if I know I won't have much time later in the day, just put the oven on when I go to work and let the meat cook at a really low temp all day - it tastes good, serve with salad/coleslaw and veg plus there's always lots left over as I put a huge joint in so no cooking the next day.

jonathansilas1984 wrote: »

One word "Crockpot" learn it, live it , love it.

This x 10

I like to cook a few dishes on the weekends (usually 2 soups, at least 1 stew or chili) and portion to freeze, and I make sure that I always have certain easy foods on hand in my freezer: homemade burger/veggie patties, squash/chicken nuggets, zucchini/turkey meatballs, cauliflower cheese sauce, marinara, burritos - I can share recipes if you'd like.

If I'm cooking once, I might as well cook a lot so I have a variety of healthy meals ready in under 10 minutes all portioned and labeled with calorie counts.

Usually on Sundays I make one casserole type dish. That can be a baked pasta, a quinoa bake, lasagna, chicken divan, layered enchiladas, etc. On Monday after work I pull it from the fridge and we have dinner for the night - sometimes I keep the cut portions for later in the week, or I freeze them for another time. You can also chop vegetables on weekends and put them in a bag to just pop in a pan and roast during the week.

I also try to keep cooked chicken on hand. That chicken can turn into a quick stir fry or noodle bowl (frozen Asian vegetables even work here), a chicken/veggie quesadilla, a bbq chicken flatbread/pita pizza, a Thai chicken flatbread/pita pizza (or any pizza!), chicken sandwiches, or just mixed with a grain or vegetable noodles/rice and some vegetables.

I hardly cook during the week, but we always have a lot of options for fast meals.