If You Hate Cooking, Here’s How to Eat Healthy

If you don’t like working in the kitchen, you don’t have to give up on nutrition. Samaria Grandberry, MS, RDN, LDN gives her best advice on how to eat healthy without cooking.

The Formula For a Balanced Meal

The first question Samaria Grandberry, MS, RD, asks herself when putting together a meal is: What sounds good?

“I think it’s important to pay attention to your cravings,” she explains. “When you ignore them, that’s when you see people having ‘cheat days,’ or binging on things they don’t really want to eat because they’ve restricted themselves too much.”

From there, this is Grandberry’s foolproof formula for a healthy, satisfying meal:

1. Protein

Grandberry searches her freezer for foods that provide plenty of protein, which will help keep you full. “Since I don’t cook that much, I often buy fresh meats in bulk, portion, and freeze them,” she says. Grandberry recommends grass-fed, organic meat from a local farmer if that’s accessible to you. If you don’t eat meat, she suggests getting your protein from beans, eggs (if you’re not vegan), and whole grains like quinoa and millet.

High-protein foods like meat provide valuable nutrients—like B vitamins—that are tough to find in other places, Grandberry says. Vitamin B12 helps make DNA and keeps your blood and nerve cells healthy. You can find this nutrient in fish, meat, eggs, milk, and fortified breakfast cereals. Since only animal products have vitamin B12 naturally, vegans and vegetarians may not get enough from diet alone. Dietary supplements, like HUM Nutrition’s B12 Turbo, can help fill in some gaps.

2. Fiber

Meanwhile, fiber-rich foods like veggies and whole grains are essential for gut and total-body health. For fiber, Grandberry uses frozen vegetables like broccoli, corn, peas, and green beans.

According to the Mayo Clinic, dietary fiber helps ensure regular bowel movements, keeps blood sugar and cholesterol levels under control, lowers blood pressure, and may even reduce your risk of dying from heart disease.

3. Grains

Carbohydrates are our bodies' main source of energy, which means they’re a crucial part of any meal. Grandberry tries to include a grain at lunch and dinner by reaching for brown rice, millet, quinoa, and bulgur. She sometimes incorporates whole grains into her breakfast, using whole-grain bagels, granola, or oatmeal.

“Basically, I follow my cravings, and then I try to build the most filling, colorful, fast meal I can using the aforementioned principles,” Grandberry says. Aim to get at least 2 to 3 different colors on your plate per meal.

Tips For Hitting The Grocery Store

Here are Grandberry’s must-dos when shopping for food:

• Stock up on frozen produce. Frozen fruits and vegetables last longer than their fresh counterparts but still offer nutritional value and don’t typically require washing or cutting.
• Go plain. Pick frozen fruits and vegetables that haven’t been seasoned or mixed with sauce.
• Spice things up. Use spices and dried herbs to upgrade your meals with minimal effort. Popular seasonings include chili pepper, cinnamon, ginger, black pepper, turmeric, fenugreek, rosemary, and garlic.
• Get some fresh stuff. While bulk fruits and vegetables often come from the freezer section, get fresh items like pre-cut salad greens, apples, onions, and seasonal produce that tends to be cheaper and tastes better.
• Opt for frozen meat. Frozen meat is easy to store and cook; include seasoned salmon, tilapia filets, shrimp, and ground turkey in your cart.
• Buy foods that require minimal prep. Pre-sliced bread, bagels, snack nuts, eggs, and yogurt cups are great grab-and-go foods.

Tips For Eating Out

Here are Grandberry’s tips:

• Look for options with fiber. Salads, whole-grain sandwich bread, steamed vegetables, and oatmeal are all high-fiber options.
• Go for grilled. Choose foods that have been grilled instead of fried to lower calorie and saturated fat intake.
• Get it in a wrap. Consider swapping out your bread for a whole-grain tortilla for added fiber and fewer calories.

What I Eat In a Day: A Cooking-Averse Dietitian

Here’s what a typical day of eating looks like for Grandberry:

Breakfast

“I typically like to have coffee in the morning with some type of protein like eggs and a whole grain like toast or a bagel,” Grandberry says. Some days, she prefers an easy breakfast parfait of vanilla Greek yogurt, granola, and sliced strawberries.

Lunch

Lunch is usually her biggest meal of the day. “I usually make some type of dish at the beginning of the week and eat leftovers,” she says. Current favorites include a salad topped with grilled chicken and white pasta with store-bought pesto sauce, shrimp, and veggies.

Dinner

Grandberry combines frozen kale, ground turkey, quinoa, and roasted sweet potatoes. She preps the potatoes by tossing them in olive oil and seasoning before baking them in the oven.

Snacks

For quick bites, she pairs fiber-rich fruit like apples and berries with peanut butter, almonds, cheese, or popcorn.

Bottom Line

Eating healthy doesn’t mean your life has to revolve around cooking. By keeping your kitchen stocked with quick-prep foods and focusing on protein and fiber, you can eat healthy with minimal kitchen time.