Eat Well
Article

Avoid sacrificing quality foods for convenience As people get busier and busier both at work and in their leisure time, it can be easy to let the sit-down family meal fall by the wayside.

In fact, recent research carried out by Loyd Grossman Sauces found that 41 per cent of all household meals are now consumed when only one person is present.

However, while this may have consequences on how we interact as families, it could also be having negative consequences on how healthily we eat.

According to the National Diet Nutrition Survey published by the Food Standards Authority, Britons are now eating far too much sugar and bad fats, while the Grocer magazine recently found that sales of convenience foods have soared to a whopping £1.04 billion in the past year.

This suggests that instead of cooking a traditional, balanced meal for the family to enjoy, working mums with full-time jobs, kids to drop off at ballet practice and relatives to keep in touch with are increasingly turning to pre-prepared food to make mealtimes quicker.

However, chef and TV presenter - as well as sauce-maker - Loyd Grossman has urged Brits to go back to basics when it comes to food, insisting that quality doesn't have to be compromised for the sake of speed.

"The fact that you are having something convenient and at a time that you choose and maybe on your own, is no reason to have anything less interesting," he commented.

In order to achieve this, he recommended checking out what food is in season and then planning meals around that schedule to create healthy yet speedy menus for the whole week.

Anyone who relies on frozen ready-meals could swap them for a healthy, homemade option to improve their nutrient levels.

NetDoctor suggests using any spare time on a Sunday to pre-prepare meals for the week that can then simply be defrosted on the day they are required.

It also pointed out this could save money, as healthy meals could be made in bulk and then stored in the freezer to be used over two or three weeks.

A range of websites offer tips about what kind of produce is in season - including the BBC, which also has recipes to fit them into - so why not see if with some forward planning, you can make mealtimes both nutritious and fun again?