1. Canned Beans & Lentils
Beans and lentils are some of the more nutritious foods you can choose. When they’re canned, they’re some of the more long-lasting food staples you need to have in your kitchen. Outside of being nutritious, they’re quick and easy to cook and add can be added to lots of different meals.
As well as making a meal in their own right, they are also brilliant for bulking meals out and making them go further: you can often reduce the expensive meat content by adding a tin of beans or lentils – my half and half lasagne is one example of how this can be achieved.
And to make them even better, you can they can be stored for years – I don’t tend to buy in bulk, but I do do a bimonthly bulk shop to Aldi just so I can stock up on all of my tinned goods.
2. Olive Oil
I don’t tend to use olive oil for cooking as I feel it is too good for that (and it has a lower burning point than other oils so makes it easier to burn things!) I use olive oils in dressings, salsas and dips (such as hummus).
But, not all olive oils are created equal: new season olive oil can be a much healthier as they are made from the freshest olives: they are made with the year’s first harvest and offer an intensity and complexity of flavour.
3. Frozen Fruits & Vegetables
Fresh fruits and vegetables are the healthiest foods you can choose, but they’re highly perishable: the go off pretty quickly and end up adding to our food waste mountain. Our busy lives often mean that our best laid plans don’t always come to fruition and those veggies we bought for Friday’s dinner end up in the bin.
I always have frozen fruits and vegetables to hand: they might not be as nutritious as their fresh counterparts but they are still packed with lots of nutrients and, when it comes to micronutrients, they’re practically identical.
Some are better than others: I always have some kind of fruit (blueberries and mango are good), spinach, peas, sweetcorn and edamame beans.
