The Lazy Dietitian

It's Karen here. As a dietitian, I value food that is both nutrient-dense and delicious. But like many of you, I usually want to get in and out of the kitchen as quickly as possible. To that end, I am always on the lookout for what I call “healthy-ish convenience foods.” These are foods that won’t make big sacrifices on nutrition or flavor, but they will save time and effort in the kitchen. I have even gone so far as to dub myself the “Lazy Dietitian,” But I like to think of it as efficiency, not laziness!

People often state the lack of time and energy as major barriers to eating well. So, over the years, I developed a list of healthy-ish convenience foods that I frequently recommend to clients to help them prepare more food at home. It's called the Lazy Dietitian Guide and it features a variety of food categories, including snacks, beverages, entrees, and meal components. For the most part, these foods can be found at any major grocer for a reasonable price point. And there's a list of simple meal ideas on the last couple pages that use the foods in the guide.

I suspect that some readers may look at the foods and think “Precooked chicken? Bottled stir fry sauce? Are those really okay to use?” If those are convenient shortcut items that will help you prepare more food at home with less stress, then by all means you should feel empowered to use them. The Lazy Dietitian is all about dispelling the myth that eating well needs to be fussy or time-consuming. So what if you made a stir fry and didn’t cook your own chicken or cut up your own vegetables or make your own sauce? Having ready-to-use items on hand at home might keep you from going to the fast-food drive thru when you are in a pinch. That is a win! But we tend to discount this kind of "cooking" because it seems too easy, and you think you need to be putting in more effort. This is the message we have been trained to believe about eating well, but it is simply not true.

If you are a more advanced cook or are in a place where you can and want to do more of your own prep work, then go for it! You can cook some chicken or use fresh vegetables or make your own sauce. But the point is, there are options. Eating well is not an all-or-nothing proposition. It has a lot of grey area in which you can experiment to discover what works best for your personal preferences and lifestyle. Let’s abandon the myth of perfection and focus on progress. That is where the magic happens!