Tricks for faster and easier preparation of lunch that will be tasty and healthy

No matter how big the appetite of the family is, and the home chef is too busy, it does not mean that you have to reorient to unhealthy fast or ready-made food. 

- Try to 'spice up' cooking with time-saving tricks, while the taste and texture of the food remain the same, and lunch is much faster on the table - advises Bev Bennett, author of 'Meals ready in 30 minutes for beginners'.

While chopping onions may not take long, if you slice a lot of onions, freeze them, and take them out when you’re in a hurry, it will save you the minutes you’d spend peeling and chopping onions and wiping away tears. 

In addition to being softer and watery, it will be ideal for sautéing. Get yourself some ready-made sliced ​​peppers, zucchini and mushrooms, and instant rice that has already been boiled and steamed and is ready to serve in just five minutes.

Arm yourself with ready-made tomato sauce, ready-roasted peppers, and boiled corn kernels. For cream soups and stews where the vegetables do not have to keep their shape, instead of fresh, use chopped frozen vegetables that will cook easily and give the stew fullness without mixing.

Sausages that transform a dish in a minute

For frittata, stews, and lasagna, try using lean chicken sausages that are already cooked and you just need to cut and bake them so they will add flavor in the blink of an eye. Pizzas are also a perfect addition. When baking skewers, leave at least five millimeters between the pieces of food and the skewers. 

Even faster lasagna

When preparing lasagna, don’t waste time cooking pasta. Use uncooked pasta, but make sure it is completely covered with the sauce when baking so that it does not burn.

And packaging saves time, so between cans and tetra packs, choose a tetra pack.

The glaze is ready in a minute 

If you don’t have time to make the icing, as soon as you take the cake out of the oven, sprinkle it with four cups of frothy marshmallows and 1/4 cup of ground coconut and you’ll get a delicious snow topping.

You can also replace coconut with poppy seeds and ground nuts such as almonds. 

Express 'fake' homemade cream

You can enrich ready-made cake creams by adding chopped walnuts or dried cranberries, and you can "play" with other dried fruits.

You can emphasize the taste even more if you add grated lemon or orange peel, chopped almonds, or vanilla extract to the finished cream.

Healthier and faster french fries and meatballs

Instead of frying meatballs in oil, bake them in the oven at 190 ° C and they will be done in 15-20 minutes.