How to Cook From Scratch When You Have No Time To Cook

There’s no doubt that cooking real food from scratch is the healthiest option. But what if you’re too busy? Below are some tips for cooking from scratch when you have no time to cook.

Convenience food does one thing really, really well: it saves time.

Or more correctly – because I’m pedantic like that – it allows you to spend your time doing something other than cooking.

The problem is, convenience foods usually cost more than cooking from scratch. And if convenience means takeaway, then not only is it expensive, it’s not very healthy.

But life is busy. And after a long day, the last thing I want to do is start the second (or third) shift in the kitchen.

So, how do you create the balance – eating healthy food from scratch, in a hurry, no less – in a busy, modern world?

And is there an alternative to spending all weekend meal prepping like an Insta-star?

Here are some of the strategies I’ve found helpful over the years.

How to Cook From Scratch When You Have No Time

1. Simplify Your Meals

I grew up in an era where my stay-at-home mum cooked a hearty meat-and-three-veg meal every single night.

If we ever had a rare ‘cheat’ night – when she didn’t feel like ‘cooking’ – we still had chips (deep fried in oil, no oven-fried!), eggs, and baked beans.

So, when I entered adulthood, the standard for what constituted a meal was quite high. Certainly no cereal for dinner.

The irony is, when I eventually allowed myself to make simple dinners like toasties, they are the meals my family likes the best.

If you’re like me, and you were taught that meat and three veg is the minimum standard, then here’s your permission to allow toastie nights. An instant noodle nights. And cereal nights. And popcorn nights. And – as I like to call them – catch and kill nights, when everyone fends for themselves.

Easy meal ideas include:

• avocado and tomato on toast (I watched a comedian laugh at how Australians (and probably all of the colonies, I suppose) put everything on toast)
• Eggs (boiled, fried, scrambled, poached…)
• Toasted sandwiches with whatever you have in the fridge
• Instant ramen (there are a bazillion ways on YouTube to jazz up instant ramen)
• Modern ploughman’s lunch – basically a grazing plate of whatever you have on hand – bit of cheese, carrot, crackers, those olives at the back of the fridge, bit of leftover sausage from last night – you get the idea.

2. Plan Simple Meals Ahead of Time

Part of the issue with cooking dinner after a long day is having to make the decision first about what to cook.

Meal planning eliminates that decision. Or, at least, it frontloads it.

It makes the whole cooking process easier because you’ve got everything you need on hand.

You can plan the simplest meals on nights when you’re going to be particularly busy or tired.

And if you have a bit of spare time, you can use your plan to prepare food in advance, saving you time in the evening when it might be tight.

While being able to whip up a meal with what you have is an important skill, meal planning reduces a lot of the mental load that comes with feeding a family day after day, year after year.

3. Prepare Meals in Advance

Look, I’m no Sunday meal prep queen. While I admire those who throw together a week’s worth of every meal on a Sunday, it’s just not my thing.

If it’s your thing, that’s awesome!

For me, I prefer low-key Sunday food prep, or mise en place, as we were taught when I did cooking school.

So that might mean looking at my meal plan and cutting all the onions for the week at once. Or if I have to cut a carrot, I see if I need to cut carrots for any other meals and cut them all at once. Or I might cook enough rice for tonight’s meal and Wednesday’s tuna rissoles.

You get the idea.

When I receive the grocery delivery, I pre-cut the bulk meat purchases before freezing them. This makes stir-fry night easier.

Filling your freezer with leftovers is another way to eat a home-cooked dinner without doing the cooking.

So, instead of meal prepping for the week, I like to make a double or triple batch of something when I have time and freeze the leftovers for later. It only takes a little extra time and effort to double a batch of something, and then only a tiny bit of effort to reheat it.

If you’re interested in batch cooking, I love The Batch Lady books. Lots of ideas for filling your freezer with easy-to-cook meals.

4. Focus on Efficiency

You’ve probably seen Jamie Oliver whip up a whole meal in under 15 minutes. It’s easy for him because he’s got the skillz, but there are certainly tips that we everyday cooks can adopt.

Here are the things I find speed up my cooking by a ton:

• have a few staple recipes – it’s a lot easier to cook fast when the recipe is in your head and practically second nature
• turn on the pan, oven, or appliance to preheat while you’re prepping, so it’s ready to go when you are
• boil water in the kettle to get a pot of water boiling quickly
• steam veg in the microwave if you have one
• put hot soapy water in the sink so you can wash as you go (because let’s face it, part of the dread of cooking from scratch is the cleaning up that goes with it!)

Below are some appliances (Amazon links) that can help save time in the kitchen.

However, I’m not recommending you get all of them.

If you have one or two that you use all the time, they can speed up your cooking time and reduce electricity costs without cluttering your kitchen with unused appliances.

For us, the air fryer is clutter. We almost never use it. But I have friends who use theirs every day, so the key is to find appliances that suit your needs.

While we don’t personally own a microwave, I haven’t included it here because I think most people do have one.

Food Processor: If you’re doing a lot of veg prep, a food processor can help. But to be honest, I prefer a sharp knife most of the time because it’s less fuss.

Slow Cooker: A slow cooker allows you to come home to a cooked meal. If you make a double batch (even on a Sunday if you prefer not to leave it running without supervision) and freeze the leftovers, you’ve got at least two meals for almost the same electricity. An alternative to a slow cooker (and the rice cooker below) is a multicooker.

Rice Cooker: A rice cooker is a versatile appliance that cooks rice (and other things) perfectly without fuss.

Air Fryer: An air fryer cooks much quicker than a standard oven and can help save on electricity.

Sandwich Press: My absolute favourite appliance that we use Every. Single. Day. is the sandwich press. I can cook whole meals in minutes with this one small appliance. It’s perfect for ‘cheat’ meals like I mentioned above, that aren’t really cheat meals.

5. Get Smart with Healthy Convenience Foods

Not all convenience foods are junk food.

Consider pre-washed salad, garlic in a jar, canned beans, frozen stir-fry veggies, tzatiki, pre-sliced chicken breast, or even a BBQ chicken.

All of these options are pretty much ‘from scratch’. They save you time and mental energy and help you get a healthy meal on the table in less time.

They cost more than their less convenient counterparts, but can end up saving you more if using pre-cut veg or bagged salad means you avoid takeaway food.

Some of these ‘vacation’ meals also make great easy-cook at-home meals too:

You don’t need to spend all day in the kitchen to cook healthy, tasty, and inexpensive meals from scratch.

Just a little planning, preparation and an efficient workflow allow you to have wholesome meals on the table in next to no time.

What are your favourite go-to meals for nights you don’t feel like cooking? Let us know in the comments.