Being a mom means you’re also a professional juggling act. You must balance multiple parts of your life at the same time, while keeping an eye on all of them. It’s tough, which means you face situations where corners need to be cut. This tends to happen at dinner when you don’t have enough time to cook a meal for the family. You’ve only got half an hour or so to spare – how do you conjure up a healthy meal with minimal prep and washing up?

People will tell you it’s impossible, but here are three of the fastest dinner options for when you’re in a rush – all of which are incredibly healthy!

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Cheat’s Chicken Noodle Soup

Normally, chicken noodle soup takes hours to make. This version is a bit of a cheat, but it will have some tasty and nutritious soup on the table within 30 minutes. There are two key hacks to this recipe:

– Frozen ingredients

– Pre-cooked and seasoned chicken

Buy a pack of frozen, pre-cut veg from any grocery store. Ideally, you want one with carrots, onions, and celery. This does half of the work for you; pop the veg into the pan and let them fry off in oil. Then, use frozen premium organic bone broth as the main base. It includes natural ingredients, and you just need to defrost it in the pan after your veg is cooked. Alternatively, defrost it in the fridge overnight and pour it in.

Then, get pre-cooked chicken from the store – ensure it’s just normal chicken with nothing nasty added to it. This stuff is already grilled and seasoned, so you just plop it in the broth and warm it through when adding your noodles. Et voila: one excellently healthy chicken noodle soup.

Gnocchi With Cheese & Spinach

Gnocchi is my favorite type of pasta to cook when you’re in a rush. These small potato dumplings can be fried in oil, meaning you don’t need to boil a separate pan of water. Add in a can of chopped tomatoes or passata, then fry together with some basil and garlic. If you have a garden, you can grow tomatoes and have a constant supply of chopped tomato sauce in the freezer whenever you need it – which makes meal prep even easier! 

Chuck in some spinach for added iron and calcium, let it wilt, and then serve with some grated cheese for additional protein. Pop a quick salad on the side if you want more greenery, but that’s another quick and healthy meal done in around 15 minutes.

Stir–Fried Rice

You can’t go wrong with stir-fried rice, especially if you pick the pre-cooked rice in packets. It’s a huge hack that slashes the cooking time. All you have to do is:

– Chop some peppers

– Grate some carrots

– Chop some onions

– Fry off the veg

– Add in some meat

– Add the rice

Throw in a bit of soy sauce, some Chinese five-spice mix, and a dash of water to create a slightly glossy sauce. Serve it up and you get good protein, plenty of veg, and a meal that takes under 30 minutes from start to finish.

All three of these meals have another thing in common besides being quick to make and healthy. They’re all one-pan/pot meals that reduce the washing-up time. It helps to make the entire cooking process much faster when you’re strapped for time.

This is a collaborative post.