Multimillionaire vitamin queen Jessica Sepel has shared her top five dinner hacks that help her create healthy meals when she doesn’t have time to make an elaborate and time-consuming meal.
The 32-year-old – whose vitamin range sells a product every seven seconds around the world – said she understands that spending hours making dinner at night is not top of everyone’s priority list.
So, there are five things she does day in and day out to make sure she gets the right amount of nutrients without wasting too much time.
Multimillionaire vitamin queen Jessica Sepel (pictured) shared her top five dinner hacks that help her create healthy meals when she doesn’t have time to make an elaborate meal
The first thing Jessica recommends you do is embrace a ‘one pan meal’ that means less washing up when you’re done (pictured)
1. Embrace ‘one pan’ recipes
The first thing Jessica recommends you do is embrace a ‘one pan meal’ that means less washing up when you’re done.
‘I am hugely into one-pan dinners. They are truly family friendly and so easy to whip up,’ Jessica wrote on her website.
‘Simply throw everything into the pan, pop it into the oven, bake and come back to dinner ready to serve.’
Some of the nutritionist’s favourite one pan dinners include one-pan pumpkin pasta, one-pan lemon and herb chicken and one-pan Teriyaki salmon.
The second thing Jessica said you should do to make healthier, quick meals is cook once, eat twice (pictured)
2. Cook once, eat twice
The second thing Jessica said you should do to make healthier, quick meals is cook once, eat twice.
‘Make your meals work harder for you in one word: leftovers,’ Jessica said, adding that these are lifesavers.
In reality, all this means is that you make extra for dinner so you have something to enjoy for lunch the following day.
Jessica likes making something hearty like spaghetti bolognese in the evening, and then bulking it out with added salad for lunch the next day.
Serves four
INGREDIENTS
Jessica shared how she makes her favourite one-pan pumpkin pasta (pictured)
¼ Kent pumpkin, peeled & cubed
1 red onion, peeled & sliced into wedges
5 garlic cloves
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
¾ cup smooth ricotta
¼ cup (60ml) milk of choice
3 cups cooked chickpea pasta, or pasta of choice
METHOD
1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius or 350 degrees Farenheit.
2. Place the pumpkin, onion and garlic in a large casserole dish. Drizzle the extra virgin olive oil over the top and season generously with sea salt and black pepper. Toss to coat. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes or until the pumpkin is cooked through and soft.
3. Remove the cooked onion from the pan and finely chop.
4. Peel the garlic cloves and mash together with the pumpkin, until smooth.
5. Add the onion back into the dish along with the ricotta and milk. Stir until incorporated.
6. Stir through the cooked chickpea pasta, or your pasta of choice.
7. Garnish with basil leaves and shaved parmesan.
Source: Jessica Sepel
3. Shop on Sundays
You might not think it makes a difference when you go to the supermarket, but Jessica said you’ll save lots of time through the week if you plan your meals at the weekend and shop for them on a Sunday.
‘Literally book out an hour in your weekend schedule (even add it into your calendar if it helps), and dedicate this time to going and buying all your groceries for the week ahead,’ Jessica said.
Buy everything, from your fresh produce to lean proteins, wholegrains and snacks.
As you shop, think about the sorts of foods you can make with your groceries. When you have a plan, it often means a faster dinner.
When you get home from a supermarket shop, Jessica (pictured) said it’s time to get some prep done; she likes making things that can be used in various ways like a batch of roasted veg
4. Do some food prep
When you get home from a supermarket shop, Jessica said it’s time to get some prep done.
‘For example, you could bake a big batch of roasted vegetables, chop up some salad ingredients you can use in a variety of ways or cook a packet of plain chicken breast that could be used with different flavours and sauces later,’ she explained.
The key with doing food prep is to keep it as basic as possible, so that you can add flourishes later on.
5. Make friends with your freezer
Finally, Jessica said the secret to truly speedy, healthy dinners lies in your freezer.
‘Don’t feel like eating the same meal a few days in a row? Or maybe you’ve prepped a batch of soup or sauce? Most of these can be frozen in portioned containers in the freezer, ready to go when you need one,’ she said.
You don’t have to serve the same meal the same way. For example, you could freeze leftover bolognese and serve it with mash instead of pasta.
This means you always have some variation with your meals.