4 ways to make healthier suppers

We're often so busy that we don't take the time to cook proper meals, relying instead on fast food and takeout. Yet such pre-prepared dishes are filled with salt, sugar and fat. Here are simple tips to get you eating healthily at dinner again.

• This allows you to cook once and eat twice.
• For example, if you have roasted chicken one night, use the leftovers to serve up chicken fajitas or chicken salad the next.
• Prepare all key protein foods – chicken, turkey, fish or lean beef. – in larger-than-needed amounts so they will last two nights instead of one. Do the same with rice and other grain-based side dishes. Serve as a side dish one night and use the leftovers to make a casserole, stir-fry or soup the next.

• Stews, soups and chili all freeze wonderfully.
• Work out how much of a one-pot meal you need to feed your family for one dinner, then buy plastic containers of that size.
• Make a pot of your family favourites on the weekend and you'll have four or five meals waiting in the freezer.
• A smart freezer is filled with plastic containers of several different homemade meals, each labelled with the contents and the date it was made.

• Side dishes also freeze well, particularly rices, pastas and breads.
• For space, put the right portion amount in freezer bags and squeeze out the air before sealing.

• Soup makes a great dinner. It's healthy, filling, delicious and easy to make.
• If you keep homemade chicken stock in the freezer, or cans of low-salt soup stock in the cupboard, it often takes just a few minutes to whip together an impromptu vegetable soup.
• Use one litre (four cups) of stock or low-salt chicken broth as the base.
• Then just toss in a variety of chopped veggies such as spinach, carrots, corn, peas, green beans and zucchini.
• Be sure to include lentils, chickpeas and other legumes. They provide excellent protein, lots of fibre, an array of micronutrients, and are filling and satisfying at a relatively low cost in calories.
• To round out the meal, have some whole-grain bread (dip it in olive oil rather than spreading it with butter) and a salad.