Life is more hectic than ever, right now. Work hours are longer, and there always seems to be a new obligation getting in the way of your free time; let alone your time in the kitchen.
With so little time to cook, no-cook meals are becoming the go-to way to eat for many. What do they have to offer, though? Why are they so popular besides the obvious lack of cooking time?
Well, check out these benefits of no-cook meals.
1: Time
Obviously, removing the cooking part from your dinner prep reduces how long you spend in the kitchen dramatically. In a world that keeps speeding up, saving precious time is more important than ever before.
That’s an easy one, though. There are plenty of other benefits.
2: Ease of Preparation
Even if you go all out with your presentation, no-cook meals are extremely easy to make. They typically only consist of cutting up a few ingredients, opening a can or two, and mixing everything.
Even beginners will find that the vast majority of no-cook meals can be made in just a few minutes with the most basic kitchen tools. This leaves plenty of room for you to get fancy with your presentation to drop the jaws of any guests you have eating with you.
3: Health Benefits
This doesn’t go for every no-cook meal. After all, dumping a can of tuna into a mountain of mayo and mixing it up doesn’t miraculously lower the calorie count and fat content. However, most no-cook meals are heavily vegetable and fruit-based. A delicious cucumber salad, a homemade hearty salsa with low-sodium tortilla chips, or cream cheese stuffed peppers with “everything” seasoning are fairly healthy options if proper portion sizes and high-quality ingredients are used, and full-blown plant-based options such as fresh fruit salads are irrefutably good for you.
Even when fatty ingredients such as cream cheese or light amounts of mayo are added, no-cook meals are usually far healthier than butter-drenched veggies and oil-soaked red meats.
4: Costs
Since no-cook meals typically rely on low-cost veggies and fruits for most of their ingredients, and they rarely require anything that could be considered expensive, they’re highly cost-effective.
Think about it. You can buy a ton of vegetables, peppers, and fruits for under $10, and even the most common add-ons are only a couple of bucks each. Each of those ingredients will produce multiple high-quality meals. Now, compare that to a single pork steak dinner where the meat alone can take up that much of your budget. You probably don’t want to eat no-cook meals every day of the week, but tossing them occasionally will help lower your grocery bill considerably.
5: Nutrition
When you cook food, you lose some of the nutrition it provides. Even boiling some broccoli drastically lowers its nutritional value. No-cook foods allow you to preserve those valuable nutrients, and your body gets everything each ingredient has to offer. That’s not to say that cooked meals won’t provide you with nutrients, but raw options provide more.
Try the Best No-Cook Recipes at Flavorful Home
If you’re looking to add no-cook meals to your meal planning routine every once in a while, or you just need something you can toss together in minutes, take a look at Flavorful Home’s no-cook recipes. They’re simple, use less than seven ingredients, and taste absolutely amazing.