How to Feed Yourself Properly When You Have No Time and No Energy

Let's be honest, after a long day, the last thing most of us want to do is figure out what's for dinner, let alone actually cook it. But meal planning doesn't have to so complicated. It's really just about making your future self's life easier. And trust me, once you get a simple system going, it's genuinely life-changing.

I'm not usually one to push kitchen gadgets, but there are two that I genuinely think are worth the investment if you're constantly short on time: a slow cooker and a pressure cooker. Even better, you can get ones that do both functions in one device.

A pressure cooker is brilliant when you've forgotten to plan ahead. It uses steam pressure to cook things fast. We're talking stews, soups, or dried beans in a fraction of the normal time. That pot of chilli that normally takes two hours? Done in 30 minutes.

A slow cooker is the opposite approach but equally great. Chuck everything in before work, set it on low, and come home to dinner that's ready to eat. The long, slow cooking means flavours develop beautifully, preserving more nutrients and there's something quite satisfying about doing basically nothing and still having a proper meal.

Both save you from standing over the hob when you're already exhausted, which is really the whole point.

Meal prep has become this whole Instagram aesthetic thing with matching glass containers and colour-coded labels. Unless that's your thing, you can ignore all that. Real meal prep is just cooking when you have time so you don't have to cook when you don't.

The simplest approach is to make double or triple portions when you do cook, then freeze or refrigerate the extra. Sunday roast chicken can become Monday's chicken salad and Tuesday's stir-fry. A big batch of Bolognese covers pasta one night, jacket potatoes another, and can be frozen for later.

You don't even need to cook entire meals. Sometimes just prepping components makes weeknight cooking so much easier, like chopping all your veg for the week, cooking a big batch of rice or quinoa, marinating some chicken. Then assembling an actual meal takes 15 minutes instead of an hour.

Meal planning only works if you actually have the ingredients you need. Here's how to make shopping less of a chore:

Make a proper list based on what you're actually planning to cook. I know it sounds obvious, but wandering around the supermarket trying to remember what you need is how you end up with three jars of pasta sauce and no pasta.

Buy versatile ingredients that work across multiple meals. If you're buying cherry tomatoes, use them in salads, pasta, and breakfast eggs. Chicken thighs can be roasted, stir-fried, curried, or grilled. Less waste, more options.

Online shopping with click-and-collect or delivery is a gamechanger if it's available to you. No impulse purchases, no wandering around tired and hungry making poor decisions, and you get that time back.

You don't need to overhaul your entire life overnight. Pick one thing. Maybe it's cooking double portions twice a week, or doing an online shop on Sundays, or finally buying that slow cooker you've been thinking about. The goal is just making it slightly easier to feed yourself properly when life gets hectic.