Healthy Kitchen Shortcuts To Get Dinner On The Table Fast - Ask a Nutritionist

May 1, 2025

Need faster, healthier weeknight dinners? Chef and culinary nutrition educator Marianne Jurayj shares easy kitchen shortcuts to help you get nutritious meals on the table without stress. From prepping proteins ahead to using your slow cooker, instant pot, and air fryer, she’s got practical tips to make healthy eating doable—even on the busiest nights.

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Transcript:

Marianne: Hi there. My name is Mary Jurayj. I am a chef and a culinary nutrition educator with the Cook's Cure, and I partner with Nutritional Weight & Wellness on their culinary education. And so I know that they get a lot of really good questions on social media and from their clients, and so we have collected some of those questions so that we can answer them for you so that you can get into the kitchen.

How can we make weeknight meals easier? (Tips for protein ideas first)

The theme here is really shortcuts to nutritious meals. And so we’re going to cover a couple things through those questions. So the first question is, how can I make weeknight meals easier? Excellent question. I think we all come home and we want a really easy weeknight meal.

And I'm going to say the first, and one of the most important things you can do is to have a protein ready to go. And that may mean that you stop and pick up a rotisserie chicken on the way home. A good pastured, organic rotisserie chicken if that is in your wheelhouse.

But otherwise, I would say the simplest thing is turn on that oven. Take a sheet pan, line it with parchment paper. Get that cut up bone in skin on chicken that you have in the fridge. Lay it out on your sheet pan, drizzle it with a little oil, and now you can add some variety with your herbs and spices. So think about, maybe you do cayenne and oregano one week and then you do Italian seasoning the next.

So think about that. Even though you're eating chicken, you can change it out with the spices and the herbs. Fresh rosemary is lovely or thyme. So make a nice big sheet pan of chicken and now you've got protein for the week. You can keep it in the fridge for seven days. If you want to make a couple of sheet pans, you can freeze some of that.

Maybe you take that sheet pan and you make some meatballs. That would be lovely. You can combine different ground proteins to do that. Maybe you make some pulled pork or pulled beef in your instant pot or your slow cooker. Think about having protein at the ready 'cause I think it tends to be the hardest part of our meal. It usually takes the longest and we can always add a couple things to complete the package. So there's number one.

Have a stocked pantry & freezer

I'm also going to say having a nice stocked pantry will always make that meal easier. And I mean, even your freezer is part of your pantry, so maybe you use frozen vegetables, which also reduces waste 'cause you only have to take out what you need.

I'm going to say in that pantry maybe you have canned chickpeas, beans, maybe some wild rice, some brown rice, quinoa, which is lovely. And then like, good chicken stock is good to have on hand; canned tuna and salmon are super easy proteins to have and they can just hang out in your pantry. So really have things that you can just pull out at the ready and that makes your life much easier.

So I hope that makes it, a little clearer on how we can have easier weeknight dinners. I'm also going to say you can do the same thing, that sheet pan with vegetables. We can also do that so that you have vegetables ready to go. So there's question number one.

What kitchen equipment might be helpful?

Question number two, what equipment should I use? Well, what equipment shouldn't you use? I feel like if you have that equipment, let's use it. It will actually make your life so much easier. So I pulled everything out. I've got my instant pot. If you have an air fryer, my very ancient slow cooker, which slow cookers never die. Your oven, of course.

A good cast iron skillet is always nice. So think about the equipment you have and they all do, different things well. So I’m going to say if you want to have some vegetables for the week, a great thing you can do is maybe you cook some sweet potatoes in your air fryer. Put a whole squash into your slow cooker. And, put it on high for four hours and you're going to have a beautiful, whole squash that's not going to roll across the cutting board. So that's easy.

Of course, you can put some veggies in your oven. You can sear a steak on your cooktop. You can make hard boiled eggs. You know, boil some water and make some hard boiled eggs. You can also do that in your instant pot. So what I'm really trying to say is, if you have the equipment it can really work to your advantage to pull them out and use them even simultaneously. It will make your life so much easier.

And then you can put them in the fridge or freeze whatever you're making so that you're prepared for that weeknight meal. So there's the equipment question.

How can you get more nutrition out of each meal?

Question number three is how can I get more nutrition out of each meal? I would start with, let's say I'm making mashed potatoes and we want to not just have a simple carbohydrate, but mix in some riced cauliflower and now you've added a cruciferous vegetable in with that side dish.

Dare I say, even your pickiest eaters may not even know that it's in there. So you've got sulforaphane now in your mashed potatoes, which is wonderful. When you're making a green salad, just that same old green salad, why don't you add, maybe you get a bag of shaved Brussels sprouts which I feel like, you'll like Brussels sprouts in a shaved form more than in a whole form.

So shaved Brussels sprouts, put those in your salad or get just a bag of coleslaw mix and you can add that to your green salad. Now you have more crunch, not just the lettuce, you've upped the nutrients of that salad. I'm going to say even when you have a salad, maybe you add some sauerkraut or some kimchi, and now you've added a fermented vegetable that will also absolutely up your nutrients in your, that, that same old salad.

Another thing you can do is switch out couscous, which couscous is really just a small pasta. It's a tiny sort of grain like pasta made from wheat. Especially if you're trying to be gluten-free. Switch that out for quinoa, which is actually a pseudo grain. It's a seed. And it's got more fiber. It's got more protein. And so switch out that couscous for, quinoa and now you've upped the nutrients of that side dish.

What else can we do? We can switch out that white rice for beautiful black rice. You can also add some of that riced cauliflower in for half of that rice, and that's going to up the nutrients in your meals.

And of course, you can add herbs, fresh herbs also; I feel like they don't get the respect they deserve, but they also have beautiful plant compounds to give. Adding color to your plate. So orange vegetables have beta carotene, which is the precursor to vitamin A. Again, going back to the cruciferous vegetables like your Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, broccoli, Bok choy, cabbage, that all has sulforaphane, which is a detoxifying compound.

So that will up the nutrients, and of course using good quality proteins that are pasture raised and, grass fed, that is always going to be better nutrients and of course, wild caught, seafood when you could find it. And if it's in your budget, that's also going to be, high in omega-threes and really good for you.

And that definitely ups the nutrient density of your, your meals and of course eating in season, having a very colorful plate will also always up the nutrients of your meal because our guts really love that diversity. They like to have all those plant compounds.

And I'm also going to say spices also have a little something to give. So add different spices that not only will create more variety, but add nutrients to your meal. So there's that question.

How can you make veggies taste good?

And our fourth and final question is the million dollar question. How can I make my veggies taste good? Well it's a loaded question, but I'm going to say, it's a bit subjective. I think a lot of us ate really poorly cooked vegetables as kids, and so we kind of have a mindset about our vegetables.

And so I kind of want to pull you out of that. And the way you can do that is cook your vegetable a different way. So if you're used to having, let's take Brussels sprouts as an example. 'Cause I think Brussels sprouts get a bad rap instead of having them in a whole form, which a lot of people had them boiled or steamed and they were mushy.

Maybe you buy a bag or you shave your Brussels sprouts, put them into your cast iron skillet with a little bit of chopped bacon and now you have this beautiful aroma. It's rich. The fat sort of cuts the bitterness and it's quite delicious. So try Brussels sprouts that way. Again, your air fryer is a lovely thing.

Kind of along with your oven, your air fryer really is just a little convection oven. You get nice crispy edges on your broccoli and your cauliflower, and so now you've created a different texture and it's really delicious. They’re sort of crisp tender, which is the way I like my vegetables.

I would also say adding a sauce. I know Nutritional Weight & Wellness has some fun dips, green veggie dips. A simple vinaigrette sort of drizzled over your asparagus or your green beans. Maybe you add the crunch of some sesame seeds or some almonds. Some sliver almonds would also be delicious. So kind of think outside the box.

I'm also going to say that, you don't want to overcook your vegetables. Maybe you like your vegetables in a soup or a stew, so you're going to sort of cook them low and slow and it mellows them out. I'm also going to say, adding a little bit of acid is also nice. A little less squeeze of lemon juice sort of brightens the flavor of your vegetables. So try that. That makes them delicious.

So, boy, I hope that we have really, may have given you some ideas for some shortcuts and make those weeknight dinners easier. I hope that we have inspired you to get into the kitchen, use all of your equipment, eat lots of veggies, eat in season, and take control of your wellness journey through meals. Thanks so much.