10 Easy No-Cook Meal Ideas

Eating healthy doesn't mean hours spent in the kitchen meal prepping away! With these 10 easy no-cook meal ideas, you can enjoy a simple healthy meal any time – you can skip the takeout and stick with your healthy lifestyle, while still eating food you love!

You’ve been working hard. You deserve some time off, especially from the kitchen. You could treat yourself to a nice meal from a restaurant, but then there is the potential complication that it may not fit your diet, you have food allergies, or you’re highly sensitive to restaurant food. And, then there’s also the fact that your favourite restaurants may not be open for breakfast, lunch or dinner or may be out of your go-to dishes. Now, let’s put our heads together and think about what we would do in this situation. Cook? Absolutely not! That’s completely out of the question, we’re sorry that we even mentioned it. Let’s keep thinking...Ah ha! We got it!

Healthy ready-to-eat meals! It’s the perfect solution for our problem! These healthy ready-to-eat meals are ready in just a few minutes and only require some minimal heating, nothing fancy, so you can easily recover from your cooking burnout. The best part of it all? They’re delicious and suitable for many diets including keto, vegan, gluten-free and more! So, you get delicious and nutritious food, no tummy-aches, and get to take a break from cooking! It’s a win-win situation! Here are the best ready-to-eat healthy meals that you can use to avoid cooking burnout.

Breakfast:

1. Overnight Oats: No need to awkwardly open the door to the food delivery person in your pyjamas anymore. Overnight oats makes preparing a healthy breakfasts a quick, delicious and simple experience.  Plenty of fibre and protein to fuel your body and satisfy your taste buds. All you need to do to enjoy a delicious and healthy breakfast is add ⅓ of a cup of your favourite milk, stir or shake in a sealed jar, and refrigerate overnight. In the morning, simply take it out of the fridge, make your way to your bed and enjoy your overnight oats, breakfast in bed style. It’s that simple! 

2. Kodiak Cakes Breakfast in a Cup: With Kodiak Cakes, breakfast is as easy as peeling back the lid, adding water or milk, and microwaving! Kodiak Cakes Breakfasts in a Cup are perfect for travelling abroad or when running late to work. Available in a variety of flavours, you can enjoy a different breakfast everyday in a matter of minutes. From oatmeal to pancakes to muffins, Kodiak cake ensures to expertly craft each cup with plenty of protein to keep you full and without any GMOs. With Kodiak Cakes, you’ll never want to skip breakfast again. 

3. Breakfast Sandwich: Alright, we admit that this one does require a little bit of cooking, but the result is totally worth it. Really, all you need is a toaster, your favourite bread, and your choice of spreads. To ensure that you’re getting enough nutrition you’ll want to choose some sort of seed or nut butter. We recommend Artisana for all types of spreads! From cashew butter to hazelnut cacao spreads, Artisana ensures that each has a generous amount of protein, and no gluten or animal products. Now, you could stop here, or you could take your breakfast sandwich one step further! We recommend adding a little jelly or jam to your sandwich, low sugar of course! Good Good and Healthy Crunch both offer keto-friendly, low-sugar jams that are an excellent pair to any nut or seed butter. All you need to do is toast your bread, spread your nut/seed butter and jam, and enjoy! You can’t go wrong with a nut/seed butter and jam sandwich!

Lunch:

5. Plant-Based Sushi Bowls: No more crazy amounts of work needed to get your hands on a sushi bowl! Seed To Surf offers two different kinds of plant-based seafood alternatives that just require opening a can. Choose between vegan snow crab or plant-based whitefish and get your condiments and your toppings, and in less than 5 minutes you have a meal! Now, that’s faster than delivery! 

6. Soup: Soups are an incredibly underrated healthy meal that is ready in a matter of minutes. Soups are available in all sorts of flavours such as crab & lobster bisque, broccoli cheddar, Italian wedding, and creamed cauliflower to name a few. Each of these soups provides plenty of nutrients, such as protein, and are free of GMOs, gluten, and all the other stuff that you don’t want. Many of these soups are also keto-friendly, low in carbs and vegan, so you’ll always have something that will fit your diet. If you find that soups aren’t filling, there's also soup-based meals available, like Lotus Food's Ramen Noodle Bowl. This fun and flavourful soup meal comes with noodles for a little extra umph. They make it feel just like take-out, but healthier!

7. Vegetable Rice & Beans: Rice and beans is the perfect meal for someone that wants to get the most out of their meals without much cooking. The flavours of the vegetable rice and the beans blend seamlessly together and offer more nutritional value than you can imagine! But, making vegetable rice can be a daunting and time-consuming process, so we turn to our trust pals at Nature’s Earthly Choice for our vegetable rice needs. Available as both broccoli or cauliflower rice, Nature’s Earthly Choice takes all the cutting, grating and cooking out of making keto rice.  All you need to do is tear the package and heat in the microwave for 90 seconds. And, for the beans, Sprague offers a wide assortment of low-sodium beans so you can keep changing it up. But, if you’re looking for a low-carb option, then Eden Foods is the way to go!

Dinner:

8. Pizza: We know what you’re thinking, why wouldn’t I just order a pizza instead? Well, we’re sorry to be the ones to break it to you, but the pizza place doesn’t care about your diet or overall health. Luckily, we do! So, we’re going to help you make a healthy pizza with very little cooking. To begin with, you’re going to need a pre-made pizza crust, Schar is a great gluten-free option! Then, grab your favourite pizza sauce or use BBQ sauce or pesto as a tasty alternative, and sprinkle on your favourite toppings: cheese, pepperoni, chickpeas, beans, olives, etc. Then, stick it in the oven and in a couple of minutes you could be devouring a delicious pizza!

9. Heart of Palm Pasta: You might already think that pasta is a quick meal, but we’ve figured out how to make it even faster! With our hearts of palm pasta, you could have dinner ready in less than 5 minutes. From spaghetti to lasagna to angel hair pasta, our hearts of palm pasta does it all and with fewer carbs and all vegan and paleo-friendly ingredients. Hearts of palm are naturally nutrient-dense, gluten-free, low in calories and low in FODMAPS, making it ten times better than regular pasta! To eat a delicious bowl of healthy pasta, you’ll just need to remove the liquid, heat for a few minutes, add your favourite pasta sauce and voila! Dinner is served! 

10. Better Than Foods Ready Made Meals: For when you’re feeling adventurous or want to treat yourself to a fancy meal but without any cooking, Better Than Foods has got you covered! Better Than Foods offers three ready-made, low calorie and vegan meals for when hunger strikes! Inspired by Asian flavours, Better Than Foods recreated classic dishes, like a lentil curry, but with a healthy twist, konjac noodles! Konjac noodles are ideal for anyone watching their carb intake or looking to add more fibre into their meals. These ready made gluten-free and plant-based meals are completely microwavable and absolutely delicious! It will be just like take-out but tastier and healthier!

Key Takeaways:

You don’t need to spend hours in the kitchen to eat healthily. There are tonnes of ready-made and quick meals available that can get you the nutrients you need while giving you the break that you deserve. Healthy eating doesn’t have to be complicated or require elite cooking skills. Nowadays, there are many ways to eat quick and healthy meals, without calling the fast food delivery service. Although occasionally eating from restaurants and fast food chains is nothing to be guilty about, having quick and healthy meal options available at all times can prevent overindulgence and the undesirable after effects of fast food. With any of our quick and ready-to-eat meals, you can stay on track to achieving your goals while getting some much needed R & R from the kitchen. Shop your favourites today!