I was just commenting to a friend the other day that working life in Singapore is hard on the body. What do I mean by that? Most desk-bound jobs require at least 8 hours sitting in front of a computer, hunched over (often in an unnatural body position) and doing a series of repetitive actions. It’s little wonder why we come away from a day’s work with aches all over the body. Add on to the fact that most jobs require an extraordinary amount of overtime, which in turn means less time for the outdoors or in fact, any type of exercise, unless you count walking to the water cooler or toilet as exercise. Not to mention that with this hectic schedule, eating healthy is practically non-existent. With the high amount of stress involved, you end up with insufficient time for proper meals and when you do get to eat, you binge on unhealthy, and more often than not, fast food – otherwise known as “revenge eating” (as one of my girlfriends puts it).

I’ve been following the Paleo diet for a while now, and while I’m not 100% Paleo, with the opportunity to cook most of my own meals, I’ve had the chance to keep it a little closer to heart. However, in the last two weeks, with my current 8.30am – 6pm schedule, I’ve been eating out most of the time. And I can already feel the effects of this short period of convenience food – bloating, sluggishness, less energy…the list goes on. What a huge difference it makes on your body, to be able to enjoy home-cooked meals versus the carb-loaded, sugar-laden fare available outside.

Just last weekend, I had the opportunity to conduct a cooking class for some friends, who, like most of us, work at jobs with little time to prepare their own meals. Hence, to address the challenges presented by our tight schedules, the theme of the class was “Paleo-friendly meals in 30 mins”, broken down into 3 recipes guaranteed to take you from breakfast to dinner. The whole objective was to show how easy it can be to prepare a tasty, healthy, home-cooked meal in just 30 mins (start to finish) that does not have to be laden with sugar, carbohydrates, processed food and seasoning. All fresh ingredients, the more natural, the tastier it is. You can see the delicious results for yourself. None of these recipes take more than 30 mins to prepare.

Cooking in progress

Jerk Chicken

Salmon Cerviche Salad

Cloud Souffles fresh from the oven

The cooking station prep

Photo Credits: Courtesy of Kimberly Kwek & Tay Sok Hui

There are plans for more of such Paleo cooking classes. But in the meantime, I wanted to share some tips that I use to try to eat healthier, even with a busy work schedule. Most of us reach for convenience food because it is fast, easy and readily available. So the trick to eating healthy is to make sure that these healthier options are easily and readily available. Here are 5 tips I use:

Keep soup stock on hand
What I like to do is to make my own stock ahead of time on a weekend. Just take chicken or pork bones, even prawn shells, or fish bones, boil it for a few hours with vegetables and then freeze it in smaller containers. When I need the stock, I can take it straight from the freezer to the pan. No need to use stock cubes or stock in a can. This is all natural goodness in an instant.

Marinate your meats ahead of time
I’ll usually plan ahead for the week and marinate a few types of meat on the weekend. Then, I can just pull the meat out of the fridge, almost straight onto the pan, when I get back from work.

Keep these vegetables handy
There are a few staples I usually have in my fridge, which makes for a great pairing with the protein in the meal. Plus, they keep fresh a lot longer than most greens. I’m not advocating that you only eat these vegetables but that these are option that are handy to have.

• Tomatoes – great for sauces or salads
• Carrots – great for sauces, salads & stews
• Zucchini – great as a noodle substitutes or for use in stews
• Sweet Potato – great substitute for regular mash or fries
• Cauliflower – use it for rice substitute or even as a pizza base
• Broccoli –  good source of nutrients and vitamins & pairs with most meats
• Garlic & Onions – these aromatics are a base for most meals. I have never cooked any savoury dish without one or the other.

It’s all about herbs
This is the source for a lot of the flavour in your meals. If you can get fresh herbs, that’s the best option but otherwise, I always have a drawer full of dried herbs. You cannot cook anything without herbs. A trick to keeping fresh herbs on hand, is to freeze it in ice cubes with some olive oil. That way, your fresh herbs will keep for slightly longer.

Prepare breakfast the night before
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day (or so they say) and yet, it’s the one we have the least time for. One way to get round it is to prepare your breakfast the night before. Bake some paleo-friendly muffins, or make boiled eggs, or sweet potato patties, then just pop it in the oven the next day to heat up for breakfast. Or better yet, pack a raw fruit/ vegetable box and eat it on your way to work. You can even make a batch of nuts granola and eat that the next day with some organic milk or almond milk.

BONUS TIP: The slow cooker is your best friend
The genius of the slow cooker is vastly underrated. It’s the best piece of cooking equipment for busy working adults. You want breakfast? Pop some ingredients in the slow cooker before bed, viola, hot breakfast when you wake. Want a hot dinner straight after work? Throw some ingredients in the pot in the morning and again, you get to enjoy a hot dinner as you step in the door. Just be careful to put it on low and to put in enough liquid so it doesn’t dry out too soon.

I’ll be utilizing these tips over the next few weeks so do check back in for the fruits of my labour. And as always, if you have any questions, or if you’ll like to share how these tips are working out for you, just post a comment below.

If you’re interested to join in the next cooking class, drop us an email at info@cookin-lab.com or message us on our Cook In:Lab Facebook page