Make three meals using only fresh ingredients this week

Your Challenge

Avoid processed foods by cooking three meals from scratch using fresh, frozen and tinned ingredients. Ultra-processed foods are worse for our health and the health of the planet. Fresh food (in its original form) is usually best, but frozen and tinned are preserved while the food is still at peak freshness, which means all those nutrients are locked in and stored, sill making it better for you than highly processed foods. Here is some help on how to eat fresh: 

• Our first top tip is to plan your meals. It can feel like a lot of work to make everything from scratch, but with the right planning you can make it less of a chore. There are many apps and tools out there to help you, but a good old pen and paper will also suffice. And there are some well-known chefs who do quick, fresh and healthy recipes to help inspire you.
• Jot down the three fresh meals you plan on making at the beginning of each week. Choose the days you know you’ll have a bit more time, for example the days you are working from home, or the weekend.
• Then pop to the shops or your local veg market to pick up your ingredients for the whole week, so they’re ready for when you start cooking.
• You could even make double on one of the nights, so you can have leftovers the next day. That way you are only cooking fresh twice, which saves precious time. Better to reheat your homemade goodies than a ready meal with all sorts of hidden nasties in, not to mention the packaging.

Try to think of grains and whole foods you can add to the recipes too. For example, you could avoid buying something like a chicken kiev (processed food) and instead make your own mushroom kiev with garlic butter inside!