These Prepared Meals Are Lifesavers When You Don't Have The Time To Cook

One of the biggest challenges we have at home is not just thinking of the food to prepare and cook, but making sure it is somewhat healthy. It is something I never thought would give me so much headache in my daily living. Lol.

Things seemed manageable when it was just me and my husband. We cooked whatever pleased us, we could always do take-out food, or we relied on delivery service to bring our favorites. Things changed when we had our daughter, and suddenly, a lot of things must be considered.

Our daughter, Monica, has always been a picky eater. She would only take food with sabaw or anything crunchy. I have been guilty of feeding her chicken skin or chicharron and rice just so she would eat. Since I often ran out of ideas, it prompted me only to offer her the same things over and over.

List of prepared meals (some are healthy alternatives!)

I am a stay-at-home mom, and yet feeding my daughter well has been a serious challenge. My lifesaver for me has been these prepred meals, which come handy when you do not have the luxury of time. Here are a few you may want to try.

The Corner Pantry

To order: +63 919 000-0275

Cara De Ocampo, the owner of The Corner Pantry, has a son who was a picky eater, and it inspired her to serve good food that was everyday staples in Filipino homes. “We wanted a food line that focused on everyday staples in our kitchen — not a gourmet line or hard to find products — just better alternatives to what we usually serve for breakfast and prepare for our kids' baon.”

Its food does not contain nitrates and nitrites, artificial sweeteners, or coloring — ingredients commonly found in processed meats. Cara knows there are healthier alternatives aside from what they sell, such as organic meat. But she quips it’s hard to sustain buying organic if you will feed multiple kids. You may want to try its Kid Delish line that includes bacon and corned beef aside from those below.

Chicken nuggets, Php390 for 500g

All-natural beef hotdog, Php 250 500g

Quisina

To order: 09178144342

Quisina is short for Quick in the Kusina. The owner, Nina Co, shares the idea for the business started back in her college days. “Late nights meant having late-night meals, and despite the hectic schedule, I would still want something bagong luto. [But] I was always conscious of how processed food made me feel low energy.”

Nina then prepared food in bulk that she could freeze and later cook in minutes — it sustained the long nights she spent on studying. After relatives and friends got to try her cooking, they encouraged her, an architect by profession, to sell and turn it into a business. Nina takes pride in the value and quality of their food — no preservatives, no MSG, and definitely homemade. Quisina has Quick and Easy dishes (3-5 pax), which requires no prep, and Easy Clean-up and Heat & Eat, ready to eat in five minutes (2-3 pax).

Buttermilk chicken nuggets, Php290 per pack

Beef gyudon, Php 290

Bicol Express, Php260

Tinapa Laing, Php 240

MomMade PH

To order: +63 917 899-0536/ +63 917 899-0374

Happy Ongpauco-Tiu, who runs Mommade, assures their products are made of fresh, high-grade, and pure ingredients using 100% beef, poultry, pork, and seafood with no preservatives, MSG, and MDM.

Adobo Flakes is one of their bestsellers and something she also offers in her restaurants. Another favorite is the 3-cheese chicken nuggets — a mom’s go-to food for the kids! One would also enjoy her own version of a famous canned food — homemade Spam!

Adobo, Php299

All-natural Spam, Php350

Cebu Lechon Roll, Php299

3-cheese chicken nuggets, Php300

Auntie Arnie’s

To order: +632 638-3988, 0906-235 4977 or 0998-586 5102 / via www.hifred.ph

Auntie Arnie’s are frozen meals that promise no preservatives or MSG. It also sources local ingredients to prepare the dishes.

Callos, Php420

Orange Peel Chicken, Php195

Chicken Curry, Php395

Pomodoro Sauce, Php245 per bottle

Fisherfarms Inc.

Available in most supermarkets

Fisher Farms Inc. says its milkfish is sustainably raised in floating deep seawater cages at Lingayen Gulf while the shrimps are grown in inland saline water ponds. It hatches its own fingerlings and produces feeds that are vitamin-rich, hormone-free, antibiotic-free, and high in nutrients.

It has products that are gluten-free, casein-free, preservative-free, MSG-free, and nitrite-free. It also sells unseasoned, marinated, smoked, deli, breaded, and ready to heat types of milkfish. For shrimps, they do sell raw, cooked, and breaded as well.

Smoke Pure Belly, Php99 for 100g and Php 285 for 350g

Hungarian Fish Sausage, Php279 750g, exclusively found in Landers

Shrimp Poppers!Php 89 for 200g of original flavor

Din Real Bautista is a proud full-time homemaker. Most of the time, she’s busy raising a kind-hearted and strong human being named Monica together with the most amazing husband, Beejay. And the rest of her time, she’s making sure her life is better outside social media.