During the summer, I become a fairly lazy cook. I’d much rather be out paddleboarding or hiking when I’m not working, but a girl’s still gotta eat, which is why I’m so grateful to Daily Harvest. They not only make it super easy to eat healthy by delivering nourishing, fruit and veggie-based meals straight to my door, but they’ve also sponsored this blog post, where I can share my favorite products AND other time-saving hacks. Thank you for supporting the brands that help keep lizmoody.com afloat.

First, a bit about Daily Harvest: Daily Harvest delivers plant-based food that’s always gluten-free and dairy-free without any gums, fillers, refined sugars or artificial anything. 95% of their ingredients are organic and they have over 90 options of smoothies, oatmeals, lattes, flatbreads, harvest bowls, and more. You can choose a plan of 9, 14, or 24 items that come weekly or monthly, so you can always have some on hand in the freezer, ready to go when you want to eat well, no work necessary.

Okay, let’s get into some easy ways to be healthy! And if you want to try Daily Harvest for yourself, use code LIZ40 to get up to $40 off your first box.

1. Start every day with a green smoothie!

You knew this was where we were gonna start, didn’t you? Green smoothies take less than 5 minutes to make, require almost no clean up (just fill your blender with water and a few drops of soap and run again, then rinse!), and by 9 am, you will have had more veggies than most people have all day. You can find all of my green smoothie recipes here, but I also love to keep a stash of Daily Harvest Smoothies in my freezer. They taste AMAZING (the Mint + Cacao is my absolute favorite but you can’t really go wrong) and all you have to do is add the liquid of your choice to the cup and then blend! Hot tip: you can always use them as a flavor base and add a handful of greens for even more nutrients and satiation.

2. Keep it simple, especially when entertaining.

I know that when guests come, I always want to go all out, but that just makes me exhausted and frankly, makes me enjoy my friends even less (which sort of beats the whole point, doesn’t it??). To make having fun with guests more, well, fun, I’ve started to take a more laissez faire approach to entertaining. I’ll put out whatever fruit I most recently picked up at the farmers market, pop a Daily Harvest Flatbread into the oven (this one is my absolute favorite, everyone I make it for is obsessed—bake it for 20-25 minutes and then let it cool a bit to get it extra crispy) and get back to playing Kubb (the world’s best lawn game). One of my favorite hacks? Making root beer floats with Daily Harvest Scoops. This is their plant-based, dairy-free ice cream only made from whole ingredients and never any added sugar.They’re SO nostalgic, take literally 2 seconds to make (I do recommend leaving the scoops out to sit for 10 minutes before making), and they’re total crowd pleasers.

3. Freeze EVERYTHING.

My freezer is my best friend all year long, but especially during the summer. My eyes are bigger than my appetite (or rather, the time I have to prepare food to meet said appetite), so every time I go to the farmers market, I stock up on tons of delicious produce. Now, I’ve taken to doing a big freezer stock four or five days after my farmers market haul. I go through everything in my fridge, prep it (mincing the garlic, blanching broccoli, slicing bread), and throw it in the freezer. That way, I never waste anything, and I have summer-fresh produce all year long. Daily Harvest also helps reduce food waste. They work directly with farmers to grow the best produce, harvest it at the right time, and freeze it within 24 hours to lock in nutrients and flavor.

4. Have breakfast for dinner.

Who said that eggs are for breakfast and pasta is for dinner? Throwing out the rules is a great way to save a ton of time and make eating way more fun. One of my favorite hacks is to have breakfast for dinner—I’m often way less hungry at dinner time, and breakfast typically takes far less work to prepare, which is perfect for days that I’m running low on energy or time. I love grabbing a smoothie, a Daily Harvest Oat Bowl (you just add liquid and then you can microwave it in the actual container it comes in! The container is 100% compostable too!), or even just making a quick meal of eggs and toast—all take less than 5 minutes, and leave me nourished and satisfied. I love all of the Oat Bowl flavors but as we enter fall, the Apple + Cinnamon one has been my go-to—it’s so warming and the cinnamon and apple combo just puts you in that apple-picking, cozy sweater mood.

5. Rely on half-ready lunches.

I don’t know about you, but I almost never want to cook in the middle of the day—and what’s worse, I often get caught up in podcast recordings or meetings and don’t have time to eat until I’m ravenous. I’ve started eating what I call “half-ready lunches,” meaning it’s mostly made. This leaves room for a little bit of originality, so I can eat what I feel like each day without having to eat the same thing over and over (I truly cannot do that type of meal prep), but I still have lunch ready in less than 5 minutes, which is about all the time I usually want to spare. Here’s an example: I’ll keep a stash of the Daily Harvest Bowls on hand (the Chickpea + Zaatar one is my favorite, it has SUCH a delicious, Middle Eastern-inspired flavor and so many veggies packed into one bowl; the Sweet Potato + Wild Rice Hash is another go-to). One day, I’ll have one wrapped in a tortilla. Another, I’ll saute it in a skillet with some eggs as a loaded scramble. Another, I’ll have it over some leftover coconut rice. All the variety and none of the effort? Sounds like a win to me.

6. Order staples online.

During the pandemic, I transitioned to doing most of my food shopping online. I fill my freezer, fridge, and pantry with all of my staples, and then build around that with farmers market produce and small trips to local bakeries and speciality shops. It saves me a ton of time because most websites remember previous orders, and I still have enough flexibility to enjoy what’s in season, fresh, and local.

7. Anytime you DO cook, double it.

Sometimes, a day comes along where you feel inspired! You grab your cookbooks (or peruse this site!), and put together a delicious, extravagant meal. Yay! You did it! On those days, though, take advantage of all of that energy and double (or even triple) the recipe. It barely takes more energy, and you can freeze the leftovers in individual portions so they’re easy to grab when you don’t feel like cooking later. Future you says thank you very much.

As you can probably tell, I’m obsessed with Daily Harvest—they make it so much easier to eat healthy even on the busiest days. If you want to try Daily Harvest for yourself, you can use my code LIZ40 for up to $40 off your first Daily Harvest box. I can’t wait to hear what you think!

What are your best types for eating healthy when you’re super busy? Leave them in the comments below!

Thanks to Daily Harvest for sponsoring this post! All opinions are my own.