Earlier this week I met with a woman with ulcerative colitis who cooks nearly everything from scratch.

Now she’s trying to add a strength-training routine—and with limited time, it feels like she has to choose: exercise or cook?

Time has always been a barrier to cooking meals at home.

Not just the cooking itself, but the planning, shopping, prepping—and often doing all that while navigating dietary restrictions and food preferences.

Many people I’ve worked with have shared that cooking feels harder than ever with the recent focus on ultra-processed foods in IBD, leaving many with the sense that anything in a package is off-limits.

What once felt challenging but doable can start to feel idealistic—and unattainable. (At least if you’re trying to keep your sanity 🤪)

And yet people who eat at home generally do feel better.

They tend to tolerate foods better, eat more nutrient-dense diets, and feel healthier overall.

So this year, I’m focusing on systems and simplification in the kitchen to make it easier to roll out nutritious, flavorful, home-cooked meals.

One simple system I’ve been using lately: themed nights.

Instead of deciding what to cook from scratch every single day, assign a loose theme to each night.

✔️ Same structure.

✔️ Different ingredients (if desired).

✔️ Much less thinking.

And importantly: ​themed nights don’t require everything to be homemade. ​

They work just as well when relying on a few thoughtfully chosen shortcuts—such as pre-washed vegetables, rotisserie chicken, frozen grains, or simple store-bought sauces.

Here are a few ideas that work across many diets: 

• ​Sheet-Pan Night​ Protein + cooked vegetables on one pan
  • Examples: chicken with carrots and potatoes; salmon with zucchini
• Soup Night Broth-based soups and stews
  • Examples: ​Soothing Chicken Soup​; pureed carrot-ginger soup
• Pasta Night Simple sauces, familiar flavors
  • Examples: pasta with finely ground pesto; marinara with ground turkey and cooked vegetables
• Taco Night Bowls or tortillas (​my favorite brand of tortillas​)
  • Examples: ground meat, tofu or fish with rice and cooked vegetables
• Breakfast for Dinner Often quick, gentle, and kid-friendly
  • Examples: eggs and avocado, sourdough French toast, savory oatmeal
• Mezze Night Mediterranean-style small plates
  • Examples: hummus, feta, peeled cucumber, pita, cooked vegetables

None of this is groundbreaking—and that’s the point.

I’d love to hear: what shortcuts or systems have helped make cooking at home more sustainable for you or your patients? Comment below!

👉 For more ideas to make meal planning and cooking at home easier, download my free ebook IBD Kitchen: 10 Empowering Recipes for Sensitive Guts and check out my blog post ​Nutrition Analysis Leads to Culinary Paralysis​.