Our head of content, Katharine Pope, recently sat down with Ella Mills of Deliciously Ella fame to chat about the inspiration behind her latest cookbook, Quick Wins: Healthy Cooking for Busy Lives.

When Ella first started her food blog, Deliciously Ella, she was in her early 20s and living at home. In other words, she had ample time to indulge her love of cooking. But as her brand took off, her time in the kitchen became limited. Add on two kids – now aged five and six – and time really became a commodity she didn’t have enough of.

“Life was so different,” she explains. “And it’s not like my way of cooking has completely changed – it’s similar ingredients, it’s similar ideas – but I started looking at it and being like, okay you’ve got to meet in the middle.” For her, it became about three things: ease, flavour and nutrition. “I needed food that made me feel good, that I enjoyed, but was also actually plausible with my life.”

What will busy moms find in Quick Wins?

There are two parts: recipes and meal plans. The recipes are based on ingredients you probably already have at home – beans, yoghurt, lemon, garlic and chilli – or can easily pick up on your way home from work (like fresh tomatoes). The other part is the meal plans.

“That was something I had never really done before,” Ella shares. “And then I started to think – as I think so many people relate to – you had a full-on day and then it’s like: what’s for dinner?

“And it wasn’t that I didn’t have 20 minutes to do it or couldn’t put a pot on the stove, or something like that. It was the emotional headspace at the end of the day. You’re knackered, you’ve got the kids, and you’re like, I just need this to be straightforward. And so, we started planning dinners for the week and I would do an online shop, and I was just like this is so much easier. I found that, on the weekend, doing that little bit of planning, it was so easy. And I had all the ingredients. So it was this win. I hadn’t really done very much different. I’ve just had a little bit of foresight when I had the time, and suddenly my life is a thousand times easier. It’s just one less thing to think about, really.”

Ella’s quick hacks for making mealtimes easier

1. Reduce the level of process involved. “If you’re going to add another pan or another step, it must work hard. And on a Tuesday night, I just don’t want three pots. It’s too much.”
2. Use a jar. “You can make your own pesto and it’s delicious. There’s one in the cookbook that has pistachios and broccoli and it’s absolutely delicious. But if you’re only using a tablespoon of it for extra flavour, just use a jar.”
3. Keep staple ingredients in your pantry. “You don’t have to have 36 different spices – just some cumin, chilli, coriander, cinnamon and turmeric. If you have tinned tomatoes and tins of coconut milk, you can make a nice soup or curry. Keep chickpeas, beans, lentils and pasta. I always have onions and garlic. If you look at these ingredients, you can make an easy chickpea curry, for example, without really any fresh food at all.”

ALSO READ: Why gut health is important to your child’s diet

3 tips to eat more healthily

As one of the top wellness experts in the UK, Ella Mills has always focused on healthy eating. But what does healthy eating look like to her in 2026?

“Where we were a few years ago, wellness felt quite accessible and approachable. And I feel like it’s become quite extreme again. We’re collectively failing at the basics of wellness. We don’t sleep enough, we’re too stressed, we don’t eat enough vegetables, we spend too much time on our screens. These are the foundations of what health and wellness are.

We all just really overestimate what we’re going to do in a week. ‘I’m starting this cleanse; I’m going to change what I eat in seven days.’ You’re just not. Humans don’t work like that with too much else going on. Everyone’s emotionally stretched and overwhelmed, so how do you meet people where they are?”

Here are some quick wins Ella suggests readers make:

1. Add an extra portion of plants every day. “That would be seven extra. It’s quite a lot. But if it’s just a piece of fruit you don’t normally eat, as a snack, or a berry on your porridge, it’s doable.”
2. Include nuts and seeds. “Buy a mixed bag of toasted nuts and seeds, or make it yourself, and sprinkle it on a salad. That feels quite doable, but these things really matter and they add up over time.”
3.Batch cook on a Sunday. “It’s going to be cheaper, it’s going to be healthier, and oftentimes it’s probably going to be more delicious.”

ALSO READ: 6 wholesome recipes to help you reset 

Recipe inspiration from Quick Wins

“The things my kids will always eat are lots of the big-batch recipes. I know there’s a debate on hiding vegetables vs not hiding vegetables. For me, it’s a balance of the two. I want to expose them to it, but I also want them to eat it. So, I do a lot of the big-batch recipes and serve them with rice or pasta.”

Here are some of her family’s top picks:

1. Creamy coconut lentils 
2. Pulled miso aubergine ragu
3. Creamy pistachio and broccoli pasta

Find more plant-based recipes here