It's 6pm and I arrive home tired. The perennial problem surfaces - what to cook for dinner. As I haven't planned ahead, it's got to be something cooked from the ingredients on hand. I peer into the fridge. There's some cold cooked chicken leftover from last night. I ponder my options.

I could boil some spaghetti and make an Italian sauce with onion, garlic, a bottle of pasta sauce and toss in the diced chicken.

Or I could open a can of butter beans, drain and mix them with the chicken and make a salad with baby spinach leave, sliced mushroom, capsicum and walnuts.

Or I could defrost frozen spinach and create a sauce with an Indian curry paste plus a small can of tomatoes and the chicken. Hmm, nice and spicy but would the kids eat it?

I settle on the pasta-chicken-sauce option. Dinner was ready and consumed within 30 minutes. It was easy, good-to-eat and good-for-you too.

If we want meals that are quick and easy, we have to accept that there is value in supermarket ingredients - and combine them with fresh ones. Usually their nutritional profile is comparable to fresh food that's been cooked. Consider the merits of these convenience products.

The bottled tomato sauce offers the same nutritional value as fresh tomatoes that have been simmered - which my mother used to do. It contributes vitamin C (although both the bottled and home-cooked would have less than fresh), fibre and lycopene, an important antioxidant.

Canned beans have the same levels of protein, fibre, carbohydrate and B vitamins as beans that have been soaked and boiled. We nutritionists have been urging people to eat more beans for years, but who's got the time to soak and boil them?

Frozen spinach is a good source of fibre, as well as minerals iron and potassium. The process of freezing retains more vitamin C than canned or bottled and acts as a "preserving agent", so no preservatives are needed.

With that in mind, look with fresh eyes at the value and time-saving merits of canned tuna and salmon, frozen berries and fish fillets, canned corn, tomatoes, beetroot, baby potatoes, bottled artichoke hearts, bottled pesto and frozen yoghurt.

Catherine Saxelby is a nutritionist and author of Nutrition for Life. Get more healthy eating tips at www.foodwatch.com.au