1. A method for operating a Magnetic Resonance (MR) imaging system, the method comprising: generating radio frequency (RF) excitation pulses in a volume of patient anatomy comprising a patient's heart to provide subsequent acquisition of associated RF echo data; generating slice select magnetic field gradients for phase encoding and readout RF data acquisition in the volume of patient anatomy; acquiring a plurality of slices of an image of the volume of patient anatomy within a plurality of cycles, each of the plurality of cycles representing time period between successive beats of the patient's heart; causing, by a control processor, accelerated acquisition of two or more slices of the plurality of slices within a quiescent phase of each of the plurality of cycles; applying, by the control processor, one or more saturation areas proximate to a target volume of the patient anatomy; and wherein causing accelerated acquisition of the two or more slices within the quiescent phase of each of the plurality of cycles further comprises under-sampling the two or more acquired slices.