Tips for Healthy Cooking at Home

Most people are looking for the ultimate healthy cooking at home. Healthy cooking does not necessarily mean changing your favorite meals. It involves making your meals healthier by adapting your recipe to provide a healthier alternative. Read the following tips to cook healthy meals at home.

Shopping for Healthy Food

Trendy packaging, low priced processed food and inadequate time are the ultimate cause of mistakes in the shopping cart. Always make a list for your groceries beforehand to avoid the temptation to buy that unhealthy ingredient. Shop more produce as well as canned food. Nutritionists recommend eating five servings of vegetables and fruits in a day. Always read the package label to get the nutritional facts of the product.

Modifying Recipes to Lower Fat Content

Modify the recipes by either eliminating or substituting an ingredient. When selecting the ingredients, establish the high fat ingredients such as whole eggs, cream, margarine, cooking fat. Establish why the ingredient is incorporated in the recipe such as is it for flavour, texture, appearance or as a habit. Determine if it is most viable to eliminate, reduce or substitute the ingredient, for instance use 2 egg whites in place 2 eggs and 2 tablespoon of cooking oil in place of four.

Retaining the Nutrient While Cooking

Retain nutrients in your food as much as possible by adopting the three R's; reducing the amount of cooking water used for cooking, reducing the cooking time and reducing the surface are of the food exposed during cooking. Also, scrub vegetables instead of peeling during their preparation.

Seeking an Alternative Cooking Method

Eliminate or modify recipes that require sautéing or deep-frying in fat. Alternatively, steam, bake, grill, braise, boil or microwave your foods. For instance, remove the skin of chicken and roast instead of deep-frying it unskinned, in order to reduce the calories and grams of fat. Refrigerate stews and soups in order to skim off excess fat as it hardens. Also, use a non-stick pan or spray especially for recipes that require sautéing. Find your non-stick pans at the kitchen advisor.

Presenting Food on the Plate

Spend quite some time presenting food on the plate to make it visually appealing as well as tasty. Arrange food on a clean plate as dictated by the occasion such as a dinner, lunch, kid's party. Make the food arrangements fun for the kid's or formal especially when hosting guests. Balance varieties of textures on the plate as well as garnish to add a pop of colour on the plate. Serve the food hot. Always serve hot food on a pre-warmed plate to prevent it from cooling fast.

Avoid Crash Dieting

A crash diet is a method of losing weight too fast by reducing the daily calorie intake to about 500 to 1000 calories per day, in an extreme weight loss program. Crash diets are not easy to implement as they put a lot of strain on the body. They are ineffective for the long term. Allow an occasional guilt-free treat occasionally.