Are you interested in cooking healthy meals for yourself or for your family? You’re making a smart choice.
This article will provide you with several tips that you can use to start creating healthier meals for your family.
One of the misconceptions about cooking healthy that almost everyone I’ve talked with is cooking healthy is expensive and isn’t always affordable especially if your family lives on a budget like my family does.
Here are five tips to help you cook healthier and without breaking your budget.
Tip 1 – Spend at least one hour before your next trip to the super market and plan out meals for the next one to two weeks. Each meal should incorporate a fruit and a vegetable in it so everyone in your family meets a quota of having at least 4 fruits and 4 vegetables in their diet every day.
Your shopping cart should also include plenty of whole grains, fish, poultry and beans to round out a balanced diet for your family.
If you have questions about what foods make up a balanced, healthy diet you should download the food pyramid. Just go to Google, type in food pyramid and there are plenty of websites to download it from and also plenty of other healthy cooking ideas as well.
Tip 2 – Start baking and creating your own snacks instead of buying them. Most people learn how to bake when they are children but lose the interest in baking as they get older because it’s easier t to buy foods that are already pre-made. When you bake your own snacks you can avoid adding the sugars, preservatives, fats and other unhealthy ingredients that are found in store bought foods.
Baking doesn’t take a lot of time either and if you plan your meals right you can always have a supply of home made healthy snacks whenever you want.
Tip 3 – Start grilling more or broiling. These methods both require direct exposure of food to heat and will allow fat to drip away from your food.
Tip 4 – Steaming – This is one of the healthiest ways to cook vegetables because only a small amount of nutrients are removed from the food compared to other forms of cooking.
Tip 5 – Start using herbs and spices. Many people don’t think about using herbs and spices when they cook other than just adding a little salt and pepper and they are missing out on a whole new world of flavor that can be added to their meals. If you don’t have any herbs and spices in your home you should invest in a basic spice rack because adding spices and herbs will add more flavor to your meals and also help to improve your families health as well.
When using herbs and spices in your meals you should always try and add bright colored herbs and spices last part of the cooking so you don’t over cook them and sap them of their important nutrients and flavors that they will add to your meal.
Don’t give up on the idea of cooking healthy. It just takes a little more effort but in the end it’s totally worth it.
