Sunday, August 29, 2010

Healthy Recipes: Pointers On How To Incorporate A Healthy Diet

By Rajiv Kapur

1. Healthy food is crucial to a healthy family. The buck starts with preparing a diet plan and one can use an erase board, which might seem odd in a kitchen, but adds value and completes the look of an intelligent cook. Select boards which have weekly or monthly calenders if possible.

Plan ahead. Note down dates you could possibly be late and put aside the easiest recipes for then. It is extremely important to plan and utilize all the vegetables/meat that are perishable within the right time. If you find that some vegetables are starting to wilt, consider using them in casseroles and soups. Try to allocate one day of the week for all items you will need for the week so you can steer clear of daily trips to the grocery shop.

2. When making healthy recipes, the main focus needs to be on vegetables. Avoid oils, cream sauces, or using a lot of dairy products or meat. Healthy proteins like beans or tofu can replace meat in a lot meals. In your favorite recipes, consider healthy substitutions where possible. A few examples are:

Sugar free applesauce can be complemented with oil to reduce the quantity of oil overall. Canola and olive oils are generally healthier than other varieties of oil and one can use them as much as possible. Use only the egg whites in recipes. Flour and whole wheat pasta are good healthy foods Avoid fatty dairy products. Use 2% skim milk only. If a recipe needs lots of cream consider using powdered no-fat milk paste. Use low sodium options when available. Employ brown rice as opposed to white rice. Think meat as a side dish at best instead of a main dish and ideally try to avoid meat atleast 3 days a week..

3. Try and choose recipes that can be made faster using healthy cooking ingredients. A stir fry for instance hardly takes much time to prepare. Stir frying meat and vegetables is easy, but remember to utilize fat-free meat and only fry them in canola or olive oil. This could then be used as a nice rice topping or can be spread on buckwheat noodles or wheat pasta. You can make swift and speedy steamed veggies that can be effortlessly baked in a microwave oven. You can also consider grilling, broiling and braising.

Also consider uncooked meals for the quickest preparation. Salads, sandwiches and wraps are nutritious and only take a few minutes.

4. Whilst cooking meat it is best not to store raw meat for long Ideally cook all the meat in a healthy way and store it in meal sized proportions. The same applies for vegetables. Cut vegetables and store ahead of time and use when needed.

5. Keep track of recipes you and your family enjoy and jot them in your private cookbook. You could gather recipes in a file and write down experiments that did the trick and have them on hand when you are feeling bland. If you make alternate arrangements, remember to note it on the recipe so you can recollect next time. After you prepare a recipe in your binder, make a remark of anything you would like to do differently next time and the time it took you to prepare it. This can help you whenever you plan future meals.

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