Top 10 Healthy Cooking Tips
Nutrition by Natalie

Here are 10 simple tips that you can use in the kitchen to make more healthy foods; lose the calories and fat, not the taste.

By replacing unhealthy foods with healthy alternatives in a recipe, you can Cook Healthy food, reduce fat, increase nutrients, lower calories and improve your diet.

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It seems like eating/cooking healthy is SO expensive. Any tips?

I buy local when I can.

I buy seasonal all the time. Peaches are cheap now. They’ll cost a fortune in February.

I use far less meat per person per meal than most restaurants–and we get all we need.

I limit salt used in cooking.

I use lower-fat or healthier oils, margarine, sour cream, milk, etc.

I buy sharper cheeses so we can use far less to get the taste we like.

I serve at least one vegetable with every meal, and make veggie portions substantial.

I do a lot of my own preparation rather than using mixes, jars, complete meals, etc. It took time to gather recipes, but now about 3/4 of what I make is entirely from scratch–and nearly as fast as using pre-packaged products, while being lower in fat and salt. I make most dinners in 30-45 minutes.

I buy fish when it’s on sale and freeze it. I also buy bags of frozen individually-packaged tilapia and salmon.

I buy "club packs" of chicken, trim it all, and freeze it in one-meal portions. If I’m not feeling too lazy, I cube some, dice some, etc. so it’s meal-ready.

I buy whole-grain products often. The nuttier taste doesn’t go with everything, but when it doesn’t clash, that’s what I use. Brown rice, whole-wheat pasta, like that.

I use coupons and pay attention to what’s on sale. I almost never buy health-and-beauty items or cereal without a coupon.

I try store-brand or no-brand products and substitute them for name-brand when they’re perfectly all right. This can be cheaper than a name-brand product and a coupon the store doubles.

I use a list and don’t often buy things that aren’t on it–unless they’re a good price on something I’m sure to use.

We eat leftovers, often rolled into a future meal rather than just reheated.

Here’s the bottom line. There are plenty of people who are eager to begin living a healthier lifestyle, yet they don’t. They are under the misconception that they must have to throw themselves into it completely, by either all or nothing approach.

However, this doesn’t have to be the case. There’s nothing wrong with taking baby steps and working your way up to a completely healthy lifestyle. If this sounds like a better option for you, then continue reading and learn about the following tips for starting out on the road to healthy living. It all begins with your diet.

Healthy Cooking Tip #1 Eat lean meat

You should begin by eating less red meat, and for those times when you do eat it, you should eat the leanest type of red meat possible. Pork is a great lean meat you can use to replace red meat in your diet if you so choose. But the best meats to eat are fish and chicken. These should be the most common sources of protein in your diet.

Healthy Cooking Tip #2 Eat more vegetables

I know, I know, you probably find vegetable to be very boring, as well as lacking in taste. However, they don’t have to be this way. There are healthy ways of preparing vegetables that leaves them tasty also. You can sprinkle them with herbs or you can sautee them in a little chicken broth.

Healthy Cooking Tip #3 Eat more fruits

If you have trouble finding fruit appealing, you may want to consider adding it to your dinner plate, either sliced or whole. Chances are that if it’s on your plate you will eat it, but whatever the case, make sure vegetables are finding a way into your diet everyday.

Healthy Cooking Tip #4 Splurge occasionally

While it is important to eat healthy in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle, it is important also to realize that your purpose in life is to enjoy yourself. Thus, if you have a favorite unhealthy food you like to eat, such as pizza or Buffalo wings, then every two weeks make them one of your meals and allow yourself to splurge without feeling guilty.
You don’t want to feel dull because the most likely result is that you’ll give up on living a healthy lifestyle.

Making the change to live a healthier lifestyle is not something that has to occur overnight. In fact, attempting to try and completely overhaul your diet at a moments notice can leave you feeling frustrated after a few days and more likely to give up and go back to the way you were living.

You don’t want this to happen. In order to give yourself better odds, just focus on the small changes mentioned above, and once you get used to them, then you can expand a little further. If you do this, then you’ll begin to see significant changes in the way you look and feel everyday, great rewards to receive in exchange for a little self discipline.

Yuki Shoji
http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/4-healthy-cooking-tips-137385.html