Today, I spent my morning taping a segment with one of my favorite Chicago reporters talking about ways to keep healthy New Years resolutions, which gave me new motivation to continue my operation shrink your body. So here I am ready to tackle another topic – meal preparation. So let’s get right to the issue. How can you begin to cook healthy meals everyone in our family will eat? Let me provide you with some important steps to get you started:
Start simple – A home cooked meal doesn’t have to be complicated. Make friends with your microwave – This equipment is not only for making popcorn. The microwave may not be the only equipment that can help you cook fast meals, but when you’re short of time, it gets the job done for steaming, cooking, boiling, or reheating already cooked meals.
Preparing meals in 5 minutes – Here is the secret formula to preparing fast meals = Choose a lean meat cooked in the grill, broiled or cooked in a skillet with your favorite sauce (or with 1 teaspoon of oil), choose a vegetable, which you can steam in the microwaves, and complete the meal with a simple salad of tomatoes and cucumbers. Here you have prepared a dinner with a blink of an eye. Is not a gourmet meal but you can serve it in 5 minutes!
Slim the recipe – Most people love bold flavors and enjoy exploring new flavors. Nothing wrong with that, but the problem with many of our favorite recipes are flavored with too much fat, salt or sugar. Next time you reach for your favorite recipe, pay attention to extra or hidden fat, salt or sugar, which can easily add additional calories to our recipes.
Experiment – Don’t be afraid to experiment with new recipes or try to make recipes more nutritious. There are a number of cookbooks, magazines or internet sites with plenty of delicious healthy recipes. One of my favorite websites is healthy aperture at healthyaperture.com, which delivers beautiful healthy recipes at your finger tips. Remember you can add more flavor with onions, garlic and natural seasoning such as cilantro, oregano, chiles, etc., which can add amazing flavors to any meal without ruining the flavor. Below, you will find simple substitutions that will save you many calories.
For example:
1 tablespoon of margarine adds 100 calories
1 tablespoon of cream adds 80 calories
1 tablespoon of brown mole adds 30 calories
Healthy substitutions:
Lemon adds 0 calories
Garlic adds 0 calories
Onion adds 0 calories
Vinegar adds 0 calories
Salsa (without oil) adds 9 calories
Green or red mole adds 20 calories
Things you can do before preparing a recipe:
- Cut any visible fat from the meat and discard.
- Do not add extra oil or lard.
- Take the skin off the chicken and discard.
- Do not add salt. Use species such as cumin, Italian seasonings, chili powder, etc.
Things you can do after food is prepared:
- Cool the broth and spoon the top layer of fat and discard.
- Do not salt – season your foods with ingredients such as onion, garlic, chili peppers and fresh herbs like cilantro, parsley, rosemary, etc. These seasonings add a lot of flavor but have no salt or fat.
- Serve a small portion, which can be easily be done by using a small plate and glass.
Hope these tips help you get a healthy dinner on the table 🙂
