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Many of us would like to improve
the quality of our diets, but the thought of cooking nutritious
meal feels overwhelming. Most healthy meals appear too laborious
and who has the time?
Aside from little time, there
is also the taste factor.
Most nutritious meals seem tasteless,
if not just plain dull. Is it possible to cook meals in minutes
that are not only healthy, but tasty too?
The answer is yes. This information
will give tips and recipes for healthy, tasty meals you can throw
together in no time flat.
Organization is the key. Plan
meals ahead of time and have the ingredients at your fingertips.
Make a list before heading to the grocery store. A well-stocked
pantry, refrigerator and freezer are essential for having last
minute, healthy and tasty meals in minutes.
There are recipes for meatless
entrees for those who are trying to avoid animal fats and recipes
for those who are trying to please finicky children. So let's
get started.
The first step is planning ahead.
This means putting together a menu for the coming week. If conjuring
up dinners for an entire seven days feels too overwhelming, why
not just plan for three out of seven nights? Three dinners are
better than zero dinners, right? Perhaps you can use leftovers
from one night to make dinner for the next night. Leftover chicken,
for example, can be used in a Chinese chicken salad or in a casserole
dish.
The second step is making a grocery
list. Check your pantry and freezer shelves and write down what
you will need. Keep the list handy and add ingredients as you
think of them. A good grocery list helps to prevent last minute
trips to the store and money as well.
Once you have everything you
need, cooking is simply a matter of throwing together some ingredients
and adding heat. That is all there is to it. Oh, except the final
and most important step... Sit down, eat and enjoy! You've earned
it!
Tips For Healthy Cooking
- Make a "universal"
grocery list: Write down all the standard items (like milk, produce,
dry foods) you usually buy. Make copies and fill in specific
items for the week.
- Take advantage of supermarket
sales and/or wholesale clubs. Stock your freezer with chicken
breasts, lean ground meats and poultry.
- Brown ground meats or poultry
ahead of time, drain off the grease, store in zip-lock bags and
freeze. This makes last minute tacos or other meals a breeze.
- Defrost frozen meats or poultry
in the fridge overnight. Bacteria can grow on the outside of
meats while defrosting if left out on a counter.
- Wash, chop and freeze many of
the vegetables used in stews, soups, sauces and casseroles. Try
this the next time a recipe calls for onions, celery, or peppers.
- Make double the recipe for spaghetti
sauce, soups and casseroles. Freeze half and have it on hand
for an especially tiring day.
- Buy frozen mixed vegetables
for last minute fajitas or stir-fries. Cutting up fresh vegetables
constitutes most of the work in these dinners.
- Romaine lettuce has a longer
life in the refrigerator than other lettuces and it is the most
nutritionally packed too! Wash ahead of time and store in an
airtight container. This helps take some of the drudgery out
of making salad each night.
- Buy fresh raviolis, tortellini
and pastas. Store in ziplock bags in the freezer. Fresh pastas
taste better and cook quicker than dried varieties.
- Plan ahead and use leftovers.
Slice up leftover meats and chicken for fajitas, tacos, stir-fries,
pastas, and salads. Cook extra rice and pasta and store in an
airtight container for the next night's meal.
- Learn to use your microwave!
Though most just use it for warming leftovers, it is the best
method for cooking vegetables. Just wash vegetables, place in
a microwaveable dish and cover with plastic wrap. "Nuke"
for 3 minutes, stir gently and "nuke" for another 3
minutes. This cooking time covers most vegetables and they taste
great!
Material © San
Franisco Spine Center. Used by Permission.
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