1. Invest in non stick pans - With quality non-stick pans you can get away with not using oil at all or by using a low fat cooking spray. You can also 'fry' some foods in a little water to prevent them sticking. If you have to use oil, use olive oil and pat food with kitchen roll after cooking to remove excess oil.
2. Look through your recipes collection for diet recipes and low fat recipes. Cook them in batches and freeze so that you always have a healthy meal option available.
3. Steam or stir-fry vegetables - Cooking them using these methods will help the vegetables to retain their nutrients, color and taste. Look for healthy recipes like Chinese stir-fries and invest in a wok and steamer. You can buy Chinese bamboo steamers, which just sit on top of a pan of boiling water, or you can buy electric steamers. You can get a good electric steamer for less than the cost of one meal out and the ease of use is a real time saver.
4. Use olive oil - Replace other oils or fats with olive oil which is a mono-unsaturated oil and actually helps to reduce cholesterol. Make your own salad dressings from olive oil and balsamic vinegar to give your salad a Mediterranean taste and this will be lower in fat than commercial salad dressings. You can also login on to www.thanks-giving-recipes.com. Search online for free recipes using olive oil. Some muffin recipes use olive oil or corn oil instead of solid fats.
5. Use fat free milk in cooking and baking to cut the fat content of your healthy recipes.
6. Replace fat in baking - Look for low fat recipes for cakes and biscuits or replace half the fat in recipes with pureed prunes, yogurt or mashed banana. Search for diet recipes for sweet treats.
7. Use fat-free yogurt or cr'me fraise instead of using cream for pouring on dessert recipes or fruit.
8. Add more vegetables to casseroles and soups and use fresh or frozen vegetables rather than canned.
9. Don't add salt to food - Season food with herbs, spices, and garlic and lemon juice instead of salt.
10. Trim visible fat off meat and use lean meat in your low fat recipes. Cut down on how much red meat you consume and replace with fish and chicken or turkey.
Remember, cooking and eating healthy food is not hard work and definitely not expensive. If you play your cards right you can change you whole family's diet and they won't suspect a thing.
That isn't to say that they won't notice anything though, because they will - they may well notice that they are losing weight, feeling better and getting fewer minor illnesses.
Healthy Meals For One
Whether you are a seasoned pro when it comes to the fine art of cooking or an utter novice there should be some cooking classes or resources in your area that can help you learn and improve your existing skills. Surprisingly few people manage to utilize the many wonderful opportunities that are available to them when it comes to cooking classes.
If you are considering a cooking class you should be glad to know that many communities offer them for a nominal fee at night and sometimes on the weekend. These classes are rather basic and often designed to help women learn the basics of a few economical and healthy meals to prepare for their beginning families. If you fit the bill for this, for more details visit to www.book-of-cookies.com then you should check out your local library for possible leads for these sorts of classes in your area. For more resources visit us at cat-head-biscuit.com. Even if they do not have the information available it is quite likely that they can point you in the right direction.
If you are looking for cooking classes that you can take with your children, check out your library once again for the first resource. There are also many gourmet food shops that offer cooking classes for parents to take with their children. This is a great opportunity to bond with your child while you both learn to prepare a new dish or two together. It is quite likely that you will be quite surprised by the things you can learn from your child as well as the things you can learn by simply taking the class.
For those among us who are seeking culinary experience with very specific cuisines you will have to search a little more for the perfect cooking classes in which you can achieve your goal. They do exist however, for more details visit to www.cajuns-recipes.com though your chances of learning Thai cooking are much greater in a larger city than in smaller towns throughout the country. If you are really interested in learning some exotic cooking techniques perhaps you should consider a vacation in which you can try out a few new cooking classes while you are there. If you prefer other things on your vacation to cooking you could make a point of attempting one basic class in the cuisine of your choice for each vacation you take. You can also login to july4-recipes.com. This will give you a little more than the same old souvenir to bring back from your trip and an experience that in many cases is quite memorable.
Finally, if you are looking for a romantic idea, how about signing up to take a couples cooking class? Believe it or not, these classes are often offered in both big and smaller cities. They seem to be all the rage around Valentine's day, perhaps the hint is that the other partner in a relationship can share some of the cooking responsibility or perhaps the idea is that there is more than one way to steam up the kitchen.
Regardless of the reason for taking cooking classes they can bring not only a great deal of enjoyment to your dining room, but also increase your ease in your kitchen. If you've never taken a cooking class, there is no time like the present to do so. No matter how skilled you are in the kitchen there is always something that can be learned.
Both Roop Singh & Yash are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
