Learning to cook with the many fruits and vegetables available at the local grocery store is an essential skill, and it's very important for those who hope to reach the five a day guideline set down by the USDA. Just about everyone uses a microwave these days, and microwave ovens can make cooking vegetables and fruits easy and fun. Using a microwave pressure cooker or microwave proof bowl is a great way to quickly steam veggies. Cooking vegetables this way allows them to retain their all important nutrients. There is even special cookware now that steams veggies perfectly in the microwave along with some prepacked veggies that you just throw in to steam.
The microwave is also a great way to cook baked potatoes, and microwaved baked potatoes retain more of their natural moisture, therefore needing less of that fat laden butter and sour cream. Combining free steamed broccoli with that great baked potato gets you almost halfway to your goal of five servings of vegetables and fruits per day.
The grill is another great way to meet your goal of five servings of fruits and vegetables every day. Why not use green peppers, red peppers and pineapple chunks to create delicious and colorful vegetable kebobs? Whether served with lean cuts of beef or by themselves, vegetable kabobs are a great treat for the whole family. Vegetables are best grilled over medium hot coals. Those with a blender handy can make some wonderful smoothies with the great fresh fruit from the grocery store. Delicious smoothies can be made using peaches, nectarines, crushed ice and fruit juice.
For a quick fruit salad, simply open a can of mandarin oranges, add a banana, an apple, strawberries, blueberries or raisins. The total preparation time for this great fruit salad is all of five minutes. Fruit skewers are even easier to make than grilled vegetable skewers. Fruit skewers can easily be made by stacking strawberries, melon slices, grapes and chunks of pineapples. A great dip can be made using nonfat plain or vanilla yogurt. Another great way to meet your five a day fruit and vegetable goal is by making your own healthy salsa. There are some great recipes for salsa on the internet, using such great and healthy ingredients as tomatoes, avocados, red onions, mangoes, cilantro and lime.
For those looking for a fun way to enjoy fruits and vegetables, why not make some popsicles? Popsicles are not just for kids anymore, and pouring fruit or vegetable juice into a popsicle mold is a great way to make a delicious and nutritious snack. In addition, these healthy popsicles are a great way to get the kids interested in eating healthy at an early age. Since eating habits picked up in childhood can last a lifetime, that is very important.
In addition to these great fruit and vegetable serving suggestions, there are other ways to create memorable meals using your five a day criteria. For instance, adding broccoli florets, slices of carrots, cucumber slices, green peppers and red peppers is a great way to add crunch and zest to a bland pasta salad.
A plain old green salad can be perked up by including colorful fruits and vegetables like carrots, spinach leaves, tangerine slices, nectarines, grapes, slices of apples, pineapples and raisins. Not only to these additions add beauty and drama to any salad, but they get you closer to your goal of five servings of fruits and vegetables a day. For a simple, inexpensive and nutritious salad dressing, try such novel approaches as fruit juices, flavored vinegars and home grown herbs. Creating great tasting salads is very important for healthy eating, and avoiding high fat salad dressings is an important consideration for anyone concerned about their health.
Here are some top tips for healthy cooking:-
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 a fat with olive oil which is mono-unsaturated oil and actually helps to reduce cholesterol. You must visit at www.dishadvice.com. 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. 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.
If that isn't reason enough to try out a few of these tips, I don't know what is!
Both Jake Samples & Hitesh Rattan 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.
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