Generally speaking, what you can make in your own kitchen will be much healthier than what you can get from a restaurant. Preparing meals at home, especially hearty ones such as pasta or cheeseburgers, allows you to control the ingredients and the portion sizes. This can, in turn, significantly reduce the number of calories you consume.
To be healthy is to be rich. A healthy lifestyle’s benefits help keep you energized even on the most trying days. But you might not have time to plan a healthy lifestyle between errands, work, and family.
Not many of us have the time to spend with a nutritionist, at the gym, or online reading through thousands of health-related books and articles.
Yet, is there a simple action you can take that can yield fruit right away? Can we expect any quick wins in the quest for the best health?
The affirmative answer is, of course, yes. Living a life of optimal wellness with just a few scientifically-proven, time-efficient health hacks is possible. Still, if you are always looking for new methods to make your meals healthier and more time-efficient, here are a few healthy cooking hacks to remember for your next meal.
Keep these points in mind for healthy food preparation
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Eggs in a skillet with a bit of milk added make a delicious breakfast
It’s simpler than you think to produce fluffy scrambled eggs. But you can achieve the same result without dousing your eggs in melted cheese and heavy cream. You can make a delicious breakfast with two eggs and a little milk. Whisk together, then warm in a skillet with a pat of butter. Using a rubber spatula, stir the eggs until they are almost done.
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Include salads or greens with every meal
We realize it might be challenging to practice portion control when making healthy meals if you love gorging on your favorite foods. Filling half your plate with a simple side of greens is a straightforward approach to controlling portions. One of our favorite easy ways to add nutritious greens to any meal is to mix them with pepper, salt, and olive oil. Put some greens on half of your plate and then your main course on the other, and you’re all set. Controlling your portions didn’t require much effort.
If you’re trying to eat healthily, don’t feel you must always settle for bland salads. Burgers, pizza, and pasta, among other favorites, are available. The key is to complement your main courses with plenty of satisfying vegetables. Add as many veggies as you like to your burger or pizza. Mix your preferred roasted veggies with some spaghetti. This will not only provide more nutrients and fiber to your food, but it will also help you feel fuller for longer.
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Use reserved pasta water to thicken sauces
Don’t worry just yet, or add more flour than you require if your roux turns out runnier than you had planned. In its place, you should drink some of the water used to make the pasta. Pasta’s starch dissolves into boiling water. This makes the water a convenient tool for thickening sauces and thickening soups. Sprinkle a tablespoon or two of your sauce on your rice and mix it around the pan. It will get thicker on its own.
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Sauté your spinach
Many of the nutrients in spinach are destroyed by cooking; therefore, it is best to eat it raw. The nutrients in spinach are usually destroyed by boiling. You should cook your spinach right away to eat it while it’s still warm and get the most out of its nutrients.
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Prepare garlic in the microwave by heating it for seven seconds
One of the most time-consuming and annoying processes is peeling the garlic when preparing a dish that calls for garlic. To remove the garlic cloves from their skins quickly, you can either shake them in a mason jar or microwave them. Microwave the garlic cloves (with the peels on) for seven seconds in a small basin. The cloves will easily slide out of the peels when you grab them.
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Mix up the proteins
When prepping meals, try to vary the proteins you use. Tempeh, lentils, and beans are great vegetarian alternatives to meat if you want to increase your protein intake.
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You can fit an entire meal into a single sheet pan and roast it
On a weeknight, you can choose from a few different options for dinner. The most common ones are sautéing and frying, but you’ll use more oil than necessary if you aren’t careful. Roasting dinner on a sheet pan in the oven allows you to manage the amount of oil used easily. If you follow this strategy, you may do all the cooking in one go and have very few dishes to wash afterward. Everybody benefits.
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Do not remove the rinds
Removing the skins of apples, carrots, and potatoes seems wasteful when they contain important nutrients. Leave the skins on your vegetables and fruits and reap the health advantages they provide unless the recipe specifies otherwise.
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Mix and match
One of those healthy cooking techniques that can also help add diversity to your diet is consistent with the concept of batch cooking. Your goal, in essence, should be to make the most of the ingredients you already have on hand by generating as many different recipes as possible using those ingredients.
In possession of an abundance of vegetables and chicken? Balsamic chicken with broccoli is easy to make, and chicken parm tastes great when served over spiralized vegetable noodles.
You can use lentils and beans in various ways throughout the week, from vegetable burgers to salads.
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Baking your fries
Potatoes, as you may know, are a powerful hunger buster. That’s right! They add bulk to your meals and provide various health benefits. But if the oil you use to cook the fries contains a high concentration of saturated fat, it will not be healthy for you. However, that shouldn’t stop you from eating fries. Instead of frying the fries, try roasting them in the oven with pepper, salt, and oil. You can have a satisfying side dish or crisp snack without worrying about consuming too many calories or fattening oils.
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Allow pancake batter to sit for fifteen minutes
Baking powder, a leavening agent, is a common ingredient in pancake recipes. The secret ingredient is baking powder if you want a light and fluffy pancake instead of a dense one. But if you don’t let your pancake batter sit, the baking powder won’t have time to absorb the liquid and make your pancakes fluffy and light. Then, after whisking the batter together, set it aside for fifteen minutes while you heat the pan and prepare the toppings.
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Use more cauliflower
One favorite healthy cooking secret is cauliflower, which you can use in many ways. Cauliflower is a fantastic low-carb substitute. It is also a simple way to increase your vegetable intake.
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Include chia seeds
Including fiber-rich foods in your daily diet will help you lose weight and protect you from autoimmune diseases, among other things. Have you heard that chia seeds are a great source of fiber? Chia seeds are a simple way to add fiber to your diet, and they go great on breakfast cereals. You can make a chia seed pudding and sprinkle it on toast with peanut butter. You can also mix it into overnight oats or yogurt or even eat it on its own for breakfast to increase your fiber intake.
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Prepare shrimp with the shells on
After paying a high price for shrimp, the last thing you want to do is eat them after they’ve dried out. Instead, get shrimp with their shells and cook them in the sauce you’re making. With the shells on, the shrimp become even juicier and creamier.
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Put kale in the freezer to use in smoothies
If you have trouble fitting in adequate vegetables, this easy tip will help. If you have extra kale, you can freeze it and use it later in smoothies. You no longer have to feel guilty about throwing away your leftover kale; instead, you can use it to your advantage and get a healthy dose of dark leafy greens.
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Use seasonings and herbs right from the garden
To avoid excess sugar and sodium, use simple spice blends or fresh herbs instead of pre-packaged seasonings. It’s amazing how much flavor you can add to a dish with only a pinch of oregano, crushed onion, or garlic powder.
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Prepare freezer smoothie bags
Making smoothie freezer bags with pre-portioned vegetables and fruits will make enjoying smoothies even more convenient. Simply empty the bag’s contents into your blender, add ingredients (such as your preferred milk, protein powder, and superfood seeds), and mix until smooth. This simple smoothie prep method is ideal for a quick breakfast or snack on the road.
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Mistakes and frustrations in meal preparation
Examining the most common blunders in food preparation will help you save time and effort on meal preparation day. Avoiding them can make meal preparation time much less stressful and maybe even fun.
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Trying too many new recipes
Don’t feel pressured to experiment with a wide variety of new dishes if time is of the essence. Don’t stray too far from tried-and-true favorites just because you’re trying something new in the kitchen. Only try one or two recipes per meal-preparation day if you want to shake things up.
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You’re missing some crucial ingredients
It can be frustrating when you start preparing meals and realize you’re missing an essential item. To prevent this from happening, make your weekly plan ahead of time. This will allow you to have time to check your pantry and refrigerator for the essential ingredients and go shopping for any additional items.
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Not making enough money, or your current income is insufficient
As a result of trial and error, many people become frustrated with meal planning because they either don’t make enough food or end up with too much. Getting by on a week’s wages is impossible if they’re too low. Overproduction can lead to wasted meals. To avoid this, you should check the recipes and the number of servings to determine how many batches to prepare.
Conclusion
The thought of spending your free time cooking meals may be the last thing you want to do. But planning may entirely revolutionize your approach to eating healthily. So, if you want to up your meal preparation game without feeling utterly stressed out, try adopting these healthy hacks to prepare food.
