Preparing a nutritious meal is more important than ever but it can seem tricky and time-consuming.
It doesn’t have to be. Hi viewers and welcome back to another Bestie video!
If you're cooking at home, you're likely making a meal that is going to be significantly healthier
than a restaurant dish. Cooking at home is one of the easiest ways to cut down on calories,
even if you're making a hearty meal like cheeseburgers or pasta. In today’s video,
we will tell you the best hacks for healthy cooking. From sauteing your
spinach, replacing pasta with vegetable noodles, changing your cooking methods,
blending tofu into desserts to making dried fruit in the oven and more.
Chop your fruits & veggies at the same time:
When you have a minute over the weekend, or sometime during the day, start chopping.
Having your produce ready to go can eliminate quite a few minutes from meal prepping time.
Once all your vegetables and fruits are cut up into smaller pieces, just store them until
you need them. You can also make snack sized pieces ready to be eaten on the go.
Roasted vegetables are your friend: Roasted vegetables are super easy to make and can
be served hot with dinner or stored in the fridge for the next meal. Brussels sprouts,
broccoli, cauliflower, potatoes, beets and squash are all easy to roast and are
rich in nutrients. Just place on a baking pan, splash with olive oil and salt and
bake them at 425 degrees Fahrenheit for at least 20 minutes or until they’re tender.
Healthier sizzling: Instead of adding extra oil and calories to stir-fry vegetables, you can
add a splash of low salt stock or water to the veggies. This will keep them moist and healthy.
This not only reduces the level of fat from the delicacy but also keeps the body hydrated.
Skip the supermarket: If you enjoy eating, cooking and preparing food,
chances are you also enjoy food shopping. But let's be honest, we all waste a lot of
time and money in supermarkets waiting and buying items we do not really need.
You can save hours each week by ordering at least some of your grocery staples online.
Once you have set up a shopping cart online it becomes easier to re-order each week plus
you can earn rewards and discounts through your retailer. Ordering your groceries online
kick starts your weekly meal planning as you are forced to consider your meal options in advance.
Saute your spinach: Spinach is known for having heat-sensitive nutrients,
meaning it will lose a lot of its health benefits when cooked. Boiling tends to have the harshest
effect on spinach. If you want to make the most of the nutrients, sauté quickly and enjoy while warm.
Make nut butters healthier: Nut butters are already nutrient-dense on their own, but you can
pack them with even more good stuff if desired. To do this, take a partial jar of nut butter,
and add a mix of seeds, such as toasted sesame, chia, roughly ground flax seeds, sunflower, hemp,
or pumpkin seeds. Mix it all up, and store it in the fridge. The mixture is delicious on toast,
mixed into oatmeal, or stuffed into dates as a snack. A mix of seeds is also great for sprinkling
onto smoothies or parfaits. Plus, it makes the food look so much more vibrant and wholesome.
Replace pasta with vegetable noodles: Veggie noodles are all the rage, but this is because
they’re so darn practical. Use a spiralizer or chef’s knife to turn strips of zucchini or
stalks of asparagus into strips of veggie pasta. Vegetable pastas are an easy way to incorporate
more wholesome foods into your diets, and allow you to eat all the “pasta” you want.
Remove unhealthy foods from the kitchen: One way to remove the temptation of unhealthy foods is
to simply remove them from your kitchen. Toss any bags of chips or cookies you want to remove
from your life, and stock up on healthy options instead. Keep the fridge packed with fruits,
veggies, yogurts, and other nutritious choices. Buy healthy snack options for the pantry. If the
right foods are in your kitchen, you're more likely to put the right foods in your body.
Soak and Spin: Soak bitter greens, like arugula and kale, in a bowl of ice water
in the fridge for about an hour to cut their bitterness. Run the leaves through your salad
spinner several times with a paper towel to get them nice and dry and crispy. It also
makes for a more flavorful salad because dry lettuce helps the dressing stick.
Change your cooking methods:
Make some of your favorite meals more healthy instantly just by switching the way you cook them.
Bake instead of sauteing. Baking or roasting uses less oil and is healthier. Instead of traditional
frying, use an air fryer, which also uses less oils and fat and can actually be a faster process.
Make big batches of food in a slow cooker so that it all cooks at once
and over the course of the day while you're doing other things.
Instant pots and rice cookers can also make your life easier and healthier.
Repurpose your food: Whenever you're cooking a healthy meal,
try cooking more of it by doubling the recipe. It won't take much extra time
and it allows you to have leftovers to heat up for lunch or dinner. You can also
repurpose your food if you don't like eating the same things twice. Save leftover veggies
from a stirfry and use them in pasta or with your eggs for breakfast, things like that.
Make open faced sandwiches: You know that the bread is probably the most important
aspect of the meal because it holds all of the fillings together. But since a bottom slice can
hold everything sufficiently, why bother with the top half? You can cut a few calories and
simply toast one slice of bread and top it with all of your favorite sandwich fixings.
Blend tofu into desserts: A slab of damp, dreary tofu probably doesn’t scream dessert. But this
rich, vegetarian protein source can easily be blended into a variety of sweets and pastries.
Besides the nutrient boost, tofu also moistens cakes, pies, and cupcakes.
Serve meals with a side of green: Portion control is the key to cooking healthy
meals. But it can be difficult if you're used to feasting on your favorite dishes.
An easy way to portion control is to fill half your plate with a simple side of greens. This
could be any vegetable. One of the best things to do is to simply toss a side of
leafy greens with a small drizzle of olive oil, salt, and pepper. Fill half your plate
with greens and voila! Easy portion control that you didn't have to think too hard about.
Bananas instead of butter: This hack is for all those people who crave cakes or
muffins. To reduce the amount of saturated fat, bananas can be used as a substitute for
butter while baking. Just mash three bananas and use it instead of half a cup of butter.
Leave the skins on: Why peel potatoes, carrots, or even apples when the skins give you a significant
amount of nutrients? Unless the recipe calls you to peel these items, leave them on,
and enjoy the health benefits that these natural vegetable skins will give you.
Swap cauliflower for everything: Well, maybe not chocolate, but this cruciferous veggie makes
healthy eating a breeze. You can use cauliflower to lighten up your comfort foods. It works great
for a creamy sauce for mac ‘n’ cheese, substitutes potatoes in mashed potatoes, rice and even for
pizza crust. Cauliflower is super low in calories but packed with nutrients. One hundred calories of
cauliflower will give you a whopping 12 grams of fiber to beat constipation and bloating.
Blot with kitchen paper: Use kitchen roll to soak up excess fat from the top of takeaway pizzas,
and to serve home-cooked fried foods like chicken and French fries. Each teaspoon of
oil that ends up soaked into the paper is around 38 calories you aren't going to eat yourself.
Make dried fruit in the oven: Don’t let those brown bananas or expiring plums go to waste.
Convert leftover plums, pears, apples, or bananas into dried fruit snacks by slowly
baking the slices of fruit at 150 degrees Fahrenheit for six hours. Dried fruit is
also good to have on hand in case of a winter blackout or other emergency.
Focus on quality rather than calories: Counting calories takes a lot of time and effort and isn't
necessarily the healthiest way to approach things. Something that has low calories may
have more sugar, salt, or unhealthy fats. Instead, focus on the quality of your food.
This is where that whole thing about opting for whole foods over processed comes into play again.
Opt for chewy or crunchy food over something liquid: Think twice before you substitute
breakfast for a green smoothie. Sure, that smoothie might be packed with fiber-filled greens,
fruit, and some truly great-for-you supplements. But it's just not going to fill you up the same
way. Chewing food actually makes you feel more full. When you drink your meal you
don't feel as satisfied, and you're likely to eat more later on. That doesn't mean you have
to avoid healthy smoothies forever. Just choose to have them as a snack rather than a full meal.
While these hacks can solve the problem of unhealthy cooking,
another common problem is lack of sleep and under eye bags.
Don’t worry - there are hacks for these problems, too. Learn more by watching:
17 Easy Home Remedies To Get Rid Of Under Eye Bags
Or
10 Life Hacks To Get A Good Night's Sleep
So go ahead and watch one or both videos if you want to sleep better and avoid under eye bags.
What is your favourite guilty pleasure food? Let us know in the comments section below!