Introduction
Cooking healthy meals can be a challenge, especially when you’re short on time. But with a few simple kitchen hacks and cooking tips, you can make healthy eating easier and more enjoyable. In this article, we’ll share 33 kitchen hacks and cooking tips that will help you create delicious, nutritious meals in no time. From prepping ingredients to storing leftovers, these hacks and tips will help you make the most of your time in the kitchen. So let’s get started!
33 Kitchen Hacks & Cooking Tips for Healthy Eating
Eating healthy doesn’t have to be difficult or time-consuming. With a few simple kitchen hacks and cooking tips, you can make healthy eating a breeze. Here are 33 kitchen hacks and cooking tips to help you make healthy eating easier and more enjoyable.
1. Stock Up on Healthy Staples
Having a well-stocked pantry and fridge with healthy staples is key to making healthy eating easier. Stock up on items like whole grains, nuts, seeds, legumes, canned vegetables, canned fruits, and low-sodium soups. This way, you’ll always have something healthy on hand to make a quick meal.
2. Meal Prep
Meal prepping is a great way to save time and ensure you have healthy meals on hand. Spend a few hours on the weekend prepping meals for the week ahead. This could include pre-cooking grains, chopping vegetables, and pre-making sauces. This way, you can quickly assemble meals during the week.
3. Use Frozen Fruits and Vegetables
Frozen fruits and vegetables are just as nutritious as fresh and often more affordable. Keep a variety of frozen fruits and vegetables on hand for quick and easy meals. You can use them in smoothies, stir-fries, soups, and more.
4. Make Big Batches of Food
Making big batches of food is a great way to save time and money. Cook a large pot of soup, chili, or stew and freeze the leftovers for future meals. You can also make big batches of grains like quinoa or brown rice and freeze them for later.
5. Use a Slow Cooker
A slow cooker is a great way to make healthy meals with minimal effort. Simply add your ingredients to the slow cooker in the morning and come home to a delicious, healthy meal. You can make soups, stews, curries, and more in a slow cooker.
6. Use Herbs and Spices
Herbs and spices are a great way to add flavor to your meals without adding extra calories. Experiment with different herbs and spices to find combinations you like. You can also use herbs and spices to make healthy marinades and dressings.
7. Use Healthy Fats
Healthy fats are an important part of a healthy diet. Use healthy fats like olive oil, avocado oil, and coconut oil when cooking. You can also add nuts and seeds to salads and smoothies for a boost of healthy fats.
8. Choose Whole Grains
Whole grains are a great source of fiber and other important nutrients. Choose whole grains like quinoa, brown rice, oats, and barley instead of refined grains like white rice and white bread. You can also use whole grain flours when baking.
9. Eat More Plant-Based Meals
Eating more plant-based meals is a great way to get more nutrients and fiber in your diet. Try to incorporate more plant-based meals into your diet, such as salads, stir-fries, soups, and stews. You can also try plant-based proteins like tofu, tempeh, and beans.
10. Use Healthy Sweeteners
When baking or making smoothies, use healthy sweeteners like honey, maple syrup, and dates instead of refined sugar. These sweeteners are natural and contain more nutrients than refined sugar.
11. Eat More Fruits and Vegetables
Fruits and vegetables are packed with vitamins, minerals, and fiber. Aim to eat at least five servings of fruits and vegetables each day. You can add them to smoothies, salads, stir-fries, and more.
12. Make Your Own Salad Dressings
Making your own salad dressings is a great way to control the ingredients and make sure they are healthy. Use healthy fats like olive oil and vinegar, and add herbs and spices for flavor. You can also add a bit of honey or maple syrup for sweetness.
13. Use Healthy Cooking Methods
When cooking, use healthy cooking methods like baking, steaming, and stir-frying. Avoid deep-frying and grilling, as these methods can add extra fat and calories to your meals.
14. Eat Mindfully
Eating mindfully is an important part of healthy eating. Take the time to savor your food and enjoy the flavors and textures. Eating slowly can also help you feel fuller faster, so you don’t overeat.
15. Drink More Water
Staying hydrated is important for overall health. Aim to drink at least eight glasses of water each day. You can also add lemon, lime, or cucumber slices to your water for extra flavor.
16. Eat Breakfast
Eating breakfast is a great way to start your day off right. Choose a healthy breakfast like oatmeal, yogurt, or a smoothie. This will give you energy and help you stay full until lunch.
17. Eat More Fiber
Fiber is an important part of a healthy diet. Aim to get at least 25 grams of fiber each day. You can get fiber from whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds.
18. Limit Processed Foods
Processed foods are often high in calories, sugar, and unhealthy fats. Try to limit your intake of processed foods and opt for whole, unprocessed foods instead.
19. Eat More Protein
Protein is an important part of a healthy diet. Choose lean proteins like chicken, fish, tofu, and beans. You can also add protein powder to smoothies for an extra boost.
20. Use Healthy Alternatives
When cooking, use healthy alternatives to unhealthy ingredients. For example, use Greek yogurt instead of sour cream, or use applesauce instead of oil. This will help you reduce calories and fat in your meals.
21. Eat More Fish
Fish is a great source of protein and healthy fats. Aim to eat at least two servings of fish each week. You can bake, grill, or poach fish for a healthy meal.
22. Limit Alcohol
Alcohol is high in calories and can lead to weight gain. Try to limit your alcohol intake and opt for healthier alternatives like sparkling water or herbal tea.
23. Eat More Nuts and Seeds
Nuts and seeds are a great source of healthy fats, protein, and fiber. Add them to salads, smoothies, and oatmeal for an extra boost of nutrition.
24. Use Healthy Oils
When cooking, use healthy oils like olive oil, avocado oil, and coconut oil. Avoid using unhealthy oils like vegetable oil and canola oil.
25. Eat More Leafy Greens
Leafy greens are packed with vitamins, minerals, and fiber. Aim to eat at least two servings of leafy greens each day. You can add them to salads, smoothies, soups, and stir-fries.
26. Limit Added Sugars
Added sugars are often found in processed foods and can lead to weight gain. Try to limit your intake of added sugars and opt for natural sweeteners like honey and maple syrup instead.
27. Eat More Whole Foods
Whole foods are unprocessed and contain more nutrients than processed foods. Aim to fill your plate with whole foods like fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and lean proteins.
28. Make Healthy Snacks
Having healthy snacks on hand can help you avoid unhealthy snacks. Make your own healthy snacks like trail mix, energy balls, and yogurt parfaits. This way, you’ll always have something healthy to snack on.
29. Use Healthy Toppings
When making salads, smoothies, and oatmeal, use healthy toppings like nuts, seeds, and dried fruit. This will add flavor and texture to your meals without adding extra calories.
30. Eat More Fermented Foods
Fermented foods like yogurt, kimchi, and sauerkraut are a great source of probiotics. Probiotics can help improve digestion and boost your immune system.
31. Use Healthy Cooking Techniques
When cooking, use healthy cooking techniques like baking, steaming, and stir-frying. Avoid deep-frying and grilling, as these methods can add extra fat and calories to your meals.
32. Eat More Plant-Based Proteins
Plant-based proteins like tofu, tempeh, and beans are a great source of protein and fiber. Try to incorporate more plant-based proteins into your diet for a healthy, balanced meal.
33. Enjoy Your Food
Eating healthy doesn’t have to be boring. Enjoy your food and experiment with different flavors and textures. This will make healthy eating more enjoyable and help you stick to your healthy eating goals.
Making ready your meals at house is a significant step within the recipe towards weight reduction. However at all times going by the guide or attempting to determine issues out for your self might be irritating. These genius insights can change your kitchen recreation and empower your slim-down efforts!
Fortunately, it isn’t tough to make slimming, mouth-watering fare. Listed here are our greatest ideas for higher cooking, simpler meal prep, much less weight achieve, and extra enjoyable than you knew you would have whereas within the kitchen. And for extra, do not miss these 15 Basic American Desserts That Deserve a Comeback.
Once you’re cooking from a recipe, ignore particular measurements for salt and pepper. Your mouth is extra correct than a measuring spoon. Style and alter as early and sometimes as doable. Oh, and when you’re at it, eliminate that salt shaker! As an alternative, put kosher salt in a small bowl by the range and season along with your fingers, which provides you actual management and accuracy. And so as to add much more taste to your meals, use these 5 Greatest Spices for Fats Loss.
When you salt is as essential as how a lot you salt. Season hen, pork, and turkey (three of the 29 Greatest-Ever Proteins for Weight Loss) as much as eight hours earlier than cooking. The salt will penetrate the meat totally and yield juicier, extra totally seasoned outcomes.
That mentioned, solely season burgers seconds earlier than throwing them onto the grill—in any other case, the salt will break down the protein strands and create harder patties.
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An excessive amount of salt? Use a splash of vinegar to supply a counterbalancing punch of acid. An excessive amount of warmth? Strive a drizzle of honey to mellow out the spice.
RELATED: Your final restaurant and grocery store survival information is right here!
Extra particularly, store for meals on Monday or Tuesday earlier than 10 a.m. or after 7 p.m. Analysis exhibits that these are the least-crowded instances of the week on the market, making it doable to select first-rate merchandise with out the clamoring plenty.
For extra grocery retailer weight reduction hacks, try these 46 Greatest Grocery store Buying Ideas Ever.
Floor moisture creates steam when it hits a scorching pan or grill, impeding caramelization. In case your fish has pores and skin, use a pointy knife to squeegee off the water trapped inside it. Undecided what seafood is finest to your stomach? Try our information to The Greatest Fish for Weight Loss.
For deeply flavored meals, do not overcrowd the pan. Ingredient overload makes a pan’s temperature plummet, and meals find yourself steaming somewhat than caramelizing. This provides cooking time and subtracts taste. All components ought to match comfortably in a single layer, so use a pan that is large enough for the job, and cook dinner in batches if obligatory.
Teflon can deteriorate over excessive warmth, so save your nonstick pans for gentler duties like cooking omelets and fish. Sure, nonstick pans serve the identical function, however they’ll launch doubtlessly cancer-causing toxins into your meals. Whereas the Environmental Safety Company does not imply forgoing nonstick cookware altogether, additionally they do not but know the long-term well being results of nonstick chemical compounds, so it is higher to err on the facet of warning and follow forged iron. Decide up a wide range of completely different items so that you’re ready for any culinary journey that lies forward.
And for extra ideas, you’ll want to keep away from these 13 Methods You are Ruining Your Non-Stick Pans.
Nothing beats crispy hen pores and skin, however frying is a no-go while you’re attempting to shed some pounds. As an alternative, purchase an entire hen the day earlier than you will cook dinner it, sprinkle on a teaspoon of kosher salt, and depart it uncovered within the fridge. The air and salt will draw out extra water. Simply you’ll want to pat the hen dry with paper towels earlier than cooking. For an entire meal, pair your hen with a vegetable and one in every of these 24 Greatest Carbs That Uncover Your Abs.
Consider a broiler as an inverted grill—a supply of concentrated, quick-cooking warmth. Hen, pork chops, and steaks take about 10 minutes to broil; simply you’ll want to flip them halfway by means of the cooking course of.
And for optimum cooking, Here is Precisely What Temperature Each Lower of Meat Ought to Be Cooked To.
Immediately enhance your subsequent TV dinner: After cooking, add recent herbs, a squeeze of citrus, and a drizzle of olive oil to rework any frozen entrée. And to make sure your meal is a wholesome decide, avoid The 100 Worst Frozen Meals in America.
The identical goes for peaches, potatoes, onions, bread, unpeeled garlic, and low. Chilly temperatures compromise the flavour and texture of those staples.
Heat meals served on a chilly plate is a rookie mistake. Warmth your dishes in a 150-degrees-Fahrenheit oven for 10 minutes earlier than plating a meal. On the flip facet, calmly chilled plates (use your freezer) enhance the freshness of chilly dishes like summer season salads.
Substances aren’t set in stone. Mushrooms can stand in for eggplant if that is what you’ve gotten. Do not wish to spend $3 on a bunch of celery simply to make use of a single rib? Omit it. Do you want pork chops greater than hen breast? Change it. The purpose is, in case you perceive the essential methods and know what tastes good collectively, the chance for creation within the kitchen is infinite.
Certain, generally you simply want a tomato, however there are three nice causes to buy in season: It is cheaper, it tastes higher, and it is higher for you (and the planet).
Speak to butchers, produce suppliers, and fishmongers earlier than shopping for. They will steer you to the very best components.
And for extra ideas, do not miss these 30 Secrets and techniques Grocery store Workers Will By no means Inform You.
Drop your growing old produce into ice water earlier than cooking. Vegetation wilt on account of water loss; ice water penetrates their cells to revive crispness.
Zap lemons, limes, or oranges for 15 seconds within the microwave earlier than squeezing them. The fruit will yield twice as a lot juice.
Early arrivals get the primary decide of all of the prettiest produce; latecomers can rating last-second offers from distributors seeking to unload their items.
Analysis exhibits that near-constant flipping of steak, hen, chops, and burgers not solely permits your meals to cook dinner sooner, but additionally extra evenly. Goal for one flip per minute.
If you happen to slice into meat proper after it finishes cooking, treasured juices will escape. Wait 5 minutes earlier than biting into burgers or grilled hen, seven minutes earlier than slicing into steaks, and quarter-hour earlier than carving a big roast.
Nonetheless not satisfied? Here is Why You Ought to Let Meat Relaxation.
Cooking and roasting tomatoes will enhance their ranges of lycopene, highly effective compounds that battle free radicals and assist to lower most cancers and coronary heart illness dangers. A examine from Ohio State College confirmed that individuals who ate tomato sauce that cooked for 40 minutes had 55% extra lycopene of their blood than those that had raw tomato sauce.
Though baking powder and baking soda are not the identical factor and never interchangeable, you possibly can substitute a small quantity of baking powder for baking soda and wind up preserving extra of chocolate’s antioxidants which might be normally misplaced within the baking course of. Simply do not go loopy, or else you will wind up with a flat, bizarre chocolate cake.
Toasting your bread can decrease its glycemic index a bit, in response to a examine printed within the European Journal of Scientific Vitamin. Even higher: Your physique absorbs much less glucose from bread that has been frozen earlier than toasting. Backside line: First freeze, then toast! Who knew?
As much as 50% extra vitamins are absorbed from a runny yolk than from a hard-boiled or over-hard egg. No thought the way to poach eggs? All you do is crack open an egg right into a pot of simmering water. Strive these 71+ Egg Recipes for Weight Loss, too!
No, this isn’t an excuse to get all fried-rice-crazy on us. However in case you drop a teaspoon of coconut oil into your boiling pot of water earlier than cooking your non-fortified rice, researchers from the School of Chemical Sciences in Sri Lanka say that the rice could have 10 instances the resistant starch (a great factor; it slows down fast digestion) and keep this manner whilst a leftover.
And in case you want extra cooking ideas, This Is the Best Technique to Prepare dinner Rice.
One other option to manipulate your wholesome meals to be even more healthy: Freeze your blueberries! Their antioxidant properties are closely concentrated within the skins. And the ice crystals that kind on the pores and skin through the freezing course of assist make the antioxidants extra out there to your physique, in response to a South Dakota State College examine.
Just like how oil could make rice higher for you, pasta that has been chilled in a single day (it is okay to reheat it!) may also hold you fuller for longer than in case you had simply cooked the noodles and served them straight away. Retaining your pasta chilly is likely one of the 40 Final Pasta Tricks to Keep Skinny!
The simplest kitchen hack ever? Preserve your avocados out on the counter to allow them to ripen sooner, and put them within the fridge once they’re ripe so that they’ll last more. A surefire signal that an avo is nicely on its option to being ripe is when you possibly can simply pop the “button” off the highest of it.
As an alternative of being environment friendly and slicing your strawberries suddenly to simply take pleasure in later, you will wish to hold them entire till you are simply minutes away from consuming them. Vitamin C is delicate to mild and oxygen and loses a few of its antioxidant powers as soon as it has been uncovered. The identical is true for oranges, which have rather less Vitamin C than a cup of strawberries.
As an alternative of watching that bunch of parsley spoil, chop it up and blend with a tiny little bit of oil after which freeze as ice cubes that you would be able to throw right into a soup later. Or freeze sauces for fast, particular person meals. Or use an ice dice tray to freeze kale for smoothies. Get inventive!
We do not, nevertheless, advocate freezing onions. They take in micro organism like loopy, and you actually should not use leftover lower onions.
For extra chilly concepts, do not miss these 13 Genius Ice Dice Tray Hacks.
You went by means of all this hassle to make wholesome cookies, so do not let burnt bottoms break your day. Merely seize your zester and grate the black half off. Good!
For the quickest clove peeling course of ever: Place the clove onto a slicing board after which smash it utilizing the facet of a chef’s knife and your fist. It is enjoyable to do and saves you time!
Once you crack eggs on the facet of the bowl, you threat eggshells getting in your meals. As an alternative, crack them proper on the counter.
And for extra, try these 108 hottest sodas ranked by how poisonous they’re.