If you are to prepare as well as cook meals at home, you will certainly have better control over the nutritional content along with the overall healthfulness of the foods you ingest. This will also greatly help in saving money.
Health Food Prep Techniques
Consider using and preparing foods that contain no or little salt. Also, use low-fat, reduced, light or no-fat salad dressings on salads as marinades or perhaps dips. When it comes to poultry, you must use leaner light meat rather than fattier dark meat. Most importantly, be sure to remove the skin.
When it comes to seasonings, you must not use prepackaged seasoning mixes since they usually contain plenty of salt. Also, you have to use fresh herbs. Using a mortar and pestle, you have to grind herbs to achieve the fullest and freshest flavor.
Use citrus juice or perhaps vinegar as excellent flavor enhancers. But then, you have to add them at the last moment. They are indeed great on vegetables like greens. Also, citrus will work very well on fruits like melons. Food preparation experts highly emphasized that there are some fruits and vegetables like tomatoes, chili peppers, cranberries, mushrooms, and currants that have more intense flavor when they are dried rather than fresh. With that said, you must add them if you want to achieve a burst of flavor.
When making or cooking dressings, you have to use the oils that are very low in saturated fats. However, be aware that you must only use them sparingly since they usually contain 120 calories every tablespoon. Avoid using palm or coconut oil since they are very high in saturated fats even if they are vegetable oils and that they contain no cholesterol.
Alternative Methods To Frying
Roasting - You must use a rack in the pan so that the poultry will sit on its own fat drippings. If you are to make gravy from the drippings, chill it first then use a gravy strainer or skim ladle in order to remove the flat.
Poaching - Consider cooking fish or chicken by immersing it in a simmering liquid.
Sautéing - You must use a pan that is made with nonstick metal or a coated, non-stick surface. This will prevent you from using too much oil when cooking. Also, use a nonstick vegetable spray if you are to sauté food. An alternative to such spray is a small amount of wine or broth or perhaps a bit of vegetable oil rubbed onto the pan using a paper towel.
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