Time-Saving Tips For Preparing Healthy Meals

Time-saving tips for preparing healthy meals

For most people, losing weight and keeping it off involves a long-term commitment. It means changing unhealthy eating habits that may have been formed early in life and developing a new relationship with food. Since food is essential to life, you can't just banish it as you might do with other troublesome substances. Instead, you must embrace it, learn about it and develop ways of dealing with it that enable you to monitor your weight for the rest of our lives.

The hallmarks of a well-planned weight loss plan are variety, balance, and moderation. It is not necessary to give up all of your favorite foods. In fact, the foods in your weight-loss plan should be satisfying and enjoyable and should fit your lifestyle. If they don't you are not likely to stick with the plan for long. The key is to make every calorie count!

One way to make sure that you eat delicious foods and enjoy every tasty calorie is to prepare your own meals. Cooking your own food allows you to control the quality of the ingredients and the amount of protein, carbohydrates, and fat in every dish. If you are a good cook already, you can mean new ways to "slenderize" your favorite recipes. If you are not accustomed to cooking your won food, or if you believe you don't have the necessary skills to prepare healthy homemade meals, why not take this opportunity to learn. Look at it as a new adventure and an excellent way to learn about food rather than as a daunting challenge.

American supermarkets are filled with high quality foods that enable the home cook to prepare a virtually endless variety of dishes. As an added bonus and timesaver, many items are cleaned and packaged for immediate use. In today's kitchen, washing and chopping vegetables, grating cheese, and peeling potatoes are choices rather than requirements.

Besides taking advantage of the time-saving choices offered in stores, the busy home cook who is developing a new relationship with food might benefit from some of the other time-saving tips that are listed below.

• Make sure have the correct tool for the job. A really good chef's knife and chopping board, for example, make short work of any necessary dicing and chopping job.
• Learn the ease of stir-frying which is a quick and healthy way to get vegetables on the table in minutes.
• Do main grocery shopping once a week, and shop from a list.
• Wash fresh herbs when you get home from shopping. Wrap in damp paper towel and store in a sealable plastic bag so they are always ready to use when you need them.
• Devote on afternoon or evening a week to preparing dishes that can be heated and served another day.
• Make double batches of casseroles and soups. Serve one and freeze the other for later use.
• When cooking rice, prepare large batches and freeze in 1-2 cup portions in freezer bags. Use later for soups, casseroles, stir-fried dishes, etc.
• Learn to prepare food in a slow cooker. Food cooks while you are busy doing other things.
• Keep a well-stocked pantry, frig, and freezer. Preparing healthy, great tasting meals is much easier if you have basic ingredients on hand.

One thing I almost forgot, never go the grocery store when you are hungry, it tends to lead to unhealthy impulse purchases.

Let's get cooking!

Blessings for a Glorious Day!