Healthy Cooking Tips For A Healthy Lifestyle

Healthy cooking is one way to fight health-related problems such as obesity, which is the leading health issue of many people today. More and more people are becoming obese and overweight because of unhealthy practices, loss of exercise and bad eating habits. Moreover, many people are getting very busy with their careers so they opt to eat fattening meals found in fast food over cooking their own meals at home.

Cooking healthy foods and having a nutritious diet can be very beneficial for people who want to avoid becoming obese or overweight. Turning to a healthier lifestyle and a more reasonable diet pave the way to longer, healthier life. Healthy eating and healthy cooking should go together if we want to attain happiness and keep our bodies in shape. All of these are possible at all times, in spite of the demands of our jobs, if we only choose it for ourselves and for our families.

Some of the ways and benefits of cooking healthy foods:

        * One way to do healthy cooking is to cut back on bad fat. When cooking, choose ingredients that are less fattening. For example, if you want to fry meat or Saute vegetables, use a cooking oil that has monounsaturated fat in it, like olive oil. According to studies, this is healthier compared to oils containing saturated fat.

        * Avoid putting too much salt in your cooking. It is reported that excessive use of salt or intake of salty foods can cause high blood pressure, heartburn, osteoporosis, gastric ulcers, among others. So the next time you're planning a meal or cooking one, use salt in moderation to avoid sickness and stay healthy.

        * Grow your own vegetables at home. Some families have already tried this and if you want, you can try it for yourself, too. Cultivating your own vegetables not only assure you of its natural benefits but also saves you money especially if you are on a tight budget.

        * Cook your food at home and serve your family healthy meals. The best way to monitor your family's health and the food that they are eating is to do the cooking and choosing the ingredients yourself. The meal doesn't have to be extravagantly prepared as long as it's healthy and delicious.

        * Home cooking can also promote quality time with your family. Dinner tables are a good venue to share experiences and exchange opinions after a long day from work or school. In this way, you can acquaint the children with healthy eating and be their role model as well. In doing this, you get to save money and instill the value of eating together as a family while taking care of each family member's health.

        * When you're new to cooking healthy foods, you need to consider careful planning, more brainstorming and sufficient information. If you need more help, you can read about what you need to know. The internet is a very helpful source but if you're not sure, you can also consult a dietitian about it.

Finally, you are the one in control of your eating practices. It is up to you to choose what best suits you and your family. You just have to remember always that everybody deserves to eat well and be well. Your health matters as much as food intake does. You can choose to be unhealthy or promote good health, eat nutritious foods and practice healthy cooking.

Handy Hints

• To reduce the sour taste while using tomatoes for a curry, add milk instead of water.
• Sprinkle some turmeric powder on fish before frying. This way the fish won't stick to the pan.
• Add a little salt while frying or roasting red chillies. This will prevent the burnt chilly smell which normally comes while roasting chillies.
• Raw meat can be easily sliced by dipping the knife in hot water.
• To fasten the process of boiling potatoes, add a few drops of cooking oil to the boiling water.
• While cooking spaghetti, noodles or macaroni, add 2 to 3 drops of oil to the water. This will prevent the pasta and noodles from sticking to each other.
• Cover cooked rice while it waits to be served with a kitchen napkin. The napkin will absorb the steam and prevent the rice from forming clumps.
• Never cook on high flame. Food is tastier when it's cooked slowly, with patience.
• Never store chopped onions in the fridge. Everything in the fridge will smell of onions! (However if you still want to store them in the fridge there is an alternative sprinkle a little bit of lemon juice on the onions and then store it in the fridge this will help prevent everything to smell.)
• To keep green leafy vegetables fresh, wrap in silver foil and then store in the fridge.

Non-Vegetarian Cooking Tips

• When you cook chicken or meat, you should first cook over high heat to seal juices and then lower the heat and cook till tender
• If you want to store fish for more than a day, first clean it, rub it with salt, turmeric and maybe, a dash of vinegar, and then freeze. It will stay fresh.
• Don't salt meat before you cook it. The salt forces the juices out and impedes browning. Instead, salt meat halfway through cooking, then taste when the meat is done and adjust the salt as needed.
• Meat that is partially frozen is much easier to cut or slice.
• Cooking of hamburgers may take hell of a long time. To cook them a little faster, you could poke a hole in the middle of the hamburger patties while shaping them. This helps them cook faster and the holes disappear once the burgers are done.
• Allow meat to stand at room temperature 1 hour before cooking: It will cook more quickly, brown more evenly, and stick less when pan-fried.
• To help keep meats moist during a long grill or barbecue, add a pan of water close to the fire, but away from the meat.
• To coat chicken evenly, you can place the seasonings or crumbs in a plastic bag, and then add a few pieces at a time and shake them well.
• For golden-brown fried chicken, roll in powdered milk instead of flour before frying.                                        

• To prevent bacon from curling, dip the strips in cold water before cooking.
• Sprinkle a little amount of salt in the frying pan before adding bacon to fry. That way it will not splatter all over.
• To ensure that sausages keep their shape, put them into cold water, bring to a boil and then drain immediately and grill or fry in a saucepan.
• When you cook chicken or meat, you should first cook over high heat to seal juices and then lower the heat and cook till tender.
• To avoid kebabs from becoming hard and chewy, marinate them for a longer time and avoid over cooking them.
• To get rid of the smell of prawns, apply salt and lemon juice to the prawns before cooking. Leave for 15-20 minutes, then wash off and  proceed with the recipe. This is usually done with prawns, fish and all kinds of seafood.
• For better results, mutton should be of a younger animal. It looks pink and not red and texture should be firm. If it is red and looks 'wrinkled', it will be tough.
• Softening chicken for salads and sandwiches Chicken in salads and sandwiches is usually poached. What poaching does is surrounds the chicken with liquid, so no moisture is lost and cooks the chicken gently, as opposed to grilling or pan frying.

Top Cooking Tips

Top 10 Cooking Tips for Indian Recipes:

1.    When frying, the oil should be in the correct temperature. If its too hot, the outside will get browned up too quickly before the inside gets cooked. If its not hot enough, the fried food will absorb too much oil before getting cooked.
2.    To make crispier puris, add a little rava to the wheat flour while kneading.
3.    To make crispier bajjis add a little corn flour to the gram flour to make bajji batter.
4.    Use a deep vessel to fry chicken to avoid the splashing of oil and juices all around the place.
5.    To knead chappattis, add 1/3 cup of warm water for 1 cup of flour approximately. To make softer chapattis, add warm milk or curd while kneading.
6.    Use heavy bottomed vessel to make upma, kheer etc to prevent burning. 
7.    Toasting nuts, rice, rava and dal before cooking with it increases its flavors considerably.
8.    Adding few drops of oil to the rice before cooking it will prevent it from becoming sticky.
9.    Do not wash the mushrooms with water. Clean it with a damp cloth. Add salt to the mushroom only after it has browned.
10.  Similarly adding salt to the chicken also slows up the browning. 

Top 10 General Cooking Tips:

1.    To peel the skin of almonds, tomatoes or peaches, simply soak in boiling water for 5-10 minutes. The skin can be easily removed.

2.    To remove the corn from its cub, hold it straight with one end on the bottom of a big vessel. Then strip the corn with a knife. This will prevent messing up of the entire place.

3.    When cutting raw banana, potatoes or eggplant, soak it in water to avoid discoloration  Similarly, to prevent apples, bananas or peaches from browning, add lemon juice.

4.    Use the excess dal water from boiling dal to make rasam.

5.    While adding curd to gravies or biriyani, break it nicely before adding.

6.    While boiling milk, a little water can be added to the vessel before adding the milk to avoid the milk from sticking to the bottom.

7.    Store nuts in the refrigerator to increase their shelf life.

8.    To separate each string of noodles or any thin pasta, run it under cold water immediately after boiling and draining the water.

9.    Curd in winter - Set in a ceramic container and place it on the voltage stabilizer of your refrigerator. 

10. To cut meat easily, freeze it for some time before cutting.

Top 10 Quick fix Tips:

 1.    Tomato paste or sauce can be used instead of fresh tomatoes. This saves a lot of chopping time.

 2.    Soak chik peas in boiling water. In this way only 1-2 hours of soaking in needed.

 3.    Make ginger garlic paste in bulk and put it in the fridge.

 4.    Similarly, make green chilly paste and keep in the fridge. This saves a lot of cooking time.

 5.    While chopping vegetables, chop in a bulk, use what is needed and put the remaining in the fridge for later use. Chopping a vegetable at a stretch saves a lot of time.

 6.    Have lots of peeled garlic in an air tight box in the fridge.

 7.    Grate a whole coconut at a time and refrigerate it so it can be used easily whenever needed.

 8.    Fry grated coconut in bulk with curry leaves and store it in the fridge. This can be used easily whenever gravies have to be made.

 9.    Whenever you boil potatoes or cauliflower make some extra and put it in the fridge. This can be used to make stuffed parathas, cutlets etc.

 10.Use the microwave to saute onions, tomatoes and to cook up the vegetables.

Top 5 Healthy Tips:

 1.    Do not wash the vegetables after peeling or chopping. This will wash out all the water soluble vitamins.

 2.    Whenever vegetables or dhal is cooked in water, many nutrients are left back in the water. So do not throw it away. Instead use it when making some gravies or soups.

 3.    Potatoes have their nutrients in their skin. So try using potatoes without peeling it.

 4.    Eat fruits like apples along with its skin.

 5.    Tamarind can be substituted with raw mango powder.

Top Refrigeration tips:

 1.    Keep coriander leaves in a air tight plastic box in the refrigerator to keep them fresh for a long time.

 2.    Remove the stem of the chilly while storing them whole. Another method is to make chilly paste and store it for a long time.

 3.    To store fish longer and fresher clean it, apply turmeric and salt and put it in the freezer.

Helpful Hints

• Wash and cut fresh green vegetables e.g. spinach and immerse them in boiling water. When they get a bright green color, remove them and immediately cool them by immersing them in ice cold water. This process is called blanching an is an effective way of retaining the color of green vegetables thus enhancing the appearance of your dish.
• Apply little oil on the tips of your fingers with which you are going to hold the chilies for chopping. This will prevent your fingers from experiencing a burning sensation that one normally gets after chopping fresh chilies.
• Whenever you want to coat anything with eggs and breadcrumbs e.g.croquettes, add a dash of water to the beaten eggs. This ensures even coating of the crumbs and prevents lumps on the coated surface.
• Peel onions and refrigerate them for 5 minutes before cutting them. This prevents tears coming out of your eyes.
• Before using mushrooms rub little refined flour on mushrooms and then wash them under running water. This ensures that the mushrooms are free from dirt.
• Before cooking cauliflower, cut and leave them in salted water for 15 minutes. This takes out any worms that might be present in the cauliflower.

Kitchen Tips

• Never store potatoes near onions. Potatoes rot quickly if stored near onions.
• Never store ladies finger near lemons. They will lose their tenderness quickly.
• To store chilli powder longer, keep a piece of asafoetida in the same container.
• To remove the coffee stain in the cup, fill it with any kind of soda for 3 hours.
• If you drop an egg on the floor, cover it with salt and leave it for a couple of minutes. Cleaning the mess will be easy with a paper towel.
• Store tomatoes with stems pointed down and they will stay fresher, longer.
• If you happen to bite a chilli in your food take a sip of cold milk to sustain the heat.
• Never keep greens in plastics, it will rot quickly.
• To avoid refrigerator stinking keep a piece of lemon.
• While storing green chillies, remove the stems. This will help the chillies to stay fresh for a longer time.
• To keep lemon fresh put them in water and store in refrigerator.
• To Peel Garlic, fry on hot pan for few seconds peel will come out very easily.
• To peel the almonds easily, keep them covered in boiling hot water for five minutes.

Tips For Cakes

• Measure the ingredients with great care. Using correct amounts of ingredients is more important than the beating of the cakes.
• Invest in a good electric hand mixer. It simplifies your work besides giving good results. Always beat in one direction.
• To beat the egg whites light as air, they should be at room temperature while beating. Always use a clean, dry bowl and beater for beating.
• While using raisins or dry fruits or peels in a cake, first coat them with a little flour (maida) and then add to the batter. They will then not sink to the bottom of the cake.
• Remember to always sift the baking powder with the maida at the time of making the cake.
• Never use baking powder which is more than a year old. Check the manufacturing date on the container.
• Always preheat the oven at the temperature at which you have to bake your cake for at least 10 minutes.
• Always grease your baking tin and dust (sprinkle) with flour (maida).
• Baking should always be done in aluminium containers.
• Do not open the oven door again and again to check the cake as this causes variation in the temperature and hence affects the baking.
• Test your cake with a clean knife at the place where the cake has risen the most, i.e. at the highest point, before removing from the oven.
• Permit the cake to cool for sometime before you remove it from the tin.
• Never cool a cake under the fan as this will make the cake hard.

WHAT WENT WRONG WITH YOUR CAKE:

A Heavy Cake: Too little baking powder; too much flour; mixture not creamed enough; flour mixed too vigorously; oven too slow.

A Dry Cake: Too much baking powder or flour; not enough fat or liquid; too long in the oven.

A Sunken Cake: Too much liquid, baking powder or sugar; too little flour; oven door slammed or cake moved during baking; taken out from oven too soon.

A Peaked Cake: Insufficient fat or baking powder; too much flour; oven temperature too high.

A Badly Cracked Top: Oven too hot; cake tin too small; too much flour; not enough liquid.

Fruit Sunk to the Bottom: Fruit not properly dried; cake mixture too thin; fruit added before adding flour.