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.

Tips For Snacks

• Add a handful of puffed/crushed rice (chirwa or poha) to the pakora batter for extra crisp pakoras.
• Add a handful of puffed/crushed rice (chirwa or poha) to the rice while soaking for idlis. You will get fluffier idlis.
• If dosas stick to the tawa, cut an onion into half. Clean tawa with the cut side of the onion and a little oil. If this does not help, heat tawa empty very well till almost fuming. Switch off the gas. Let it cool. Then reheat and make dosas. Dosas will not stick.
• To add more flavour to dosas, add a few methi daana (fenugreek seeds) to the batter.
• To make neat and crisp dosas, everytime you apply oil on the tawa, sprinkle salt water over it.
• Add a little dahi (yogurt) to dahi vada batter to get softer vadas. They will also absorb less oil while frying.
• For getting a thick, crisp coating on cutlets or rolls, dip the prepared snack in eggwhite beaten with a few tbsp of water and then roll in fine bread crumbs. If you do not take eggs, dip them in a thin batter of maida and water and then roll in bread crumbs. Fry till well browned.
• In the absence of bread crumbs, suji may be used to get a crisp coating.
• If your cutlets fall apart, dip some bread slices in water for a second, squeeze it and add to the cutlet mixture.
• Wrap sandwiches without cutting the sides, in foil or cling wrap to keep them soft. Cut the crust only at the time of serving to prevent the edges from drying.
• To make crisp potato chips, soak them in cold water for 1 hour. Drain. Wipe dry and deep fry.
• To get extra crisp chips, sprinkle the soaked, dried chips with some maida (plain flour) before frying. Maida absorbs any excess water present.

Microwave Cooking Tips

• Cooking in the microwave is not just a healthy but also a fun way to dish out interesting meals. Microwave cooking helps you retain the nutritional value of food and also makes cooking a tad easier for you. In case you wish to prepare the best meals with your microwave, the following tips will be of great help. 

• One of the simplest things that you can keep in mind when cooking in a microwave is to cut food in uniform sizes. You should strictly refrain from cutting food in extremely big pieces. When the food is cut in uniform sizes, it is able to trap heat in a much better manner. This ensures uniform cooking.

• Many people make the mistake of loading the food roughly in plates and then putting it in the microwave. However, this should strictly be avoided if you want to cook your food well. Try to arrange the food pieces evenly in a plate. This will ensure that all the pieces get equal amount of heat. Even if you are cooking in a bowl, make sure that you place the contents well.

• You should also be careful about the utensil or the baking dish you are using when cooking in a microwave. The utensils should be such that they allow the heat to reach the food evenly. Try to use wide baking trays as they allow you to spread the food pieces evenly. Even if you are using bowls, go in for the ones that have a wide base and mouth.

• Never add salt to the food while cooking. The microwave is attracted to salt so it tends to dry out the food particles with salt on them. It is for this reason that you should add salt to food only after it is cooked. If you wish to add salt to the food while cooking, make sure that you keep it in the microwave for slightly lesser time.

• Defrosting is something that you must adhere to when you are cooking in the microwave. Most people are into the habit of directly placing the frozen food items into the microwave. However, this should be strictly avoided as the moisture on the food gets trapped in the microwave. This cannot just damage your microwave but also leave a stale smell on your foods. 

• It is recommended that you defrost the frozen food items by keeping them out in the open before you finally put them in the microwave for cooking. Also, make sure that you remove the plastic paper well before you start cooking.

Keep these simple tips in mind and your friends and family are sure to enjoy your microwave recipes.

Cooking Tips Every Women Should Know

Here are some simple cooking tips which every woman should know to make her kitchen task simple and healthy. 

For Soft Chapatti's: You can use fresh yogurt or milk instead of water to make the batter. Once you finish kneading the batter, wet your hand with water and pat the batter once again. Cover the batter with a damp cloth for half an hour before using it. 

Beware of ginger garlic ratio: Whenever you use ginger garlic paste keep the garlic ratio always higher than that of ginger. For example, if you use 60% of garlic keep ginger ratio as 40% or below. Otherwise your dish will become sharp and pungent. 


Try Cabbage instead of Onion: If your child
or guest does not like or
want the pungent taste of onion, you can replace it with cabbage for the same taste and even better experience. 

 





Always Boil potatoes in advance: Always boil the potatoes in advance and make sure that it is boiled well and cooled properly before using it. You can even refrigerate the boiled potatoes for a while before using them in your dishes. By doing this the potato starch will well settle in your tikkis and it will not be too thick.                        

Extra Salt? No tension!: Peel and cut a large boiled potato in half and add it to your curry. It will absorb the extra salt or else make a ball with cooked rice and put it in curry or dish you are making. 

Get rid of turmeric Stain: Mix some cool water with one tablespoon of white vinegar and one tablespoon of liquid dish soap and dip your stained cloths immediately in this mixture or rub few drops of glycerin onto the stain until it fades away.





Easy way to clean kitchen platform: You can use white distilled vinegar instead of using liquid chemicals to clean the kitchen platform. Take a cotton cloth and dip it in vinegar and clean the stained portion. The bacteria on the kitchen platform will get impassive in one wipe.

Bad smell from drainage: All you have to do is mix equal amount of baking soda and vinegar and pour it into the drainage, do not pour water or other substances for 15 minutes. Clean it after 15 minutes and you can feel the bad smell disappeared. 

Use Aluminium to set ice-cream: You can go for aluminium containers instead of steel to set the ice-cream faster. And always keep a thick plastic sheet or salt under the pot to keep it from attaching to the base of the freezer.

How to Store curry leaves for many days afresh: Put the curry leaves along with some fenugreek seeds into an air tight container. 

Useful Tips For Kitchen

• Oven-to-table dishes can become stained while in the oven. Remove stain with a wet cloth and salt before putting the dish on the table.
• Store leftover egg whites in a screw top jar. They will keep for 7-10 days in the refrigerator.
• Cooked meat should never be re-heated more than once. Even this should be done as quickly as possible since bacteria multiply rapidly in a warm, moist mixture.
• Frozen poultry or any other meat should be completely defrosted and brought to room temperature before cooking.
• To reduce cooking time for meat by almost one-third, marinate it for at least 12 hours if possible. 
• To quickly thaw butter stored in a refrigerator run some tap water over it. 
• Put a lemon in a hot water before squeezing it. You will get more juice out of it. 
• To avoid browning of apples after cutting, apply a little lemon juice on the cut surface. The apples will stay and look fresh for a longer time.
• If you are making patties or tikkis of potatoes, always make sure that the potatoes are boiled well in advance and cooled before you use them. It would be better if they can be refrigerated for a short time. This helps the starch in the potatoes to settle down and the tikkis will not be gooey.
• Smoke Mustard oil first before using for preparing vegetables etc... By heating to a point till light white smoke emerges from it. This would remove the potency from the oil.
• While boiling milk, always add a little water at the base of the vessel to avoid the milk from sticking at the bottom.
• Keep coriander leaves in a muslin (cheese) cloth bag in the refrigerator. They will remain fresh for a longer time.
• Add a tsp. of hot oil to homemade pastes of garlic, ginger or green chili, along with salt to make it last longer and taste fresher.
• Remove the stems of green chilies while storing them .This will help them to stay fresh for long. 
• Store raisins in an airtight container in the refrigerator. They will stay fresh for much longer. Pour very hot water over them if they had harden, after that drain them immediately, and spread on a paper  owel to dry. You can also leave a spoon in the vessel in which the milk is being boiled at low heat so that it does not get burnt at the bottom.
• While using ginger and garlic paste in curries, always use garlic at 60% ratio and ginger at 40% as ginger is very strong and may make your dish sharp and pungent.
• Add a few drops of lemon a tsp of oil to rice before boiling to separate each grain.
• Never discard the water in which vegetables are cooked, use it in gravies or soups.
• Put tomatoes in a large bowl and cover with boiling water Leave it for about 5 minutes. Take out one by one, piercing them with a sharp knife, the skin will peel off easily.
• Immediately after boiling noodles put them in normal cold water to separate them each.
• Remove the outer leaves and husks from the corn (bhutta). Holding the corn upright with the flat end firmly in a board, take a sharp knife and run it down between the kernels and the cob to strip them away.
• Chopping vegetables can be done in different ways using a sharp knife and a wooden chopping board. Cutting on a marble slab will blunt your knives.
• When tomatoes are not in season, tomato puree or sauce can be successfully used as a substitute in the gravies.
• If masala sticks to the pan that shows quantity of oil/ghee included is not enough.
• Poori can be rolled and place between well-rinsed wet muslin cloth at least an hour ahead and can be Fried before serving.
• After peeling onions cut in half and soak in water for about 10 minutes before cutting to avoid crying.
• Soak almonds in a cup of boiling water for 10 minutes .The skin will peel off easily.
• To make pooris more crispy add a little rice flour to the wheat flour while kneading.
• Pakodas will turn out crisper if a little corn flour is added to the gram flour (besan) while preparing the batter.
• Heat a non-stick pan and add a little more butter than usual. Now beat the egg and stir briskly (even while frying) with a fork. This way more air goes in your omelet, making it light and fluffy. Fry till done and serve hot.
• If you forget to soak chana/Rajma overnight. Just soak the chana/Rajma in the boiling water for an hour before cooking
• Wrap the fruits and vegetables in newspaper before refrigerating to keep them fresh for long.
• Curd in winter - Set in a ceramic container and place it on the voltage stabilizer of your refrigerator
• Potatoes soaked in salt water for 20 minutes will bake more rapidly.