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Archive for the ‘Healthy Cook’ Category

Ever wanted to try and cook a grilled fish but don’t know how? Don’t worry, anyone can grill a fish. Grilling a fish is easy. All you need to do is read these easy steps on how to grill a fish. Frying is different than grilling, frying is good but the fish can absorb unnecessary oils that can ruin your diet plan and is unhealthy to eat often. Grilling the fish can be difficult to prepare but once you get the hang of it, it can be easy.

Grilled fish drips unnecessary oils which is good for dieting. You can apply olive oil when you are grilling the fish if you do not want it to be too dry. Why olive oil and not normal oil? Olive oil contains anti-oxidant and contains good cholesterol that the body needs while normal oil has a 50/50 good and bad cholesterol ratio and sometimes has fats that can ruin your diet. That is why you would rather use olive oil and other oils that are healthy. To cook the fish here is the steps.

1. Clean your fish before you cook it in the grill. You don’t know if the fish is really clean or not, so just to be safe, you should clean it first. You don’t want to get sick because of an unclean fish. Wash it properly before you prepare it.

2. When you have cleaned the fish well, you can slice it no more than an inch or you can just go with the sizes of the fillet that you would prefer. Fillet is one of the simplest types of recipes when grilling fish and also a good choice if you are a beginner in grilling.

3. Season the Fish well with salt and pepper or you can try other seasonings such as soy sauce and calamansi. It all depends on what you like for your fish to be prepared. You could also try dry seasoning if you want.

4. Prepare the utensils that you need before grilling the fish. Add charcoal and fire it up until the coal is red hot. You can apply olive oil to the grill grate and put the fish on the grill, repeat applying the olive oil to the grate to prevent the fish from sticking.

5. Using a broiling fork, you need to check the bottom of the fillet. If you see grilled marks then turn the fish to the other side. Do this until the fish looks slightly brown or depending on how you want your fish cooked.

6. When the fillet is done, you can put it on a clean plate. You can also prepare fresh fruit juice to lighten up the taste.

See? It’s simple to grill a fish. Grilled fish is one of the best diet foods that you can prepare. Try other recipes to cook your grilled fish. You can also add some vegetables with your fish to add up taste.

You invest a lot of time and money into the steaks for a special occasion and when dinner time comes, they are tough. What happened? How can you cook steaks as tender as your favorite restaurant?

The first step to cooking a good steak is to choose the right grade of steak. The top quality beef is graded USDA Prime and commands top prices. USDA Prime grade meats are sold to the restaurant industry and specialty markets and are not as likely to be found at your local grocery chain. The next grade of beef is USDA Choice. USDA Choice is tender, flavorful and only slightly lower in quality than USDA Prime. The meat is well marbled with fat and will be tender and juicy when properly prepared. USDA Choice makes up about 70% of all graded beef and is readily available in your supermarket. USDA Good graded beef is an acceptable grade of beef that has only minimal marbling of fat. It is leaner, but may not be as tender as USDA Prime or Choice.

Next, look at the color and texture of the meat. A good steak should be firm to the touch, moist, and bright in color. It should be well marbled with thin streaks of white fat throughout and a thin crust of steak on the outside. In our fat conscious society, we tend to look for lean cuts of meat, but the thin streaks of white fat marbled throughout the meat are the key to a tender juicy steak.

The most tender and juicy steaks come from the sirloin, the short loin, and the rib. These steaks include the sirloin steaks, porterhouse steaks, t-bone steaks, rib steaks, delmonico steaks, and the filet mignons. Steaks containing bone will weigh more than those without, but the bone adds flavor to the steak.

Aging is a desirable process that intensifies the flavors and makes the meat more tender. Aged steaks are more expensive and usually only found in high end supermarkets and specialty markets. An aged steak is recognizable by its darker color.

Once you have purchased your steak, you can further increase the tenderness and juiciness by marinating it. Try a marinade made of

The gruelling repetition of staging, lighting and full out classical ballet rehearsals can be enjoyed more if you are well fed and well hydrated. For one thing, those sneaky self-doubts about your readiness to perform, your shape, your hair, etc., etc., will have lot less power if you keep up your energy in a healthy way.

For example, and believe it or not, celery sticks with peanut butter is a way better snack than the average power bar, full of useless carbs, processed protein and a few lab-made vitamins. Celery is one of the best salty foods we have. When I say salt, I mean all those mineral salts that you lose in perspiration. If your peanut butter is real (no added high fructose corn syrup, and hydrogenated oils) it is full of vitamins, minerals, protein, and a healthy fat. That fat will give you energy to handle the stress and demands on your muscles.

A light and energizing lunch could be a can of wild caught salmon with a little real, but unsweetened mayonnaise, and dark leafy greens. The omega 3 oil in the salmon is food for your soft tissues and joints. It also is great brain support. The dark green leafy salads or vegetables are full of calcium, vitamin A and trace minerals that support your metabolism and all of the extra nervous activity that the excitement and demands of the situation brings forth.

Hydrating means sipping water all day long. Popular sports drinks are extremely acidic. They do not hydrate you like water does.

Using sea salt instead of table salt keeps up your electrolytes. There are 12 mineral salts to replace – not just the one or two included in sports drinks. Lack of minerals can lead to muscle cramps that keep you awake. Also good salt is necessary to prevent water retention.

Lack of good fats increases pain in strained and fatigued muscles.

Eating breakfast is vital. Eggs with the yolks soft provides essential fatty acids. This is not the place to count calories and get rid of that egg yolk…..if you cook the yolks hard you will damage the enzymes needed to digest them. Protein is also provided by this wonderful food. A flourless sprouted grain bread will give you some B Complex vitamins without bringing on the swollen stomach caused by wheat flour.

Sugar weakens muscles. Instead of carbs and sweets, eat fruit. Fruits contain vitamins and minerals and natural sugars.

One thing from your fridge that you can’t eat but can use, is a soft ice pack. When you get home from a stressful time at the theater, eat your good athlete’s food, and bring out the ice pack to wrap around sore muscles and joints.

When you look at the television or listen to the radio all you hear about is weight lost and cooking healthy. This is because the world has begun to realize the importance of healthy cooking. In order to eat healthy, you have to learn healthy ways of cooking.

What is Healthy Cooking?

Cooking healthy does not mean that you have to go out and spend hundreds of dollars on certain specialty foods or that you have to become a specialized chef. Cooking healthy can start with changing your cookware. Cooking is healthy when you are allowed to enjoy food that has good flavor without all the added fats and toxins.

Types of Ways To Cook Healthy

The healthy cooking is not always found in the food but in how you cook the food. Take chicken for example, fried is not as healthy as baked or boiled. Any cooking that stands clear or a lot of grease and butter is automatically healthier.

Advantages to Cooking Healthy

Weight lost   Good health   Receiving the necessary vitamins and minerals   Less disease risk   Cost effective  

Where to Start

The first place to start is with your cookware. You want to select cookware that can cook your food without you having to add a lot of liquid to keep it from burning. This cookware will prevent sticking, which only leads to you eating the toxins in the cookware’s material.

Cookware that Promotes Cooking Healthy

Stainless steel cookware has been labeled as one of the healthiest ways to cook. It gives you the non-stick feature and the flexibility to cook in different methods. Some companies like those that produce the Waterless Cookware have used stainless steel to produce cookware that promotes healthy cooking. With this cookware, there is no need for added toxins, grease, or butter. The foods are allowed to cook in the nutrition of their own juices.

There is no price to put on the benefits of healthy cooking. Every cook wants the same outcome, good and healthy food for all the people they are feeding. Examine the cookware you are using and make sure that it’s going to provide the healthy cooking you are looking for.

To eat healthily, and to become healthier as a result, you’ll need to develop some new habits. You cannot just eat some healthy food now and then, returning to your old eating habits afterwards. Healthy eating is a process, a way of life. You cannot change it in a day or in a week: you’ll need to start, stick to the rule for a while, and before you know it, your preferences and daily menu will change, and you won’t be able to imagine it any other way.

Let’s have a look at some easiest habits, which will help you eat more healthily.

1. Drink enough water

Your daily water intake depends on your weight, air temperature, daily activity and some other factors. An average adult needs about 2 liters of water per day, so your first habit to develop is to get a vessel of approximately this size, fill it with water every evening and drink it during the day. You can use some of this water to make tea or coffee, but don’t grab a glass of juice, milk, soda or coke each time you feel thirsty.

If you’re using tap water – boil it, it’s going into your organism after all. But don’t overdo this one, there’s no need to boil water more than once.

2. Try not to drink while eating

It’s better to drink somewhat 20 minutes before having a meal, and not to drink anything with it. You should by all means avoid any juice, cocktails, smoothies, coke and shakes, because sugar and milk harm your digestion. If you absolutely need to drink something with a meal, have some water, but not too much, because water dilutes gastric acid, and doesn’t help as well.

3. Put off your dessert

Eat your dessert at its own time. A regular meal followed by sweets, fruit, bakery and ice-creams won’t do your organism any good; in fact, all this sugar and additional fat will harm your digestion even more than a sweet drink during the meal. So set a special time after your meal – an hour or two – and then have your dessert (and your sweet drink if you like). Not only will it help you to be healthier, but you’ll also have an additional small break from your daily routine.

4. Less frying

When you heat oil, many chemical reactions take place, resulting in forming toxins and carcinogens. There are lots of healthier ways to cook your favorite products and preserve their nutrition value: boiling, baking, grilling, steaming… Look for some new recipes which include the same products you always eat, but cooked in a different way – you may like them even more than fried food.

I’m not telling you to abandon frying at all, but at least try to reduce the quantity of fried food you consume. If you really eat a lot of fried food, then it may be because you have never bothered to try and cook anything else.

5. Eating at the same time

When you eat approximately at the same time, your organism remembers it and prepares for the meal. Your stomach produces gastric acid, and the consumed food is digested faster and better. So make a rule of eating at the same time every day – even if you will occasionally break it, it won’t harm you as much as constant irregular meals.

Those are the easiest habits to develop on your way to healthy eating. Keep in mind that it’s not only about your weight and size. Healthy eating is also good for your skin, hair, overall health, immunity and energy. As you start developing those habits, you will most surely come up with your own new ideas about how to improve your meals and make them healthier. However unusual these ways may seem for you, they will become your natural lifestyle before you know it, and you will most certainly like the result.

We are all more apt to eat healthier if healthy food is available and ready to eat. Clearing out your cupboards and stocking up on fresh healthy snacks is a good start to shaping up your kitchen. What are some healthy meal ideas to include in your weekly grocery list?

cottage cheese lots of vegetables for salads and cooking whole wheat bread, tortillas and pasta nonfat yogurt-check the label for sugar content lean fresh meats Variety of fruits- Fresh is best. healthy oils to cook with such as olive, canola, sunflower pita bread skim or 1% milk brown rice nuts for quick snacks beans cheese sticks, cubes or slices

Your best option for eating healthier is making your meals and snacks at home. This may require planning ahead and taking the extra time to prepare your meals at home. If life is too busy, plan a weekday night or weekend to stock up and freeze several meals to use throughout the week. Carrots, celery and green peppers can all be cut in sticks and placed in the fridge for easy snacking. A large pot of bean soup is not only nutritious but will freeze well for a later meal. If you buy a block of cheese, which is the cheapest option, you can slice the cheese into cubes or slices for a quick snack. You can also shred what you might need for a later meal in the week.

Things to avoid on your grocery list would be anything from the middle aisles of the grocery store. This is where you will find processed foods that we often think we can’t live without. Forget putting soda on your list and grab water at home. Juice can be okay if used moderately and only if it is 100% juice. Cut back on sauces you cook with and if possible make your own fresh from home.

Small changes will make a world of difference and step by step small changes will become lifetime changes.