This Month’s Healthy Bite: What is your favorite healthy cooking tip or trick?

Posted by Matt on April 30th, 2010 at 11:33am

For This Month’s Healthy Bite in March, we asked, “What is your favorite healthy cooking tip or trick?” We got some terrific answers, from frozen ginger to applesauce. Check them out:

From Katie, Kitchen Stewardship

Sometimes healthy cooking isn’t cooking at all – eat more vegetables by cutting fresh veggies and storing them in an easy-to-get-to place in the refrigerator.  Don’t be afraid to skip the cooking part altogether and serve a crudite platter for a side vegetable at dinner, and use those veggies often to make your healthy salads count!  Then you’ll have more energy to cook healthy foods from scratch for the rest of the meal.

From Erica, My Colombian Recipes

When I make quesadillas, instead of frying them up in oil, I spray the outsides of the tortilla (the sides that will be against the pan) with PAM. I then cook them up in a dry pan over medium heat. You still get the crunch without all the calories & grease.

From Meg, Meg’s Food Reality

My favorite cooking tricks:

- use fresh herbs to season foods instead of sauces and oils (you increase flavor and keep the calories down)

- to heat the pan before adding oil (you use less oil that way- because the oil will disperse on the pan easier with heat)

From Pam, formerly of A Love of New Recipes

I store all my ginger in the freezer, it makes it easier to grate or cut.

From Stella, The Witchy Kitchen

The best tip I can think of and that I always employ is to make sure that any rich main course like chicken, steak, fried tofu, pork chop, and even fish, etc. is always, I mean ALWAYS paired with a good size portion of something that is high in fiber. For example, instead of a cheeseburger with French fries, a cheeseburger on whole grain bun with stewed black beans and an organic salad. This way, at least some of the cholesterol going into the blood stream is countered by fiber (internal soap) and extra saturated fat is also eliminated from the plate….

This is my and Cauldron Boy’s favorite tip that we always notice most folks don’t do so often here in the hollow (smile). We even think it’s one of the principle reasons we’re both still able to wear our teenage clothing in our early thirties!

From Chiara, The Wandering Cook

My favorite healthy cooking trick involves making wonderfully tasty roasted potatoes without all the butter or oil needed for them not to stick to the Pyrex. Since cooking spray doesn’t always work as well as I’d like it to, I pour about a 1/2 cup of vegetable or chicken broth to the pan. It keeps the potatoes from sticking and also gives them a deeper, richer taste.

From Beth, Budget Bytes

My favorite healthy cooking tip is to saute onions, garlic or other vegetables in a little bit of broth or stock instead of oil or butter. The broth allows the vegetables to sweat and soften like they would if cooking in fat but with little to no fat added. Plus, the broth adds a little bit of extra flavor!

From Carla, The Year of the Vegan

To lower the fat in a baking recipe, such as a muffin or quick bread loaf, replace some, up to 50%, (or all but I find that more than 50% changes the result too much) of the oil in the recipe with applesauce. It keeps your baked goods moist, doesn’t change the taste as it is quite neutral but makes everything lower fat!

Another tip is to sub out half the plain flour in a recipe with whole wheat pastry flour. Again it doesn’t change the texture or taste, but gives some added whole wheat benefit.

From Suzie, Suzie the Foodie

One treat a day is allowed! I believe that one of the reasons people overindulge is if they never allow themselves to indulge at all, the foodie dam will eventually break and they overcompensate. One little sweet treat a day just for you, made by you, is OK.

My doctor told me once that it is not cookies baked in your own kitchen that kills people, it is food that comes in boxes that kills people. I have been baking my own treats ever since.

Moderation is key to a healthy and happy life!

From Ibyang, A Wife’s Charmed Life

When it comes to cooking, I believe that one of the most important things is buying fresh produce. Knowing how to pick the freshest produce is very vital in bringing a delicious and healthy home-cooked meal to the table.

Here’s a list of tips I have prepared on my site: http://awifescharmedlife.blogspot.com/2010/04/cooking-tip-fresh-is-always-best.html

From Robin, Vegetable Matter

Our trick is to cook using vegetable broth to add flavor without including meat or fat. Here’s our post about cooking with vegetable broth: http://vegetablematter.blogspot.com/2010/04/swiss-chard-rib-gratin-with-pine-nuts.html

Thanks to everyone for all the fun responses!

Answer the next This Month’s Healthy Bite question: What is your favorite healthy cooking tip or trick? Email us your answer or just simply comment on this blog post, and we’ll publish your answers and link to your blog at the end of the month. Got some blogger friends who would like us to link to them too? Ask them to answer This Month’s Healthy Bite too!

Tags: baking, Diet Advice, diet tips, home cooking, what to eat

Under Diet Advice Tags: baking, Diet Advice, diet tips, home cooking, what to eat