Most of us really don’t plan what we are going to cook for the day, so when you reach home, it can be a challenge to decide what to make for dinner.
Another problem is that, even though most of us love to eat good food, many don’t know how to cook a healthy meal. Eating out everyday may not be a practical (healthy) option, and of-course its going to be much more expensive.
Here’s what a typical day looks like for most of us:
- You come home from work, and have to start planning dinner.
- You’ve already cooked the 5 things you know how to cook this week.
- You’re exhausted & short of ideas
- You check the pantry, and think of ordering pizza
Don’t you agree with this?
The best way is to learn to cook, and actually its quite easy to cook nutritious food, something that you can do every night of the week. You can cook nutritious food at home, save time and also have access to endless cooking ideas.
Here are the 5 simple steps to easy cooking at home, with fresh ingredients.
Select the Freshest Ingredients When You Shop
The first step to do is to get some fresh, seasonal ingredients. This is probably the most difficult part, especially if you hate visiting grocery stores.
It might be inconvenient to drive past dozens of mega-marts to find a farmers market. But you may find that there’s a local produce roadside stand near you that you’ve missed.
And ‘fresh’ is important because fruits and vegetables degrade as soon as they’re picked, nutrients are lost, they lose their visual appeal, becomes harder to cook, and also results in Loss of flavor!
In understanding how to cook healthy, you need to be able to understand the difference between fresh food and food that has been ripened artificially or is not ripe at all. Do you know how to tell a fresh orange or grapefruit? Did you know that color is NOT an indicator of freshness in peaches?
Storing Fresh Ingredients
For maximum shelf life, nutritional preservation and budget savings, there are three issues in storing fresh ingredients:
- Moisture
- Air circulation
- Temperature
Not everything can be thrown in to the drawer in the refrigerator and preserve their freshness.
In fact, some things will suffocate in a plastic bag. Other produce will need to be wrapped tightly to retain moisture. Other items will need to be kept cold, while others will degrade under the cold.
Learn Few Basic Cooking Techniques
At the very least, master the following techniques:
- Understanding the transfer of heat
- Saute method
- Know how to make sassy sauces
Not sure about these? Check online for tips. Web Cooking Classes gives you a thorough understanding of basic methods which allows you to cook and create without relying a lot on remembering recipes.
Finishing the Process with Fresh Herbs
Most want to know which herbs to use and how much to use, and the simple answer is that use the ones you like.
Seriously! Use your nose to see what it reminds you of, use the ones that you like and use as much as you like.
You want to know the number one herb secret of chefs? Fresh herbs should not be cooked.
Did you know that ‘just the heat of the finished dish is enough to release the aromas of fresh herbs’? So Herbs go last!
Final Thoughts
It may look like a long post, but these really are the secrets that most chefs use to cook healthy food, and these are also quite easy to incorporate into your every day cooking. Now you can cook nutritious food everyday, without compromising on your health and taste.
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